While rising tuition and student debt have led some to question the value of higher education, Olian challenges this perception with a simple question: "What if the most expensive decision is not going to college at all?"  

"Financial security should be a factor young people consider when making decisions about their future — and so is job security," Olian wrote. "Most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggest that the unemployment rate for workers with only a high school diploma is 4.2% while the unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree is just 2.5%. And at the onset of COVID pandemic in April 2020, the BLS reported that unemployment among high school graduates spiked to 17.7% — more than double the 8.4% unemployment rate for college graduates. In a world of increasing unknowns, the inoculating effects of a college degree can be the difference between weathering a storm versus being swept away by it."

Read Olian’s full op-ed in TIME magazine