Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis. It's sending parents to the poorhouse and saddling students with a backpack full of debt that doesn't even guarantee a good job in the end. With college debt making national headlines, Megan McArdle asks, is college a bum deal?
Why are we spending so much money on college?
And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious: is all this investment in college education really worth it?
The answer, I fear, is that it’s not. For an increasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.
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12 comments:
yes, college is currently a bad investment. only half of the graduating classes can find a job and even those with masters are working in low paying jobs.
think outside the box. pay as you go for any education, learn a trade and find a "need", use your gifts and talents to fill that need by starting your own business while learning other things along the way.
not everyone should be going to college. a good trade school might be in order for some students. If you are going to saddle the student with student loans, then its a bad bet. Parents also have the responsibility to start saving at birth. You have 18 years to save.
Of course not. An education leads in most cases to lifetime earnings 3 times non College graduates.
Most employers I have talked to agree that a HS degree means nothing any more. A college degree is now equated to a HS degree. I have risen as high as possible in my field because I don't have a college degree, however my bosses depend on me to answer the technical questions and implement their ideas. I have better skills than most of my bosses but I am not even allowed to apply for a higher position because of a lack of degree.
I know alot of employers in the corporate world will overlook the degree requirement and instead rely on the person's "emotional intelligence."
I personally know of a corporate CEO who makes in excess of 20 million a year. He only attended college for 2 years and dropped out. He was quickly promoted in the company because he knew how to play the game, which included 80 hr work weeks, not taking vactions and living eating and sleeping the job. He also has a wife who supported 100% her workaholic husband. There were many many years (20+) where he was gone 6 months out of the year (when put together.)
Someone I know worked their way up the corporate ladder without a degree at Proctor and Gamble. Another thing you must be willing to do is relocate and that may happen every few years depending on where the job opportunity is.
With it becoming the norm, it's not worth it. College used to be something that a few handfuls of your graduating class were able to obtain. With the creation of community colleges, states thought they were raising education bars, as well as supplying the local workforce with already trained workers. With the rising price of education costs, alot more people are attending community college. While it's helping those who want college degrees obtain their goal, it has also dumbed down the higher education system. Also, no company wants to train their workers anymore, so it has become the need to get a job. The problem occurs when you have 100 people with degrees, and there's only one position, 99 other people just wasted money on a piece of paper.
Unemployment for people who didn't finish high school - 12%
For high school grads - 8.8%
For college grads - 4.1%
Still think it's a bad investment?
The right wants you to think a college degree is a waste of money. It's part of their constant vilification of education. Keeps their base dumb, supportive, and easier to fool.
I worked for a government agency for 28 years.When I started in 1984 almost everyone in management needed at least a bachelors degree,if not a masters to aquire and keep their job.During the last 10 years when the economy soured the educational requirements were almost completely replaced with job related experience.The jobs that required doctorates in 1984 were filled by staff with bachelors or less by 2000.
My daughter went 4 years, got her degree, and immediately fielded 8 job ofers in her field of study. She took the highest offer that happened to be here in town @ a whopping $12.50 an hour.
So, no.
This is interesting because I recently heard a story about a friend of a friend who got a job with a company of some kind that does the vetting on mathematicians so they can go on and become "professional eavesdroppers" for government agencies or something along these lines. She went from a $30,000 a year legal secretary with only a high school diploma to this job that pays more than double. She was picked over quite a few applicants all of whom had college degrees including a few masters. The reason she was chosen was because she was basically nonexistance. No where on the internet could you find her or her name including Facebook. This coupled with the fact that she knew and understood the importance of confidentiality from her law firm job got her this other job.
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