Posted on 04/09/2021 10:15:50 AM PDT by karpov
The wage premium attached to a bachelor’s degree largely explains why high school graduates who would have previously looked for a job now apply to college. But they need to know up-front that what they major in has far more importance in landing a well-paying job than where they spend the next four years.
For regional and less-known colleges, stopping enrollment declines depends on demonstrating their value to potential students.
Instead of relying on boilerplate such as small classes, accessible professors, and the like, they need to focus on the ultimate pay-off for today’s younger generation and their hard-strapped parents: well-paying jobs immediately after graduation.
It’s not that a bachelor’s degree should be measured solely by its mercantile value, but that college today is the largest monetary investment most families make. As a result, it has to be evaluated by its pecuniary return. If less-prestigious schools can show that their graduates who have majored in certain fields earn more than graduates with other majors from marquee-name institutions, they have a chance to prosper.
Less-recognizable colleges have experienced precipitous declines in applications this past year.
For example, the State University of New York, the largest public college system in the country, saw applications fall by 14 percent last fall. At Portland State University in Oregon, applications were down 12 percent and transfers down 28 percent. The list of schools in similar circumstances goes on and on.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Relative to SUNY, I wonder if students are looking out of state as a way to escape the state?
Over 3 decades ago one of our DNA pools had a double engineering degree after 3 summers of good internships. He got a great job.
There was a terrible economy at the time and a lot of kids with degrees couldn’t find a decent job.
One of our church lady’s with a hierarchy job with the school system asked him how he got a job when so many couldn’t get a job.
His reply, you know exactly why I got jobs and your grads can’t get a job.His answer was simple. My degrees are not IUD’s (Instant Unemployment Degrees).
I’ve always said career plan first, then think about college if it gets you to the career.
Great idea. Start with your nearest Junior College.
Engineering
Very few people go to college in order to learn. They go to college in order to get a piece of paper to wave in a boss’, or prospective boss’ face. Sell the right pieces of paper, and you will get more students.
New Majors for a new Normal:
1. Trump Hate: All the Evils and deaths caused by President Donald Trump. Jobs: Newsperson, Congressman, City Official writer. Commissar.
2. The Glories of Progressism (Formerly Communism) How the people prosper under the teachings of Marx. Jobs: Commissar of large Companies, Teachers, Heads of CIA and FBI, Writers, News anchors. Commandant of re-education camps.
Of course, outrageous tuition costs don’t play a role in the decline.
Taking a short business certification program will likely get the kid into just as many doors as 4+ years.
Better yet, check out a trade school. Plumbers and electricians get $100 for just coming out. Pushing a button on a truck (ok, there’s the expense of the truck and dumping) to pump out a septic tank can be upwards of $500. That’s not bad pay for a job not requiring a GED.
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