Posted on 01/13/2022 11:39:05 AM PST by karpov
From the 1960s until quite recently, the conventional wisdom in America was that going to college and earning a degree was a very good investment. The time and money that a student puts into it would be repaid very handsomely over his or her lifetime. College debt was called “good debt.” No need to worry about it.
In 2009, President Obama told the nation that getting more people through college was an economic imperative, since we couldn’t afford to fall behind other countries that were surpassing us in “educational attainment.” More and more jobs would require deep postsecondary education, so college was both good for the individual and good for the country.
Those ideas are rapidly collapsing.
The most striking piece of evidence is that one of the biggest cheerleaders for increasing educational attainment, the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, is now admitting that, as a recent study is titled, more education doesn’t always mean more earnings.
For years, the Georgetown Center has been unabashed in promoting college as an investment, even though the data it presented did not justify that optimism. Back in 2010, I wrote about one of its reports, arguing that the paper “refutes itself” once you look closely at the data, which showed that many people who had earned college degrees were being out-earned by people who hadn’t.
Now, the Georgetown Center is much more circumspect, declaring only that “earnings generally increase with more education,” while acknowledging that more “attainment” can leave an individual with debt but no gain in earnings. The report states, e.g., “At least one quarter of high school diploma holders without additional education earn more than half of the workers with associate’s degrees.” Further, “16 percent earn more than half of workers with a bachelor’s degree.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Not in a collapsed world.
Especially with a liberal arts degree
It’s just this simple:
STEM = good
not STEM = not good
Oh, and
a skilled trade = good
A college degree was mostly used as an indicator of whether someone intelligence and motivation. I worked in a technical/science field and the un-degreed technicians were every bit as competent as those with Ph.Ds.
Since degrees have been compromised with affirmative action and wokery as well as easy student loans, that is no longer the case.
Dittos.
“not STEM = not good”
Broad paintbrush.
My finance degree got me into the door with the right companies and made me very wealthy.
But I get your point Wimmins studies and such.
There are like million(s) of Bs’ busing tables.
Going to college:
First - if you start, you better finish. Some college is nothing!
Second - make sure you get some useful degree.
Third - in many degrees you should be prepared to go for Ms or even PhD before you have any chances for some money.
Fourth - people do not like to hire overeducated people. They sometimes do, but they do not trust them. They often leave at first shot on better job.
Fifth - more college does not necessary means more money. Skilled trades (plumbers, electricians etc.) make a lot more money than many college graduates.
In many useful fields (I know, mine is one too), the lifetime earning peaks at Master’s degree, PhD’s make less money than Ms’.
Finally - do not push yourself into some field you have no skills. Mediocre people do not make any money, regardless of degrees!
In summary, the educational establishment likes to make everybody a PhD, because they get the money. Do not trust their advise! Education can make you money, and in some jobs is necessary, but you have to be smart and thing carefully, before you commit yourself.
“I worked in a technical/science field and the un-degreed technicians were every bit as competent as those with Ph.Ds.”
My Hs classmate made b’s and c’s not because he was dumb but he was bored out of his mind. He was at genious level..and I am not saying this lightly.
When he joined the Air Force at age 18 as an enlisted man in late 1980 he scored the highest military entrance exam score the Pittsburgh PA center had ever recorded at the time. He got into computers and the last I heard at a reunion he was working in top secret cybersecurity (retired from AF years ago). No college degree.
The value of my liberal arts degree can’t be measured in gold because it is my key to ancient languages and the history and ideas written in those languages.
“First - if you start, you better finish. Some college is nothing!”
Yep, makes you look like a quitter.
I think wokeness is going to destroy the reputations of our formerly great universities. Who needs anyone with a degree in being pissed off?
IMHO, career planning is the key. Instead of college vs. no college, or STEM vs non-STEM, research careers first. Ask people already in those careers what kind of training is good to excel in that field. In some cases it's college or grad school. In some cases it's neither. In some cases the type of degree matters or perhaps a list of schools that are particularly good in the detailed education needed for that field.
You won't get the answers to those questions from the school advisors. Even if they're honest and aren't telling you anything they can to try to sell their product, their world-view is often limited to the academic industry anyway.
But the different people you'd like to one day hire you know what education matters to them and what doesn't. That's how I picked my education on being a programmer. I asked a handful of software companies what would be good at making me a successful programmer and a few of the senior programmers took time to talk to me on the phone. They educated me on the differences between MIS and CS training and which schools excelled in computer science -- surprising me at which schools were good at it and which weren't.
I got a BS in CS and accepted my first position as a programmer before I even walked the stage, making what would today be the equivalent of about $60K (not too shabby for low cost-of-living Alabama). I had only about $20K in debt largely because I worked full time the entire time I was in college.
“The value of my liberal arts degree can’t be measured in gold because it is my key to ancient languages and the history and ideas written in those languages.”
Liberal arts has gone completely off the rails. Nobody teaches that anymore. They have become indoctrination camps.
Lots of kids get told (wrongly) they have to have college degree to be somebody. They go to college, waste a lot of time, money, get a lot of student loans and then drop out!
The worst carrier path they could do!
Probably not!!!!
A good technician is a necessity
Yes...before the university and college system was turned into a pay for play scheme, and yes...commies did it.
Not if you’re majoring in “gender studies” or some such bullcrap.
The most important thing to do in college is to network.
Mine have been great investments, as all the education I have had has been needed for my career and profession. Most ‘education’ in this world isn’t. Some of mine wasn’t, but getting in-depth science, art, history, and language knowledge is absolutely useful to anyone and everyone.
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