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Will Your College Degree be a Good Investment?
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 12, 2022 | George Leef

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 ...


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To: karpov

People still don’t get it especially those entering the workforce. Your college degree is not exactly worthless... YOU the graduate are the investment.

Welcome to the dance, you had better be a quick study, the competition is fierce.


21 posted on 01/13/2022 12:54:16 PM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: Leaning Right

Know your career path and the value of your degree. My BS in biology and general science was worth exactly nothing unless I got into med school (or some other advanced degree program) and I knew that going in.


22 posted on 01/13/2022 12:58:28 PM PST by Mom MD ( )
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To: karpov

I think Thomas Sowell said every catastrophe in the last 100 years had a Harvard man in the middle of it. Only hard sciences need a college. The rest is fluff. College is little more then an employment program for idiots that wasted time getting a useless degree.


23 posted on 01/13/2022 1:16:57 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Organic Panic
I think Thomas Sowell said every catastrophe in the last 100 years had a Harvard man in the middle of it.

Yep, Yamamoto and Pearl Harbor immediately come to mind.

24 posted on 01/13/2022 1:18:57 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: karpov

“Investment” is not a term I would use to describe college.

Because even if you take a popular major, you are probably taking it at a school not well known for it. You are still subject to the whim of the hiring managers.

I firmly believe that success in life often comes from your ability to learn at your job and adapt to the industry. Showing up, working hard, and ‘adding’ to a company always meant more to me than anyone’s undergrad education.

Of course, knowing how to read and write is important. That’s a high school thing.


25 posted on 01/13/2022 1:30:24 PM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: karpov

If it’s a useful degree, IT, engineering, pre-med etc.


26 posted on 01/13/2022 1:31:32 PM PST by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: setter

> My finance degree got me into the door with the right companies and made me very wealthy. <

Given that finance involves number-crunching I’d put it in the M (math) of STEM.

But yeah, my previous post was just a rule of thumb. Some chemists have trouble finding work, while some poetry majors find great positions. It’s all about considering the odds, then throwing the dice.


27 posted on 01/13/2022 1:34:41 PM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: beethovenfan

My daughter has an MFA. Her husband has two MFAs.

They work their tails off. He is hitting it big in his art field. Between the two of them, they are making 3-4x the median family income.

Degrees don’t always mean success. Being talented and willing to develop your skills—no matter what they are—often trump fancy degrees.


28 posted on 01/13/2022 1:35:07 PM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: dfwgator

> Yamamoto and Pearl Harbor immediately come to mind. <

Somebody once remarked that Yamamoto should have studied at the University of Georgia, and not at Harvard. Dealing with those tough old Georgia boys would have convinced Yamamoto that a war with the U.S. was not winnable.


29 posted on 01/13/2022 1:40:25 PM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: karpov

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Always has been, always will be.


30 posted on 01/13/2022 2:03:09 PM PST by eldoradude (Add water to a journalist and you get instant sh*t)
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To: beef
Liberal arts has gone completely off the rails. Nobody teaches that anymore. They have become indoctrination camps.

Sadly, you are mostly correct.

31 posted on 01/13/2022 3:10:50 PM PST by pax_et_bonum (God is good, He loves us, and He is always with us.)
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To: karpov

A degree in math, science, engineering, chemistry is very valuable. Otherwise a liberal arts degree is, “would you like fries with your order?”


32 posted on 01/13/2022 3:58:47 PM PST by cpdiii (CANE CUTTER-DECKHAND-ROUGHNECK-OILFIELD CONSULTANT-GEOLOGIST-PILOT-PHARMACIST )
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