Monday, July 21, 2008

What's the Value of a College Degree?

A take from the Wall Street Journal:

"A four-year college degree, seen for generations as a ticket to a better life, is no longer enough to guarantee a steadily rising paycheck."
As one of my brilliant subjects from Generation Debt, who sent me the link, put it, "Ya think?"

And from the Times, about Berea College in Kentucky, a member of the Work College Consortium (which I've written about before and find really intriguing); The school accepts only low-income applicants, charges no tuition, has no frills, and requires students to work 10 hours a week on campus.

“You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,” said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. “We call it the best education money can’t buy.”

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

A four year bachelor degree is not worth much nowadays. What good jobs are left anyway? Even a good teaching job in the suburbs has over 250 applicants per position. The key in this world is who you know. The future is bleak. Now with oil going up, and it will never come down again, life will be very hard for the young people. If I were young I would learn a trade like plumber, electrician, or I would go into law enforcement. During a bad economy, crime spikes. There will be plenty of growth opportunity in law enforcement, prison guard, private security, etc. It will be all the rage in the future. This will be an ugly period. This is not the time to get $30,000 in debt studying English Literature!

Eric said...

And yet, Anya, you advocate more devaluing of a bachelor's degree by supporting federal government subsidies (to students) to attend. Let the true cost of college be known and fewer people will go; hence, a bachelor's degree with be valued once again.

Why is this concept so difficult to understand? More people with bachelor's degrees = more competition = lower cost (wages). Ya Think?

Am I to understand the market only works properly--in your world--when prices for goods only go down and wages only increase?

Michael Vanderwheel, B.A. said...

eric's right about subsidizing university education. Graduating more students only reinforces credential inflation.

Anonymous said...

I think there are really two differing views of the benefits of a college education. in one camp are the "wander through the garden of knowledge" folks who feel that college is an academic place to study whatever interests you. in the other camp are the "college as a vocational school" who view it as a place to prepare for a career. I think the "degree value" problem is really caused by the confusion of these two goals... its fine to go to college to study art-history, broadcasting, or french literature, just don't expect goldman-sachs to beat a path to your door when you graduate. there are plenty of fields (engineering, computer-science, medicine, science) that are in demand by employers, and pay new-grads well.

the real failure here is that students don't get an effective price signal when they decide what field to pursue,consequently the market is over-supplied with psych majors and under-supplied with chemical engineers.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Chemical Engineering is hard. Most graduate students in engineering are foreign. They are more hard working and intelligent than the average Gen Y'er. Go to any university and look at the names on the roster. There are a few 1st generation students, but most are right off the boat. I would suggest the following fields: criminal justice, fireman, teacher health care. Prison guards are also in demand. We have the largest prison population in America. I am not optimistic. Interestingly it is not the fault of the "system" that everything is so bad for young people, it is the simple fact that there are many more hard working, intelligent young people in China, India, Germany, any European country, etc....Good luck competing against these types.

Anonymous said...

Yes, bachelor's degree not necessarily means good job or good salary although this is a good edge among other applicants. It still depends on you, don't expect to get hire because of that degree when you know for yourself that you didn't answer good on your interview.

CrowdSourcer said...

I think you must refer on this link:
http://jobsadvisor.instantspot.com/blog/2009/11/18/Best-Undergraduate-Degrees-

Then decide which college degree value the most!

Jason said...

Hi,

Thanks for the Information. But, I have found my community college for further education.

:)

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I would suggest the following fields: criminal justice, fireman, teacher health care.