Is a College Degree Still Worth It? >
Economy Puts a Premium on Postsecondary Skills
People need to go to college in order to have a fighting chance at a well-paying career
November 17, 2011
About Kevin Carey:
Kevin Carey is Education Sector's policy director. He manages the organization's policy team and oversees policy development in K-12 and higher education.
College is still worth it—most of the time.
Many different people attend many different colleges, studying various subjects and paying a wide range of prices. Of course, there will be some students among those millions for whom college is a bad deal, financially speaking. Students paying tens of thousands of dollars to attend for-profit colleges that provide low-value degrees, for example. That's why the U.S. Department of Education cracked down on abusive career colleges earlier this year. Borrowing $200,000 to get a bachelor's in semiotics from a second-rate liberal arts college is also probably a bad idea. People make choices and not all of them will be good ones.
[Lack of Jobs for Young Workers Spells 2012 Trouble for Obama.]
But the long-term trends are clear: over the last 30 years, the American economy has reorganized itself in a way that puts a premium on postsecondary skills. Despite the fact that a larger percentage of people go to college now, the college wage premium relative to people with just a high school diploma is at an all-time high. College graduates are much less likely to have lost their jobs in the current recession. People need to go to college in order to have a fighting chance at a well-paying career. That's not going to change.
[To Keep America Great, Students Must Be Taught to Innovate.]
It's true, however, that the number of people getting a raw deal from college is rising. That's because college prices are rising uncontrollably. At the same time, studies like Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's Academically Adrift suggest that many college students aren't learning very much. Public policymakers need to do to more to restrain college prices and hold colleges accountable for student learning.
College is still a good deal, on average, for most students. But it could be a better deal for more people, and needs to be for America to remain competitive in the 21st century.
- Congress Should Put a Stop to For-Profit College Rip Offs
- Average Student Debt Reaches All-Time High
- Today's Young Adults Suffering More Financially than Older Generations
- Other Arguments
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#18030
Yes — The return on a college investment is more than that on almost any alternative
JULIE MARGETTA MORGAN, Policy Analyst with the Postsecondary Education Program at the Center for American Progress
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#26029
No — Four to six years of partying do not equal an education
CRAIG BRANDON, Author of 'The Five-Year Party: How Colleges Have Given Up On Educating Your Child' and 'What You Can Do About It'
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#34317
Yes — Like any smart investment, the pursuit of higher education requires effort to explore the options
PETER KONWERSKI, Senior Associate Vice President and Dean of Students at George Washington University
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#44322
No — We now have nearly 80,000 bartenders and taxi drivers with bachelor's degrees
RICHARD VEDDER, Director of Center for College Affordability and Productivity
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#52611
Yes — Students and their families should not simply assume that college will be "worth it"
ROBERT B. SCHWARTZ, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice in Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard University
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#64128
No — Put more courses online and limit federal student loans to four years of undergraduate work
LINDSEY BURKE, Senior Policy Analyst in Domestic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation
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#72919
No — What's the message when grads can't write a simple E-mail?
NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY, Author of 'The Faculty Lounges ... And Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Pay For'
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#82316
Yes — Encouraging students to go to college is the right choice
ANTHONY P. CARNEVALE, Director of Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
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#101816
Yes — College often provides the first opportunity for students to direct their own education
TOM CARROLL, President of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
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#111720
Yes — The return on investment in postsecondary education remains compelling
CHRIS FARRELL, Economics Editor of 'Marketplace Money'
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#121627
Yes — Tuition and student debt have not grown "unmanageable"
CECILIA ELENA ROUSE, Katzman-Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
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