Is a College Degree Still Worth It? >
Going to College Is a Mistake for Many
We now have nearly 80,000 bartenders and taxi drivers with bachelor's degrees
November 17, 2011
About Richard Vedder:
Richard Vedder is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Vedder is the author of Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America and Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much.
Just as buying speculative stocks makes sense for some investors but not others, so "investing" in a college education has a payoff for some--but for many others it is a mistake. Students who have a high probability of graduating from a good-quality university are likely to find attending college is financially worthwhile. Who are those students? Generally they are ones who did well academically in high school and had pretty good scores on college entrance tests like the SAT or ACT.
[Average Student Debt Reaches All-Time High.]
But for many students, the investment in college is not profitable. About 40 percent do not make it through a four-year bachelor's degree program in even six years. Others who major in subjects with low vocational demands often have trouble getting jobs. For many years, we have turned out more college graduates than the growth in the number of jobs in the technical, managerial, and professional areas where college graduates historically want to work. Therefore, we now have nearly 80,000 bartenders and taxi drivers with bachelor's degrees. One estimate is that 1 in 3 college graduates has a job historically performed by those with a high school diploma or the equivalent.
As the cost of college rises and the mismatch between labor market realities and college graduation rates persists, this problem is likely to continue even if we ever get out of the Great Recession. As average student loan debt rises above $25,000 and high-paying job opportunities become scarcer, the case for attending college diminishes for a growing subset of the population.
[To Keep America Great, Students Must Be Taught to Innovate.]
Not going on to a bachelor's degree from high school does not necessarily mean most non-degree-seeking students should simply go to work. Many would benefit from a community college education or taking an associate degree at a for-profit institution. If successful there, the opportunity still exists to transfer into a four-year degree program. Others would do well to enroll in shorter non-degree training programs to learn to be, for example, a long-distance truck driver, beautician, or medical records clerk. The paths to success as young Americans transition to adulthood are many, and only for some should that definitely involve pursuing a four-year degree after high school.
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- 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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#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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#92218
Yes — People need to go to college in order to have a fighting chance at a well-paying career
KEVIN CAREY, Policy Director of Education Sector
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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
Reader Comments Read all comments (2)
David 10:31PM April 26, 2012
Larry of CA 5:12PM November 17, 2011