Is a College Degree Still Worth It? >
More, Better Jobs for College Graduates
The return on investment in postsecondary education remains compelling
November 17, 2011
About Chris Farrell:
Chris Farrell is economics editor for Marketplace Money, American Public Media's nationally syndicated public radio personal finance program. He is also economics correspondent for the Marketplace Morning Report, and he regularly writes for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Kiplinger's and the Star Tribune. His latest book is The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More and Live Better.
There's a lot to get upset about when it comes to college. The price tag keeps spiraling ever upward. The financial aid process is intrusive and byzantine. Students and their parents are borrowing more than ever to meet the tab even as the median working-age household earned roughly 7 percent less in 2010 than in 2000. The wages of college graduates over the past decade have been stagnant (women) to down (men). Far too many young adults drop out of college owing big bucks on their student loans.
[President Lays Out New Student Loan Rules.]
That said, the current fad for totting up the negatives and dismissing the worth of college is wrong. Instead, I think the unmistakable message from the brutal economy of recent years is that postsecondary education--from a community college certificate to a B.A. to a master's in engineering--is more valuable than ever. For most young adults, postsecondary education has become a necessary--even if not guaranteed--ticket into a middle-class job and lifestyle over a lifetime.
Put it this way: For all the controversy swirling over the costs and benefits of a college education, the genuinely depressing job and earnings problems in America are concentrated among workers with only a high school diploma and less (especially men).
[Average Student Debt Reaches All-Time High.]
The labor market is harsh, with more than 25 million people unemployed, involuntarily working part time, and marginally attached to the labor force. Still, people with postsecondary education are faring better than their less educated peers. For instance, in October, the unemployment rate for workers 25 older with a B.A. or more was 4.4 percent. The comparable figure for high school only was 9.6 percent and for less than high school 13.8 percent. The share of jobs requiring postsecondary education has increased from about half in the 1970s to more than three quarters currently, according to researchers at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The jobs pay better, too. In 2010, the median earnings of male and female college graduates and more working full-time was about double their high school diploma-onl peers.
Parents and students need to be extremely wary of taking on too much debt to pay for college. They should embrace the wisdom of working toward a postsecondary degree and adapting a green eyeshade mentality of shopping for the best deal possible. Nevertheless, the lifetime return on investment on postsecondary education remains compelling.
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- Other Arguments
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#114579
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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#213876
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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#310654
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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#48339
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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#55831
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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#67757
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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#75336
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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#84835
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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#95746
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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#104743
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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#123767
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
