Posted on 12/20/2010 8:56:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) has unearthed what I think is the single most scandalous statistic in higher education. It reveals many current problems and ones that will grow enormously as policymakers mindlessly push enrollment expansion amidst what must become greater public-sector resource limits.
Here it is: approximately 60 percent of the increase in the number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 worked in jobs that the BLS considers relatively low skilled—occupations where many participants have only high school diplomas and often even less. Only a minority of the increment in our nation’s stock of college graduates is filling jobs historically considered as requiring a bachelor’s degree or more.
Meaning that the — inflated — tuition they’re paying is basically wasted. Remember this when you hear for-profit schools singled out for overpromising. I think the traditional higher-education sector has a lot of explaining to do, too. More:
The data suggest a horrible decline in the productivity of American education in that the “inputs” used to achieve any given human capital (occupational) outcome have expanded enormously. More simply, it takes 18 years of schooling (including kindergarten and the typical fifth year of college to get a bachelor’s degree) for persons to get an education to do jobs that a generation or two ago people did with 12-13 years of education (graduating more often from college in four years and sometimes skipping kindergarten). . . . All of this supports the notion that credential inflation arises from a perceived need by individuals to demonstrate potential employment competence through a piece of paper, i.e. a college diploma. Employers are using education as a screening and signaling device, at a low cost directly to them (although not costless because of the taxes they pay to sustain much of this), but at a high cost to the perspective employees and to society as a whole.
Read the whole thing. Some further background is here and here.
My point exactly!
If you say so.
Well, there are these things called taxes...
I estimated after tax to be around 20k a year.
Reality, assuming no deductions, I get 20,800 less 1,846, so around 19k.
Forgive me for the quick back of the envelope calculation which was off by 1k. That would leave me 1585 a month to spend. If I spent 600 a month (about twice what I do now), that would leave me roughly 1k a month put away, or 10k in a year, assuming 2 months disposible for Christmas.
Usually when I point out that the more educated someone is, the less likely they are to be a creationist; the long knives against education come out!
It is all just liberal indoctrination, donchaknow? /s
I like to assume that I work 40 weeks in a 52 week year, this way I have money left over.
At least tie the amount of loans to the expected earning power of the degree.
RE: I will probably go back to college to study art or music or history for the sheer joy of it
If it’s for the sheer joy of it, you don’t have to even enroll in College. Go to your Public Library and enjoy great lectures by borrowing Video’s and CD lectures from great college professors in say :
THE TEACHING COMPANY. See here :
http://www.teach12.com/greatcourses.aspx?ai=16281
I recently finished an entire course on the History of China from the Ching Dynasty to the Present by borrowing the CD series from my library system.
Or, if you have money to spare, you can spend a MINUMUM amount by doing Distance or Online Education.
Colleges like the University of Maryland and MIT have made their lecture videos available on the Internet.
The only way you can get by on $300 a month is having someone else support you. Either the government or your parents.
Nowadays, it's likely that most undergrad degrees have left the student with a ton of liberal indoctrination, some experience with alcohol poisoning, and at least one STD. Oh, and $40,000 in student loans to pay off, and no job in sight, because nearly everyone has a college degree. He can't write or reason very well, and probably took no science at all.
Frankly, I think of it a lot like 13th through 16th grade now.
(I do feel that science or tech degrees are still valuable for jobs and future, though.)
That would be palatial... I dream of living on 600 a month.
Fixed expenses for me right now are about 300.
I really need work though.
Well lets see.
I have no student loans. I paid up my tuition at the start of every term.
I have a 2004 honda civic that I bought used about two years ago when I was working.
So no car payments, no tuition payments. I have zero dollars in debt right now.
Gas, for what I drive around is about 20 a month or so. I don’t drive much if I can help it.
My rent is 200 a month. I am staying with friends while I look for work.
The rest is food. I’m a single guy. I don’t spend on entertainment, and we all pool together our resources so we can deal with the utilities and the payment. 3 guys in a 2 bedroom at 600/month + utilities.
I don’t have a degree but I did put my three kids and my wife through college. Their tuition is paid off. I’m debt free.
I was an engineer for a fortune 150 company for 30 years and traveled the world over. The company didn’t care if I had a degree...they just wanted results and I gave it to them. Once I showed them I had the capability, they didn’t hesitate to give me that position. (those were the good-old-days). I now work for a consulting firm in an engineering capacity and travel around the country helping other companies (yes, getting paid). The firm I work for puts experience over a degree...
lol. Wow! That is some sunny stuff going on there.
Let's see. That is less than $3 a day for food. You must not eat much. What about car insurance? Health insurance? Car maintenance? Health maintenance? Job searc costs? Clothing?
Don't expect anyone on FR to give you a job. Perhaps you should get off your butt and get one.
It’s all part of the plan to use education as tool for redistribution of wealth. Grade inflation, social promotion, dumbed down curricula, feminization of the curriculum, worthless majors, like ethnic studies and public administration, it contributes to a less valuable college diploma.
I got a better education in high school than most kids get in college, today. We were writing 20 page term papers in 8th grade. Mine was on the Effect of the Monroe Doctrine on the US foreign policy during the pre Civil War period.
I had four years of Latin, two years of French, all sciences and maths (except calculus).
My freshman year in college included a required course in Religion that covered all the major religious philosophers, ending up with Niebuhr, Tillich and Bonhoeffer. Most seminary students don’t even read some those writers, now, and it was a required 101 level course for us, for all majors.
Education is just not the same.
I agree 100% with everything you said.
Unfortunately, your average 18 year old college freshman wants a full student loan courtesy of the taxpayers so he/she/it can spend half the semester partying with friends.
They are entitled after all...
Really? In my field, starting salaries average about 80k a year. Hard to get that without a degree.
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