“Economist Bryan Caplan argues that there isn’t much evidence that college grads are paid more because they learned anything at college that is valuable to their jobs.”
I bet the kids at Cal Tech and MIT would argue that point.
I am one of those parents who is helping to defray my son’s college costs. He received a 50% scholarship and once complete, providing he decides on getting his masters will cost 100k. The reason I am assuming the loan which he will pay a good percentage of, is he knew what he wanted to do since he was 13, and moved towards that goal.
He got into a school which features an advanced business program which will allow him to get his Masters after 4 years instead of 6. He has selected the right job at the school to help him in his career. His outside activities reflect his career decision.
To me it is a good gamble. My daughter on the other hand is in community college. We pay as we go so she has no college debt. If she shows an inclination to a major which will enable her to earn a good salary, we will go the loan route. If she wants to take liberal arts, she is on her own.
Degrees like Womyn’s and Black Studies is destroying America. The only reason they exist is to give liberals who have no marketable skills the ticket to entry level jobs that require degrees.
I had an associate that had two kids that went to college for two years or so and then dropped out. He would complain endlessly about money down the drain.
Then, he became interested in the Civil War.
His daughter knowing he was pretty much un educated bought him a multi volume series of the history, an expensive and thorough set of books. . She began to use her college learned skills to keep him occupied with materials.
The son gravitated into the studies and became and still is a Confederate reinactor. He is a rebel field surgeon. His endeavor became quite focused on the doctors role in the rebel Camp.
It is impossible to know what a little bit of formal education can do or how it will benefit.