John Stossel tackles this question and other “lies” about higher education. A college education can help advance, even start, your career, but it isn’t for everyone. Not everyone is well suited for college and that’s okay. Bill Gates dropped out of college to start Microsoft. There are presidents who didn’t graduate from college.
Understand that there are real opportunity costs with going to college, not to mention the huge tuition bill you’ll likely pay using borrowed funds. It’s not uncommon to graduate from college with tens of thousands in student loans.
So, before you sign up, take a few minutes to learn if college is right for you. You can start by watching this episode of John Stossel. Best of luck!
Seems like there's enough money going around to qualify as a scamola, not just a scam.
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely way too many people who choose college by default who have no business being in college.
I don't know if you watched the show, but the founder of PayPal offered $100K to 4 students to drop out of college if they would start their own biz. Two of those students appeared on the show.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't some of the value of a college degree lie in the fact that not everyone has one? If everyone goes to college, what value is my degree?
Additionally, we might as well extend high school four more years. That might be cheaper than 4 years of college.
Since we're on the topic, what are your thoughts on research? Stossel and his guests briefly touch on the subject. They say hiring profs to simply publish in obscure journals (and not really teach) raises costs for students without adding much value.
ReplyDeleteSo, to respond in order:
ReplyDelete"Doesn't some of the value of a college degree lie in the fact that not everyone has one? If everyone goes to college, what value is my degree?"
This is basically the signaling model of higher education. I think employers make finer cuts than just BA or no BA. That's why top investment banks hire from just the Ivy league, for example. But, you are nevertheless correct. The easier it is to signal, the weaker the value of the signal.
"Since we're on the topic, what are your thoughts on research?"
This is a fairly large topic, but I think there is a positive correlation between teaching quality and research quality. There is, no doubt, a group of top researchers who can't teach and won't teach. There are also teachers who can't do research. But the creamy middle is filled with people who do decent research and are quality teachers.
Research is about engaging the frontier of thinking on the topic. If professors aren't adding value to the students through their research that's one thing. But research itself has enormous value-added potential.
My views are obviously coloured by my field, though. It may be otherwise in different fields of study.