Bachelor’s Degree - Most Overrated Product?
I was reading an opinion piece by Marty Nemko in The Chronicle of Higher Education where he calls a bachelor’s degree America’s most overrated product. In the article are several astounding statistics:
- 40% of freshman at four-year colleges do not graduate in six years
- Percentage of class time spent in classes of fewer than 30 students - only 28%
- 50% of college seniors scored below proficient levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers.
- 20% of college seniors had only basic quantitative skills.
- literacy among college graduates has declined over the past decade
- employers report that new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking critical thinking, writing, and problem-solving skills
The author states colleges like to claim that college graduates earn more than nongraduates-but that he feels that this is terribly misleading. He states that “you could lock the collegebound in a closet for four years, and they’s still go on to earn more than the pool of non-collegebound–they’re brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.”
Wow! That is a pretty harsh critique of our higher educational system. He goes on to say that colleges are businesses, but that their business is not teaching students, it is getting reasearch. Teaching students is a cost item while research is a profit center.
 As a parent of possibly 3 future college students, do I / the girls really want to invest in this? Would my children be better off investing in stocks rather than in a college education?
I guess college, like any other investment, will take a lot of research and investigation to get a good “return on investment.”
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Flexo said,
Wrote on April 30, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
None of the statistics you posted prove anything, particularly not on their own. I think we can all agree that a college education is often *overpriced* though.
“40% of freshman at four-year colleges do not graduate in six years.” Students drop out or slow down for a variety of reasons… not sure what this has to do with the education they receive.
“Percentage of class time spent in classes of fewer than 30 students — only 28%.” It would certainly be nice to have smaller class sizes. Solution: fewer students attend college or the colleges hire more professors. Either way, tuition will increase at a higher rate than it does now.
“50% of college seniors scored below proficient levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers.” How does that compare with 22-year-old kids who did not go to college?
“20% of college seniors had only basic quantitative skills.” Same question as above.
“Literacy among college graduates has declined over the past decade.” What is the comparison with the general population?
“Employers report that new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking critical thinking, writing, and problem-solving skills.” Yet, job descriptions for the best jobs with the most opportunity for advancement specify “college degree required.” Also, where’s the comparison with new 18-year-old employees hired right after high school graduation?
JD said,
Wrote on May 11, 2008 @ 5:52 am
Hello Flexo, thanks for your input. I tried to condense a lengthy article into a “sound bite” so some things might have not carried through. I think college is a good thing, but I do think it is overpriced, and that for whatever reason, they are teaching fewer classes that have impact and doing more classes that are more “social” or just plain unnecessary.
I wonder if large employers would be better off taking high school graduates and teaching them themselves in a real life environment with hands on experience and real life applications. Just a thought.