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College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

nytimes.com

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Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#61

Post by timr »

awalton wrote: post #12
paulpauper wrote: post #2

The NYTimes republishes a variant of this articles almost every month https://www.google.com/search?q=site:nytimes.com+college+wor... The usual answer is "it depends"

Which is probably a good thing, since it will slowly beat into the minds of upper-levels at corps and recruiters that a College Degree shouldn't be the minimum bar applicants need to reach, and maybe some of these companies will start removing the "has degree" band reject filter.

Even if not all college degrees are worthwhile, it doesn't mean that companies are wrong to want college degrees.

In fact, it's probably true that the highest-paid, highest-skill jobs have the most genuine need for college degrees. And for the rest, virtue signaling is a real thing: if you have more applicants than jobs, you set up high filters to winnow the pool.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#64

Post by toomanybeersies »

Ignoring financial reasons, I think that university is absolutely worth it.

It's 3 or 4 years of your life where you've (often) just left home, it's the first time in your life that you're actually free to do what you want. It's an incredible place to learn about yourself and grow, where the consequences of fucking up usually aren't as severe.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#65

Post by neuromantik8086 »

and0 wrote: post #38
cryptoz wrote: post #9

The article takes an exclusively financial look at 'worth it' and completely ignores both education and human connection as an aspect of going to college. I get that the author is writing about money and money alone, but the headline is deceptive. Additionally, I do understand that a lot of people go to college for the purposes of getting a job. But that's not all college is, and pretending that the only reason anyon…

You don't need to rack up six figures of debt to make human connections or gain experiences. There are a number of ways to accomplish this without all the debt and in arguably more useful ways than memorizing things you'll never have a chance to use. Off the top of my head, I can imagine volunteer work or, better yet, New-Deal-style programs with actual financial incentive would offer the same ~magical experience~ of…

It doesn't make sense to go into debt, sure. But if you can get someone else to pay for college (i.e., a generous scholarship) it's well worth it, and the tuition costs pre-tuition spiral would definitely be worth it as well.

It's difficult to think of a better way to cultivate personal relationships than college. Presumably you've chosen classes based off your own interests, so the people you meet within those classes are good candidates for friendship (via homophily). True, you could use subreddits to find folks with similar interests, but in my experience those don't lead to the same kinds of relationships you develop when you physically encounter other people.

Building a state park a la the New Deal CCC doesn't really create the same sense of shared interest since no one's actually interested in the art of bricklaying for the most part, and volunteering has a lot of turnover (mostly due to folks using it as a resume item).

If you're at a SLAC, the number of people you see is limited so there's less competition for attention when forming bonds and a lot of mere exposure effect.

The value of college (at least at a SLAC) is arguably less about the classroom lessons and more about having a decent method for finding other people you can grow with.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#66

Post by ihsw2 »

Intelligent people otherwise wouldn't be qualified (read: get past the HR drones and other keyword filtering algorithms) without that given piece of paper.

Yes, people that receive bachelor's degrees may be highly effective and talented regardless of having such a degree, but there are few (if any other) means of attracting gainful employment to fully utilize such talents.

College may not reduce inequality via increasing the education level of a given population but it does reduce inequality via providing a mechanism for individuals to signal prospective employers, "here I am." This mechanism, however, is exceedingly expensive but still probably worth it.

Enterprising individuals may however be inclined to "catfish" and outright lie about their education history, as evidenced the other day by the article about one such employer encountering a catfish.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#67

Post by droidist2 »

darepublic wrote: post #37
chasing wrote: post #8

The issue isn't that college is pointless, it's that tuition is too high and wages too low. You should support politicians with a plan to counter this trend. Education is important. Raising the overall level of education in this country should be a much larger goal that it seems to be.

Judging from recent news about no white day etc college can be a place to go and become deluded and converted to socialism. So maybe worse than pointless

White Day? You mean March 14th?

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#68

Post by nicholas73 »

mkirklions wrote: post #53
anoncoward111 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's already a shame that the answer isn't 100% yes, 100% of the time. back in the 70s, tuition was payable with a summer job and job prospects were decent enough despite geopolitical and economic headwinds these days, the same problems plague the job market, but every year of college costs 1 year of salary, unless you qualify for stackable forms of financial aid

People hate when I talk about working fulltime in the factory on the midnight shift and going to school fulltime. I didnt get 'the college experience'. But I didnt have any college debt, I became a hardened adult that didnt cry when plant people got pissed. I dont complain. If something needs to get done, I do it. Graduated in 3 years with my chem engineering degree at age 21. People will always complain about someth…

And where is that factory now?

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#69

Post by jhawk28 »

whataretensors wrote: post #51

School is a waste of time and resources for the talented these days. You can learn anything you want online by the best people. It's becoming training for state-run communism. No choice, only negative reward signals, march at the same speed as the average. Of course if we tell people the truth - your outcome can essentially be predicted by measuring IQ, which stabilizes around age 7. SAT score is essentially a makesh…

You are missing the cultural implications of college. In our society, college has been setup as the "growing up" period where parents can pay some place who will provide food, clothing, and knowledge. The "kids" are pseudo on their own and can become independent.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#70

Post by madengr »

mkirklions wrote: post #53
anoncoward111 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's already a shame that the answer isn't 100% yes, 100% of the time. back in the 70s, tuition was payable with a summer job and job prospects were decent enough despite geopolitical and economic headwinds these days, the same problems plague the job market, but every year of college costs 1 year of salary, unless you qualify for stackable forms of financial aid

People hate when I talk about working fulltime in the factory on the midnight shift and going to school fulltime. I didnt get 'the college experience'. But I didnt have any college debt, I became a hardened adult that didnt cry when plant people got pissed. I dont complain. If something needs to get done, I do it. Graduated in 3 years with my chem engineering degree at age 21. People will always complain about someth…

That’s pretty impressive with a BSChE. I worked about 6 hrs/day, but in daytime, and there was downtime in the job for homework.
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