Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major) • Hacker News Board

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#71

Post by 3pt14159 » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 8:26 PM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #45

hessenwolf wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as a vision of the future, Germans often don't leave university until after 30...

True but misleading. Germany has some of the lowest university enrolment figures in the EU. There are a couple of reasons for this but the most important are 1. They stream early (10 years old) and savagely. Only those who go to grammar school (Gymnasium) are eligible to go to a classic university. That's less than 40% of the population. 2. They have an absolutely excellent apprenticeship system. All businesses pay t…

I love the German system. Here in Canada half my friends got absolutely nothing out of grades 9 through 12. The one non-university geared guy that actually made something out of his life noted that working hard at "applied" (here applied means "dumb" rather than actually applicable) courses was a waste of time because all he really needed was to graduate. He ended up working 40 hours a week during high school. Only now am I finally catching up with his net worth. Compounding interest is really working in his favour and he should be retired at 50 or 55 if he keeps it up.

Also, he is earning about 50% more than his other "applied" friends because his years of experience put him into middle management, rather than front line. Anyways, streaming early is good, especially if it is self directed.

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#72

Post by 3pt14159 » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 8:32 PM UTC

jazzhands wrote: post #53

DavidSJ wrote: post #15

Say it with me: Correlation ≠ Causality

I'll add to this. When A and B are correlated, there are only three possibilities regarding causality (which may work in combination): 1. A causes B 2. B causes A 3. C causes both A and B If we apply this where A is majoring in computer science and B is high earnings, which answers are true? #2 isn't, obviously. #1 is plausible, since perhaps employers are impressed by a computer science degree. But I think #3 is the…

Assuming that you have a sufficiently large sample set. :)

The key here, of course, is that we don't know what C is. It could be that high IQ causes high wealth, regardless of degree. High IQ could also be a prerequisite of completing a CS degree, so necessarily the two correlate.

My point is that you know what A is, and you know what B is, but without measurement, you can't know what C is.

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#73

Post by xlorm » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 11:46 PM UTC

peterbessman wrote: post #52

xlorm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he grew up expecting to be a nanny then wouldn't it make sense that his chances of actually becoming a nanny would be higher?

Certainly, but by how much? It's not nature vs. nurture -- it's nature and nurture. They both matter, but a priori, it's not clear how much. Further, their relative weights of importance could very well change based on what is being evaluated (e.g., sexual orientation vs. career choice).

I completely agree. I of course don't actually know how much, but most of the women I know don't seem to enjoy technology or math any less than I do. I was mainly responding to the way billpaetzke's comment that men and women may be "hard-wired to enjoy different types of work" jumped to the easier conclusion.

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#74

Post by protez » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 1:38 AM UTC

Let V_x be the value of a college degree x. V_x = \Sum_i{E(\pi_i) for all degree x holders, where \pi is a degree relevant portion of "premium" net cash flow from i th person's labor pertinent to degree x, discounted by the labor-demand prospect of the degree x. If we're lucky, it may be possible to compute such values of the less-than-fifty-years-old degrees.

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#75

Post by DavidSJ » Sat, Jan 08, 2011, 5:59 AM UTC

rmc wrote: post #64

DavidSJ wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says that?

Who says that? The original post has some quotes that say that, e.g.: "A degree in English is just as valuable as a degree in Biology — it teaches you critical thinking!"

That quote asserts a lack of causality, not a lack of causation.

Re: Quantifying The Value Of A College Degree (By Major)

#76

Post by hessenwolf » Mon, Jan 10, 2011, 12:00 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #71

barry-cotter wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but misleading. Germany has some of the lowest university enrolment figures in the EU. There are a couple of reasons for this but the most important are 1. They stream early (10 years old) and savagely. Only those who go to grammar school (Gymnasium) are eligible to go to a classic university. That's less than 40% of the population. 2. They have an absolutely excellent apprenticeship system. All businesses pay t…

I love the German system. Here in Canada half my friends got absolutely nothing out of grades 9 through 12. The one non-university geared guy that actually made something out of his life noted that working hard at "applied" (here applied means "dumb" rather than actually applicable) courses was a waste of time because all he really needed was to graduate. He ended up working 40 hours a week during high school. Only n…

Sounds slightly more like an argument against dumb education (and I couldn't agree more) rather than streaming.

Personally, I would have preferred to have been working between 13 and 18 - except for maths class, and possibly science and physics, technical drawing, French, art, could have skipped Irish, but would have replaced English with a more modern curriculum, ... okay... school was not as bad as I remember.