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Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

nbcnews.com

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Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#21

Post by yoyohello13 »

crims0n wrote: post #13

My kids will still go to a four-year university, but for the education and experience, not for any vocational aspirations. I have no delusions about the marketability of an undergraduate degree. A happy side effect of that university degree was a more rounded education, which now many young adults will be missing out on. The downstream effects could be catastrophic.

> A happy side effect of that university degree was a more rounded education, which now many young adults will be missing out on.

Absolutely! So many people bemoan taking general Ed classes, but knowing the basics about economics, literature, science, art, math, history is valuable if you want to think critically about the world.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#22

Post by cvoss »

throwaway21321 wrote: post #4

1 in 8 incoming freshmen at UCSD (a leading institution in the states) cant solve "x + 5 = 3 + 7"... Why would I pay 30k a year or whatever it is to get a degree from somewhere like that?

What does your (dubious) example have to do with the quality of post-secondary education? If it has any relevance, it's for the quality of secondary education.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#23

Post by ungreased0675 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #2

College degrees now have negative value for hiring. A company wanting to hire a reliable and competent worker will avoid college graduates.

Seems like you’re hurting some feelings.

I’m a manager in a unique field where people come in with many educational levels. There is little correlation between educational credentials and job performance. A variety of previous jobs and having lived a few different places seems to correlate more with performance.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#24

Post by okigan »

Cheer2171 wrote: post #15
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd go to UCSD if you could solve that equation, and want to learn to do more . (If you can't solve the equation, UCSD is a very expensive way to learn how.) I think the more relevant question is, why would you go to grade school and high school at institutions that produce graduates like that?

> why would you go to grade school and high school at institutions that produce graduates like that? Do you not know how U.S. K-12 public schools are funded by local property taxes, which means the quality of a child's education is a direct causal relationship of the wealth of their neighborhood? Why don't these children just grow up in richer neighborhoods?

Most are overpaying in taxes for what they are getting.

Not to mention single/families without kids and seniors that still pay for school districts.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#26

Post by lunar-whitey »

throwaway21321 wrote: post #4

1 in 8 incoming freshmen at UCSD (a leading institution in the states) cant solve "x + 5 = 3 + 7"... Why would I pay 30k a year or whatever it is to get a degree from somewhere like that?

Illiterate incoming freshman are the product of the public middle and high school systems, not the university system.

For reference:

> Beginning in Fall 2022, the number of students placed into Math 2 began to grow rapidly. Math 2 was first created in 2016, and it was originally designed to be a remedial math course serving a very small number of first-year students (less than 100 students a year or around 1% of the incoming class) who were not prepared to start in our standard precalculus courses [...] In Fall 2024, the numbers of students placing into Math 2 and 3B surged further, with over 900 students in the combined Math 2 and 3B population, representing an alarming 12.5% of the incoming first-year class (compared to under 1% of the first-year students testing into these courses prior to 2021).

https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/740347/sawg-report-on-admissio...

These are students that even middling American public schools would have failed to pass from high school in decades past, or would have later failed to meet standardized test requirements prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#27

Post by randcraw »

As the article says, this change in opinion has been very big and very recent. Don't expect universities to sit still and do nothing.

I see several possible reactions. One is to do what Georgia Tech and U Texas are doing -- to offer online degrees for MUCH reduced cost, like $10k. Will such 30 credit MS degree programs (that don't require BS first) replace 120 credit BS degrees? That makes a lot of sense to me.

The popularity of residential degree programs may be ending, due to insanely high cost and the need to retrain often as AI automation changes the employment picture rapidly and unpredictably.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#28

Post by kaashif »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #10
throwaway21321 wrote: post #4

1 in 8 incoming freshmen at UCSD (a leading institution in the states) cant solve "x + 5 = 3 + 7"... Why would I pay 30k a year or whatever it is to get a degree from somewhere like that?

The more important question is do they learn to solve it, fail out, or just get pushed through? One of those is a bad outcome, but the other 2 are fine.

If standards aren't lowered and they're just failed out, that's fine eventually, but I would prefer it to be fine from day 1.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#29

Post by Beijinger »

Beijinger wrote: post #5
throwaway21321 wrote: post #4

1 in 8 incoming freshmen at UCSD (a leading institution in the states) cant solve "x + 5 = 3 + 7"... Why would I pay 30k a year or whatever it is to get a degree from somewhere like that?

My roommate can solve this. And he just turned 6. I gave him today some equations with two unknowns....

Why the Downvote? It is true.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#30

Post by roenxi »

Cheer2171 wrote: post #15
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd go to UCSD if you could solve that equation, and want to learn to do more . (If you can't solve the equation, UCSD is a very expensive way to learn how.) I think the more relevant question is, why would you go to grade school and high school at institutions that produce graduates like that?

> why would you go to grade school and high school at institutions that produce graduates like that? Do you not know how U.S. K-12 public schools are funded by local property taxes, which means the quality of a child's education is a direct causal relationship of the wealth of their neighborhood? Why don't these children just grow up in richer neighborhoods?

The quality of an education isn't proportional to the amount of money spent; learning is remarkably cheap if a school wants to focus on outcomes. There's a bit of give in where the teacher sits on the bumpkin-genius scale (although even then, the range of salaries isn't that wide in the big picture).

Although forcing the funding to go through a collective rather than letting people choose a school and pay on in individual basis would probably deliver a pretty serious blow to the quality.

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