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Is College Worth It?

priceonomics.com

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Re: Is College Worth It?

#11

Post by Zimahl »

lkrubner wrote: post #2

I have a problem with this method: "Payscale draws on its information about alumni salaries. It calculates the expected earnings of a newly minted graduate over a 30 year career by summing the median incomes of alumni from his or her school who graduated between one and 30 years ago." Yes, I know that college was worth it 30 years ago, and even 15 years ago, and even 10 years ago. That is not the real question. The q…

Yes, I know that college was worth it 30 years ago, and even 15 years ago. That is not the real question. The question is will this continue to be true in the future?

I know this gets brought up all the time on here but HN is not a good indicator of college worth. One of the few (if not the only) disciplines where college might not be necessary is software and this board is primarily software. Even then looking at the difference between the definitions of software developer and a software engineer may make this moot.

That line of reasoning is irrelevant if we are in fact at an inflection point. ... Arguments based on trend lines from 30 years ago miss the heart of this subject.

Not really. Until there is a real, tangible way for the average individual to get an accepted post-secondary education, we aren't at an inflection point. And other than software development, I personally can't think of another engineering or science profession that could be replaced by self-study and/or experience.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#12

Post by edtechdev »

This data rewards schools that reject more applicants and/or fail more students (prevent them from graduating). Because that increases the average & median of their graduates. Charter schools and private schools do the same thing to increase test scores, but when controlling for other factors they are no better than public schools.

In order words, the data shows which schools do the best job of attracting and filtering out the top students. Many folks including some faculty think that IS their job - to set a high bar and see which few students can make it over, but from my point of view that is only half of the job - the other part, the hard part, is to actually educate students - to help more students get over that high bar.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#13

Post by dnautics »

gerner wrote: post #5

It's great to see some research that shows a college education is still worth it. And I certainly believe that, although I'm admittedly part of the academically trained elite. That said, the work to "democratize post-secondary education" is still an exciting area that can co-exist with traditional higher ed. There's a whole segment of the population for whom higher ed is not appropriate (for a variety of reasons). Se…

you should really consider that this is very clearly a "snapshot" in time. There is a broad gulf in first-five-year earning potential between someone who got their college degree 30 years ago, versus someone who got their college degree 5 years ago; so already those two cohorts are going to see dramatically different life outcomes.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#14

Post by Zimahl »

College is probably worth it but that's not what this graph is really showing. It really should be entitled 'Is Private College Worth It?' because it appears that the only significant cost:wage value is to 'Private Engineering' and even then arguments could be made that state engineering is good enough.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#15

Post by VLM »

jliechti1 wrote: post #4

Given the costliness of most colleges in the US - why not consider getting your degree outside of the country? There are many great universities in Asia, for example, that have a much cheaper price tag. I have not seen very many (if any) US students consider this option. I guess prestige and name-brand recognition is still very important. But really, I am on a semester abroad in Taiwan at the moment, and I have calcu…

This assumes the meaning of a degree is knowledge, or at least input filtering to only accept the worthy.

From experience, its credentialism, a title of nobility. Oh you are an experienced neurosurgeon? Oh from Russia you say? Well, here's a broom, good luck.

Good Luck practicing law, medicine, accounting, becoming a P.E., pretty much anything but IT/CS work with a foreign degree, and you don't even need any degree for IT work.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#17

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

My wife is an economist and one of her biggest pet peeves is that the idea that a child "must" get a college education has had a dramatic impact on how we perceive trade school or apprenticeship educations.

Not everybody needs college.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#19

Post by greenyoda »

Isn't a $98K median starting salary for math and CS grads a bit high? Yes, the few lucky ones who get a job at Google or Facebook or an investment bank might make six figures right out of school, but it doesn't seem like there would be enough of those jobs to pull the median up that high. The average CS grad probably won't end up working for an internet company; there are probably many more programming jobs in corporate IT departments.

Re: Is College Worth It?

#20

Post by objclxt »

VLM wrote: post #15
jliechti1 wrote: post #4

Given the costliness of most colleges in the US - why not consider getting your degree outside of the country? There are many great universities in Asia, for example, that have a much cheaper price tag. I have not seen very many (if any) US students consider this option. I guess prestige and name-brand recognition is still very important. But really, I am on a semester abroad in Taiwan at the moment, and I have calcu…

This assumes the meaning of a degree is knowledge, or at least input filtering to only accept the worthy. From experience, its credentialism, a title of nobility. Oh you are an experienced neurosurgeon? Oh from Russia you say? Well, here's a broom, good luck. Good Luck practicing law, medicine, accounting, becoming a P.E., pretty much anything but IT/CS work with a foreign degree, and you don't even need any degree f…

>Oh you are an experienced neurosurgeon? Oh from Russia you say? Well, here's a broom, good luck.

Planet Money did a podcast on this exact topic at the start of the year. It is near impossible for a doctor to come to the US and start practicing - even those who are top of their field and working in countries with highly respected medical schools (Europe, Asia, etc). I can't find the link to the full episode, but here's a summary and excerpt from All Things Considered:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108835/should-t...

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