Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

cbsnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 121 posts

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#51

Post by akhilcacharya »

legitster wrote: post #13

In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…

I did this in North Carolina. I’m still not sure if it was a good decision or not - the degree I received is useless and counts negatively towards “prestigious” schools (didn’t get into any and it haunts me to this day)

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#52

Post by tomohawk »

Does not surprise me at all. It was unfathomable to me the number of pretend students I met at school who were racking up bills discovering themselves while pursuing studies in subjects with little hope of remunerative employment. They seemed to outnumber the actual students, at least the 1st year or two.

The fact that schools take advantage of unsophisticated customers with such shoddy products, and that this is heavily subsidized by taxpayer money - just ridiculous.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#53

Post by rhizome »

rayiner wrote: post #48
redwards510 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running Start alumni here. It's an amazing program, but I often wonder if it was the right decision. Leaving high school at 10th (of 12) grade had a major impact on my life. I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. I don't have high school reunions to attend. In the end, it didn't c…

> I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation. Most generations prior to them never had those things. (It wasn't until WWII that more than 50% of Americans graduated…

>The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation

This abject bitterness is only a minor counterpoint to harmless rituals held by many many people.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#54

Post by downrightmike »

apo wrote: post #18

Imagine how much more sane tuitions would be if these people had just done something else with their lives. Unintended consequences of federal loan guarantees: education becomes more expensive, leaving young graduates who should be finding their financial footing trying to understand what happened to them.

Schools have all the info and yet they still are more than happy to sign kids into mountains of debt. Nothing would have lowered tuition because it doesn't take all of the money brought in to school the kids, most of the money is going into growing the school's endowment and to maintain their status as a charity so they don't pay taxes. So 58% of kids MUST take some form of aide or charity. And as society has plummeted, more kids are pushed into Uni and therefore tuition MUST be raised to keep the charity status. https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/the-uncharity-of-colle...

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#55

Post by malandrew »

perfunctory wrote: post #20

Maybe they don't regret their degrees but their jobs. The current job market totally disregards the passions and aspirations of our generation. Maybe we should treat enrolment per degree as a sort of voting system and allocate financial resources accordingly. After all students are drown from the society, so their aspirations are society's aspirations. Unfortunately capital allocation decisions are made by managers w…

The job market totally disregards the passions and aspirations of any generation.

There is nothing special about the current generation except that they have been given unrealistic expectations by their parents.

The job market is all about doing things that other people are willing to pay for. They are willing to pay for that work to be done for a variety of reasons like: (1) they don't have the skills to do that job or time/capacity to learn; (2) they could do that job, but would prefer not to and are willing to pay to avoid doing that job; or (3) they could do that job, but their time is better spent earning more money doing some different job.

None of these three reasons makes any guarantee that the job will match the passions and aspirations of those in the job market.

Throughout history, doing a job that matches your passions and aspirations is a rarity and it continues to be a rarity to this day.

Furthermore, lots of people tend to share passions and aspirations and there are only so many jobs for all those people, so typically even if you do try to land a job that matches your passions and aspirations, there are a million other people doing the same and that depresses prices because of a glut in supply.

Ultimately, the real problem is that expectations were not tempered and realistic. You're far less likely to have regrets if you had more realistic expectations going in.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#56

Post by malandrew »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27
perfunctory wrote: post #20

Maybe they don't regret their degrees but their jobs. The current job market totally disregards the passions and aspirations of our generation. Maybe we should treat enrolment per degree as a sort of voting system and allocate financial resources accordingly. After all students are drown from the society, so their aspirations are society's aspirations. Unfortunately capital allocation decisions are made by managers w…

You want to let students' aspirations guide jobs, rather than what companies need? That seems really unlikely to work out well for the society. Society needs companies that can actually produce stuff that people need and want, worse than they need companies that create jobs that fulfill everyone's aspirations.

This. So much this.

Passions and aspirations are for hobbies.

Jobs are about providing value to others in society in exchange for IOUs that you can exchange with others.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#57

Post by nostrademons »

bradlys wrote: post #17
legitster wrote: post #13

In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…

> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate fro…

You have the option of going as a normal student. If you do, top-tier colleges usually look at college and AP courses taken at other institutions as a bonus towards admission.

I went to Amherst College (#1 liberal arts college in the U.S. when I matriculated), having taken courses at Harvard Extension School, UMass Lowell, and Boston University as a high-schooler. They didn't give me credit for any of them, nor for the 8 AP tests I passed. However, I was told that they were a big plus on my otherwise-lackluster application. The fact that I could take and ace college courses at other institutions was a great way to nullify the fact that I was failing my high-school courses.

My sister did courses at Middlesex Community College (again, through the same MA dual-enrollment program that I used) and went to Rice University and my wife did courses at Foothill Community College (through CA's dual-enrollment program) and went to UC Berkeley, so not an isolated experience.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#58

Post by akhilcacharya »

bradlys wrote: post #41
sdinsn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your goal is to graduate from a top school But why is that always the goal that counselors push? The data shows that future income is most closely correlated to major, not school choice.

Maybe they're pushing people to get the best school for their major. I think going to Stanford for CS will open more doors than going to Oregon State. There is a significant networking aspect to these top schools as well. I see it very clearly with my friends who went to CalTech and Stanford. It's probably not a coincidence that many (most?) of my peers in the bay area are people who graduated from top schools and/or…

I think this is an uncomfortable truth for many people. People don’t like to admit that their performance at the time they got admitted to college is a reflection of their status and future ability but it unfortunately is.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#59

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

>Most satisfied: Those with science, technology, engineering and math majors, who are typically more likely to enjoy higher salaries, reported more satisfaction with their college degrees. About 42% of engineering grads and 35% of computer science grads said they had no regrets.

>Most regrets: Humanities majors, who are least likely to earn higher pay post-graduation, were most likely to regret their college education. About 75% of humanities majors said they regretted their college education. About 73% of graduates who studied social sciences, physical and life sciences, and art also said the same.

I love the idea of free college. That said, I feel weird about subsidizing something people regret doing in the first place. If this doesn't provide $X value to you, having the tax payer pay that much for it instead of you paying for it seems weird. I hesitate to make a HN tech bubble comment, but it really seems like only making certain degrees free could make sense. Like, I'm a lot happier paying taxes to educate doctors than poets, even though there's value in having both.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#60

Post by tomohawk »

stargazing wrote: post #42
chaostheory wrote: post #9

From the article: "Most satisfied: Those with science, technology, engineering and math majors, who are typically more likely to enjoy higher salaries, reported more satisfaction with their college degrees. About 42% of engineering grads and 35% of computer science grads said they had no regrets. Most regrets: Humanities majors, who are least likely to earn higher pay post-graduation, were most likely to regret their…

Important to note the phrasing of this. 58% of engineering grads and 65% of CS grads still said they regretted their degrees - which isn't far off the numbers of those in the humanities.

This really surprises me. I would have expected maybe 30% based on so many people not making it through the program. At my school they had to get 2/3rds to drop by junior year or there would be too many in the program, and they never missed that goal. I saw very few make it through who were not genuinely interested in the subject.
Post reply on HN