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

More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

661–670 of 1001 posts

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#661

Post by owlbite »

commandlinefan wrote: post #226
ChicagoDave wrote: post #28

I have 3 college-aged kids and one nearly there. Their universal concern is the cost. It has become prohibitive. Colleges assumed the trend of charging $25k to $50k per year would be sustainable. They were dead wrong, especially given the horrendously predatory loans backed by the government and barred from bankruptcy. If we fix the college financial system, enrollment would likely skyrocket.

> Their universal concern is the cost. I have a senior in high school right now and although I think you're right - he's concerned about a potential quarter-million dollar tuition bill before this whole thing is over - he's also concerned about the whole selectivity of it all. From the outside looking in, you never know what's important and what's not. He has this feeling (and I'm not sure I can dispute it) that the…

My cousin seemed to have it worked out. Do as many relevant AP classes for credit as possible, finish the first two years worth of credits at a community college for $cheap and then transfer to a brand-name school for the final part.

My general impression is "has a degree with min GPA x.y" is a HR check-box that is necessary to get past an initial screen for a lot of large company roles. After you've got a couple of years experience no-one on the interview panel likely cares about the school you went to (and if they do, maybe give that firm a miss) compared to what you've done in the past 3 years.

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#662

Post by hooande »

lapsedacademic wrote: post #654
hooande wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Average College grads make more money over their lifetime, period. Stop this. The most accurate predictor of a person's lifetime income is the income of their parents. Children of wealthy parents are more likely to go to college. It's like saying "People who drive expensive cars in high school make more money over their lifetime, period". I question the statistical literacy of people who make the argument that goin…

> Stop this.... I question the statistical literacy... Ugh. Why? You asked for a statistically grounded conversation, so let's do that. Let's start, for example, with pdf page 25 (and surrounding context) of https://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/causal_educ_earnings.p... The analysis done in that paper is a good starting point for a productive conversation. We could discuss the bounds on various coefficients and deci…

Section 3.6. "Family background" of the pdf you linked to discusses the impact that parent's educational attainment has on how much money someone earns as a result of going to college, not whether they attend college. It's not used as a control in a way that's relevant to this discussion.

Do you have another study?

Either way, it's a fact that parental income is the best predictor of future income. Not educational attainment.

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#663

Post by MrsPeaches »

serverholic wrote: post #640
hardtke wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In addition many are not welcoming to women at all Economists are now finding that as more women move into a profession, the pay goes down. Similarly, when computer programming moved from a female dominated profession (early days) to male dominated (now) the pay went up. Medical fields that have higher proportions of women have lower pay. Along these lines, as college skews more female (college grads are like 60/40…

Source on programming starting out female dominated? Also, I'm curious what a programmer's job looked like in the beginning.

A women (Ada Lovelace) is "often been cited as the first computer programmer" [1]

Also the term "Computer" was actually an occupation (that was dominated by women) before the modern usage [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#First_computer_pr... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#664

Post by Graffur »

bart_spoon wrote: post #153
Graffur wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first point makes no sense. The logic follows that we should have let the original and more deadly variants rip through society? Young people are part of society so they are obligated to protect it.

The only reason we locked down initially was to "flatten the curve". This doesn't mean eliminate the virus, it meant slow it down long enough for the hospital system and government agencies to catch up in preparation. But even then, it was understood that this virus was going to be endemic and that elimination was never a possibility. > Young people are part of society so they are obligated to protect it. The point i…

You're not the same person I was replying too or is it an alt account?

Either way, I didn't say anything about eliminating the virus. Hospital systems are still at risk of being overwhelmed... that's why restrictions are still in place.

You're acting like younger people are the only people affected by the restrictions.

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#665

Post by hammock »

_moof wrote: post #308
hammock wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welfare payments supplemented wages by about 8% in 1960. That figure has risen to about 36% today, a 3.5x increase. Chart: http://www.mygovcost.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/governme... Source: http://www.mygovcost.org/2011/03/14/the-u-s-as-welfare-state... (the first random example I found on Google)

This chart includes Social Security and Medicare. I don't think it makes sense to include retirees in a data set when making an argument about "welfare."

You don't have to be retired to receive Social Security or Medicare.

Anyway, do you have some alternate data to consider?

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#666

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

mywittyname wrote: post #302
VampireWillow wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Canada the government simply dictates to universities how much they can charge. It seems beyond insane to me to do it any other way, seeing as our entire societies are dependent on getting enough people educated to perpetuate a service economy. To be fair, this kind of means that universities should be completely public. And although they are for all intents and purposes, in theory they are still non-governme…

The department of education in the USA kind of does that too. The amount of government-backed loans a student can receive for undergrad is capped at ~$35,000 (it's unlimited for graduate school). It's also graduated, so a freshman can only receive ~$4,000 their first year, and it goes up from there. Grants are given to freshman to cover the shortfall. Also, students/parents are expected to contribute, based on househ…

> The amount of government-backed loans a student can receive for undergrad is capped at ~$35,000 (it's unlimited for graduate school). It's also graduated, so a freshman can only receive ~$4,000 their first year, and it goes up from there.

I believe this only applies to the subsidized federal student loans that don't collect interest while you're in school. The limit on unsubsidized federal loans that start collecting interest right away is much higher.

When I started college in 2009, I got $9,000 in federal student loans for my freshman year.

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#667

Post by kgin »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #108

This is nearly a strictly American problem. Much of the rest of the world has realized that society requires and is capable of supporting advanced education for all -- after all we want humanity to be advancing , right? America is still stuck in this alternate universe where it's a great privilege to have the opportunity to learn, which is of course true to some extent, but they really put it on a pedestal there. Com…

Americans have one of the highest rates of higher education in the developed world.

America just wants new grads to be indebted to motivate them to get to work.

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#668

Post by hahaxdxd123 »

fuzzer37 wrote: post #604
endisneigh wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not turning this into an ad for the school my daughter went to. Cost was literally 1/2 of he first year salary over $40,000. It was capped at a maximum amount. She ended up paying about $6k, but it was contingent on her getting a job that payed better than $40k. You already have. I want to see the graduation stats. > It didn't matter what education level they attained, across the population the outcome was cons…

Do you like to argue just to argue?

Is it arguing to ask for sources now? LMAO

> post random fact

> source?

> no source, but here's more random facts

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#669

Post by hooande »

endisneigh wrote: post #650
hooande wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Average College grads make more money over their lifetime, period. Stop this. The most accurate predictor of a person's lifetime income is the income of their parents. Children of wealthy parents are more likely to go to college. It's like saying "People who drive expensive cars in high school make more money over their lifetime, period". I question the statistical literacy of people who make the argument that goin…

I didn’t say there’s a causal impact, I said that average college grads make more money.

The kid that's driving a new BMW at age 16 will make more money than everyone else too. Do you suggest that kids buy BMWs in order to increase their lifetime earning potential?

Re: More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

#670

Post by balls187 »

indymike wrote: post #314

There are three problems that colleges need to fix. 1) Skilled trades pay better than most bachelor's degree track jobs. My kids can make more money with a six month apprenticeship than they will with all but a few 4 year degrees. If you can drive a forklift, you can make $45K/yr... which is identical to what an firsty year teacher makes. 2) There are better options than college for many. One of my daughters did a si…

> 2) There are better options than college for many.

I agree there are better options than college for many. Thought if I were a betting man, on average, College is the better decision.

> One of my daughters did a six month digital marketing bootcamp. She made $45k year one, and a year later is the director of marketing at her company making over $100k/yr.

I'm curious how old she was when she completed that bootcamp, and if she had a degree in another field, and/or experience. I just cant fathom a 20 year being a marketing director making $100,000.

In nearly 20 years professionally, I have worked with MANY people between the ages of 18-22 (many of which themselves attend or attended prestigious schools), and none showed the aptitude, skill and leadership required to be director at that time.

Post reply on HN