All children should go to college, right? You get paid way more and you are guaranteed a job, so it’s a no-brainer. When I look at friends from my Master’s program waiting tables or scrambling to find an internship after paying $75,000 at a “good school," I have to wonder. If our kids often get a subpar basic education and no support to have a goal they pursue in their educational career, why the hell would we send them to college?
So much of what I got out of college and grad school came from learning languages, traveling, working, and volunteering (not from my classes). So much of my love for learning exploded out of me after graduating (this blog is a great example). I look at my job, which is related to my masters, and I realize that I was clearly able to do this job without the “required” masters degree (I started at the same time as grad school and was able to do the same things when I started that I do now). I have to ask, what was the value?
I’ve been asking this of many friends applying to advanced degree programs, much to their chagrin. It is so ingrained that they have never gotten the “well, are you sure you need a Masters?” conversation before. I’m not trying to dissuade them, but to help them focus on what they really want and the best way to get there. Looking at my student loans, I ask the question at least once a month. You'd be surprised to hear how many aimless folks are pouring into grad schools "because the economy is bad, and hopefully it will be better when I get out." Yikes! In this post, I will attempt to dispose of the assumption that college/grad school is desirable for all students.
An appalling study released in January 2011 revealed that a large chunk of students are not learning in college, and many barely study. Apparently, 36% percent of college students make no improvement in critical thinking, reasoning, or writing skills during four years of college (45% of students learn nothing during the first two years of college, which is depressing for those getting 2-year associates degrees or dropping out early with debt but no degree). Much of this probably has to do with students averaging less than 20% of their time in class, studying, or doing homework compared to the over 50% they spend on socializing. Now, I am the first to note how important social development is in college, but you are paying oodles of cash to develop intellectually and cognitively not to shoot the breeze with others who are equally excited to be moving out of years of agonizing puberty.
This raises questions about the constant push to increase the amount of students going to and graduating from college. According to the Obama Website, “President Obama has doubled our investment in scholarships and financial aid so that students from working- and middle-class families can access and complete the college education they need to get the good jobs of the future” (emphasis his, not mine). In fact, policies like these have worked with college enrollment surging from 8.5 million in 1970 to over 20 million in 2009. It is good that Obama is focusing on funding elements of education that do not increase debt for students, while reducing the maximum loan payments in time and amount paid.
That said, Obama’s goal and the status quo it now represents may be quite faulty. Should everyone go to college? I would argue that the answer is no. Should everyone have the opportunity to, most definitely. I think it is really sad, however, that more and more jobs that once required no degree now require a BA, and MA, or a Ph.D. I got my Masters while working at the Department of Labor, and I can honestly say that my Masters was worthless to my job (and I got a job in the exact field I studied for). In many cases, even if the student is learning (that other 64%), what they are learning may not be close to enough for their job. That means you have people locked away in academia either not learning or not learning applicable skills for 4, 6, or even 10 years. That is up to a decade of not supporting themselves, of accruing loan debt, of often not contributing to society and the economy.
I wish more people would question the hegemony of college degrees as the golden ticket. If my plumber can quote Aristotle, that’s great, but he shouldn’t have to study Greek philosophy to do a completely unrelated job…and that’s where we are heading. There is a really interesting blogger James Altucher who notes that there are many ways to learn much more directly at the same or a lower cost than college. He lists 8 different ways of learning beyond high school that are much more productive, integrated with the real world, and diverse enough to cater to a wide variety of learning styles that are not well suited to four more years of education for the sake of a degree. The alternatives can be summarized as “create something, master a skill, or explore and reflect on the world.” Specifically he mentions things like starting a business, writing a book, mastering a skill or a sport, creating art, making people laugh, traveling the world, or volunteering for a charity.
I think some people do well in college, learn a lot, and are able to contribute to society. In the end, they often get their money’s worth. That said, to assume that everyone should or could progress down the same path is not logical. Nobody learns the same way. Further colleges are often distanced (the so-called “bubble” or “ivory tower”) from reality, so solutions developed in the academic vacuum have less practical value than one would hope. Further, with stringent cuts to departments and majors that offer concrete skills or produce products and services (languages, research facilities, etc.), the value of a college degree for those who do learn well is in question. Worse, colleges are accepting more kids without upgrading capacity or increasing teaching staff (this is a big problem in law schools,though not exclusively).
The important thing is to find the learning style that’s right for you, and the learning environment that most helps you develop. I think Altucher offers many great ideas for alternative ways to develop the same skills that college can cultivate. That said, Obama is right to make college more accessible to all people regardless of race or income. For me, college was worth it, but grad school perhaps was not. Each person is different and it would be great if we could encourage these differences. I would now like to see policies that enable people of any level to become entrepreneurs, volunteer, or create value for society in alternative venues if college is not right for them.
Speak out!
- If you didn’t go to college, what would you have done with the time and/or money?
- If you know you aren’t a good school learner but you get a full scholarship, should you still go to college for the sake of it?
- What are some ways to get the most out of your college/grad school education? What are other pursuits besides college that you can think of that would cultivate similar development or skills?
Act on it!
- Before you ship your kids off to college or before you yourself decide to apply for a Master’s degree without an actual goal in mind beyond the piece of paper…consider what will really contribute to your goals and if you need to.
- Help a high school kid to identify their goals and understand the financial burdens they may be taking on before they go to college (according to this nifty calculator, turns out I should be making nearly $200k to pay the amount of money I pay per month for my grad school debt…if only!)
- Identify extracurriculars you can take on or specific skills you can develop through your program to ensure that you emerge from college or grad school a more capable and fulfilled person.
My M.A. was worthwhile for me only because (a) I had a scholarship and stipend for year one, and finished early in a year and a half, and (b) because I was able to cherry pick and choose the classes that focused only on my narrow area of interest. All I use it for now though is shameless credential dropping and as a trump card to call bullshit on people who say things about tango that I know are wildly false and exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteUndergraduate education, however, has benefits beyond mere job skills. As you mention and acknowledge, the social aspect is important (though far more people in college drink far more than they should, and that included me). Also, at its best, the college experience can intellectually challenge people by putting them in close living quarters with other people around the same age who have very different philosophical, political, and religious views. This especially benefits individuals who were raised in intellectually/racially/religiously homogenous environments when they attend college somewhere that's more of a melting pot (e.g., small town Nebraskan goes to school in Chicago). It can also expose people who fancy themselves die-hard urbanites to other lifestyles. So I do think that easier debt-free access to higher ed is good for all people, because it can help to make them more thoughtful citizens, whatever their beliefs and vocation.
That said, I think the problem is more fundamental: we simply disdain manual labor like plumbing, carpentry, etc. A restructuring of our value system and university system would be nice, where a dorm could be full of kids who were studying not only to become doctors, lawyers, or unemployed (er, I mean English professors...), but also mechanics, plumbers, and carpenters...but that utopia is very far away.
So no, a plumber does not need to know about Aristotle—but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't regard knowledge of classics and that particular profession to be mutually exclusive?