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US: Why Did 17 Million Students Go to College?
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    We already had good post about subject, but this add few more facts.

    Over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees (over 8,000 of them have doctoral or professional degrees), along with over 80,000 bartenders, and over 18,000 parking lot attendants. All told, some 17,000,000 Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that the BLS says require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor’s degree.



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    Charles Murray’s has thesis that an increasing number of people attending college do not have the cognitive abilities or other attributes usually necessary for success at higher levels of learning. As more and more try to attend colleges, either college degrees will be watered down (something already happening ) or drop-out rates will rise.

    The relentless claims of the Obama administration and others that having more college graduates is necessary for continued economic leadership is incompatible with this view. Putting issues of student abilities aside, the growing disconnect between labor market realities and the propaganda of higher-education apologists is causing more and more people to graduate and take menial jobs or no job at all. This is even true at the doctoral and professional level—there are 5,057 janitors in the U.S. with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees.

    This week an extraordinarily interesting new study was posted on the Web site of America’s most prestigious economic-research organization, the National Bureau of Economic Research. Three highly regarded economists (one of whom has won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science) have produced “Estimating Marginal Returns to Education,” Working Paper 16474 of the NBER. After very sophisticated and elaborate analysis, the authors conclude “In general, marginal and average returns to college are not the same.” (p. 28)

    In other words, even if on average, an investment in higher education yields a good, say 10 percent, rate of return, it does not follow that adding to existing investments will yield that return, partly for reasons outlined above. The authors (Pedro Carneiro, James Heckman, and Edward Vytlacil) make that point explicitly, stating “Some marginal expansions of schooling produce gains that are well below average returns, in general agreement with the analysis of Charles Murray.” (p.29)

    Via: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/why-did-17-million-students-go-to-college/27634:
  • 8 Replies sorted by
  • StormlotusStormlotus
    College is a joke for the most part. While there are some people that benefit and require it for their professions that absolutely require it, I understand, but this notion that you must go on to higher "education" or you will be worthless is complete nonsense and the illusion only holds up because people believe it.

    Not only college, but the entire K-12 system in the U.S. is hardly what I would call education. It's absolutely horrible.

    Knowledge is nothing without wisdom. Knowledge decays and is proven wrong as years ago by but wisdom is timeless, critical thinking, the desire to question, and the nurturing of creativity and free thinking are all things that are fought against, everywhere.

  • brianlucebrianluce
    Getting a good job isn't the main reason the go to college.
    If it is just about getting a good job, there no question you're better off getting degress.
  • FafhrdFafhrd
    There has been a classic case of false demand based upon easily obtained student loans provided at exorbitant rates with the full collusion of college administrators who relied upon the swelling enrollments with checks from the government to swell their coffers, build their empires and fund their retirements.

    College tuition rates are obscene. When I went to college it was possible for me to work manual labor in the summer and save enough money to pay for tuition and books for the Fall and Spring semesters.

    Special exemptions in the bankruptcy provisions mean that a student who was inveigled into accepting impossible to pay loans can NEVER escape them.

    College loans are yet another bubble about to burst.
  • bannedindvbannedindv
    It's easy to see why they say "college is a necessity" - irresponsible, predatory lending at high interest rates. The "education industry" in America needs a complete reboot. Better public High School education and vocational school as well as journeyman plans would be a great start.
  • bimdasbimdas
    The world needs bartenders and janitors. There's not enough high level jobs to go around for everybody with a college degree. In Australia we need more plumbers and electricians as they are in short supply. Most of them make more money than white collar workers and if you want to make over 100k a year with no qualifications, there's plenty of work at the mines here.
  • LPowellLPowell
    The motivation for going to college (and as @brianluce points out, getting a degree), is not to get a job, it's to get an interview. These days in the USA, job applications are pre-screened by database apps which are programmed to reject applicants who do not meet minimum requirements. If you don't check off the college degree box, you won't even get called in for an interview.
  • DouglasHornDouglasHorn
    Or one could look at these figures as indicative of massive under-employment in the US where many people have taken jobs below their skills and training. It's my experience that more education benefits individuals, communities, and nations.
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    Its the same in UK, Tony Blair- everyone should go to University and we did but did give us the Jobs we wanted?, um no!. I am in Australia now simply because there is no Job's in UK & its all F'ed up.

    I got a Job interview the first day I started looking for work. In UK nothing for 2 years of job hunting. WTF guys.
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