The college question

I dumped the Thinking Parents question on Daryl, and he came up with a good one.

Question: Do you agree that college for all is a worthy goal? Why or why not? Is it even a reasonable goal for all students to be “college ready”?

My short answer is no. Of course, it’s more complicated than that because there is how the world should work, and how it actually works.

The reality of US society today is that a college degree is the price of admission to the professional job market. It’s silly, because a good number of the jobs that require a college degree have no actual requirements that are related to anything you may have learned in college. I can think of a lot of situations where the 18 year old that is eager to learn would be a better hire than the 21 year old sporting a $100,000 geography degree. In most instances, the 18 year old won’t even get a chance to interview. Who is more useful to a computer game company? The kid with a 4 year CS degree and little practical experience, or the 18 year old who already has 3 games online?

For career fields such as accounting, engineering, etc. you certainly do learn specific skills in college that relate directly to getting a job after college. However, the kid with the six figure geography degree from the University of VA won’t even be allowed to teach geography to 6th graders. That degree probably will get his foot in the door at some big company, but it’s like he is getting credit for the process of graduating college, not for anything specific he brings to the table. Is that really the most efficient way to do things? If your kid loves taking apart engines a 4 year degree from State U is probably of marginal benefit, unless he wants to go work for GM, in which case he’ll need the degree to get his foot in the door. GM should be thrilled to hire 18 year olds with a passion for automotive technology, but they aren’t.

The baby boomer generation was sold on the idea that everybody should and can go to college. It’s poppycock. The biggest beneficiaries of that idea are the schools, that saw a dramatic increase in demand, and the student loan industry. Every year tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of young adults matriculate into colleges that they will never graduate from and rack up large debts in pursuit of a degree that they will never get. Those kids need other options that are not looked down upon by society, and pay well enough to provide them a decent standard of living.

That said, there is nothing wrong a classic liberal arts college education that is not tied directly to a career field. It’s just hard to justify shelling out the big bucks on being much more educated, but only marginally more employable. The numbers make it look like a good gamble, but as Daryl points out, we don’t know enough about the distribution. The college educated billionaires of the world may be pulling the mean way up. This study seems to show that public college is a OK investment, and private colleges return less than 2% after the debt servicing on your education is taken into account. Even if you are a trust fund baby you might be better off investing the college fund in an index fund and going to work at 18.

So, will I encourage my kids to go to college? Yes, and no. My son at 14 really doesn’t have any career goals yet. I could totally see him spending 10 years getting a pHD in history and joining the faculty somewhere. My daughter at age 7 decided she wanted to be a horse trainer. At 12 she is still on that path. She already reads college level horse anatomy books for fun. How much would she really gain by spending $100K to get a equine science degree from VA Tech? Probably very little… Assuming she stays on this path I’m thinking the more useful path for her is to get a 2 year degree that would let her be a Vet Tech or something like that to maybe supplement her income while she builds her reputation as The Horse Whisperer.