Too Many Kids Go To College

The system has expanded in ways that industry always expands: by jacking up prices, putting money into public relations, and broadening the customer base by marketing even to customers dubiously served by the product.

The idea that a university education is for everyone is a destructive myth. An instructor at a college of last resort explains why.

Hear this, high achievers: If you crunch the numbers, some experts say, college is a bad investment.

A college education is now deemed one of those prizes that, if good for a few, must therefore be good for everyone, even if no one in a position of academic authority can define what such an education is or should be. These conceptions are at the heart of the democratic revolution in higher education.

A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all.

Children have been brainwashed by society into thinking that college is a good thing for young, intelligent, ambitious young people.

The notion that a college degree is essentially worthless has become one of the year's most fashionable ideas, with two prominent venture capitalists (Cornell 89 and Stanford 89, by the way) leading the charge.

Hyper-libertarian Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel's appalling plan to pay students to quit college.

Many more young people could succeed at college if given the chance. But public policy has been raising hurdles rather than increasing access.

Universities are not so isolated from the tragic past, but they still make a claim to speak with eloquence across the centuries. They often fail, they need reform and course correction, but they are not, at their best, merely venal and self-serving.

I don't doubt that the skeptics are well meaning. But, in the end, their case against college is an elitist one  for me and not for thee. And that's rarely good advice.

College-educated Americans live in a different country than high school dropouts. The best way to mend the divide is by providing access to a decent education.

It's true that the job market for new college graduates stinks right now. The job market for non-graduates is worse.

Our current system places far too much emphasis on a single pathway to success: attending and graduating from a four-year college after completing an academic program of study in high school. This paper makes the case for more diverse, robust pathways to careers and practical-minded post-secondary options.

An excellent case can be made that we are over invested in universities, that too many students attend school, that much of our investment is wasted. Moreover, the rise in costs to society, to taxpayers, and especially to consumers is excessive, and has been made more so by well-meaning but inappropriate public policies.

This study argues that the conventional wisdom that going to college is a “human capital investment” with a high payoff is increasingly wrong. Evidence shows that currently more than one-third of college graduates hold jobs that governmental employment experts tell us require less than a college degree.

Depending on the type of college or university, as well as its level of selectivity, taxpayers may contribute a substantial tax subsidy or, in rare cases, receive a moderate net profit per bachelor's degree. It is important to consider all of the costs and returns involved in higher education when considering dropout prevention and retention efforts, as well as how government subsidies are or should be distributed among colleges and universities.

The data is clear: a college degree is key to economic opportunity, conferring substantially higher earnings on those with credentials than those without.

If we continue to under produce college-educated workers, the large and growing gap between the earnings of Americans of different educational attainment will grow even wider.

On average, the benefits of a four-year college degree are equivalent to an investment that returns 15.2 percent per year. From any investment perspective, college is a great deal.

While the recession may have dampened opportunities for many young Americans, evidence shows that those young Americans with a college degree are better off than their peers without a post-high-school degree.

A majority of Americans (57%) say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. However, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—86%—say that college has been a good investment for them personally.

Dale J. Stevens, a Thiel Fellow, started UnCollege to challenge the notion that college is the only path to success. The movement is intended to empower students to hack their education through resources, writing, workshops, and community instead of the traditional route of attending college. Visit their resources page for links to self-directed learning.