The World Might Be Better Off Without College for Everyone

[endicom]

The Atlantic
Bryan Caplan
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 ISSUE 

I have been in school for more than 40 years. First preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, junior high, and high school. Then a bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, followed by a doctoral program at Princeton. The next step was what you could call my first “real” job—as an economics professor at George Mason University.

Thanks to tenure, I have a dream job for life. Personally, I have no reason to lash out at our system of higher education. Yet a lifetime of experience, plus a quarter century of reading and reflection, has convinced me that it is a big waste of time and money. When politicians vow to send more Americans to college, I can’t help gasping, “Why? You want us to waste even more?”

How, you may ask, can anyone call higher education wasteful in an age when its financial payoff is greater than ever? The earnings premium for college graduates has rocketed to 73 percent—that is, those with a bachelor’s degree earn, on average, 73 percent more than those who have only a high-school diploma, up from about 50 percent in the late 1970s. The key issue, however, isn’t whether college pays, but why. The simple, popular answer is that schools teach students useful job skills. But this dodges puzzling questions.

More... https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/whats-college-good-for/546590/

[Applewood]

If I had kids, I would not send them to college.  Colleges don't teach anything.  Social justice cr@p, drinking, drugs, sports.  Kids graduate and they can't fill out a job application. 

I'd send them to a trade, technical or business school.  At leadt, they would learn something that could lead to gainful employment.

[endicom]

If I had kids, I would not send them to college.  Colleges don't teach anything.  Social justice cr@p, drinking, drugs, sports.  Kids graduate and they can't fill out a job application. 

I'd send them to a trade, technical or business school.  At leadt, they would learn something that could lead to gainful employment.

Online learning and 'testing out.' It's possible to test out of most of an undergraduate degree and doing so is relatively inexpensive.

[RoosGirl]

I prefer driving over bridges that have been designed by someone that has at least a Bachelor's degree of understanding in physics, mathematics, structures, materials, etc.

[endicom]

I prefer driving over bridges that have been designed by someone that has at least a Bachelor's degree of understanding in physics, mathematics, structures, materials, etc.

Some programs require a good amount of hands-on or in-person training but most courses do not.

[dfwgator]

[roamer_1]

I prefer driving over bridges that have been designed by someone that has at least a Bachelor's degree of understanding in physics, mathematics, structures, materials, etc.

No offense, darlin', but that depends entirely upon the bridge. I've built a few, and they're all still there.

[RoosGirl]

No offense, darlin', but that depends entirely upon the bridge. I've built a few, and they're all still there.

And no offense back atcha, but I bet they weren't intended for highway type loads and frequencies.

[RoosGirl]

Some programs require a good amount of hands-on or in-person training but most courses do not.

I believe all states have gone to requiring both for licensure.

[roamer_1]

And no offense back atcha, but I bet they weren't intended for highway type loads and frequencies.

Nope. Some of them were walkways, some for a side by side or less... Some for heavy access across a creek to a residence (Concrete truck or less).

Like I say, depends entirely upon the bridge...

 

[truth_seeker]

Read or heard that apprenticeship programs would be good for students with lower scholastic aptitudes, rather than hold out false hope that college is the way for them to plan for.

[endicom]

I believe all states have gone to requiring both for licensure.

For engineering? At least some states have rules for advertising yourself as an engineer.

To qualify for the PE gets complicated. You may need an ABET degree and so many years experience. Or, perhaps, a non-ABET degree and more years of experience or other additional qualifications. Sometimes a technology degree will do if enough additional qualifications are met.

As per usual, it depends.

[RoosGirl]

For engineering? At least some states have rules for advertising yourself as an engineer.

To qualify for the PE gets complicated. You may need an ABET degree and so many years experience. Or, perhaps, a non-ABET degree and more years of experience or other additional qualifications. Sometimes a technology degree will do if enough additional qualifications are met.

As per usual, it depends.

Yes, I should have been more clear; for engineering.  Florida used to allow non-degreed people to sit for the test for their license if they had a certain number of years of experience under a PE and the PE would "sponsor" them, but they stopped allowing that about 10 years ago now I think and I thought that most, if not all, states had done the same.  Now you have to have graduated with a minimum 4 year ABET degree.  There's a lot of things that the Board has done that I do not agree with and that is one of them

[Bigun]

In the near future plumbers, electricians, AC techs, welding techs, and others like them are going to make the kind of money doctors and lawyers are making today because most young people today want nothing to do with careers than require them to do any actual work and possibly get their hands dirty.

[Cripplecreek]

I prefer driving over bridges that have been designed by someone that has at least a Bachelor's degree of understanding in physics, mathematics, structures, materials, etc.

Agreed but only the best and brightest should not be going to college to learn those things and not forced to struggle against and endless stream of students who would be better served by trade schools and apprenticeship programs.

[mirraflake]

In the near future plumbers, electricians, AC techs, welding techs, and others like them are going to make the kind of money doctors and lawyers are making today because most young people today want nothing to do with careers than require them to do any actual work and possibly get their hands dirty.

Yep also skilled craftsman jobs are making  a comeback. A HS classmate does terrazzo(sic) floors. Travels all over the country installing floors in Fortune 500 company home offices. Does very well financially.

Certified welders in my area are making  140k per year working on gas lines.

@Bigun