…of many college degrees. At Cracked.
I don’t know if this is the next bubble to pop, but pop it will.
5 thoughts on “On The Lousy Value”
Comments are closed.
…of many college degrees. At Cracked.
I don’t know if this is the next bubble to pop, but pop it will.
Comments are closed.
OMG, 1407 comments on that article. At that point, you’re doing time capsule stuff with your witty comment likely to be dredged up only by a future employer or AI archeologist.
My bachelors degree is worth as much as Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Sadly, the Bachelors degree is today’s high school diploma. Few “real” employers ( = those who offer jobs at which one can earn a living ) will even look at your resume if it doesn’t feature at least an undergraduate degree in something — oenology, whiteness studies, Tasmanian history, it doesn’t matter. The Bachelors, like the high school degree in the old days, has no meaning other than as a sign that one belongs the the employable class. It is the basic “ticket” needed to get a grownup job in today’s world — the primary means by which college-degreed human resources officers weed out the riffraff.
With this in mind, the best strategy is to attend college as cheaply and as quickly as possible. Unless you are going for a degree in law, medicine, architecture, veterinary medicine, etc., the quality and source of one’s undergraduate honors is irrelevant. A degree in French or Art or Turkish History from East Jesus State Mechanical & Agricultural College ($3000/semester) is equal to the same degree granted by Yalevard ($30,000/semester) as far as getting a job is concerned.
Some degrees are more equal than others, however. A Bachelors in a hard science or an administrative field (e.g. Chemical Engineering, Public Administration, Emergency Management) or in a liberal arts technical specialty (e.g. Management, Library Science, TOEFL) can also lead to respectable middle-class careers for diligent job-seekers.
Other rules: never major in Art, Filmmaking (unless at NYU), “creative writing”, etc.; if you have any ability at all in these fields, you will have made your first sale long before you have a B.A. A degree in Poetry from Pumpkin Holler State (or from Yalevard) has a market value of exactly zero.
Above all, however, is one absolute rule: professional degrees excepted, one should never borrow money for undergraduate education. Always pay in cash, either up front or on a monthly basis.
My own children will be put through college only if they decide to seek a professional degree. Otherwise, I’ll only pay for their post-secondary education if they want to go to Jet Engine Mechanic Academy, Air Conditioning Tech, or the like. Come boom or bust, in Texas, the HVAC man always has a steady job.
It’s a damned shame, but that’s the way it is.
When even the Huffingtion Post has an entire section devoted to the problems of student loan debt, you know there’s a problem.
A lot of universities have major “sustainability” programs. They concentrate on minimizing environmental impacts and “green” nonsense. If anyone at those universities had half a brain, they’d address the very real sustainability issues for the universities themselves. College expenses have been increasing at an unsustainable rate for decades. They’re very near the point of popping the bubble. When (not if) that happens, a lot of highly credentialed university employees are going to get a rude awakening. They’ll quickly learn how little the real world values their vaunted degrees in Left-handed Lesbian Studies and the like.
If anyone at those universities had half a brain, they’d address the very real sustainability issues for the universities themselves.
That would mean cutting university revenue. Universities are on the other side of the interests table from students.