Is College Worth It? 2 New Reports Say Yes (Mostly) – Bottom Line – The Chronicle of Higher Education

• Is College Worth It? 2 New Reports Say Yes (Mostly) – Bottom Line – The Chronicle of Higher Education

  Stagnant college wages with declining high school wages mean people have to make a choice: higher ed with a career choice or risk not going and maybe going the alternative route->become an entrepreneur like Sean Parker.

  tags: education higher ed online education colleges universities students report

  • the underlying question always seemed to be whether college was still worth its cost.

  • There has been a lot of evidence to suggest that college is indeed worth it, and plenty of studies and pundits lining up to tout the evidence.

  • But the opposite has happened, the report says: There is more demand for college education in the workplace, and college graduates in fields that might not normally require college—like plumbing or hairdressing—make substantially more.

  • The report puts the college wage premium—the amount that college graduates make compared with mere high-school graduates—at 80 percent.

  • However, another new report, from three researchers, examines the question again, with a closer look at economic outcomes and more ambivalence.

  • The paper, “The Economics of B.A. Ambivalence: The Case of California Higher Education,”

  • that many past assessments of the return on investment for a college degree have been overly optimistic because those studies assumed that the students were graduating within four years.

  • Yes, college is still a worthwhile investment for both individuals and society.

  • But, the researchers point out, the wage gap is higher now not because wages for college-degree holders have gone up, but because wages for people with only a high-school degree have gone down.

  • And the researchers note that getting that college degree has become increasingly risky, mostly because of the cost of education.

  • Thirty-year-old men graduating from the University of California system have a 38-percent chance of financial distress, and women have a 55-percent chance.

  • recommend establishing better advising for college majors and postgraduate education, and offering more loan-repayment options and advice.

  • “The BA’s risk removes any guarantee while stagnant wages for college graduates have not kept pace with the growing cost of middle-class fixtures including purchasing health care, educating one’s children, and saving for increasing years of retirement,” the authors write.

  • but it is a ‘steppingstone’ to the middle class—not a ticket. As such, it deserves the scrutiny an individual would give to any risky investment.”

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