Price, how overrated are colleges, and how are they making people useless in the market?
College is only overrated for those who buy into the marketing scheme that encourages 17 and 18-year-olds to take on debt [which they cannot comprehend] to pursue overvalued degrees, the fields of which are often saturated with prospective workers (which is part of the reason many people become ‘useless’ in that particular market). That being said, a smart financial decision could mean that college is incredibly useful for the person who makes that decision.
I say “market scheme” when I guess what I really mean is really profitable cultural impetus. There is a lot of money to be made in running a college. Besides the base price people are already willing to pay generally to receive the services of a learned instructor who will share practical and theoretical knowledge, colleges also profit off of the Federal subsidies available to students and institutions. Every guaranteed student loan is a guaranteed payday for a college somewhere. Likewise, conforming to certain Federal standards is a guarantee of Federal funding. Of course, we know that this subsidization of college is what made college prices skyrocket. But in the short-term that money goes to pay for state-of-the-art facilities, professors’ tenure, marketing campaigns, coaches salaries, the list goes on.
Still, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, many students make poor financial decisions (myself included) and pursue fields of knowledge that may have been worthwhile at the time (or perhaps genuinely broadened one’s perspective) but serve virtually no practical purpose in the market that can’t already be fulfilled through other means. For example, I graduated with a degree in political science and, even for the goals I had at the time, I still would have been better off focusing on marketing, economics, pre-law, or education. The reason being that many political science majors ultimately wind up in some field generally related to these and it makes more (fiscal) sense to focus on them while pursuing a minor in poli sci.
What has happened in the U.S. is that although we have a variety of learning institutions and myriad degree choices, many of the degrees aren’t even worth their weight in gold (literally). You’ve got colleges churning out [relatively] cheaper degrees for industries already filled to the brim with potential and prospective applicants. This saturation of the labor market contributes to unemployment rates, lower rates of compensation (because you’re easily replaceable due to competition) and not to mention a massive debt bubble.
Colleges aren’t overrated necessarily, but much of the knowledge that can be gained there can be obtained for free or at an incredibly reduced rate via the Internet.
