The news about a college closing got my attention. I had a friend who attended the soon-to-be-closed MacMurray (CNBC).
The cost of a college degree has consumed more and more of the limited
budgets available to all but wealthy Americans. In recent years, student loans
were cheap and easy to come by. And the payback of loans seemed so far away as
undergraduates embarked on four years of fun— often not affordable by their
parents or grandparents who attended local colleges or none at all.
Of course, there always were serious students who needed a college
degree to enter their chosen career. We'll still need higher education as along as advanced knowledge and
skills are necessary to success in one career or another.
INFLATED ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
The idea of career entry requirements has
been inflated as though those making the rules for licenses and certifications were connected to higher education and stood to profit from them. Take my
profession of psychology for example. Many people have the skills to help
others without earning a doctoral degree as required in psychology. Hence, the proliferation of
counseling degrees requiring a master’s degree, which could be reduced to a five-year
plan if people looked at evidence rather than all the delightful things they
want counselors to know before helping someone. Becoming a psychological
scientist is a different thing altogether. For one thing, PhD students earn
income and do not pay tuition at major universities. At least, that was true
for me and still true for many other psychology students.
I suspect what is true in psychology is
true for people in other careers? What’s your experience?
VANITY OF VANITIES
Sometimes I think college degrees are
like wearing fancy clothes or jewelry meant to impress people by being called a
“doctor.” Some systems seem to reward people for earning higher degrees rather
than for their competence. Getting a doctorate isn’t always evidence of higher
intelligence or better skills. In fact, in the world of applied psychology, a
doctorate isn’t considered the top of the game. There are added certificates each with a set of letters you can add to Ph.D.
When new skills are desperately
needed, highly intelligent people get a pass provided they can do the job. This
happened in computer science years ago.
I don’t want to insult anyone. Perhaps you
have an example of vanity degrees and certificates in your own profession?
COLLEGE FUN
I admit that the two years I had on a
college campus were fun times. I don’t regret not having four years or the
burden of a long-term college loan. I do think it would be cheaper to let High
School graduates have a year off to travel on a limited budget before entering a
career. According to earthtrekkers, you can travel the entire world for a year
for $20 to $30k or even less than $20k depending on your needs. That sounds
right given the hovels I’ve lived in. (https://www.earthtrekkers.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-travel-around-the-world/)
Maybe even 4-6 months of fun would be within some budgets.
Maybe colleges could get on the band-wagon and offer budget travel, but
that might be too much to ask as so many don’t have the knack of providing
affordable experiences.
Now after that fun year, serious students
could pursue a less expensive online degree in fields where in-person
experiences weren’t critical to their careers. Hybrid models can work too for
example, going to a campus for some types of learning and completing the rest
off campus. My search for “hybrid degrees on and off campus” yielded over 9
million entries on Google.
TRANSITIONS WILL BE PAINFUL
Already a lot of professors and college staff are out of work-that's got to be scary for them and their families. I imagine
some administrators are quite worried. Potential students and their parents are
making it clear that some types of higher education are “nonessential.” In a
sense, I think Covid19 only accelerated what was already happening in higher
education. The for-profit rip offs and expensive plush campus accommodations
had to either be paid for or result in bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, too many students
have too much debt—$1.6 TRILLION! (Forbes; https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/03/student-loan-debt-statistics/#2111285281fe)
They are going to need help in an era of high unemployment.
A few final thoughts
- Education is not always the answer to everything.
- More education is not always a good decision.
- People can learn a lot from books and videos without having to purchase courses and degrees.
- Finally, unnecessary education can be an evil if its financial chains interfere with personal freedom.
I won’t bash anyone’s choices. I just hope some people can avoid the burden of debts or the pursuit of nonexistent careers.
I think so.
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