Ruth Institute Blog

I posted some time ago an article about the high cost of college and the crippling burden of student loan debt.  The article made two points that ought not to be controversial.  1)  Before spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an education, one ought to crunch the numbers to make sure that investment is worthwhile.  2)  The burdens of student loan debt can ruin one’s life, including one’s marital prospects.

Imagine my shock when these propositions turned out to be controversial.  So, in hopes of saving heartache to readers, I am going to discuss one idea that was brought up in the comments of my previous post, one books that can help you make a good decision about whether or not to take a four year “College Vacation” and one article that will show how the whole college racket may soon come apart at the seams.

Community College

One commentator suggested that students spend the first two years of their college experience in community college and then transfer to a four year institution to finish their degree.  I personally did this.  There are several advantages.  First of all, it’s much cheaper.  Second, at least at the community college I went to, the level of instruction was as good or better than it was at my four year school.  No TAs taught courses.  The teachers were dedicated and knowledgeable.  The even had an Honors Program that carried more prestige than an ordinary Associates degree.  Lastly, parents can rest assured that their children, often remaining at home for those two years, will not have to be exposed to the relentless party and hook-up culture of dorm life during those years in community college.  At least not much more than in high school.

All in all, not a bad deal.  Well worth considering.

College is for Suckers

So, maybe you have decided that the risk of being saddled with hundreds of thousands of debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy is jut too great.  What now?  Perhaps the book “College is for Suckers” will give you some idea.  The book details the silly courses, expensive, luxurious accommodations that make a college “education” into a college vacation, and college’s questionable track record of making students into more prosperous workers.

The Higher Education Bubble

Today’s article by Glenn Reynolds in the Washington Examiner discusses the higher education bubble.  Prof. Reynolds discusses the only three possible advantages that a college education confers upon students looking to earn a living.  Needless to say, most college students do not get the most important of those advantages.

First, it may actually make them more economically productive by teaching them skills valued in the workplace: Computer programming, nursing or engineering, say. (Religious and women’s studies, not so much.)

Second, it may provide a credential that employers want, not because it represents actual skills, but because it’s a weeding tool that doesn’t produce civil-rights suits as, say, IQ tests might. A four-year college degree, even if its holder acquired no actual skills, at least indicates some ability to show up on time and perform as instructed.

And, third, a college degree — at least an elite one — may hook its holder up with a useful social network that can provide jobs and opportunities in the future. (This is more true if it’s a degree from Yale than if it’s one from Eastern Kentucky, but it’s true everywhere to some degree).

While an individual might rationally pursue all three of these, only the first one — actual added skills — produces a net benefit for society. The other two are just distributional — about who gets the goodies, not about making more of them.

Yet today’s college education system seems to be in the business of selling parts two and three to a much greater degree than part one, along with selling the even-harder-to-quantify “college experience,” which as often as not boils down to four (or more) years of partying.