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{"id":919,"date":"2013-07-27T20:39:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T20:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/07\/is-college-worth-it-ask-the-wrong-question-get-the-wrong-answer.html"},"modified":"2013-07-27T20:39:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T20:39:00","slug":"is-college-worth-it-ask-the-wrong-question-get-the-wrong-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/07\/is-college-worth-it-ask-the-wrong-question-get-the-wrong-answer.html","title":{"rendered":"Is College Worth it? Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Is College Worth It?\u00a0 That\u2019s the lead article in this summer\u2019s Notre Dame Magazine<\/a>.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, the author\u2019s answer is \u201cyes\u201d \u2014 both because of the usual statistics that college graduates outearn high school graduates by an amount greater, in present value terms, than the present value of the tuition paid out for their degree, and because a college graduate is a \u201cbetter person\u201d in various ways for having studied the liberal arts.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the wrong question.<\/p>\n

How about: <\/p>\n

Is it the right thing for society for so many jobs to be deemed \u201crequiring a college degree\u201d that objectively do not?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Are we really producing college graduates in a proper proportion when so many jobs that are not even considered to require a college degree are filled by college graduates who cannot find employment in their field of study?<\/p>\n

Is it right for a student \u201cat the margin\u201d to be pushed into an uncertain path at college instead of a skilled trade?<\/p>\n

Does it really make sense for our postsecondary education system to be \u201cone size fits all\u201d in which students studying business, the liberal arts, engineering, etc., all follow the same four-year path?<\/p>\n

Is\u00a0the \u201cgo away to college\u201d the most cost-sensitive and suitable manner of transitioning young people from high school to the working world?<\/p>\n

Is our division of the learning that takes place in high school vs. in college sensible and appropriate?<\/p>\n

The key questions that a simple \u201cyes or no\u201d on college doesn\u2019t answer is this:\u00a0 What are the things a young person should learn in order to go out to the working world, and what is the best and most cost-effective way of providing opportunities to learn those things and to demonstrate to future employers that one has, in fact, learned them?\u00a0 And I doubt that, for most people and most courses of study, a traditional four years of class-taking, dorm living, and party- and football-game attending,\u00a0funded by student loans and the Bank of Mom and Dad (whose own loans, as PLUS loans, second mortgages, borrowing from retirement savings,\u00a0or otherwise, are not even included in loan tallies but cause their own hardship in compounding their inability to retire on a sufficient nest egg),\u00a0is truly the right approach.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"