America's Most Overrated Product: Higher Education

http://www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539

 

That's a keeper!

 

Good read - a friend of mine is a truck driver, he has a B.A. in Management and a B.S. in INT... to make ends meet and not have a minimum wage job, he's stuck with driving a truck.

 

OTOH, government does give pay increases to people with any BS/BA degree, and that same author makes the following point:

And degrees in engineering are not overrated (at least relative to other degrees), though going to an Ivy-priced school certainly can be.

 

Which government? Not the federal government. In the Civil Service, there is no quid pro quo regarding degrees and raises that I'm aware of.

 

A friend of mine is a truck driver and he has a PhD in Religion & Law!

 

These kinds of arguments have been offered for decades. But sweeping generalizations like the author offers don't help individual situations.

He begins with an apocryphal story.

He then makes an unsubstantiated claim, that colleges have "dumbed down."

His statistical "fact" about low-achieving high school grads dropping out of college is okay, I guess. But it ignores the fact that many people drop out for many reasons, not just because they can't hack it or should not have been admitted in the first place.

This next one is an example of a logical fallacy:

Such students are not aberrations. Today, amazingly, a majority of the students that colleges admit are grossly underprepared. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million students who took the ACT college-entrance examinations in 2007 were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of mathematics, English and science!

Okay, but he's comparing two different populations. Makes one unsubstantiated statement (about "grossly unprepared" college students), then compares that to the students taking the ACT--many of whom will not go to college.

Then he completly disrupts his own argument about colleges admitting poorly prepared students by noting that well-prepared students don't do well, either. Perhaps there is some other underlying cause? We don't know, because the author's lazy logic doesn't bother to explore it.

Amazingly, he then dismisses the argument that college grads earn more money by--again, lazily--suggesting they'd earn more anyway because they're smarter, more connected, etc. But the author doesn't attempt to prove to what extent this is true, which fails to negate the advantage of graduating from college has one one's earning ability. Sloppy.

Next is a position he takes where college grads are now (supposedly) forced to take lower-level jobs. Two anecdotes do not an argument prove! Where are the numbers?

His argument that college students are not satisfied with their expreriences has a major flaw: he doesn't compare the numbers to a standard. Perhaps the results of those surveys are just fine. But we don't know. He doesn't compare them to numbers from previous years or other countries, for example.

Then he suggests that many college grads can't do basic tasks, citing a study that concluded that. But, again, we don't know the standard or the baseline comparison.

His numbers about declining literacy are scary--at first. Then you realize that it's not basic literacy, but "prose literacy" (whatever that is).

He then moves to argue for improvements, largely by asking the colleges to put numbers out there--something he himself largely fails to do.

His suggesting that the College Board create a test. Too bad the College Board doesn't do such things--it has the ETS for that.

He suggests a "No Child Left Behind"-like effort for colleges. His suggestions may or may not have merit, but that's hardly the paradigm to use.


I realize this is just an opinion piece, but it is so blatantly wrong that perhaps the value of this guy's opinion should be re-examined.

 

Oh, what I meant to say was just that people with BA/BS degrees can be hired at a higher salary level given the same level of work experience, which, I admit, isn't saying much:

 

I like his suggestions in the get-a-government-job piece, however. But it does underplay the difficulty in cracking into government. And I don't like his "unless you're a real go-getter" comment. It is uninformed. Go-getters can do really well in government, and rise quickly to the top.

Regarding top pay, I'm not so sure. The top of the pay scale (GS-15, Step 10) in Washington, DC is $149,000. With 5 weeks of vacation per year (2.5 to start, unless you can negotiate a higher rate), another 2.5 weeks of sick leave, all federal holidays, and a very nice benefits package, you can do okay.

 

I'm not sure this is true, either. People are hired on the basis of their qualifications vs. the job's requirements. Most of the time, college degrees can be traded off with experience. And in no case is there a situation where a particular job will pay more if the applicant has a degree.

You have GS-5's with master's degrees and you have GS-15's without bachelor's degrees. In fact, I'd say the federal government is identical to the private sector in this area. No difference.

 

Everybody watch out!!! The sky is falling!!!

Good analysis! Interestingly, the author also has a PhD.

 

BTW, let's not limit ourselves to BS and BA degrees. There are MS and PhD degrees we can devalue too

The ironic thing is that the fields in which a graduate degree is not overrated are fields in which the career itself can be overrated:

(Is there anything these days that isn't overrated?)

Thanks for the info, Rich.

 

Another article by the same author

Here's another article by the same author:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/070404/4collegecareer.grad.htm

 

Wow, it is the same author! Is it just me, or does he seem like a corporate shell?

 

Yes, he does. From an outstanding school. I wouldn't be surprised if he's a really smart guy. I didn't criticize him, just the article he wrote.

 

I'm on your side.

 

I see what you are trying to say Daniel. The advantage of a degree in government is you can enter different decent to well paying jobs with a degree alone with no experience. Why? They (The government) will put you through a training program anyway, so many times they don't care what your degree is in, as long as you are educated and well rounded. They will teach you the technical stuff. Of course, it is possible to enter with a lot of experience, and less education. For example, an A.A. degree and 4 years experience in XXXXXXX. As the years go by though, and competition becomes more keen, management is shooting for degreed individuals. This is my humble observation though.

I work for State Government. I obtained my B.S. in Management from California Coast University in 2006. I was then able to test and compete for a higher position. The morale of the story? I don't know, but it nevers hurts to have a degree/s. I just did not want to graduate with $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 in debt, then hope it would pay off. I am a "Pay as you go" lock box type guy!

I did think the article was interesting though. There is some truth to what he is saying. Having a degree does not automaically ensure a good future or career. In the end, a degree is merely a piece of paper. Success is ultimately up to the individual.

Abner

 

Hey Rich,

I do not wish to be a contrarion, but there are cases where government pays more for a degree. Law enforcement and public school teachers are good examples. I am currently working on a proposal through the union to work out a pay structure similar to the cops (Hi Bruce!) in my department. See below.

Example based on a monthly State employee pay structure:

A.A. = $100.00 a month ***These amounts are on top of the
B.S./B.A. = $200.00 a month monthly base salary******
Masters = $300.00 a month
PhD = $400.00 a month

Of course, this project will not go down this contract, but my goal is to get the studies and analysis started for say around 2009/2010.

Have a good weekend!


Abner

 

BTW, the author does mention in his blog that his IQ is 150:
http://martynemko.blogspot.com/2008/06/curse-of-high-iq-or-sat-score.html

And to correct myself, the guy doesn't seem like a corporate shell:
The Most Overrated Careers

 

More criticisms against the financial value of MS degrees, but this time by a less experienced career advisor (Penelope Trunk):

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/06/18/seven-reasons-why-graduate-school-is-outdated/
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=27614

Like Marty, Penelope also has a graduate degree (an MS in writing or something like that). So I guess if we don't want to end up like them, we better stop the madness and put down our textbooks. We wouldn't want to end up working as well-paid consultants.