Professor Bryan Kaplan George Mason University…Only %5 of Americans should even go to college.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454680/bryan-caplans-case-against-education-persuasive
Bryan Caplan’s writing is in this piece in The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/whats-college-good-for/546590/
The National Review piece linked above is Kyle Smith writing about Bryan Caplan’s writing.
The basic argument is that college study to a bachelor’s degree is an expensive way of signaling to employers that the graduate has a minimal baseline of skill that is higher than what a high school diploma indicates, but that it does not generally add to most graduates’ skills.
That may well be true but there are not many white-collar jobs (i.e.: not a trade) that will hire someone with only a high school education.
So you have to think of college now as just a necessary & basic continuation of education in order to get a “decent” job. (I am casting no aspersions on trades and other blue-collar jobs, just stating the perspectives of pretty much all parents on CC.)
The anology is flawed on many different levels.
"But when you take it back to the club, the bouncer just sneers at you. “We don’t accept credentials from this place.” In real life, most employers are not going reject you based off the college you went to, unless it is unaccredited.
“Forty-five percent of those who enter college fail to graduate within five years. If you are in the bottom 25 percent of your high-school class, you are not going to make it through college.” Yes, that means that no one should pursue higher education at all, and you should let statistics determine your future?
“College hardly ever teaches you usable job skills.” This is a very broad overgeneralization that false on many levels. There are many things that you learn in college that directly prepare you for a job, or at least necessary things you should know. Aside from that, there are numerous skills that students learn outside of the classroom.
“The main thing students are up to, surveys reveal, is having a good time. Why should they do otherwise when GPAs keep creeping up? The mean GPA is now 3.2. So students are doing very little and being told they’re practically perfect.” Again with the assumptions that no one cares about their education and most students are there only to “have fun.”
The article does make some good points about other avenues for success, however it is extremely snarky in its tone and makes broad over-generalizations about students that made it very difficult to get through.
The original article is significantly better, makes better points, and significantly less snarky.
College is to expand the mind, follow through a commitment. You learn the ability to learn in College I instantly lost respect to that academic.
On the other hand, it’s good for China/India that even this is getting discussed in the US as an option.
Given the source, not surprising that it is controversial and maybe does not make a lot of sense.
That claim is also an overgeneralization because the majority of bachelor’s degrees are granted in pre-professional majors that are at least theoretically aimed at specific jobs and careers (whether they are jobs and careers with good-for-employees job markets is another story), and many students in liberal arts majors choose them for pre-professional reasons (e.g. math/statistics/economics majors aiming for finance/actuarial jobs). But this may be less noticed on these forums because of the strong “college is not job training” opinions on these forums.
William Deresiewicz, a former Yale professor, has a similar argument in his book “Excellent Sheep”. The pre-professionals or practical matters don’t need a college degree. You can learn business or computer science in a 2 year trade school. He argues that colleges should be reserved for the true intellectuals, preferably humanity majors that doesn’t lead to a job.
I’m not endorsing that view, just saying that “college is not for everyone” is not a new idea among intellectuals.
Here is an interview he did last night on video that expounds on his views:
@Gatormama I think you just made his point, it is more about signaling to get access to those types of jobs, not a good indication of ability or skills.