College Education

Bridge between Educating Kids and Educating Adults.

See Miro map

• and spreadsheet of college-enrollment vs 18-24-population

College Tuition continues to increase faster than inflation.

People believe it's increasingly important to survive in the New Economy.

But I wonder whether that's going to suddenly change. Are people really getting much from college, or is it just a Branding/Signalling game? If there's no more security in BigCo employment, then does the Certification lose its value?

Does college become less important if High School does a better job?

Should you set up a College Savings account for your child/grandchild?

Jan'2011: James Altucher offers 8 alternatives (including starting your own business (Start Up))

Craziness of college rankings.

Overlapping categories of College Major-s

• good luck picking your major: they're all terrible!
• Bryan Caplan estimates the College Premium (Making A Living) for each major. The real winner in this table, I do declare, is Economics. I've long told my undergrads, "Economics is the highest-paid of all the easy majors." Still, the magnitudes surprised me. After adjusting for pre-existing ability, male econ majors (+60%) are almost as well-paid as male electrical engineers (+63%). Given engineers' workload, they definitely seem to get the short end of the stick.
• Liberal Arts
  • should this include StudiesStudies?
• STEM (the statistics for this include PreMed) (note that only 40% of pre-med grads get into medical school)
• PreMed and PreLaw
• other Vo-Tech: business, agriculture, architecture, etc.
• Fine Art
• ???

Why do people seek a Bachelors College Degree?

• because that's the next hoop for smart high schoolers to jump through (Status Quo)
• because it's required for Medical School, Law School, Business School...
• to learn skills that will be useful in a DayJob
• to get Credential that will make it easier to get a DayJob (Signalling)
  • need Alternatives To A College Degree
• because your parents won't pay for you to live at Platos Retreat for 4 years
• to join a knowledge-driven community.

Systems tracking college graduates for employment/income: College Scorecard