Ever since the end of World War II, conventional wisdom has stated that getting a good education is key to being successful in life. This initially meant an emphasis on finishing high school and subsequent technical training, but this line of thinking has now expanded to mean that a college degree is critical for being able to make a decent living. And to the naked eye, this seems like common sense. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that in 2009, the median annual income for people between the ages of 25 and 34 with only a high school diploma was $30,000, while those with a bachelor's degree earned about $45,000 - a statistic that seems almost beyond question.
Unfortunately, this is a complete oversimplification of the case. For example, those numbers only apply to those who worked full time over the previous year. They ignore those who were unemployed or underemployed - a common fate for recent college graduates. A recent poll shows that 85% of new grads will move back in with their parents, largely because they can't find a job. Even worse is how deceptive an "average" number can be, whether it's calculated by median or mean. The variability within the category of college graduates can be enormous, which brings me to the most important part of this discussion: All degrees are not created equal.
What exactly do I mean by this? Consider the following statistics: In 2009, the median starting salary for a chemical engineer was $64,900 (source - Bureau of Labor Statistics). By contrast, the median starting salary for a graduate with a political science degree is only $36,000. Communications? $31,000. What is particularly worrisome is that these are some of the most common majors. Last year, social sciences, psychology, and communications collectively comprised over 20% of all bachelor's degrees awarded. So a significant fraction of young Americans spend another 4-6 years in school and take on an immense amount of debt to earn a degree that isn't necessarily helping their career prospects.
I know college is about more than the degree you get at the end. It is a significant life experience and has become somewhat of a rite of passage for young Americans. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't question the sense of someone borrowing $100,000 to attend a small liberal arts school to major in anthropology, just to move back in with his or her parents after graduation and take a job at the local Applebee's. We as a country need to start thinking critically about what kind of education we want to encourage, or we're going to have a whole generation of people who spend twenty years trying to pay back the money they borrowed just to pay for that fancy piece of paper.
