In March 2009, I argued here against the college degree system, making four main points:
(1) The cost of obtaining a degree has grown so high that the average high school graduate can accumulate more lifetime savings by working straightaway, despite lower pay.
(2) Degrees are unreliable as proof of learning, and standards for earning them are slipping – a natural outcome of allowing colleges to certify the results of their own work.
(3) Degrees have become a barrier to education. The store of knowledge a smart adult should possess is all but free to anyone with an Internet connection or library card, and willing instructors are plentiful and inexpensive, but because only colleges can award the degrees that bring workers higher pay, the non-matriculated have no financial incentive to learn on their own.
(4) The solution to the soaring costs, falling quality and limited access of the degree system is to create a national standard for undergraduate education – to separate the role of certifying knowledge from that of imparting it. Allow students to prove what they know at independent grading centers, no matter whether they learned at college or at home and regardless of how much they paid, and colleges will eventually be forced to compete on price and quality, not aura, and to admit all who wish to learn.
In the nearly five hundred days since I made my case, the economy has stalled, the unemployment rate has risen and college tuition has climbed.
Prices at private colleges will likely increase 4.5% this year after a 4.3% increase last year, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In-state tuition at public colleges rose 6.5% last year, according to the College Board.
Those numbers are out of step with other prices. The consumer price index, which is designed to reflect the cost of living in America by tracking the price of a broad basket of goods and services, has fallen slightly over the past year.
Now, I’d like to revisit my first point – about the added monetary value of a college degree – and update my original cost analysis with fresher numbers and assumptions.
Consider two high school friends, Ernie and Bill.
Bill goes through a typical college experience, spending two years at a lower-cost public school and then transferring to a private school to complete his degree program. Using average prices for the recently completed school year (not including room and board), his sticker price will be ,020 a year for the public college and ,273 for the private one. Two-thirds of college students get grants, which last year were worth ,041, on average. Multiply the price by the probability and Bill’s degree price is reduced by ,510 over four years. Then again, some 40% of students who enter a four-year degree program haven’t completed it after six years. Better add ,000 for overtime. That brings the total cost to just over ,000. Average student loans for graduating seniors are about ,000, so Bill and his family pay ,000 out of pocket.
