College classes are largely theoretical. For all the talk of diversity, college students are a relatively homogenous group. Even study abroad programs are a shadow of the experience that independent international solo travel can offer.

Despite their best efforts, college graduates leave their Alma mater with little more preparation for the real world than their high-school aged counterparts. Young people who choose to travel, work, start a business or master a craft enter the real world that much sooner and are often comparatively four years ahead of the curve. 
 

Some career fields require a college education. If you aspire to be a doctor, scientist, engineer or psychologist a college degree is necessary. There are a wide variety of other occupations, however, that do not require a degree. Any artistic endeavor, many technical careers and a whole slew of professions you may never have heard of can be tackled right out of high school. 

Lighting designers, sound engineers and plumbers can jump right into an apprenticeship. Writers, musicians and painters don’t need college to practice their craft. An aspiring entrepreneur may be better off taking their college fund to try their hand at a startup venture. Depending on the state, you may qualify for a position with the local police straight out of high school.

Moreover, if you’ve chosen a career that doesn’t require a college degree any value that can be obtained from college will be from networking. You can’t make this assessment until you’re confident about your career path. Most 18-year-olds are understandably uncertain about their ultimate life and career goals, however. This is a recipe for an expensive college degree with little to no value. 
 

Backpacking around South America, spending a year at a Buddhist monastery or founding a non-profit are all useful, life-affirming experiences. Pounding a beer-bong full of questionable liquid while your peers provide a less than impressive countdown is not.

College years are often touted as the most decadent fun a young person will ever have the opportunity to experience. As colleges have begun to cater to students as customers instead of wards, the culture on campus has come to reflect this lowered expectation. The vast majority of young students are prepared for, and deserve, much better than this particular form of extended adolescence. Better they are encouraged to go on that trip through abroad or any of a wide range of alternative options. 
 

Years ago a friend of mine confessed a dark secret. Discouraged by her never-ending post-graduate job hunt, she had sneakily taken an opportunity to peruse a stack of resumes sitting on her interviewer’s desk when left alone in the office. She confessed shock and dismay. They all looked just like hers: a good school, a good GPA, study abroad, leadership positions on campus and stellar volunteer experience. She had done everything right, but so had everyone else. 

Americans are often sold the narrative that getting good grades to go to a good college, excelling at that college and checking off a few preselected extras while in school will ensure them a good job. The truth is much more complicated than that. My friend eventually found a job, but having followed the same cookie-cutter path as all her peers was not the path to success she had been expected.

https://www.thealternativedaily.com/disadvantages-of-going-to-college/
li chong

-Traditional college programmes require that students meet with advisors to plan their path on their entire degree online.
-Need to be proactive in finding the information you need to ensure that you are taking the right classes for your degree plan. 
-Straying from this path could constitute failure to make academic progress and have trouble securing financial aid. 
-The vast majority of people satisfied with online education and happy that they chose it over traditional classroom education.

 

-need to go work to pay the debt (may not pay attention in class)
- The College Board reported that the cost of attendance for an in-state public college for the 2014-2015 academic year averaged $23,410. The cost of attendance at a private college averaged $46,272.
- Student loan debt has gone from $260 billion in 2004 to $1.2 trillion in 2014. Average debt per student jumped from $18,650 to $33,000.
- Student loan debt can dramatically impact your life after your graduate. It can affect the jobs you take and cause you to delay buying a house or starting a family. 

The Financial Benefits of College May Be Overstated

The fact that college grads earn $1 million more may be skewed by graduates from the top universities. A study by PayScale.com found that there are only 72 schools (out of 2,700 4-year schools) at which earning a college degree can get you a $1 million return on investment. According to the report, the median is $500,000. Basically, the reported number that college graduates make $1 million more over the course of their professional lives is more accurately half of that number for the average college grad.

Also, while most people are in college, they’re not working or only working part-time. In addition to the financial costs and debt you may be incurring while you’re in college, you probably won’t be able to get the salary you could be making from a full-time job during the 4-6 years you’re likely to be in school. 

College Might Not Make You Smarter

A study published in 2011 showed that 45% of 2,322 traditional-age college students studied from 2005-2009 made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning, or writing skills during the first two years of college. After four years, 36% showed no significant gains. Given the cost of attending college, you would hope that higher education would have a dramatically positive effect on these skills for all students.

Given the fact that we are still experiencing the aftershocks of the 2008 recession, it’s inevitable that many of these cons are related to money. I’ll try to address a few specific concerns within the broader category of college economics.

The first is that the cost of tuition is growing at a rate far higher than the general inflation of the economy. What this means is that more and more students (and their families) aren’t actually able to afford college, but enroll anyway, because it’s still just what you do.

Since 1990, just 24 years ago, the price of a four-year institution has soared 300%. That’s an eye-popping number to be sure, but you can say that about a lot of products. You have to factor in general inflation numbers in order to figure out the real significance. When we do that, we see that in those 24 years, tuition has risen at a rate that is 2.5-4 times that of the national inflation, depending on who you ask. Theoretically, when disproportional inflation occurs, that product becomes a luxury good. That has not been the case with college, however, as enrollments only continue to go up. (Minor caveat: enrollments dropped among all college types slightly in 2013 — by 2.3% from the year prior — but the majority of that number was in fewer adult learners enrolling at either for-profit schools or public community colleges.)

Ultimately this means that families are spending money they don’t have for a luxury product they can no longer reasonably afford. At an average cost of around $20,000/year for college, families are looking at an expense that is 38% of their entire household income. That’s a rate at which most families would be denied a mortgage.

Unfortunately, there’s no real end in sight. In 2011 alone, the cost of public schools rose 5.4 percent and private schools rose an astounding 8.3 percent, both of which significantly outpaced the 3 percent inflation for the economy. Wages simply aren’t keeping up with college costs, and Americans have not yet been able to cut back on this particular expense.

Tuition may be going up, but a college degree is still thought to be a good investment. But it could be argued that while the cost of college has been rising, its actual value – on many different fronts – has been declining.

The popular statistic thrown around in regards to the long-term, monetary value of a college degree is that graduates earn, on average, $1 million more over the course of their lifetime than non-degree holders. To a high schooler, or even a parent of a student, that’s a number that cannot be ignored.

Unfortunately, it’s a little bit misleading, and also simply not as accurate post-recession. That $1 million number is quite top-heavy. If you make it into a top university and graduate with honors, your earnings are likely to be much higher than if you scrape by at Podunk U. Those at the very top are well above that $1 million figure, and skew the results for the rest of us. A recent study by PayScale.com found that there are only 72 schools (out of 2,700 4-year schools in America) at which earning a degree can get you a $1 million return on investment over high school grads. The median is closer to $500,000 according to that report, which while still being a lofty number, is half of what prospective college goers are often promised.

That $1 million number may have been true 12 years ago when it was released in a report by the US Census Bureau, but with the recession, and wage inflation being lower than general inflation, to continue to throw that number around today is irresponsible.

At one time, college certainly was a reasonable investment. Tuition was low ($1,200/year in the 1970s at public schools, including room and board!) and therefore affordable, and you’d be rewarded with a well-paying job. Forty years ago, over a third of the labor force didn’t even have four years of high school education, while only 10 percent of the population had a degree. That made college graduates more of a hot commodity, and in the mid-nineties, at the height of America’s economic success, the unemployment rate for college graduates was around 2%.

That time is long gone. Tuition has become damn-near unaffordable for most, and well-paying jobs (heck, jobs period) are nowhere near the guarantee they once were after you graduate. In fact, recent grads (ages 20-24) have an unemployment rate that is now at about 7.8%. That’s higher than the national unemployment, and close to three times higher than it was about 20 years ago. This means you’re accumulating mountains of debt (which was not the case even a decade ago, when less than one-third of graduates used student loans – more on that below) that will strap your financial decisions for decades after graduating, and you may not even have a means of paying it off. Does that sound like a good investment?

Another factor that has to be considered in this topic of ROI is your lost potential income during your college years. Let’s consider even the lowest wage scenario. If you make minimum wage, with zero raises over the course of four years, you’ll have made $56,000. That’s not chump change, and it’s likely you’d make much more than that. I had jobs in high school that were well above minimum wage, and you’re almost guaranteed raises if you’re competent. Then factor in the out-of-pocket expenses as well as the debt for someone in four years of school (which is generous in itself – the average these days for graduation is closer to 5 and even 6 years). You’re looking at anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 for the average student. Then you consider interest on those student loans, and the fact that you’ll take an average of 16-18 years paying them off (during which that high school graduate likely moved up the ranks and is now earning a decent wage), and all of a sudden the difference is not as great as it once appeared in terms of total earnings. While there is still a difference in the earnings of college grads vs high school grads (I’ll cover that below in the “Pros” section), it’s not as great as what it used to be, and it’s not as great as what is often promised by college admissions offices.

In 2010, the total amount of student debt overtook the total amount of credit card debt in America. As of 2013, there is $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loans – that’s over $3,700 for every man, woman, and child in America. As our nation recovers from the recession, we’ve actually managed to cut down our credit card and mortgage debt. The one area that’s still growing? Student debt.

The major issue, economically, is that about $1 trillion of that is backed by the federal government. This puts the American taxpayer at risk as the creditor, which means we the people carry the burden of unpaid student loans. And that burden is only increasing. Recent reports show that 10% (and the number is increasing) of student loans are in default. On government loans, this means they haven’t been paid in 9 months. Furthermore, only 4 in 10 student loan borrowers are paying back their loans at any given time. Graduates are not able to pay back their debt, and that hurts their credit tremendously, which impacts all future financial (and life) decisions, including car purchases, home purchases, even marriage.

For this reason, many economic experts are calling this student loan crisis “the next housing bubble.” In the mid-1990s, banks were giving out mortgages to anyone and everyone who applied. There wasn’t much due diligence in terms of the borrowers’ ability to pay back their loans. Eventually, that came to bite banks in the rear, and they needed a hefty (to say the least) government bailout in order to survive. The same thing is happening with student loans. Schools give out tens of thousands of dollars to students (and families) who may not have any realistic ability to pay back those loans. Eventually, as many experts are warning, this will create the same effect as what happened to our economy in 2008.

Another crippling factor of student loan debt is that it’s not eligible to be discharged by declaring bankruptcy. While not affecting a great number of people, you never know when something catastrophic could come along and you need the fresh start that bankruptcy sometimes provides for those in dire straits. If you’re not able to discharge student loans, it could hamper your ability to ever recover financially. It’s worth noting that private student debt is far more dangerous than government student debt. While both are non-dischargeable, government loans have low, fixed rates (for the most part – depending on the mood of congress), and repayment can be adjusted based on income (although doing so increases the length of the loan and the interest).

Two-thirds of all students are graduating with debt, and the average amount owed is over $26,000 (a 43% increase from just 7 years ago – right before the recession). With interest, that puts your average monthly bill at $320. When you get married that bill can double, and you’re looking at a lot of money each month that isn’t going into savings, isn’t going towards other debt (credit, car loans, mortgages), isn’t going towards helping the American economy recover.

The two reasons for attending college that are foremost in people’s minds are increasing one’s earning potential and sharpening one’s mind. As just discussed, the value college offers on that first front has been falling. And unfortunately, the benefits of higher education on one’s mind have been shriveling as well.

Attending college isn’t necessarily the mind-expanding endeavor it’s always been made out to be. While it’s assumed you’ll be a better critical thinker, problem solver, philosopher, etc., those benefits don’t automatically accrue simply by sending in your tuition check. One study from 2011 found that about half of college students see no improvement in their problem solving, reasoning, or writing skills in their first two years, and over a third see no improvement during the entirety of their college experience. Sure, the environment can lend itself to growth, but attending college without vigorously applying yourself won’t magically sharpen your cognitive powers.

At the heart of the problem is a shift in attitude amongst colleges and students alike towards viewing education as just another consumer commodity. Colleges see their students as customers, and the customer is always right.

Take the practice of students evaluating their professors. Gaining popularity in the 60s and 70s when universities started to become more student-driven, evaluation forms are now a top metric in professor reviews. Even if subconscious, this means professors are now catering more towards making the students like them in the short-term rather than providing the kind of challenging, mind-expanding coursework that will benefit them in the long-term. Profs don’t want bad marks from students for being boring or too hard, so they water down their requirements in order to earn a thumbs up.

Closely related to this is the softening of grading standards. At Harvard, for example, the most common mark given is a straight A. The pattern is repeated at other Ivy League schools as well, where upwards of 60% of all grades given are in the A range. Rising to the very top of the class no longer requires the maxing out of one’s cognitive abilities. Some schools are doing something about this rampant grade inflation by instituting limits on the number of A’s awarded, but it’s certainly not widespread practice.

Let’s go over how I spent my four years of college:

Does that sound like real-world experience? Another of the benefits that college supposedly imparts is that it prepares you for the real world and helps you develop into a mature adult. I can’t say I really received that. Quite to the contrary – when one places the responsibilities and expectations of a college student up against those required outside the corridors of higher ed, yawning gaps appear.

Once you’re out on your own, if you skip or roll in late to work like you did for class, you’ll get canned. If you wait for a magical elf to come in and clean your bathroom, it will quickly turn into a cesspool. If you haven’t learned to budget, there can be serious consequences.

College has in many ways become a womb of relatively carefree living. It’s sure fun while it lasts, but once you have to step into the light, it can be pretty blinding. The adjustment to living in the real world can be difficult – practically and emotionally. Young men often graduate without the life skills and decision-making abilities they need to navigate the next part of their lives. They may find themselves floundering in new responsibilities they have no experience in shouldering. Acute nostalgia for their undergrad days can set in, leading them to attempt to recreate those conditions to increasingly diminishing returns.

Ideally, one’s teenage and early twentysomething years should be like a gradual on-ramp to adulthood, where you slowly accumulate the life skills and mindset you need to thrive as a grown man. Instead, moving from college to the real world now more often feels like getting shoved off a cliff.

Many employers have said that the problem with the economy in this country is not necessarily a lack of jobs, but a lack of qualified people to fill those jobs. In fact, a survey by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools revealed that less than 10 percent of employers believe that colleges do an excellent job preparing students for the working world (whereas well over 90% of provosts believe their graduates are prepared – boosterism at its finest). And 50% of employers noted that it is difficult to find qualified prospects for the positions they’re trying to fill. Rep. Virginia Foxx, the chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives higher-education subcommittee, says, “Colleges and universities are pandering to the students and giving them what they want, instead of what the employers want. I don’t think you have to make a distinction between getting skills and getting an education. We need to do both.”

Our colleges are simply no longer qualifying our students for gainful employment. The loosening of academic standards mentioned above not only negatively impacts the quality of the critical thinking and reasoning skills acquired in college in a general sense, but in a more tangible way, it makes students ill prepared for the job market.

For instance, in our tech-obsessed world, many students want to be trained in using social media or developing their technology skills. But only 5% of business executives (the ones making the decisions) believe that to be a top-three skill for entering the business world. Those top three skills? Problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking.

Another major deficiency is writing and oral communication; a hefty 80% of employers wish schools would put more emphasis on those skills. Not all students are required to take basic writing classes, but absolutely should be, based on the needs of the marketplace. I can say without a doubt that the single best class I ever took – the one that helped my professional career the most — was PR Writing, and letter grades were docked for each grammatical mistake. (Thanks, Professor Bodensteiner!)

Again we circle back to the insidious effects that placing education in a consumer/customer framework has wrought. Students have come to expect their education to be tailored to their own personal pace, likes, and abilities. This most definitely is not how it works in the business world, where your supervisors are catering to the market and to their customers, not to you. Students graduate as consummate consumers who are wholly unprepared to switch roles and take on the mantle of producers.

People mature at different ages and different rates. Some students are ready for college at 16 and 17 and go on to do very well. Some, however, are thrown out the door at 18 into a totally new world, and just aren’t ready for it. Even Brett details that experience in the introduction to Heading Out On Your Own; after floundering in his first semester at the University of Oklahoma, he had to move back in with mom and pop. Transitioning from the cocoon of home to all of a sudden living on your own and being entirely responsible for your life can be a bewildering experience.

There is actually quite a high dropout rate for college freshmen that doesn’t get enough attention in the media. One in four college freshmen drop out in that first year, and half of all college freshmen won’t ever earn a degree. Reasons cited do include academic skills, but the greatest factors are social and emotional – self-esteem, self-care, anxiety, depression, etc.

The company that administers the ACT test has found that students aren’t actually academically ready for college, either. They hold certain benchmarks to be “college ready” in the four subjects of the ACT test. Students deemed college ready in a particular subject have a 75% chance of passing a college course in that subject. In 2012, they found that more than 25% of students fell short in all four subjects, and over 60% fell short in two subjects. While this is a problem more related, perhaps, to our elementary and secondary school systems than the students themselves, the fact remains that many 18-year-olds simply aren’t ready for the rigors of college, either academically or socially/emotionally.