For decades, parents have sacrificed themselves and students have gone into debt to fund college degrees that lead nowhere. But the college scam could soon break out.
Not thanks to a moral wake-up call from college administrators. Instead, a tight job market is prompting more employers, including Google, IBM and some state governments, to drop educational requirements for employees. Elon Musk, who has decided that “college is basically for fun,” for years has been evaluating Tesla applicants based on their skills, not a degree.
This trend should make college consumers skeptical of blindly shelling out a fortune. For too long Americans have believed that a degree in anything – anything – is necessary to launch a career and join the middle class.
All the while, colleges have ruthlessly hiked tuition, pushing families to take on more debt to cover the hikes.
Over a lifetime, earning a college degree pays off financially. That is, unless your major has absolutely no market value, as is the case with a large number of students who borrow for college. At New York University, students who take federal loans and major in theater, one of the most popular choices, will likely earn an annual salary of just $29,054 three years after graduation. according to federal data.
With this salary, it is impossible to repay a loan. And it is a moral outrage that university advisers push students to make such choices. A NYU student choosing an economics major could expect to earn $73,022 and a computer science major would likely earn $104,670 three years after graduation.
The US Department of Education offers a College Scorecard website, which displays what graduates of each college who take out federal loans earn over three years. Students and parents should consult it. Simply enter the college name and a major.
Political science majors at Union College Schenectady can expect to earn less than $50,000 per year three years after graduation, while students who choose economics or mechanical engineering will earn nearly $50,000 a year after graduation. double.
Don’t rely on colleges to notify students. Colleges are run for the benefit of employees, not students, and certainly not the taxpayers President Joe Biden wants to burden with unpaid college loans. It’s a racket.
At the State University of New York at Purchase, acting is the second most popular major among federally indebted students. What are they thinking? A graduate can expect to earn just $36,161 over three years. After all, how many theater experts does society need?
President Barack Obama has proposed ranking colleges based in part on how their graduates earn a living and repay their loans. The powerful higher education lobby crushed the idea.
A world without the arts would be bleak. But that doesn’t mean students should major in these areas, unaware of how little they’re likely to earn, and taxpayers should end up picking up the sack.
Economically savvy students are already turning to STEM majors – science, technology, engineering, and math.
Regardless of majors, students are grappling with the rising cost of non-academic bureaucracy. Call it the higher education gravy train. The students are just pack mules carrying the federal loan money to keep the bandwagon going.
Heads of diversity, equity and inclusion are a big part of the cost. A survey of 65 leading universities found that they had more DEI officers than history professors: an average of 45 DEI officers at each school. It’s enough to form a human chain if a curator tries to talk on campus.
Michael Thaddeus, professor of mathematics and former department chair at Columbia University, reports, “We now have about 4,500 administrators on the main campus, about three times the number of faculty. Thaddeus went whistleblower, defying Columbia’s US News & World Report #2 ranking. He says the university has skewed what it spends on education versus bureaucracy.
Falsified? Perhaps, but the biggest trick is the idea that an exorbitantly expensive piece of sheepskin is the only way to launch a successful professional life. Not necessarily. caveat emptor to all buyers, including parents and taxpayers struggling with unpaid loans.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lieutenant Governor of New York.
Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey
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