While only 20% of Baby Boomers consider their degrees a waste of money, that number increases by about 10% with each generation, jumping to 51% for Generation Z respondents.
Met my wife at school, so certainly wouldn't call it a waste. But the education was lackluster.
That means about 40% of Zoomer grads haven't yet realized that their degrees were a waste of money.
Same question to you: will you advise your children to go to college? If not, what will you guide them towards?
I'm going to encourage and help my daughter pursue her interests. If college is the best avenue for that, I'll help her navigate that (lord knows I've spent enough time in college to offer some advice). If there are plausible non-college paths, I'll help her down those.
These are what I'm most interested in for my children.
Outside of credentialed fields, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to imagine what several years at a university could provide that the internet, ai, and actually trying to do the thing they want to do can not.
Even for credentialed fields, depending on what you actually want to do, the credential might not be necessary.
For instance, I don't need a PhD in economics to run ~econ and write or talk about the subject. I probably could have gotten here faster by reading more, writing more and finding outlets to pay for my work. The problem is that I didn't really know where I was trying to get and college sort of let me follow a vague path forward.
Ah, here we get to the ineffable value of a college degree. I would also include as a benefit the network you develop in college.
How to help our kids build these things without college? I need to seriously put some thought into the practicalities of this.
Yeah, I don't know.
There's also a lot of amenity value in college, at least for some of us. I enjoyed pretty much the entire time I was there, although when I was done I was ready to really be done.
I still have at least a decade before this becomes a real concern and I imagine the landscape will be very different by then.
Social networks
Guided projects
Probably two things that college is still good for at least
I wonder how long it will hold an edge on either of those points, though.
will definitely, strong, advise against -- lol. But there's some time and maybe there's a structure/intellectual shift by then.
Still, I'd rather give them the amount saved for college and let them decide wth to do (travel, start a business, buy/keep the bitcoin, go to college).
Wasting money is a valuable lesson, tooWasting money is a valuable lesson, too
Yes, but in my case it didn't sink in for ten or fifteen years.
I'm not quite at the stage where kids are going off to college, but a lot of people around me are, and I'm being frequently reminded that "let them decide" requires a proactive approach that lays a lot of groundwork.
True true, need to have raised them well
Wait till they realize the waste of time. You can always get the money back. But you never get the time back. So enjoy it.
This is so true! More and more I'm thinking about the years I spent in school, wondering why I didn't get anything else done?
I'm really coming round to the idea that delaying life for several years of "pure" learning isn't such a good idea.
People go tens of thousands in debt just to beg for some unpaid internship that doesn’t even lead anywhere half the time. whole thing’s a clown show.
If you do/will have children, will you advise them to pursue a college degree?
I think I still would. But I wouldn't help pay unless it's certain majors
This is a reasonable approach. Although, my memory of myself at the time was that I wasn't super reasonable about my choices. Perhaps your approach could help with that.
I think it's still a big risk not to go to college. Fine if you really know what you want to do, but if you don't you could end up a lot worse off than if you just went to college and majored in something useful
Pick a random recent college grad off the street with an Economics major. I don't think they'd outperform ChatGPT in any of the tasks I'd have for them.
Ouch. Probably true. Tell them to dig a ditch.
They'd be even worse at that
Aaah, the internetz provided me with the memes just for the occasion
yah yah, not surprising.
I have a few things to say on the topic (#994746, #974877)