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57 sats \ 9 replies \ @Undisciplined 4h \ on: Is Your Master’s Degree Useless? (The Economist) econ
One of the seminar speakers I remember most, although I don't recall his name, was showing a breakdown of returns to education within cohort.
The findings were very dramatic. Basically, unless you're at the very top of your class, it's unlikely you'll have a significantly positive return on your education investment.
That result is on top of what we already know about which fields of study have positive returns. So, if you take an entire college cohort, all of the positive returns will accrue to the few best students in a few STEM fields.
Like with mortgages (owning vs renting etc), funding/financing matters.
I was able to attend elite universities (#847595) while shorting a depreciating shithole currency at cheap, manageable rates and repayments.
Don't wanna brag and say I was at the top of my class (though, I verifiably was for some classes in my undergrad!), but basically regardless of the benefit side, I suspect that I can make the calculation work on the financing side.
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Look at what you're able to write about and do with your education. I think those of us who've really benefitted from our education should be careful about it dismissing it wholesale.
But I definitely think that mainstream culture overhypes university education
Ever see Operation Varsity Blues?
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Careful attributing causality there. We don't have a control denlillaapan that didn't go to uni
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education arms race but also a social status arms race
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I only paid for some of my undergrad, but I went to an inexpensive school and had a partial scholarship. After that I took classes that my job paid for and got paid a stipend during my PhD.
Even so, I bet my return is only slightly positive, because that's a lot of foregone wages and work experience.
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That's always the bigger problem—the counterfactual of what you could have/would have earned working instead.
Opportunity costs are one hell of a perspective
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Of course, that was purely the financial return. Since I only ever studied what interested me, enjoyed the college experience, and never worried about grades or anything, the real returns are almost definitely positive.
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Do you remember if "top of the class" was measured relative to high school cohort, within-college or across-college?
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Top of class was measured within major for each school in his sample. I don't recall what his sample was, though (certainly not the universe of college students).
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