The Value of a College Education

CATO Unbound has an interesting discussion on this essay by Charles Murray.  I particular appreciated the various comments by Bryan Caplan.

Comments

[zachary kurtz]

As someone going through the bullshit 4 year bachelors degree right now, I couldn't agree more. The four year degree is overvalued in this country. I haven't spent the last 4 years doing anything I could have done in a year and a half of classes, by cutting out all the bs elective credits, etc.

And now Obama wants to offer a tax credit to college students? The last thing we need is more Bachelors degrees... like the money supply, the more useless paper their is, the less value each piece of paper has.

[Peter Boettke]

Not only that but one of the policy initiatives that is being discussed (see Greg Mankiw) is manditory community service for college students --- 100 hours per year for college students [50 hours per year for HS students].

Pete

[Rafe Champion]

College education needs to be seen in the context of education at large, and even more than that, a part of intellectual life at large. In that respect the contribution of Jacques Barzun (1907 - ) is quite outstanding, especially his four books specifically on education "Teacher in America", "The House of Intellect", "Science the Glorious Entertainment" and "The American University". He knew what he was talking about, as a teacher, a scholar, a writer and a high level uni administrator.

[Brian Pitt]

I am a lab instructor for an undergraduate social statistics course (for sociologists). I feel bad for students, with no interest in research, who have to attend this course (lab+lecture) each week. One of the students, a 26-yr-old parent, is just trying to get his degree in order to become a probation officer. Will learning how to perform chi-squares matter much?

[Robert]

Pete, I believe the wording on Obama's website has changed. His plan is to give $4,000 to those who voluntarily do 100 hours of community service each year. Nonetheless, I still disagree with the plan. Mankiw has updated his blog to reflect this.

This plan will cause further malinvestment in college education. I already know many people (including myself) who are enrolled in college because it allows us to take out enough federally subsidized loans that we have money left to pay rent and bills after tuition. Unlike private loans, federal loan payments can be indefinitely postponed as long as one takes out at least a $500 loan every six years. Add 100 hours of $40/hr work to the bottom line, and you are likely to see even more people in college who don't belong there.

[Eric H]

I'm glad they threw in this exception.

"I am not disparaging the value of a liberal education, classically understood. On the contrary, I think far too few young people are exposed to the stuff of a liberal education."

I went to a university that made classical liberalism a priority (Indiana Wesleyan if you're wondering). I went in a self-righteous Bible-thumping Republican and came out a compassionate Bible-living libertarian. Best years of time and money I ever spent. When your electives force you to challenge every preconception you ever had, it sets you on a path for continuous discovery of truth. We need more universities like this.

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