College – its cost, tremendous student loans, and its value –
now is a major Presidential campaign issue. Senators Bernard Sanders
(I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and others promise to cancel
student loan debt, at least in large part. The time has now come to
re-evaluate college, and the notion of college for everyone.
Promises, promises about college in 2020
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) promises to forgive 95 percent of student loan debt tax-free. She also would
make all “public colleges” (typically Universities of
Such-a-State) tuition-free.
No other candidate promises to be this generous with taxpayers’
money, although some (like Senator Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.) come
close.
In the immortal words of the late Ayn Rand, who pays for this
largesse? Blank-out. Where, indeed, does the conscientious alumnus go
to claim the benefits on which he missed out? Will the government now
have yet another insolvent insurance plan,
similar to the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance Plan we
miss-call “Social Security”? When, actually, will the American
people recognize the endgame: government running everything, deciding
who works where, who lives where, etc.?
Why
college?
The popular financial adviser Jane Pauley, in a video she recorded for Intuit’s Quicken program, once described three reasons to borrow money:
- Go to school.
- Start a business.
- Buy a house.
She based that notion on a simple
maxim: you borrow against future income and/or savings. This could be
the savings from managing your own domicile and its expenses. (A
renter lets someone else take care of such things, from taxes to lawn
mowing.) Furthermore, a house “hedges” one’s worth against
inflation. Equally obviously, a new business will bring in more
income, so the borrower can pay the loan back.
This same rationale used
to apply to college. But today
it does not. Why not? Because
too many people are going to college either:
- For the wrong reasons, or
- In totally unrealistic job
expectations.
What can one expect after college?
The income one can expect after
college depends on two things: the “major” and the jobs available
in it. John Harvard founded
the college that bears his name in 1636. He sought to educate
students for the ministry. Sixty-five years later, Elihu Yale would
found a college bearing his name for much the same reasons.
Of
course, college, and especially university,
prepares students for far more than ministry. But at least before the
War Between the States, one college attracted the sons of the elite
more than any other. That college was the United States Military
Academy—West Point.
Today one can group “majors”
into four areas, as Yale College did in the Seventies when your
editor attended:
- Languages, both English and
“foreign.”
- The rest of the humanities.
- Social sciences (psychology,
sociology, political science, etc.).
- Natural sciences and
mathematics. Or to use a more inclusive term, Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics – STEM.
Different majors, different prospects
So for what kinds of jobs do
these major groups prepare their students?
All areas prepare their
students for eventual careers as professors or instructors at college and university. The Ivy League probably sends its alumni
to all other faculties, or close to it.
Failing that—and most students
on the academic track will fall off that track—what other jobs exist?
Foreign-language majors might
look for careers in the government intelligence services. Or a
student having a degree in an especially popular foreign language
might go into business (with or without a Masters in business) and
seek to join the international division of a Fortune 100 company.
Majors in other humanities can
look forward to obtaining curatorships or assistant curatorships in
museums. A job actually doing
archaeology, anthropology, etc. is a faculty job. Rarely does a museum,
even of natural history, employ its own hands-dirtying staff. They
leave that up to university departments in the relevant areas.
A warning
to the art and music majors
Two major exceptions
(pardon the pun) exist:
applied art and applied music. Even so, lucrative careers are rare.
People do not appreciate truly good, stand-the-test-of-time art or music today. Who
can honestly compare the great operas of Gioacchino Rossini and
Giuseppe Verdi to popular music today? (Although an extraordinarily
fortunate composer might achieve greatness working with equally great
motion-picture producers and directors. Consider John Williams’
career with George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg, or Bernard Hermann’s
career with Sir Alfred Hitchcock.)
Social-science
majors can go into either
law or (especially in
psychology) clinical practice. The exception: economists, who might
work for some Fortune 100 or maybe Fortune 500 companies.
From
which STEMs the glory
By far the most rewarding major
area, and with
the best promise of any kind of reward, is STEM. A
major in STEM can choose among the following very lucrative careers, without limitation:
- Medicine.
- Invention.
- Any of the engineering
disciplines.
- Architecture, a curious
blend of art and engineering.
- Flight sciences.
These are, by and large, not faculty positions. In fact, except for medicine, a typical STEM major can make more money outside the academy than within it! (And even community medicine is but a small step down from academic medicine. At least, to a non-medical worker or professional.)
Why
college costs so much
College tuitions and fees have
risen beyond any rational estimate, especially since the Sixties. Any
economist (so far) could tell you why: supply and demand. The supply
of college still has its limits. Then with the GI Bill and especially
Fulbright Scholarships, Pell Grants, and loan programs, more people
sought out college. And colleges and universities did what any
businessman would do when customers flocked in with guaranteed
third-party payment plans. They raised their prices.
More recently, they started to
“compete” on the luxury they could offer in the area of student
life. This especially applies to residential life. In your editor’s day,
four years at Yale College meant living in an ultra-efficiency
apartment in a centuries-old building. And with steam heat at that, and no air conditioning! Television? One TV set in a basement common room, with one antenna, and snowy
reception on every channel but one. The Internet did not yet exist,
of course.
Today all students have cable
and/or streaming TV available at all hours. Forced-air HVAC has
replaced steam heat in every dormitory building. (That particular
renovation program lasted for twelve years, after which Yale built two more residential
colleges.)
An expensive spa
No wonder college costs so
much today—running to six figures in a four-year course of study! And during his studies, the student
doesn’t care. In fact, he doesn’t especially want to leave! Who would want to leave?
Even “The Villages” in Florida should offer such luxury to their
tenants! Free meals always
available (except for the fall of 1977, when the dining hall,
janitorial, and other staff went on strike, during which time your
editor repaired to Naples Pizzeria on New Haven’s Wall Street).
And, of course, everything
close enough together that the only transport one needed was a
bicycle.
And every weekend at least, every classroom building would turn into a theater to show a syndicated movie.
That’s
all very well. But who pays for that? Blank-out! Your editor’s family laid enough by to pay for two years
at Yale, after which they used current funds. No family, even making
as much (adjusted for inflation, even!), could do that today!
Let’s be practical
So what practical solution presents itself? First,
to recognize that college is not for everyone.
Only with “platinum” connections will any alum get a faculty or
museum or spy agency job. A very good classical musician might make a go of it.
But one must go
to a specialty college like Julliard or Eastman. And
for applied art? Don’t major in art; minor in it.
Then use it to go to work for an ad agency or a Fortune 100 company.
There you can design their logos and even some of their products.
The
most cost-effective way to use a college education is to:
- Excel in your science and math classes (and other major areas, too) and earn advanced standing. Which means: acceleration credit when you reach college. The best classes to take are Advanced Placement courses, named for the College Board Advanced Placement Exams.
- Major in STEM.
- Cash in your acceleration credits and get your degree in three years, not four. And at some institutions, take advantage of combined-degree programs.
You will save twenty-five percent
of the cost of a bachelor’s degree. More
than that, you will save time.
Then you can get the high-paying job that will pay off your student
loan in record time.
What
about those promises?
Now about those promises from the
Democratic Party and its most likely winners: those promises are empty. The only way to
make them pay is through the New Monetary Policy of Representativa Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-N.Y.). She actually proposed printing more money to pay for
anything. That way lies hyperinflation.
So CNAV recommends but one answer: NO. Enn-Oh, NO. Relegate the person who
proposes that to the dustbin of history. Such a person is lucky at
that. Anyone promising so much more than he could possibly deliver,
would face arrest for fraud.
And what about student loan debt?
Let others investigate whether any causes of action exist for what
amounts to thoroughly bad advice. They who gave that advice should
pay, not the taxpayer.
Eventually, as only those who can truly benefit from college seek it out, tuition will fall. Supply and demand still rule.
About the image
The Edmund S. Harkness Memorial Clock Tower stands between Branford and Saybrook Residential Colleges, part of Yale College. This original image belongs to CNAV.
[…] readers of this site will recall your editor’s earlier essay, College – Who Needs It. The answer is: not everyone. “Wages in many cases are higher,” Bernie Sanders tells us. But […]