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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2011 > June > 01 > Entry
Is college worth the cost?
Rising costs, stagnant financial aid and a tough job market have reignited the debate about whether a college degree is worth the cost.
Evidence is mounting that employment opportunities for young workers — specifically recent college graduates — was disproportionately battered by the recession.
“It is a disaster for young people who spent all this time, money and hard work,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit re search group in Washington, D.C.There is going to be a big swath of young people who won’t get that first job that sets them up for a career. It will have a severe and long-lasting impact. It is a rough time to be a new college graduate.”
The unemployment rate for college-educated workers under 25 is 9 percent — double the rate of workers older than 25 with a bachelor’s degree, according to the institute’s analysis.
Another study released two weeks ago by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University found that just 53 percent of recent graduates with four-year degrees had full-time jobs and were not planning to return to school. Those who found work earned a median salary that is 10 percent less than it was four years ago.
The report, “Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy,” found that only half of recent college graduates are likely to find that their first job will require a college degree.
While salaries are on the decline, college costs have continued to rise at a rate higher than inflation with the average student loan debt for Ohioans totaling $25,840, according to the Project on Student Debt. Nationally, the money owed for student loans surpassed outstanding credit card debt in 2010.
The outlook is troubling to students like Erin Walsh, who will be a senior studying early childhood education this fall at the University of Dayton. “It’s been difficult for graduates during the recession, especially in education and now with what is going on in Ohio. It makes me nervous,” Walsh said. “But it is never a bad idea to further your education.”
Walsh’s sentiment is echoed by college advocates like Sean Creighton, executive director of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, who argue unemployment numbers reinforce why advance degrees are ultimately worth the investment of time and money. “When you look at unemployment, there is a clear distinction between those who have a college degree and those who do not,” said Creighton, adding 60 percent of the “jobs of the future” will require advanced degrees.
National unemployment data and responses from the Rutgers study mirror the recent struggles of Miami Valley students and graduates who are competing in a tight job market against older, more experienced workers, often for lower-wage positions they didn’t plan on seeking. Officials from both Wright State and Miami universities said that while on-campus job postings and interviews are up, they have not returned to prerecession levels for graduates.
Results from the Rutgers study, which surveyed 571 students nationwide who graduated between 2006 and 2010, reflect the national unemployment rate with 9 percent of the study participants reporting they were unable to find any work or weren’t looking.
Zach Liapis of Oakwood graduated from Hanover College in Indiana two years ago at the height of the recession with a degree in psychology. He couldn’t find a research position he hoped for so he took the advice professors have given to many students in a down economy: more schooling.
Liapis hopes to become a doctor, but while he continues his studies, at both Sinclair Community and Kettering Medical colleges, the 24-year-old lives at home and works at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Oakwood. “Before this, I worked at Borders and the entire staff had bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” Liapis said. “In the long run, I still think it will be worth it.”
Like Liapis, half of re-cent college graduates surveyed by Rutgers reported being hired for some type of work within six months of graduation, but 30 percent of those jobs were not directly related to their field of study.
“Only about one-quarter of graduates said that their first job was the beginning of what they hoped would be their career,” the study revealed, while 46 percent said they felt they were on the right track.
When it comes to schools’ value for the money, other research shows a disconnect between administrators running schools and families paying the bill. A recent pair of Pew Research Center surveys found 57 percent of students and their families thought American higher education was doing a “poor” or “fair” job for the money. School presidents were asked the same question and 76 percent said they were doing a “excellent” or “good” job.
But job numbers do improve: Of adults 25 and older, those with a bachelor’s degree had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers who had only earned a high school diploma had a rate that was more than twice as high at 9.7 percent.
And as the employment rate improves with a college degree, so does the paycheck. The median weekly earnings of someone with a bachelor’s de-gree in 2009 was $1,137, according to federal data — nearly twice what workers with only a high school diploma earned.
The message local and national higher education advocates continue to share is that the economy will eventually come back and most jobs will require a higher education degree of some sort.
“The data continues to show the jobs of the present and the future are going to require an educated work force,” Creighton said. He believes the job market is improving. “I think there will be lots of opportunities for those students, maybe just not right out of the gate.”
The number of jobs that don’t require additional training after high school continues to dwindle, which is evident in the graduating class of the Miami Valley Career Technology Center. Superintendent John Boggess, a 14-year veteran of the center, said 60 percent of his graduates this year will go on to some type of postsecondary degree program — that’s up from roughly a quarter of graduates who attended college when he started at the school.
The center stresses “life-long learning,” even in trade fields, Boggess said, because the days of good-paying unskilled jobs have ended. “That’s gone and our young people need to understand that,” Boggess said.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Colleges and Universities
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By KevinJ
June 29, 2011 10:44 AM | Link to this
A college education should be viewed as an investment. Only incur as much debt as can be reasonably paid off by the job you will likely get in that field. The real question is why college tuition and expenses have out paced inflation. There are as many crooks running our Universities as there are running our Banking industry. I know students graduating with 60, 70, even upwards of 100,000 of debt for and undergrad degree. That is just plain stupid!! Especialy if the degree is for some some useless liberal arts program. Personally, I would tell young high school graduates to also look at Trade degrees and programs. Probably a much better return on your education investment. I’m on the older side at 48 and I do have a Bachelors in Computer Science. I work with new college grads all of the time. Let’s just say I am not impressed with the education that they paid some big dollars for. 80% of the crap they study is useless in the real world. But what else shwould we expect when we professors and teachers who have spent their whole lives in Academia and have never held down a “real” job.
By 360 education
June 29, 2011 10:15 AM | Link to this
Actually, any college degree is worth the money. The difference is immediate applicability vs perspective. My brothers have very applicable, very defined degrees (engineering and acctg/QA), but they both lack perspective and ability to problem solve outside the pie slice of perspective they have been educated to work within. I have a liberal arts degree and I too had a rough time getting the 1st job, but my degree trained me to problem solve from all angles, as my classes had perspectives from all angles. I am quite excellent at out of the box problem solving as a result. And well paid to do so, in comfort and with great benefits. Don’t discount any kind of education, it pays off over the next 40 years working. Mine sure has!
By College PAYS
June 2, 2011 12:18 PM | Link to this
Most of my college grad peers (age group: early 30’s) now have their Masters completed, and are all comfortably making between 80k to 100k/year. Show me a group of high school (only) grads in their early 30’s doing the same thing. Not likely…
By ohiodale
June 1, 2011 1:39 PM | Link to this
College is definitely worth the money and only a fool would say otherwise. You can go to a state school work part-time and only owe $10K when you get out.
By Dr. Parkwood
June 1, 2011 12:35 PM | Link to this
What really needs to be reviewed are all the liberal arts and simple degrees that really don’t provide a usable skill. Why let these kids run up debt to get a liberal arts BA that only translates to greeter jobs at mega stores. Save the grant money for those students studing in fields that require a college degree.
By karon
June 1, 2011 12:25 PM | Link to this
Some kids are just not college material , and they would do fine in a good trade school! In Germany only cream of the crop kids even go to college, most german kids go into trade schools at the age of 16, and they do just as good as the cream of the crop kids if they learn skilled trade well!
By duh
June 1, 2011 11:13 AM | Link to this
Just read headline, not wasting time on article. Answer, uh…yeah. Next question?
By Yourmoneyoryourlife,I'mthinking
June 1, 2011 11:13 AM | Link to this
How do colleges and universities continue to get the consumer buy into the one price fits all strategy? A four year undergraduate degree in chemical engineering has a higher ROI than a sociology or other liberal arts degree, yet, they cost the same. Are universities in the business of education or in the business of selling degrees? An undergraduate degree in many majors does nothing more than tell a prospective employer you may be trainable and will work for minimal wages. The criteria for Government sponsored student loan loans should include a personal budget that shows how students will pay their living expenses and amoritize their loan based on the income expectation of their major. If they can’t, then what is the point of calling it a loan, or why make the loan?
By Dave
June 1, 2011 11:09 AM | Link to this
Studies like this really need to be split, based on the degree. The situation is bad all over right now, but it is especially tough for folks with liberal arts or teaching degrees.
By Choose wisely, weed hopper
June 1, 2011 10:43 AM | Link to this
Most jobs these days do not require a college degree. Employers will pay less and get trainable workers to do the jobs formerly held by college grads. The investment is not worth the payback.
By Neil Webster
June 1, 2011 10:39 AM | Link to this
Look at the long term. College grads make twice what high school grads make over their working life. OK, recent graduates have had terrible timing. I graduated at a bad time economically too. I graduated just in time for the oil embargo and the ‘first’ energy crisis. You have to over come these problems. And, with the college degree, you over come the economic downturns faster. You can sell your brain, or sell your back. Typically, your brain lasts longer. And with a college degree, you tend to work inside where it is comfortable rather than outside where it is either too cold, too hot, or too wet. My degree has opened doors for me that I could never have opened on my own. However, they didn’t open just because I had a degree, nor did they open when I wanted them to open. Just because a kid graduates and doesn’t get their dream job right away doesn’t mean the end of the world. It means you need to grow up, adjust, and get on with your life. Don’t tell them to give up on their dream of getting an education. Please remind these kids that an education is the only thing that cannot be taken from you. You can be taxed, imprisoned, or have your personal property confiscated, but they cannot take away the knowledge you have and the skills you have learned.