Thursday, April 19, 2012

Interesting thought: College may not be a net benefit for all students

George Leef has an interesting column: After College, What? 

Down in the the column are these two paragraphs:

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What the study found is not the least bit surprising. Students who learned little in college (as evidenced by scoring in the bottom quintile on the College Learning Assessment) were three times as likely to be unemployed as students who scored in the top quintile, twice as likely to be living at home, and somewhat more likely to have run up credit card debts.


Those findings throw cold water on the smiley face idea that going to college is necessarily a good “investment.” Even some of the top graduates were unemployed and living with their parents and a much higher number of low-performing graduates were. Unfortunately, the study did not seek to find out how many of those graduates were “underemployed” in jobs that high schoolers can do. (Perhaps no further evidence on that is necessary, though, in view of this study.)
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The huge push to send everyone to college may not be a benefit to all students.

2 comments:

Dual Role Grandma said...

As the wife of a college professor, all I can deliver is a deadpan and wry "shocking" to this. He encounters those who shouldn't be there every day.

Henry Cate said...

It is sad. Society tells our youth that education will solve their problems. But too many come out of public schools with more problems. The huge debt will follow them for years. And there may be no net benefit.