There are statistics that we often hear stating the value of a college education, with graduates earning so much more than non-graduates, making the case that a college degree is something we should all aspire to. But the issue is not quite so black and white, and it’s likely that these statistics are overly optimistic at best, and at worst just flat out skewed. Could it be that people who become doctors, lawyers, tech entrepreneurs and the like, earn such ridiculous amounts of money that it causes the average to go way up?
A Washington Post report showed that, according to the most recent census data, only 27.3% of college grads were working in a job related to their major, and only 62.1% could find work that required a degree of any kind. And in my experience, many of those jobs, even though they require a degree, are still low wage, dead-end jobs.
That being the case, if college grads across the board are in fact making more money, there must be occasions where we’re simply seeing a correlation, not causation. People who go to college tend to be those who are most motivated for success. It could be that many of them end up making more money over their lifetime simply because of a strong work ethic, and would have done so whether they had a degree or not. So, perhaps in many cases it’s not that a degree causes higher pay, but rather a drive to succeed causes a person to pursue a degree.
Another Washington Post report, recently published in Nov. 2019, shows return on investment in education is also largely a matter of which school you attend. People who begin their careers with a six-figure salary simply because they graduated from a prestigious school are obviously going to skew the statistics when viewed along side those of us who are barely breaking the $30,000 mark.
(The report stemmed from a Georgetown University study that ranked schools by return on investment, which produced a useful, searchable tool where you can see how your school ranks.)
Another important thing that ought to be considered in all of this is not just how much money people with college degrees are making, but whether their quality of life is actually better. The statistics are only concerned with dollars per year, not dollars per hour. It happens often that people who make more dollars per year are also working 80 hours per week instead of 40, and are stressed out and miserable. We hear all the time about people who spent several years slaving away at their “dream job,” and then ultimately decided to give it up to pursue a simpler life, earning less money but making them happier.
In my own case, I seem to have been on the opposite end of this sacred statistic, having a degree but not able to find a job. My experience went something like this:
Let’s say you have a degree in history.
You’ve tried applying to every place you could think of where a history degree would be an asset, but those few positions have already been filled by all of the other history majors, and there are a hundred other resumes from history majors on top of yours. So, you start branching out because you’ve got rent to pay and your refrigerator is empty.
If you’re lucky enough to get an interview, the first thing they’ll ask is, “Oh, I see here that you have a degree in history, so why are you applying for this job?” You will be put in a position where you have to defend yourself as to why you went to college, how your degree would be an asset in this position, and why you would even apply for a job that is either inconsistent with your degree choice or doesn’t require a degree at all.
My degree began to feel like a scarlet letter.
I’ve also had interviewers ask me on several occasions if I was going to continue looking for other jobs in my field of study, and then leave as soon as I found one. I was again put on the defensive, having to explain myself and promise not to continue looking for other jobs. I remember one doubting interviewer asking me that question and then looking at me sideways and squint-eyed as I tried to assure her of my loyalty. She then gave me the “We’ll let you know…” treatment.
My degree began to feel like a scarlet letter. It seems that there is a skepticism in interviewers when a person has a degree in a particular field. They believe it must be the applicant’s true passion and is the only thing they are really interested in doing. Applicants begin to believe that it’s the only thing they are qualified to do. A college degree can effectively turn a person into a specialized tool with only one function.
In my case, I ultimately decided to swallow my pride and stop trying to rely on my degree altogether. I’m glad that I did. I ended up in a job I enjoy that I could have started in right out of high school. And all the while I could have been earning money as I learned instead of spending it.
Dream Big
We’ve developed a habit of telling kids that they can do anything they want if they just set their mind to it. It’s a romantic idea, and it may work out well for a lucky few, but the strong majority are getting screwed in the process. Generally speaking, that’s just not how the real world works.
…no one ever says, “You could earn an honest living and live a humble but joyful life if you set your mind to it.”
A friend of mine who recently became a high school English teacher was dumbfounded when she gave her students a journal assignment to write about what they intended to do after graduation, and most of them said they wanted to be doctors, lawyers, and professional athletes. Many had plans to get famous on YouTube. Others just said that they wanted to go to college, but had no realistic goal behind it. And these are kids that, many of whom, are barely on a path to even get into college. This is not to say that it’s impossible for them to overcome and succeed with a lot of hard work, but we’ve created an attitude in our young people that is so unrealistic it’s laughable.
Realistically, when these kids finally graduate, and they realize that these big dreams are not going to come to fruition, many of them will likely end up in low-wage unskilled jobs, or worse. When all the while, they could have actually pursued a reasonable path that would have led to a modest but comfortable life, if only someone had encouraged them to do it. But no one ever says, “You could earn an honest living and live a humble but joyful life if you set your mind to it.” Instead, we promote an all or nothing, go big or go home attitude. We have a fear of discouraging our children from dreaming, but we should be just as afraid of what might happen if we don’t keep them grounded.
As a culture, we like to push kids to follow their dreams and then look on with pride as we shepherd them through the college gates. Then we don’t have to take any responsibility for their choices. They made it to college, so that means we did a good job, right? But that’s quite a burden to put on an eighteen-year-old kid whose perception of the world has become naively idealistic from all the motivational speaking and media that kids grow up with these days.
We’re only hurting our children when we encourage them to pursue interests in college that are unlikely to be lucrative, or that they are obviously not cut out for. It’s not that there is anything wrong with pursuing those interests, but when a kid decides to go all in and pursue them in college, eventually most of them will grow out of their youthful naivete and realize that they’ve wasted thousands of dollars and years of their life on a fruitless passion. Others will simply hit a brick wall and give up before they even get started.
The Lucky Few
On the flip side of that coin, those who are lucky enough to find jobs often bring a whole set of issues of their own to the table, because our education system has created a perception that if you have a degree in a particular subject, it makes you an expert in the field. There are two problems with this way of thinking.
First of all, many people I knew in college were very good at cramming for tests, getting decent grades, and then forgetting everything they studied within a few days. It depends on what you’re studying, of course, but it’s really not that difficult to get a college degree without actually learning much.
I’ve come across many people who are educated far beyond their capacity to learn. And likewise, I also know people who didn’t finish high school who are extremely intelligent and talented. We have a habit of equating education with intelligence and ability, but it doesn’t work that way at all.
Knowing how to do a job and actually being able to do it are two different things.
The second problem is that knowledge does not always translate to good practice. Even if you did work really hard in school and retained everything that you learned, that doesn’t necessarily make you a qualified candidate for a job in the real world. For instance, I could learn everything there is to know about football and become an expert in the field. But I would still be a terrible football player because I’m just not cut out for that job. Knowing how to do a job and actually being able to do it are two different things.
Another popular credo in education propaganda is that “knowledge is power.” But knowledge is merely a tool, and it is only powerful if you have the ability to apply it. Having a garage full of tools does not make you a good mechanic, nor does a head full of knowledge make you smart or capable.
The college educated society has created a situation where many jobs are being filled by people who are not very good at what they do, but because they have a degree in the field, they get the job over someone else who may have been more skilled.
An interesting twist on this idea comes from Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull’s 1969 book, The Peter Principle, which describes the science of “hierarchiology,” and how people tend to “rise to their level of incompetence.” Our system of specialization through college degrees is taking this process to a whole new level.
To illustrate the principle in relation to our degree system, imagine a shy guy named Gary who has a passion for widgets. So much so that he decides to pursue a degree in widgetry. Meanwhile, his friend Tom who has no particular passion for anything decides to go straight to work at the widget factory.
Gary graduates and submits his resume to the widget factory where, because of his degree, he gets hired directly into a managerial position. But Gary, who is a focused worker and loves working with his hands, is a terrible manager.
Tom, who is a people person and has a knack for organization would make a great manager. But he’s stuck on the production line. And he’ll never get promoted because his productivity is mediocre. Only the best workers get promoted.
When someone is good at what they do, the company pulls them away from the job that they’re really good at and promotes them to a job that they’re not good at. So, now this company has poor managers managing poor workers simply because that’s how the hierarchy crumbles.
This is a typical scenario in any organization with a hierarchy. How many skilled jobs are being filled by people whose only real skill is cramming for tests, or whose knowledge far outweighs their experience and ability? How much of our talent is going to waste?
Snake Oil
Human nature often directs our passions toward a perception of ourselves that is entirely false. We always want what we don’t have, and it’s easy to develop a passion for something that we’re simply not good at, because we’re not good at it. If we don’t recognize or value the talents that we do have, we’ll look for some way to escape ourselves and try to become something that we’re not. This is especially common in young people who are still in the process of figuring out who they are.
An obvious example of this would be how people often develop a passion for the idea of being a musician, even though they may have no ear for it, and may not even enjoy the grueling lifelong process of actually being a musician. No amount of education is going to change this.
I don’t say that to discourage anyone from trying to learn an instrument, as music is a wonderful thing accessible to anyone. But very few people will make a living at it.
Music schools, of course, are generally exclusive to those who pass a performance audition. Most degree programs are not this way, however, and it might be less obvious when someone is out of their element. But the principle is still the same.
Talent and skill are not commodities that can be purchased from a university.
We want to believe in the false perception of a college education being the key to our dreams, a path to expertise, a ticket to a fulfilling life, or a cure for poverty. It certainly leads to positive outcomes for some, but there are also many people who have reaped no benefit from it, and others who would say that their lives have been ruined by debt.
Talent and skill are not commodities that can be purchased from a university. We need to be more open to the idea that not going to college in many cases might actually be the best choice, and employers need to be more open to the idea that applicants with less formal education may sometimes be the most intelligent and skilled employees.
There is also a middle ground that often gets overlooked. There seems to be an unfortunate perception that vocational school is only for people who are not smart enough to get into college. And this is truly a shame because in the current state of our job market, vocational training is probably the wisest option for most people regardless of their G.P.A. You can enter the workforce sooner, and if it doesn’t work out, at least you didn’t put yourself in debt for the rest of your life. Especially if you end up in a situation like mine, having a degree in a field that you had a passion for when you were young, but you no longer have that passion. And quite frankly, even with my education I’m still not qualified for any job in that field. I might as well have been studying football.
Finding Hope in Humility
Many students need to be job ready immediately after high school. And those who do end up choosing college need to have intense factual counseling on what the realistic outcomes of their degree choices are, stripped of all romanticism and big dreaming.
…you can’t do anything just by setting your mind to it, and even hard work in school only pays off around 27.3% of the time.
It happens too often that students say they like a particular subject, and then they’re mindlessly instructed to pursue that passion with no regard for what the actual purpose of that pursuit is, or what the likelihood of actually finding a job in that field is. We take the attitude that as long as they’re going to college, they’ll be alright.
It also happens too often that kids are dreaming beyond their ability, but we’re too afraid to tell them anything other than our modern motto, “You can do anything if you set your mind to it.” If it should happen that a kid is discouraged from pursuing a dream and that kid goes on to pursue it anyway and proves everyone wrong, that would be wonderful. But the reality is, you can’t do anything just by setting your mind to it, and even hard work in school only pays off around 27.3% of the time.
I’m sure there are plenty of realistically minded parents, teachers, and guidance counselors out there who are doing their best to guide their kids, swimming against the current of our “dream big” culture. Going to college is not for everyone. It wasn’t for me and I wish I hadn’t gone.
With all that said, is going to college worth it? A college education is undoubtedly necessary in many cases, and if money is no object, there is certainly an argument to support the value of college simply as an experience. However, its misuse can also create a culture of false hope and misdirected talent.
It’s easy to fall victim to our own pride and the desire to be perceived as being smart. But my degree would be a cheap and pretentious way of proving my intelligence, if that was my goal. I hold my degree in the same regard as my Little League baseball trophies. I participated.
I don’t mean to say that it wasn’t hard work. I payed my own way through school and it took almost ten years to get my bachelor’s degree. But it didn’t prove my intelligence, and in my case it didn’t even have any financial value.
Unless there is a specific job that you are pursuing where a college degree is absolutely required, and you already know that you have the ability and drive to do it, (or you know you can afford it regardless of the outcome) you might be better off not wasting your time and money. Or, at least wait until you have a clearer picture of what you intend to do with your life. There’s no point in taking on thousands of dollars of debt with no job to show for it. It’s also a disservice to everyone if you get a degree and a job in a field that you don’t actually have any practical skill in.
For those who already have a degree, it doesn’t have to be a black hole. Just because you set your mind on something once, that doesn’t mean you have to leave it there. There comes a time for most people anyway when who we envisioned ourselves to be comes face to face with who we actually are and the reality that we’ve been given. So, don’t set your mind, open it. Don’t let your pride in your education or your intelligence prevent you from finding the work that truly suits your disposition and circumstances. Your calling might be waiting for you somewhere you least expected.
