Jaded with education, more Americans are skipping college

[vannevar]

I don't think "jaded" is the right word---it's like saying homelessness is increasing because people are jaded with habitation. The problem with college is the same as the problem with housing: the cost has climbed much more rapidly than wages. People on the margins fall out of the market as a result. Why does everyone act as though this is mystifying?

[LatteLazy]

It's interesting to compare this to the usual cycles in (other) financial markets. Products fall from favour, become under priced, get noticed for being under priced, become fashionable and prices rise, become over priced and we're back at the beginning...

If other people are fleeing college (or convertible bonds or MBSs) then now is a good time to get in I imagine. Or it soon will be.

[thrwayaistartup]

Most comments here are completely missing the point: remote learning during the pandemic era was worse than useless. As a result, the pandemic era created a HUGE bifurcation in the student population between autodidacts and non-autodidacts.

You can see this in high school test scores, in placement exams, in Freshman college performance, and even in new grad hire cohorts.

The autodidact set has realized that they can teach themselves a lot of what they would've learned in coursework at colleges. There are still some elite career pathways where formal education is necessary, but an autodidact who doesn't want to follow one of those career pathways now knows that they can go without.

American colleges provide a useful-if-overpriced service to non-autodidacts, but their product is not ready to deal with students who are YEARS behind in their formal education.

[red-iron-pine]

> if overpriced

"overpriced" is a vast understatement. overpriced would be if it costs $8k but is sold at $12k.

Instead the pricing is crippling, and instead of 8k it's 48k, and the average student will roll out with between 100k-200k in debt. debt that is not dischargable except in very rare, specific cases.

[tekla]

A seemingly growing trend of anti-intellectualism and anti-education, probably can't be good.

[Ekaros]

I think there is large aspect of price vs value. If the perceived net return on getting education does not look good enough it makes little sense to get one.

Being educated for huge cost is not that valuable.

[amadeuspagel]

There's nothing so anti-intellectual as the idea that a college or any formal institution is the only place for any kind of intellectual life.

[mensetmanusman]

It’s more like anti-100k debt for no apparent gain.

[koromak]

People shouldn't be forced into lifelong debt because of social convention

[krapp]

Good. The purpose of college in the US is not to educate but to create a market for student debt tied to non-dischargeable high interest federal loans, predatory pricing for books, materials, housing, etc, all for degrees with very little value in a job market being cannibalized by automation, outsourcing and AI. It's a racket, and newer generations are only right not to participate.

[2devnull]

Yes. Education should be and is free. Anybody who wants it otherwise is morally confused. The universities restrict education, to extract economic value from the essential human experience of learning. It’s a trillion dollar industry built on restricting access to what should be and is free, knowledge. It’s a way of sorting workers into classes. It’s all it can ever be until the money is removed.

[Eumenes]

Good for them. Saving money and exploring alternative career paths is a wise move for young people. Less indoctrination as well.

[SideQuark]

What you call indoctrination most countries would call learning the ability to reason and escape previous indoctrination. Uneducated people are more easily misled and abused by narcissistic leaders.

Lower wages, more unemployment, and an even larger gap between more educated and less educated, is not that great a plan, on average.

[TrackerFF]

I for one am glad I went to University. I was exposed to topics and classes I would have laughed at earlier (philosophy, for one), met a lot of interesting friends, and had a really, really good time in general. In fact, I'd say that those years were some of the best in my life.

My only regret is that I didn't go on any exchange program. Really should have done that.

I think that if you only view higher education as a ticket to a better paying job, and nothing more, college could suck. But that's also under the assumption that you actively avoid social activities, and only go there to get your degree.

I really miss the youthful naïveté - all my peers were really motivated to do things.

[goodbyesf]

> I was exposed to topics and classes I would have laughed at earlier (philosophy, for one)

Same here. Thought I left the horrors of pointless essays and open-ended questions ( what do you mean there isn't a correct answer? ) once I left high school. My college required that we take philosophy, literature and history classes as electives. Turned out to be my favorite classes and where I learned the most. Especially philosophy and history.

> I really miss the youthful naïveté

Yes. And the LAN parties.

[gsatic]

Biden needs to move faster and not just with the debt jubilee but drastically change how much unnecessary cash American universities spend on bullshit. Visiting campuses in other parts of the world, I am always shocked how much they do with so little while keeping education relatively free.

[freediverx]

The main problem with American higher education is the profit motive. As is often the case, capitalism eventually ruins everything, especially when it’s treated as the state religion.