[brettcvz]

For those interested in this topic, I’d strongly recommend Bryan Caplan’s “The Case Against Education”: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174655/th.... He does a much more thorough analysis of the value of a college degree than any other I’ve seen, including factoring in dropout rate, majors, meeting potential spouses, opportunity cost, university prestige, etc.

The summary aligns with common sense: college degrees are typically valuable, especially in in-demand fields and from prestigious universities. But the college dropout rate is around 50%, so many people incur the cost of college with little of the benefit.

If you’re a high schooler considering college, it’s worth it if you are “good at school” and so confident you can finish in four years and are going to a high quality state school or better. Otherwise, you’re better off going directly into the workforce.

[mettamage]

Not just meeting potential spouses. Having studied psychology has helped my romantic relationships in odd and intangible ways. For 1, talking to women I didn't know was easier because while they couldn't relate to my programming interest, they could relate to my psychology interest. For 2, it was just easier to find someone given that you were in an environment were 80% of your students were female (me being male).

But what also really helped was knowledge on anxious/avoidant attachment styles or how intuition is works (I read a lot about Kahneman's research papers - not his pop science books). By understanding how intuition works, I was able to train it through meditation (I could get the academic sources but this would become a lecture). When I got a stronger intuition I could relate better to people in general that use their intuition as their default mode (something I never did as a kid).

Psychology also has helped me with some mental health issues long after I graduated from it. I was surprised because I wasn't that interested in the mental health aspect when I was studying it (I liked neuroscience and statistics). I recognize mental issues with myself early so I can start acting on it early as well.

This is the tip of the iceberg. My point is: I never expected these benefits. But they are very very real. Moreover, for some these benefits do not pan out this way. A friend of my also studied psychology and would've loved to have a girlfriend at the time but it didn't work out for him. In my case, it helped that I was a bit socially bold. I was socially insecure as well but it doesn't matter that one is insecure when they are socially bold (I can say that with hindsight, haha).

[BeFlatXIII]

Your point cannot be echoed loud enough on discussions of college prices and debt forgiveness. Instead, the too responses on such articles are always someone ranting about the lunacy of putting yourself $115k in the hole for a Bachelor+Master’s of Social Work only to manage a Home Depot followed by someone else pointing out that people graduating with that much debt are almost all physicians (plus a few lawyers).

Dropouts, by definition, do not have the degree to earn that salary bump. Those who go on about rule of law and the sanctity of contracts or whatever are willfully blind to the point that forgiven or not, those loans to the dropouts aren’t getting repaid.

Heck, you can even see the same thing to a lesser degree for students who do graduate but with a 2.3 GPA (especially if it’s a field that de facto requires a Master’s).