College is not for Everyone

College degree an overrated product
By MARTY NEMKOPublished on: 05/07/08 AJC.com

Among my saddest moments as a career counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I still have 45 credits to go."

I have a hard time telling such people a killer statistic: Among high school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas 8 1/2 years later.

Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year.
Most college dropouts leave campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt and devastated self-esteem. Perhaps worst of all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So when you hop in a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high school dropout.

Many students are grossly unprepared for college, and even those who are fully qualified are increasingly unlikely to derive enough benefit to justify the often six-figure cost and four to six years (or more) it takes to graduate.

Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates earn more than nongraduates, but that's misleading. College-bound individuals tend to start out brighter and more motivated and with better family connections.

Also, their advantage in the job market is eroding as employers send more professional jobs offshore and hire part-time workers. Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions like driving a truck or tending bar.

Colleges are quick to argue that an education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all. Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students.

That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted more for their research than for their teaching.
So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market.

Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.

Despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below "proficient" levels on a test that required them to understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit card offers. The Spellings Report, released in 2006 by a federal commission that examined the future of higher education, said: "Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined. ... Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today's workplaces."

What must be done to improve undergraduate education?
Colleges should be held at least as accountable as tire companies are.

To be government-approved, all tires must have — prominently molded into the sidewall — ratings of tread life, temperature resistance and traction compared with national benchmarks. Colleges should be required to prominently report the following on their Web sites and in recruitment materials:

• Results of a "value added" test. Just as the No Child Left Behind Act mandates strict accountability of elementary and secondary schools, all colleges should be required to administer a test to entering freshmen and to students about to graduate. The test should measure skills important for responsible citizenship and career success, such as the ability to draft a persuasive memo, analyze a financial report or use online research tools to develop content for a report.
• The average cash, loan and work-study financial aid for varying levels of family income and assets, broken out by race and gender. And because some colleges use the drug-dealer scam — give the first dose cheap, and then jack up the price — they should be required to provide the average not just for the first year, but also for each year.
• Retention data. Institutions should reveal the percentage of students returning for a second year, broken out by SAT score, race and gender.
• The four-, five- and six-year graduation rates, broken out by SAT score, race and gender.
• Employment data. They should list the percentage of graduates who, within six months of graduation, are in graduate school, unemployed or employed in a job requiring college-level skills, along with salary data.
• Results of recent student-satisfaction surveys.

Meanwhile, what should parents and guardians of prospective students do?

If your child's high school grades and test scores are in the bottom half for his class, resist the attempts of four-year colleges to woo him. Colleges make money whether or not a student learns or graduates or finds good employment. Consider an associate-degree program at a community college, or such nondegree options as apprenticeship programs (examples can be found at www.khake.com), shorter career-preparation programs at community colleges, the military or on-the-job training, especially at the elbow of a successful small-business owner. If your student is in the top half of his high school class and motivated to attend college for reasons other than going to parties and being able to say he went to college, have him apply to perhaps a dozen colleges. It's often wise to choose the college that requires you to pay the least cash and take out the smallest loan.

If your child is one of the rare breed who knows what he wants to do and isn't unduly attracted to academics or to the "Animal House" environment that characterizes many college living arrangements, then take solace in the fact that countless other people have successfully taken the noncollege road. Some examples: Maya Angelou, David Ben-Gurion, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Walter Cronkite, Michael Dell, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Alex Haley, Ernest Hemingway, Wolfgang Puck, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Ted Turner, Frank Lloyd Wright and nine U.S. presidents, from Washington to Truman.
College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are encouraged to consider it. It's crucial that they evenhandedly weigh the pros and cons of college versus the alternatives. The quality of their lives may depend on that choice.