The Upside of the College Enrolment Decline
aei.org
aei.org
> Surveying nearly 30,000 bachelor degree programs... 28 percent of programs left students worse off economically than when they started
> 4 in 5 engineering programs have ROI above $500,000, but the same is true for just 1 percent of psychology programs.
> Only 63 percent of full-time American students who enroll in an undergraduate program graduate in six years.
> Meanwhile, half of the American workforce has built lives and families working in jobs that don’t require a degree.
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Basically, most people don't need college degrees. Especially for those people, getting a degree just takes time which they could be starting a career or trade, while gaining excessive amount of debt which they will struggle (or may never) to pay back through their chosen career. Furthermore, lots of people start degrees and never finish them, while accumulating debt in the process.
The pending "college debt crisis" in America where student loans start defaulting unless loan forgiveness is instituted will be a very interesting turning point in the country. The children of these people will see the damage caused by college and turn higher education into a fear for the next generation.
The article points out that college isn't all bad. Investing time and money into a degree for Lawyers, Engineers, and Doctors is well worth it. But getting a psych degree and then working in HR might not be as worth it.