I wonder how much of this is down to AI? Maybe not much yet. Concerns about it and employment have only started going mainstream in the 2020s. That suggests there is more decline ahead for people's regard for the worth of college education.
It's striking how much opinions differ according to politics. 39% of Republicans rate college as "Not too important", versus 9% of Democrats who feel the same way. The article wonders if the perceived left-wing bias of colleges is to blame. But if right-wing people desert colleges, won't that just make them more left-wing? The student body certainly will be, and that's where the future staff members come from.
Perceived Importance of College Hits New Low: The percentage of Americans saying college is "very important" has fallen to 35%
I have several friends in college debt that never used their degree. I know another doing legal work with their law master's degree... They won't be out of debt until their late forties. Learning is important, college, at least in the U.S. is too expensive. K-12 is important. Trade school is important. Learning how to read and think criticially is important. College not as much.
I'll caveat: college is important, though not necessarily based on classes. For me, it was the first time I experienced other people from a vast array of cultures, both domestic and abroad. It helped shape me into the person I am today, and it's a much better person than I would've been should I have stayed in my podunk town.
Is that worth the cost? Hell no. That we have to go into decades of debt to earn a piece of paper is stupid. Was it worth me growing as a human being? Absolutely. I never would take that back.
A caveat to my caveat lol: this isn't saying that my experience means it's that way for all, but that it really was formative for me. Others may experience that same thing in trade schools. I just think the immersion was much more in depth for me ๐
Agree. I learned a lot of things in college and most of them were not learned in the classroom. The debt it saddled me with was rough, but it was worth my personal growth.
Also, if you're reasonably smart and self-motivated the 21st century world abounds with the materials to let you learn much of what you would in college. Not specialized learning maybe, but for generalized learning, yes.
https://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
Yup. I'd definitely think it's more to do with utility 10 years ago than AI now. That's enough time to see that some people who went to college aren't using their degrees and some people who didn't are doing just fine, and that for a lot of people then biggest difference is debt. Current AI tools haven't had enough time influencing the market to make it clear if they're actually going to change things significantly or not.
I think the political difference is between which groups value education in the abstract more, and see college as a way to get that, despite a possible lack of utility. College can be a way to learn critical thinking and such. In an ideal world, we'd also be more okay giving anyone who wanted it knowledge for knowledges sake without making it so focused on utility.
I'd love if I could pop over to the nearby university and sign up to take an intro course on something that I know I will never practically use.