Apparently college isn’t worth it anymore

By Angela Loiacono on July 18th, 2008

“A four-year college degree, seen for generations as a ticket to a better life, is no longer enough to guarantee a steadily rising paycheck.”

At least according to Greg Ip’s Wall Street Journal article.

Now, I had to sit with this for a minute…then continue reading. Without a doubt in my mind, I waited patiently as I scrolled down to find the paragraph that would bring the lead to shame.

It was lucky paragraph nine. Ip explains, “To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed.”

As Ip continues, he explains that a variety of economic forces are at work. Now, I’m starting to see some sense in the argument. And finally, as you reach the depths of the piece the point becomes clear. “In short, a college degree is often necessary, but not sufficient, to get a paycheck that beats inflation,” says Ip.

Here’s my real question (and yes, I realize it’s ironic that I took five paragraphs to get here after chiding Ip for his hidden points) : Is the headline of the article, The Declining Value of Your College Degree, telling the whole story? If you don’t get to the bottom of the great American novel that graced the careers section, do you come away from this article thinking something different?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 10:20 am and is filed under Truth in Media, wall street journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Apparently college isn’t worth it anymore”

  1. Eamon Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 5:55 am

    I would go to university again but not in order to get a qualification. I would go for the fun, to meet lots of people, and to read around (arts, philosophy, and so on).

    As an alternative to university I would do the following:

    - Year 1: go to another country to work, learn a language, and travel
    - Year 2: do a one year course in marketing, or design or coywriting, whatever
    - Year 3: and spend the last year (our university courses are only 3 years in the UK) working in sales and doing work placements in various quarters such as advertising, PR and marketing. I would, also, use this time to start up some sort of small business just to get a flavour of what it is like to be entrepeneurial.

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