5 ms·

There is a worthwhile discussion to be had about the cost of college tuition and actuarial tables of different degrees and their earning power and how that rela

There is a worthwhile discussion to be had about the cost of college tuition and actuarial tables of different degrees and their earning power and how that relates to pay structure for graduates and for professors and how college programs are run. Trying to have that discussion on hacker news starting from a primary source consisting of a CBS News poll is like trying to get to the moon on a North Korean rocket with sadness and starvation as your rocket fuel.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
If you want to measure economic potential vs cost, what you propose is reasonable. If you want to measure regret, it's not. Regret could have more causes than cost vs payback. (It's interesting, though, that loans were the primary regret, and choice of major was also high.)
legitster 7y ago
If I remember correctly, the previous administration proposed a program where schools and degrees were valued based on their potential earnings but the collective pushback from universities killed the idea.
- jdm2212 7y ago
  The idea got killed because it's really hard to measure value added as opposed to just graduates' earnings (students who appear identical on paper self-select into schools and majors and later on careers based on non-measurable stuff). And if you basically just measure graduates' earnings, you're going to punish schools that take a chance on less prepared students, majors that cater to students with weaker backgrounds, etc. University administrators and professors aren't dumb. They know that good faith efforts to measure value added today will give way next month or next year to laziness and crude numerical targets. The end result will maybe be better numerical scores, but little substantive improvement in how well students are educated or prepared for life.

5 ms·

There is a worthwhile discussion to be had about the cost of college tuition and actuarial tables of different degrees and their earning power and how that rela

by Ill_ban_myself 7y ago

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
If you want to measure economic potential vs cost, what you propose is reasonable. If you want to measure regret, it's not. Regret could have more causes than cost vs payback. (It's interesting, though, that loans were the primary regret, and choice of major was also high.)
legitster 7y ago
If I remember correctly, the previous administration proposed a program where schools and degrees were valued based on their potential earnings but the collective pushback from universities killed the idea.
- jdm2212 7y ago
  The idea got killed because it's really hard to measure value added as opposed to just graduates' earnings (students who appear identical on paper self-select into schools and majors and later on careers based on non-measurable stuff). And if you basically just measure graduates' earnings, you're going to punish schools that take a chance on less prepared students, majors that cater to students with weaker backgrounds, etc. University administrators and professors aren't dumb. They know that good faith efforts to measure value added today will give way next month or next year to laziness and crude numerical targets. The end result will maybe be better numerical scores, but little substantive improvement in how well students are educated or prepared for life.