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I'm glad these articles are being written and taken seriously. We definitely need to end the heresy of questioning the value of higher education. Students nee

by geebee 16y ago

I'm glad these articles are being written and taken seriously. We definitely need to end the heresy of questioning the value of higher education. Students need to understand that debt is the opposite of freedom, and student loans are (as the article pointed out) much harder to escape than almost any other kind of debt. That said, I'd like to see someone take on education in a stronger form. This particular article mocks an english teacher (another one asks who would spend $250,000 to read chaucer). Alrighty, agreed, not worth spending $250,000 to read Chaucer. How about engineering at a highly regarded state supported institution? How about Computer Science at the University of Washington or Illinois? Or even at a private university? How about going pre-med (though Medicine is clearly somewhat positional, rejecting many applicants than would be capable of completing the program), or to law school (probably even more positional than medicine in determining the value of your degree). Please understand, I'm not saying the answer is an obvious "yes" or "no" in any of these cases. If you're a good enough programmer to pass data structures at college that teaches the class for real, it could very well make sense to drop out and do YC or take that 100K startup from Thiel. But we do need to start distinguishing between different types of education: different majors, institutions, motivations. Definitely time to move past asking whether it's worth spending $250k to study Chaucer. There's much more interesting material here.

AJ007 16y ago
I think the bubble is already cracking and about to burst. If you take a look at all of the top for profit schools their enrollments have declined dramatically. Some degrees are certainly worth the money. All it takes is simple 5th or 6th grade math, which is not done for any number of reasons. I did the math, let me explain how it worked: -My parents had $X saved up for me to go to college (in my name I might add, so it was legally mine) -My dad was a faculty member at a local university which entitled me to free tuition -I attended that school for over 2 years, for free -I did the math that I could earn low to mid 5 figures with my degree, or make six to seven figures by dropping out and focusing on my current business I had been building -I dropped out, and I made a ton People are (or at least were) confused by what I was doing. I could have gone to a better school and not had a whole lot of debt. I could have stayed an extra year and a half and received my free college degree (minus the cost of books.) I did the math and it was damn simple math. Not a single other one of my friends did the math. Oddly enough, my brother did do the math and is attending an expensive engineering school for a degree in a special field. Anyone who gets deep in to debt for a non-marketable degree is a sucker. Anyone who gets deep in to debt in order to teach that same degree to others as a university faculty member is a participant in an elaborate ponzi scheme. There is nothing wrong with higher education. There is nothing wrong with devoting your entire life to something that will not earn you a penny. There is something wrong with elaborate and needless waste. Technology can, and will, bring education prices back down to earth. Accreditation along with deep rooted special interests means this will take a lot longer than it should.

by geebee 16y ago

AJ007 16y ago

I think the bubble is already cracking and about to burst. If you take a look at all of the top for profit schools their enrollments have declined dramatically. Some degrees are certainly worth the money. All it takes is simple 5th or 6th grade math, which is not done for any number of reasons. I did the math, let me explain how it worked: -My parents had $X saved up for me to go to college (in my name I might add, so it was legally mine) -My dad was a faculty member at a local university which entitled me to free tuition -I attended that school for over 2 years, for free -I did the math that I could earn low to mid 5 figures with my degree, or make six to seven figures by dropping out and focusing on my current business I had been building -I dropped out, and I made a ton People are (or at least were) confused by what I was doing. I could have gone to a better school and not had a whole lot of debt. I could have stayed an extra year and a half and received my free college degree (minus the cost of books.) I did the math and it was damn simple math. Not a single other one of my friends did the math. Oddly enough, my brother did do the math and is attending an expensive engineering school for a degree in a special field. Anyone who gets deep in to debt for a non-marketable degree is a sucker. Anyone who gets deep in to debt in order to teach that same degree to others as a university faculty member is a participant in an elaborate ponzi scheme. There is nothing wrong with higher education. There is nothing wrong with devoting your entire life to something that will not earn you a penny. There is something wrong with elaborate and needless waste. Technology can, and will, bring education prices back down to earth. Accreditation along with deep rooted special interests means this will take a lot longer than it should.