Guess what, colleges? Two-thirds of your grads
regret their diploma, costs, major

Please explain why college costs continue to rise at about 5 times the inflation rate. And yet no Democrat is out there denouncing "big education" other than to say us struggling taxpayers should cover the exorbitant costs.

Too late they realize that a BA in BS is worthless.

Could it have something to do with learning nothing of value and a generational nihilistic bent where nothing matters anyway?

#3 You mean nothing matters except self, brand, appearance.

Very true of my daughter--and me, too.

There was a time the colleges were a clearing house of knowledge stored in the catacombs of extensive libraries with information only available to the tuition participates in the schools of higher learning and what was force fed by the professors. Today, with the internet, you tube, google searches, and news feeds from all around the world, libraries and professors are becoming the dinosaurs of learning. I think colleges will price themselves into oblivion. Kind of like an old fax machine.

Well, duh. Colleges are another lobbying group that are used to raking in the dough through governmental regulation and preferences in funding. Despite such advantages and limitless demand coupled with no perceived need for fiscal responsibility colleges, where a student may pay upwards of $60,00 per year for a degree in economics and finance, have priced themselves right out of the market. Undergraduate tuition, not counting room and board at, say, Bard College in NY costs $2,000 more per year than tuition to the medical school at Johns Hopkins, arguably the finest med school in the world. Both are private. At the public U. of Michigan, 51% of undergraduates are in-state and pay $15K in tuition, while out-of-state tuition is $49,000+. In-state acceptances have decreased 13% from 2008. Perspective students and their parents have begun to seriously question the value of going deeply into debt for a degree that may not even lead to desirable employment and voila! Now tuition isn’t going to go down but it will be “free” to the students, paid for under duress by strangers who have their own needs. Washington will see to it. And that will include anchor babies and illegals, free to enter the country at will, courtesy again, of our servants in Washington.

Business model #1 Do something the government will pay for.

An interesting area, ignored by most researchers is major changes by too many students. I was involve4d in a survey research project, lookg at characteristics of students who change majors frequently. (the consequence of major changes is an extension of the traditional 4 years in undergraduates, up to 8 years instead of 4 years. And that means extra debt! Those who were most likely to have multiple major changes? A surprising answer - those whose parents had less than a h.s. diploma, and those whose parents had professional, advanced degrees. There is something else going on at many colleges/universities. Academic departments are pressured to do internal recruiting of majors. Our youngest son, during his first two years of study, as a Chemistry Pre Med(son is a good student, with mostly As in those courses, but stilll) , was told by his professors in the following areas to switch majors to their major: Sociology, English, Geography, Computer Science, Philosophy, Biology What did he do? Is being prepared for graduate school and a Ph. D. in Chemistry. Bye bye pre med.

FTA: "...teachers expressed the least regrets over their career choices, second least to engineers, despite the chronically low pay of such educators." Then there is this canard. Teachers do NOT labor for "chronically low pay", certainly not those in unionized districts serving under union-endorsed and financed elected school boards. Funny thing, no one ever looks behind this curtain. The propaganda took. Their teaching is another matter. Teachers were much more effective before they became educators.

Twenty years ago I was the highest paid department head at the local government where I worked. The job description required a BA degree in accounting and/or computer science or equivalent experience. My department handled accounts payable/purchasing/payroll/budget/data processing. I began as the lowest paid employee; a temporary accounts payable data entry clerk. While my supervisor was reading People magazine, I self-taught myself how to use the IBM software to create simple reports and correct data files. We had a contractor for our programming, but I wanted to learn to do the easy stuff because modification had to be in form of a tape and tooks days to get. When my supervisor had to quit because of family issues, I applied for her job and got it. I worked fifty-sixty hour weeks. Supervising all financial transactions, balancing the general ledger and payroll, assembling the budget and attending budget hearings, crawling under computers attaching coax connections. When all employees got a wage study is when I ended up being the highest paid employee, and because I didn't have a degree, they put in the clause to get around that. I did that job for nine years until they just wore me out. Personnel was handled under the Governing Body until that person quit and then they hired someone new and put her under my supervision. She did nothing, and just caused problems with me and my employees. I begged them to do something about her and my work load, but they wouldn't and I quit. They hired at least four additional employees and created two additional departments after I left. I took a year off and then started working for the contractor that did the programming for that employer and many others. I already had my l state pension, so working for a very high hourly rate worked out for me. No politics and knew all about how my customers operated and what they had to deal with because all my previous customers were local government: clerks, courts, planning, etc. My boss and dear friend paid me to learn more of the high level programming language as I did customer service, and I did that for 20 years until my health failed. I'm still on "retainer" so they can call me when they need help. My first job out of business school was for state government. I started out at the very bottom again and held four different positions as I was moving up; the most fun job was in the mail room. The state I worked in had a specific wage scale, I was the only person (at that time) who was ever approved for a meritorius raise that had to be approved the legislature of the state that was submitted by my bosses. People, I am not bragging, I'm just pointing out that by working hard and being willing to learn will get you a long ways. My folks paid $2,000 for me to go to business school in 1972. It got me a foot in the door of employment, but I made the rest happen for me. My brother was a welder and ended up as the plant manager of a large steel mill. My sister was a care giver and she ended up as the administrator for a chain of home health care centers. That's how it worked for my generation, but not sure it could work now. Seems like the college degree issue is a big scam. By the way, my husband is a truck driver. He has a pension, insurance and makes about $93k a year.

When I was a freshman in college in 1976, I was applying for a part time job, and was asked what I was majoring in. I responded Psychology. The person responded by asking me if I planned on being unemployed. I was stunned for a moment, but after thinking about it, I changed my major to Business with a minor in Law. While my degree helped me get started to a certain extent, it wasn't the big help I expected. It still took years of work experience to get where I expected to be right out of college. Having said that, I wouldn't trade my college experience or my degree for anything. I worked hard to get it, and out of 16 grandchildren I was only one of four to gain a college degree. Having failed fifth grade and with a C average in high school, I was probably the least likely to get a college degree in the family, but I earned it, and I consider it to be my greatest personal achievement.

Another 1972 high school graduate. I attended the local state university full time and lived at home the first two years. (Tuition and books were about $750 a semester.) I wanted a new car and my own apartment, and worked full time while going to classes part time. After two years, and a completed junior year, I was exhausted and took off a semester...that turned into three. My concerned and blessed parents offered to let me live at home and finish my senior year full time. I had the pink slip on my car and no credit card debt. They would pay for school and everything. I got a Saturday job that provided gas and lunch money. I finally graduated in January 1979 with my B.A. in History. I have loved history since my earliest memory. In 5th grade I set the goal of a college degree. I was blessed to be taught by WWII veterans, before the communists rewrote our country's history. I majored in American History with emphasis on the Civil War. (I never thought I would see brother against brother in my lifetime.) I cherish my degree for it trained my thinking with skills in evaluation of primary/secondary sources, cause and effect, political maneuverings, military tactics and social trends. I trained me as a writer. I ended up in city government. I really wanted to help my city run efficiently. (ha, ha) With the state of "higher" education today, I would not bother getting a degree from a "brick and mortar" university. I'd study on line, or just read at home. God has a plan for every life. I found when I stopped "managing" my life things got a whole lot better.

Notice how politicians constantly complain about the rising cost of healthcare, and blame hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies. But they never blame the ever rising cost of increasingly useless college education on the colleges and universities?

Re#1 If college students were turning conservative, bet your bottom dollar that ridiculous tuition rates would be issue#1 And I'll wager that a lot of that money ends up in democrat election funds.

Colleges employ good salespeople. They talk stupid people into student loans and careers they will never obtain unless Affirmative Action is involved. When they talk about student loan debt, nobody is saying a thing about colleges in shopping centers and 'everybody' is told can be a court reporter, get into medical billing or become a firefighter. A parent of one of these adult students was put on a separate loan for their books. When they filed bankruptcy, they were told they were still on the hook for those books.

I went to college for intellectual pursuit. I truly wanted to expand my mind, to learn the meaning of life, etc. I was just seventeen. I didn't understand that profs would tell you anything so that you would major in their department. The departments are fighting a competitive battle to survive. I learned the hard lesson and was at least able to pass it on to my children. And regarding teacher satisfaction, another topic mentioned in this piece: I have known many, many secondary teachers who regretted going into that field. Most who could leave the field eventually did, or failing that, got out of the classroom by becoming an administrator, librarian, counselor, speech therapist, dyslexia therapist, diagnostician, etc. You can shoot me or sue me, but you can't argue with my personal experience in this. (Yours may be different, but that doesn't invalidate mine.) Elementary teachers are a different animal entirely, God bless them; in my considerable experience, they have much more career satisfaction than secondary teachers. In my state of Texas, many districts are not unionized, and the wages are paltry in some of the small districts. But the big districts that are unionized (Dallas, Houston, etc.) have their own drawbacks. (I could expound on this all day.) One bottom line: that intelligent, fascinating person who teaches secondary history to your child more than likely just wants to research and write and be left alone. Or wanted to go to law school but was sidetracked by marriage and children (if female). Most will not admit their job dissatisfaction, except to fellow teachers they can trust and do so privately, in a low voice.

So many good stories here. Fact is, businesses are running leaner and leaner. If you don't have a skill, hello McDonalds or welfare. I graduated HS in 1975, started as a Mechanical Engineering major. Dropped out after a year and a half (not due to failing grades - wanted to be a rock star) and was married with 5 kids within the next 6 years; our daughter (the last) being born in 1983. Got into tool and die, served apprenticeship, and moved into design in 1995. It has been steady, lucrative employment. Poster was correct who said that colleges will be lobbying and flocking to the government teat (in form of debt forgiveness) to stay afloat.

Correction - our daughter was born in 1985. I really did know that!