Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 16:13     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. The data is clear. we have a massive surplus of low-value degrees and a labor market that is already starting to discount them. Unless your child is attending a top-tier target school where the institutional prestige acts as a hedge against mediocrity, they are likely walking into an underemployment trap. Johnny from State U is graduating with six-figure debt into a world that doesn't need another generalist with a "Business Administration" degree. We’ve flooded the market with credentials, and in doing so, we've rendered the mid-tier degree effectively worthless for anything other than basic administrative work. but no problem….at least they recorded their fair share of TikTok dances in their SEC sororities….
The "dumbification" of American higher ed is the quiet crisis no one on this board wants to admit. To keep the tuition checks flowing, universities have traded academic rigor for "student satisfaction" andt grade inflation. We are producing a workforce that can follow a rubric but lacks the cognitive stamina for first-principles thinking or problem-solving. While parents are busy comparing "Little Ivies," their kids are losing the ability to synthesize complex information without a digital crutch. We’ve turned college into a four-year delay of adulthood where students learn to navigate bureaucracy instead of mastering a competitive skill.
If you think the ROI is bad now, calculate the impact of AI over the next four years. If your kid is a freshman today, they will enter a 2030 job market where agentic AI has already cannibalized the majority of entry-level white-collar tasks. The "junior analyst" or "entry-level coordinator" roles that used to be the traditional starting point for college grads are being automated out of existence. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train kids for roles that a $20 monthly subscription will do better and faster by the time they graduate. If your child isn't in the top 5% of their field or pursuing a specialized technical trade, you aren't buying them a future…… you're buying them a very expensive seat at a table that is being removed from the room….

Anyway…..keep it up….


you nuts.

ROI has nothing to do with college.

AI impact will be deep but not in the way you think. And 2030 will not be AI's time. It is much further out. You are missing all the new jobs that will be created also.

Agree on debt. No one should have debt after college.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 16:13     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Half of the colleges should not exist.
There are top tier schools and then schools that are trying to make up for the shortcomings of contemporary high school education.

But it is true that no one should be taking out student loans to attend a college for clown studies.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:49     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A college degree gives one more flexibility for jobs, and generally, jobs that require a degree still pay more than jobs that don't.


If you can find a job that requires your degree when AGI is within 5 years.

Not worried much about it. If AI can take over white collar jobs, it can certainly take over most blue collar jobs.

A college degree is still more valuable than not having one, and statistics support that.

Feel free to not send your kid to college.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:44     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Here is today's Headline:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/01/15/college-enrollment-10-year-high/

The findings from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, released Thursday, complicate the popular narrative about the decline of higher education: Americans are questioning the value of a college diploma and have soured on the cost, yet students are enrolling in numbers higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Community colleges reported a 3 percent increase in enrollment, adding 173,000 students in the fall, more than twice the rate of public 4-year institutions, where headcounts grew by 1.4 percent or 91,000 students, according to the report. Still, enrollment at public 2-year institutions is down nearly a quarter of a million students compared with pre-pandemic levels, while public and private 4-year colleges have recovered, Holsapple said.

Public four-year schools were another bright spot in the fall data. Public flagships, such as the University of Connecticut and the University of Idaho, boasted record freshman classes, while the University of California system saw its total enrollment exceed 300,000 for the first time.

“The economy is becoming more complex. As much as the ‘college isn’t worth it’ cry is out there, there’s also a recognition that sending our children to college is a good idea,” he said.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:38     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
I find people with this take fascinating. The overwhelming evidence shows that going to college is a good choice financially. Most colleges aren’t selective. You don’t need an elite degree for a good job; we live in America, not china.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:34     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:My kid wants to be a pilot and get a degree in aviation maintenance. Seems fairly AI-proof. This kid could not last a day in a 9-5 office job anyway, so we were never going to waste $300k on a liberal arts degree. The aviation idea is more stable than the other ideas he's thrown out, like a park ranger, ski patroller, or rafting guide.


Florida State has a program in Jacksonville. https://www.fscj.edu/academics/programs/as/2150

My boyfriend worked with a guy who was in the program. He worked another job on weekends to support himself while in college.
He really liked the Aviation Technology program. When he graduated he was hired right away by Boeing at I think around $40 or $50 per hour.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:18     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:From the OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

Do you know what critical thinking is? Can you understand that learning "x" isn't necessarily about "x"? Cursive handwriting improves the dynamic interplay of the left and right cerebral hemispheres, helps build neural pathways, improves fine motor skills, and increases mental effectiveness.
Chemistry not only exposes children to a possible career field but also teaches them about chemical reactions. Now they understand why you shouldn't combine bleach and ammonia.
Advanced chemistry is a high school elective, just like intro the finance / intro to entrepreneurship / business information management, all which cover investing. Do you even know what electives are offered in your local public high school? There are far more finance electives than art history electives. My sons' public schools did not stick them on an iPad and taught them "real skills." Beyond the "reading, writing, arithmetic" they learned financial literacy (which we had already taught them), "home" skills like cooking & sewing (which we had also taught them when they were younger), and many classes to discover career choices.



Good luck to your son having such a detached parent. I hope you get what you think you are paying for in college and that it all pans out for you. Clearly you lack the basic skills needed to do the critical thinking about the previous post you responded to. One of the basic skills you should teach your kid is something you haven’t mastered yourself - don’t be so easily triggered. I mean damn, this is an anonymous online forum and look at your posts.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:48     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:A college degree gives one more flexibility for jobs, and generally, jobs that require a degree still pay more than jobs that don't.


If you can find a job that requires your degree when AGI is within 5 years.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:19     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. The data is clear. we have a massive surplus of low-value degrees and a labor market that is already starting to discount them. Unless your child is attending a top-tier target school where the institutional prestige acts as a hedge against mediocrity, they are likely walking into an underemployment trap. Johnny from State U is graduating with six-figure debt into a world that doesn't need another generalist with a "Business Administration" degree. We’ve flooded the market with credentials, and in doing so, we've rendered the mid-tier degree effectively worthless for anything other than basic administrative work. but no problem….at least they recorded their fair share of TikTok dances in their SEC sororities….
The "dumbification" of American higher ed is the quiet crisis no one on this board wants to admit. To keep the tuition checks flowing, universities have traded academic rigor for "student satisfaction" andt grade inflation. We are producing a workforce that can follow a rubric but lacks the cognitive stamina for first-principles thinking or problem-solving. While parents are busy comparing "Little Ivies," their kids are losing the ability to synthesize complex information without a digital crutch. We’ve turned college into a four-year delay of adulthood where students learn to navigate bureaucracy instead of mastering a competitive skill.
If you think the ROI is bad now, calculate the impact of AI over the next four years. If your kid is a freshman today, they will enter a 2030 job market where agentic AI has already cannibalized the majority of entry-level white-collar tasks. The "junior analyst" or "entry-level coordinator" roles that used to be the traditional starting point for college grads are being automated out of existence. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train kids for roles that a $20 monthly subscription will do better and faster by the time they graduate. If your child isn't in the top 5% of their field or pursuing a specialized technical trade, you aren't buying them a future…… you're buying them a very expensive seat at a table that is being removed from the room….

Anyway…..keep it up….


Yeah, maybe but think about how these uneducated folks will vote. Who is running the country now? And how did they win??
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:18     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Fromthe OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

This right here is what’s wrong with society. People thinking that skills that improve your way of thinking or looking at the world are bad because they don’t directly translate to growing the economy and enriching billionaires. I’m willing to be that those who took art history are less likely to fall for a fascist dictator.


Did you read the post?!

And most of the people in art history are working at galleries for free, or low paid professors, married to doctors, lawyers, or of generational wealth. I know because I’m closer than I want to be to these people.

Reading comprehension... Most people who take an art history class do not major in art history... But they are people willing to think critically, explore new ideas, and try to understand different points of view. My son took Intro to Islam and Intro to Hunduism. He is a comp sci major. He needed some general electives and wanted to expand his knowledge. Now he has a better understanding of these regions and can appreciate other beliefs and points of view.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:15     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:From the OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

Do you know what critical thinking is? Can you understand that learning "x" isn't necessarily about "x"? Cursive handwriting improves the dynamic interplay of the left and right cerebral hemispheres, helps build neural pathways, improves fine motor skills, and increases mental effectiveness.
Chemistry not only exposes children to a possible career field but also teaches them about chemical reactions. Now they understand why you shouldn't combine bleach and ammonia.
Advanced chemistry is a high school elective, just like intro the finance / intro to entrepreneurship / business information management, all which cover investing. Do you even know what electives are offered in your local public high school? There are far more finance electives than art history electives. My sons' public schools did not stick them on an iPad and taught them "real skills." Beyond the "reading, writing, arithmetic" they learned financial literacy (which we had already taught them), "home" skills like cooking & sewing (which we had also taught them when they were younger), and many classes to discover career choices.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:58     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Fromthe OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

This right here is what’s wrong with society. People thinking that skills that improve your way of thinking or looking at the world are bad because they don’t directly translate to growing the economy and enriching billionaires. I’m willing to be that those who took art history are less likely to fall for a fascist dictator.


Did you read the post?!

And most of the people in art history are working at galleries for free, or low paid professors, married to doctors, lawyers, or of generational wealth. I know because I’m closer than I want to be to these people.


Forgot to add - the meaning of that is that they ARE contributing to capitalism and do support our dictator. Most of them are MAGA.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:56     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
A college degree gives one more flexibility for jobs, and generally, jobs that require a degree still pay more than jobs that don't.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:56     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Fromthe OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

This right here is what’s wrong with society. People thinking that skills that improve your way of thinking or looking at the world are bad because they don’t directly translate to growing the economy and enriching billionaires. I’m willing to be that those who took art history are less likely to fall for a fascist dictator.


Did you read the post?!

And most of the people in art history are working at galleries for free, or low paid professors, married to doctors, lawyers, or of generational wealth. I know because I’m closer than I want to be to these people.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:51     Subject: Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Fromthe OP: "We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. "

Clearly, OP has no idea what the purpose of a college education actually is.


Maybe. . . But if that’s true you have no idea what the job of a parent plus a K-12 education is. Like, why the heck are they still teaching cursive writing? What do they really learn in art history class? Most people will never need this garbage. Instead of advanced chemistry, maybe teach investing. We haven’t refreshed the curriculum in decades, yet the skill set we need to be successful has changed dramatically. Let’s make a K-12 education valuable again for the reality we are living in. Most public schools fail to teach real skill and stick kids on an ipad

This right here is what’s wrong with society. People thinking that skills that improve your way of thinking or looking at the world are bad because they don’t directly translate to growing the economy and enriching billionaires. I’m willing to be that those who took art history are less likely to fall for a fascist dictator.