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….

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Anonymous wrote:Pôster might be a troll, but she is right. She never said college is bad. She is only stating the obvious. Our economy is not big enough to support the current number of college graduates. So instead of graduating with a film degree from jambalaya state, you might as well go to a Trade school and save your money.

You see, people who need to save their money don't usually graduate with a film degree from jambalaya state - trust funders do and they can afford it.

You would be surprised…..go to any state school….and check the kids studying degrees where there is zero chance of a payoff…..

Hmm… how does that actually help society if taxpayers keep funding basket-weaving degrees?

Useless degrees are in fact a drain on society.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pôster might be a troll, but she is right. She never said college is bad. She is only stating the obvious. Our economy is not big enough to support the current number of college graduates. So instead of graduating with a film degree from jambalaya state, you might as well go to a Trade school and save your money.

You see, people who need to save their money don't usually graduate with a film degree from jambalaya state - trust funders do and they can afford it.

You would be surprised…..go to any state school….and check the kids studying degrees where there is zero chance of a payoff…..

Hmm… how does that actually help society if taxpayers keep funding basket-weaving degrees?

Anonymous wrote:College is to meet a spouse and lifetime post-college social circle. Everything else about it is window dressing. You can get a “business” or “engineering” or “nursing” degree at any degree mill local regional college for cheap. Parents are paying big bucks for the curated dating pools and friend groups; in other words, avoid your kid dating and socializing with lower and middle class if at all possible.