My son Eric sent me a link to a May 15 New York Times piece by Jacques Steinberg, “Plan B: Skip College”, where the author challenges, or at least questions, the idea that the best path forward for all high school graduates is to go to four-year college. Steinberg cites statistics that only half of those who began a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest projections from the Department of Education. It made me wonder that in a society where people are prone to over consume those items deemed by advertising and cultural norms to be “needs”, we may be over consuming college as well.

(See a lot of discussion of this piece on DailyKOS.)


Is college the only good path forward for older youth these days after they complete high school? Certainly President Obama thinks so, as he pitches the OSFA (one size fits all) college for everyone at commencements and other venues around the country. But, according to Steinberg…

A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.

As a big supporter of “many paths” rather than “one size fits all”, I applaud this group, going against the conventional wisdom of our culture. I’d like to see all our youth have the chance to be successful, to transition into adulthood and find work and build a balanced life that leverages their unique interests and talents, and allows them to make a significant contribution to the larger community. But I don’t believe any one path, such as a conventional academic high school leading to an academic four-year college, can possibly be right for everyone. I can’t even fathom how anyone, including President Obama, would think that it could be.

Getting back to my initial thought, I think I for one may have over-consumed college. Even though my BS in Computer Science was a critical item on my resume to get my first (relatively high-paying) corporate IT job, it was my second bachelor’s degree (received at age 31) and not my first (received at age 23). I had spent five years (and lucky for me financed mostly by financial needs grants from the State of Michigan) getting my first degree in Speech, with a concentration in TV and film production.

If I had had to borrow the money (and particularly at today’s higher costs for a college education) it may well not have been worth it, from a financial point of view. I spent the next five years after obtaining that first degree doing low-paying jobs, but work (including as a community organizer) that was very meaningful to me developmentally, and I think I would have been hobbled financially if I had had to pay back significant loans. The truth is that having gotten my degree had very little to do with the skills I needed to do these jobs, I had learned most of those skills outside any school or academic program.

According to Steinberg…

College degrees are simply not necessary for many jobs. Of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven typically require a bachelor’s degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It was the acquisition of my second bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a path forward I launched into in 1983 at age 28, that really leveraged the money I spent for that degree (all my own money this time, but still not as dear as college is today) towards a worthwhile economic return in terms of the kind of salary I could command in the corporate world.

I think I needed to have those seven years of life experience outside of school, including various lower paying jobs in the real world, to develop the worldly wisdom to choose this path forward, including the investment (for the second time) in a four-year degree. If I had been saddled with significant loans from getting my first degree, I don’t know if I would have made it.

Attending college today is more of a high-stakes endeavor, particularly for those people who can’t get significant academic scholarships. Says Steinberg…

Whether everyone in college needs to be there is not a new question; the subject has been hashed out in books and dissertations for years. But the economic crisis has sharpened that focus, as financially struggling states cut aid to higher education.

In today’s world, more and more, older youth, young adults, and their families are paying a significantly higher percentage of the cost of a college education. I see too many of my son’s and daughter’s peers sink a lot of their family’s or borrowed money in a four-year college right after high school, coming to realize two or three years into that higher education, that maybe they picked the wrong major, or this otherwise wasn’t the right path forward for them. They may in fact have over-consumed education, without enough real world adult experience to best leverage their educational investment.

According to Steinberg…

Among those calling for such alternatives are the economists Richard K. Vedder of Ohio University and Robert I. Lerman of American University, the political scientist Charles Murray, and. They would steer some students toward intensive, short-term vocational and career training, through expanded high school programs and corporate apprenticeships.

From my experience, and the stories I’ve heard from my kids’ friends, this sounds like a really good idea. Some 17 and 18-year-old kids are clear about what they want to be when they grow up, but many are not. Let’s give kids transitioning into the age of majority more initial options, beyond a four-year academic education to get them into the real world of adult life, including initial careers.

If one can start an adult life with at least a living wage and garner real world experience and wisdom, then I think a person can build a much better strategy, perhaps later in their mid twenties, towards investing in the right, now more pricey, four-year college towards a more high-powered, high-paying career.

According to James E. Rosenbaum, an education professor at Northwestern, as quoted in Steinberg’s article…

“I’m not saying don’t get the B.A,” he said. “I’m saying, let’s get them some intervening credentials, some intervening milestones. Then, if they want to go further in their education, they can.”

I think I agree.