Original Motto of
Clarkson University, from 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
Recently, our University President Angel Cabrera[i] has
posted on the topic of the utility of a collegiate education. For instance, a few weeks back he posted on
his blog, using the title “Skipping college by choice is a very, very bad idea”
(http://president.gmu.edu/2014/02/skipping-college-by-choice-is-a-very-very-bad-idea),
which was in response to an editorial by the New York Times Editorial Board
entitled “Making College Pay”[ii]. And last Sunday night he even posted to his
twitter feed (@CabreraAngel) the following, “Bayesian statistics: even if many
Oscar winners didn't finish college, it's still very difficult to do well
without going to college.”
Let me be succinct in saying that I concur with President
Cabrera. That if I were a betting man
and played the numbers, someone who pursues a college degree and attains it,
will indeed have a higher median salary, more stable employment picture, and
often times has an easier time “doing well”.
I also strongly support that we ought to be encouraging America’s youth
to seek collegiate attainment as a life goal.
I take umbrage, however, at the rather surface level analysis of the “college
degree or not” argument, because I truly believe that, while collegiate
attainment is a significant marker of “success”, it is a very slipshod one.
Let us first start with a fact that I can certainly prove
anecdotally in my own experiences, but can be likewise born out in
statistics. That fact is, that not every
human being has the cognitive capabilities nor has the necessary drive to make
it into and/or succeed at a course of collegiate study. As an analysis tool, let’s start with the bane
of every collegiate applicant’s existence, standardized tests, as a way to look
at the ability of any one person to even enter the college scene. Below are two scatter plots from two collegiate
institutions that show admissions in a graph comparing ACT/SAT score against
GPA:
CUNY Hunter College
|
Richard Stockton
College
|
GPA, Test Scores
for Admission[iii]
|
|
These two charts easily illustrate the point I am making in
regards to who can enter the gates of collegiate education. In both examples those with relatively low
GPA and low SAT/ACT are not selected while those that have the opposite are
selected; no deep revelation there. But
it does bespeak the fact that not all have the capabilities to join the college
and university ranks, which goes straight to the point that while college
attainment is a very worthwhile goal, we cannot fit all people into that
box. Even more illustrative is the
following two analyses that show the challenges of college attainment based on
economic status and ethnicity (see the following charts).
Parental Income v.
SAT Score[iv]
|
SAT Math Scores
Distribution by Ethnicity[v]
|
One of the key points to also be made here is that
correlation does not, necessarily, mean causation (as articulated in the
article for the source of the income graph).
Clearly correlation does reveal things that need to be tested to be
validated as a causation, but like with income disparity (where a poor student
that has high aptitude and drive can overcome the odds), there are other
factors that may prove that the level of collegiate education in your life does
not always relate to your income attainment, well-being, and so forth. It is also clear that part of a collegiate
experience is not merely the academic attainment piece, but the life skills
capability and learning that happens in social, professional and other
non-academic settings that simply may make some people unable to successfully
navigate University life even if they get there[vi].
Now that we have gone over the aptitude of individuals to go
to college, let us next turn to a discomforting fact that not all degrees are
created equal. The following chart from
a Forbes article from last fall is illustrative of this fact.
Average Starting
Salaries by Discipline[vii]
As is illustrated here, there is a wide disparity in
starting salary between someone who pursues and completes a degree in
Engineering or Computer Science as compared with someone who works to complete
a degree in the Humanities or Social Services, by almost a 2 fold delta. And when looking at salary over time, it even
gets more interesting, where the average salary for a Civil Engineer (for
instance) is $78,000[viii] compared with $50,000[ix]
for a History Teacher. So the lifetime
earnings growth picture differs from field to field, meaning, the delta only
widens over time (noting this excludes the difference created based on
graduate/professional degree attainment in the various disciplines). So this is interesting in itself, but it
doesn’t address the point being made regarding earnings on the part of those
who attend college vice those that do not.
To that point, if you look at skilled trades, such as say
plumbing, electrical work, or construction inspection, you find that these
people, who don’t most often hold a college degree, do pretty well when it
comes to income. According to an article
from a couple years ago in AOL Jobs[x], a
Plumber has an average salary of $51,600, and a Construction Building Inspector
is at $48,000. So when this is compared
with our local History Teacher’s salary (at $50,000) all of a sudden, one has
to start questioning whether one ought to pay out over $20/30,000 a year for a
collegiate education (plus interest in loans) rather than entering a trade
school and/or apprenticeship program in a skilled trade area (please note I am
encouraging some sort of education after high school, but questioning college
as the golden ticket). And when you look
at employment outlook (key to the point about unemployment made in Dr.
Cabrera’s post), it gets even more compelling as there has been widespread
angst in regards to where we are going to get the needed trades-persons to
build the America of tomorrow[xi]. Again, this does not discount that a college
degree is a worthwhile goal that all should strive for (and that choosing to do
retail for the rest of your life might not be a wise choice), but it does speak
to the point that there are other ways to attain financial success, and these
aren’t low probability propositions in the aggregate.
Chart of Reporting Firms
Citing Shortages in
various categories of
Skilled Construction Trades[xii]
Speaking of financial success, the final point I would make
surrounds one’s definition of how to “do well”.
Clearly, a person cannot discount that having more financial means at
one’s disposal makes the potential of living life “well”, better. But wealth is not the only measure of
“wellness” or “doing well” that people use in life. For instance, many people marry and opt to
have children. Creating and taking on
the task of raising children is not a positive financial decision in most
families lives, but without question I know that the vast majority of parents
would certainly indicate that their lives have been deeply enriched, enlivened,
and fulfilled by having children[xiii]. Certainly the ability to impart yourself into
future generations is part of wellbeing, but there are other measures too. Why do Engineers who could otherwise be
highly successful in building a private corporation choose to turn to work in
government? Why do lawyers who could
work in tort liability and other financially driven fields instead make a
career of being public defendants or administrative functionaries? Clearly work-life balance, work stress level,
and other factors play into what people find to be critical in “doing well” in
their lives. And while collegiate
attainment can lead to these things, there are other avenues that can enable
such wellbeing.
So to conclude, I do not discount that we should speak
highly of and support college educational attainment as the core of our efforts
going forward as a nation. But I
question the “need”, as Dr. Cabrera cites in his post, for collegiate education
for everyone (as compared with a “high desire” for). Succinctly, I do not believe that to suggest
that there are more ways, than through college, to attain success is a way “… to
legitimize a view that can only harm young people trying to decide on their
future.” Rather, I think it says that
one needs to make a very careful analysis of who they are, where they are
going, and what success looks like for them before jumping on or off that path. Without question, voluntarily turning from a
course that leads you to, and enables, collegiate education is not a decision
to be made lightly (as it is the odds on favorite for leading to success), but
to say that not everyone can or should go to college immediately after high
school (or ever) isn’t trying to “berate” Universities writ large, it is
acknowledging there is a much more nuanced analysis that must take place. Certainly I agree that I am all the better
for having not only a Bachelor’s but also a Master’s Degree (in Engineering
mind you), but I think my younger brother’s trade schooling[xiv]
as a diesel engine mechanic will enable him to be as successful as I, in a way
that is as deep, as financially secure, and as meaningful to him as my
educational choice has been to me.
[i] Dr. Cabrera is the
President of George Mason University, the largest public University in the
Commonwealth of Virginia.
[iii] Both of these analyses
were for 2012. For CUNY Hunter College the source for this graph is http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/hunter-university-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm,
and for Richard Stockton College the source for this graph is http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/richard-stockton-college-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm.
[vi] See the report of the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on this very topic and why students drop out
of college: http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/with-their-whole-lives-ahead-of-them
[viii] Source: http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Civil+Engineer&l1=
[ix] Source: http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=History+Teacher&l1=
[xi] For instance note this
article in the leading construction and engineering industry weekly,
Engineering News Record talking to this shortage of trades workers: http://enr.construction.com/business_management/workforce/2013/0916-shortages-of-craft-workers-engineers-plague-contractors.asp
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] See this recent article
from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-does-having-kids-make-you-happy-20140114,0,6208398.story#axzz2uvA5pRHF
[xiv] Please note that I am
not saying to not get educated, but perhaps other forms of education should
count in a parallel fashion to college.
