THE MARKET STARTS TO WORK – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  I've long agreed with the proposition that the college bubble will soon burst – that Americans will finally see that we send too many people to "college," that many colleges are glorified high schools or even adolescent sandboxes, and that "college" isn't, in many cases, worth the money spent on it.  Now we're starting to see some hard-knuckle economic calculations to back up the doubts.  From USA Today: 

College is certainly an investment, but it’s worth it — right?

Maybe not, according to new research from Goldman Sachs.

The company said in a research note published in early December that the average return on college is falling. In 2010, students could expect to break even within eight years of finishing school. Since then, that has increased to nine years. And if this trend continues, students who start college in 2030 without scholarships or grants, it said, may not see a return on investment until age 37.

Recent graduates can relate to the report. Mary Kate Baumann, a 2010 graduate of a private college in upstate New York who also graduated from journalism and business graduate programs at the University of Missouri this year, said, “My undergraduate education was over $200,000 in total and my first job paid only $28,000. That’s a large disparity.”

Goldman Sachs calculated the economic return on college education as the “total all-in cost of college (net of grants and scholarships) and the wages foregone during the 4 years of study versus the wage premium that undergraduate degree holders enjoy versus high school graduates over their working life.”

While the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in October that the job market for grads has seen recent improvements, Goldman Sachs said wages still aren’t cutting it to make up for education costs.

Of course, many students still say college is money well spent.

COMMENT:  Traditionally, we've been told that the economic benefits of college are less important than the intellectual benefits.  You know the line – we "grow" in college.  Trouble is, many colleges, including "prestigious" ones, have deteriorated into bad jokes, wallowing in victimhood and political correctness.  I'm not sure one grows in that environment, but one can certainly shrink.

December 14, 2015