Is a college degree now the worst investment you can make?

Photo above - a future grad begins to question the value of his humanities degree from Faber College . . . .

What is your college degree (or even high school diploma) worth if you used ChatGPT to write your papers, and the professor used AI to grade them? Well, here we are (see link below).

Of course, employers and recruiters are also using AI to screen and reject almost every resume'. According to some reports less than 1% of job applications are ever referred to human for further review. In response, there are now apps to help you defeat the resume' screening process.

Predictably colleges are losing their $hit. When I went with sister and her daughter on a college evaluation road trip a few years ago, the first stop on the campus tour was the indoor rock-climbing wall adjacent to the new cafeteria. I am so NOT making this up. (This was Kent State University. I’m not making THAT up, either.)

This answer is not going to involve better systems to detect AI plagiarized homework and research papers. Or universal basic income for poly sci grads who got fired from their jobs as Starbucks baristas for constantly starting arguments with customers who have the wrong brand of clothing logo visible. The jobs of the future are probably going to be uniformed police officers. Firemen. Ambulance staff. ICE agents – those are the guys ditching their shopping mall guard jobs for a $20,000 pay bump and the chance to carry a real pistol on their belt. You didn’t think those guys were leaving real police positions to chase down people in freezing Minnesota and spend the night in a Springhill Suites $129 a night room at the end of the day, did you?

There was a funny story last week. Someone was hired even though she realized that her credentials were not top-rung. Pleasantly surprised, she asked the manager why. “Because you greeted and spoke to several people in our office by name, after observing their badges. That’s the sort of people skill that makes a difference.”

I’m just sayin’ . . .

https://futurism.com/future-society/ai-college-internships-jobs

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself

It's Starting to Look Like AI Has Killed the Entire Model of College

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@jshm2 voted "best reply".

many universities (and hospitals) fly the flag of "non-profit". but the lavish campuses, ornate buildings, and huge arenas tell the true story.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@jshm2 Quite so. The cost of the degree is one factor. The content is another. But sadly there are many jobs, not strictly requiring a degree, where you need the diploma to get your CV read...😷

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

My mother was a school teacher. Started in a one-room school in ranching country. She always said "an education is very important, but horse sense is more important".

The basic problem, imho, is not AI, nor "junk degrees". It is economics: from the idea you need a college degree, any old degree, to qualify for any job, no matter how basic, to the withdrawal of public funding for public universities, to the predatory, credit card -type scam of "student loans" intended to keep you paying off the interest rates for a lifetime.

I attended what was then, and still now in many polls/studies, the #1 university (or at least #! public university) in the U.S. As a state resident, there was no tuition. Only a minimal "incidental fees" each semester to cover health care services at the campus infirmary/hospital and a portion to the student government which actually ran the athletic programs, the student union, and other such "amenities". (Rock climbing was left to a huge rock not far from campus in a public park, where the renaissance of rock climbing was just catching on.)

Then Reagan became Governor. And in his backlash against student protests -- along with the National Guard, tear gas, and tanks -- came the significant cutting of public funding for the university and college system on the one hand, and the University taking ownership of the amenities previously run by the students. To survive financially, the university instituted ever-increasing in-state tuition, turned to wooing out-of-state, primarily foreign students who would pay higher tuition, became more about winning and running research & development contracts for the Federal Government and major corporations, and -- of course, turning student-athletes into professionals where coaches earned millions more than actual professors all in search of "brand identification" and TV contracts. Now students couldn't afford to come, so the Feds stepped in with a student loan program geared to saddling them to paying interest only for most of their lives if they couldn't pay it off quickly.

And the marketing became focused more on the amenities than the education.

There is nothing wrong with "junk degrees". A valid purpose of universities throughout history has been to advance philosophy, history, arts and language -- our culture -- and not just prepare you for a job. It prepares you also to be a more knowledgeable contributor to community and society. If anything, the science and technical students need it more than anyone to broaden their views on life and to become more empathetic.

We forced universities into becoming more marketing oriented, and kids into thinking they needed a degree to get a job. We need to get back to supporting public education, and the concept that there are multiple tracks for jobs -- junior colleges, even high schools, can provide the vocational skills for a good portion of the job market. Stop seeing education as a way to financially hooking students into life-long debt but as a way of uplifting all of society and expanding the middle class once again.