It's not sustainable to sell a product that most people only buy because they were trying to buy something else (or because they're forced to for societal reasons).

That sort of approach is exactly why "Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost" (as the title states)! People are wising up to the truth, and now it's harming the credibility of the system as a whole.

▲

fwipsy 25 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Colleges used to be much more affordable even though they covered liberal arts and engineering together.

Are all colleges unaffordable? Do all colleges require engineering students to take liberal arts? Maybe this isn't universal, maybe it's just that prestigious colleges all have strong liberal arts programs, either out of tradition or because it's required for being seen as prestigious.

Liberal arts courses arguably are still helpful for building general language and reasoning skills.

On the whole though, it does seem strange that I paid the same for a graduate level stats course and a freshman history course, even though the former taught me about five times as much.

▲

SpicyLemonZest 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Everything's a societal reason from some angle. We've probably tilted a bit too hard towards college as a universal path, but I think the median college-degree-required job would still tell you that they're trying to find people who value education and learning for its own sake. The best doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. are the intellectually curious ones who don't see education as a burden.

	▲	conductr 3 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You went from "median" job/employer to "best" employee in high value/pay/education roles. These best employee's don't want to work in the "median college-degree-required job", they likely have done some significant post-grad studies and have also likely been saddled with more debt thus requiring their high paying career outcome just to avoid collapse of their personal finances. I think the median 4 year college graduate going after the "median college-degree-required job", did not care much about their studies at all. They slogged through it hung over from the night before. College was a social experience and gave them a sports team to root for on Saturday. It let them extend their childhood and eschew responsibilities for a few more years. We have this weird cultural thing in the US where we put super high expectations on education systems but we actually don't value education. We value the social clout and whatnot. Public schools are a prime example, parents are the problem. Make your kids do homework! Take away the video games/phone/tablet/wifi/whatever. It translates to college as, do just what is necessary to get a degree. Often the bare minimum, etc. Cheating runs rampant and so on. It manifests itself in so many ways. This might not apply to many students at ivy and top schools, but I'd argue it's certainly the median for the nation's college students the past few decades.
	▲	trimethylpurine 24 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Then sell it to doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Those fields aren't really the issue.