The Value of a Liberal Arts Degree: Is It Worth the Student Loans?
Interesting story about some college grads that are having trouble paying back the loans they took out:
In an eerie echo of the subprime meltdown, recent college graduates in the Hub and nationwide are reeling under mortgage-sized student loans they’re not able to repay – and probably shouldn’t have gotten in the first place.
“I know I took the loans and I know I have to pay them back, but how am I supposed to start a life?” said 27-year-old Michelle Misiaszek, who’s moved in with her grandparents in Wilbraham to save money as she struggles with $125,000 in student loans.
The tough economy is making it hard for recent grads to get good jobs, but critics also blame the growing use of high-interest “private” student loans.
I didn’t take out private loans but I did take out others to get my degree in Political Science. Was it worth it? Not even close. I have since put my Political Science degree from the University of Massachusetts through the shredder. It was a waste of time and money and I’m sorry I ever bothered with a liberal arts degree in the first place.
Looking back at it I would have probably gone for journalism, operating under the assumption that the degree might just teach me some useful writing skill sets. My political science degree didn’t teach me much except to bullshit and regurgitate what my usually far-left professor had to say.
But if I had to do it again I’d do it in the cheapest manner possible. It’s just not worth going into large amounts of debt just to get a piece of paper from a university. With the internet you can do so much self-teaching these days that to put yourself thousands and thousands of dollars into debt just isn’t smart at all.
In my case, I graduated high school in 1987. Well before the web happened for sure. It was a different time. I remember feeling a LOT of pressure to go to college or be a “loser.” Ha. Little did I know that I was being manipulated by the government run school system and conned into going into debt for a degree that was pretty much worthless to me in a financial sense.
So what did I do after I graduated? I temped (yeah that was fun…not!) and finally landed an entry level gig at ZiffNet in Cambridge. I got that job because I had spent a lot of time on AOL, CompuServe and other online services. So I was a good fit for them. I did not get the job because I had a political science degree from the UMass diploma mill. I was hired because of online skill sets that I had built up on my own time and in my own way.
Imagine that…I taught myself how to do things that the government school systems didn’t teach me. And it got me a job that I’ve turned into a good career as a writer and online community manager. Not too shabby.
Unfortunately like a lot of dumb students who fall into the trap of going to college just because “that’s what you’re supposed to do” I had to pay those loans back that I took out and it took me years. Ugh. I would have done it far differently if I had to do it over again.
So think very, very carefully if you are thinking about going to college for a liberal arts degree. Plan ahead and understand that the thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in debt you might run up is NOT A GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL HAVE A JOB.
Seriously, think it over carefully and remember that the people who benefit from your loans are the professors in their cushy jobs and the other people employed by the university. You are going into debt to pay their salaries and benefits. You may or may not get a degree that is worth something but you will get a lot of debt that you will have to pay back over a period of years.
Is it really worth it for the “education” that you will get? I doubt it. Today’s universities – especially the public ones – will be happy to take your money and give you your piece of paper. But will they give you anything of real value in return? It’s very doubtful they will. Remember that they don’t really care about you or your life. They are there to provide employment for the professors, administrators, etc. that work there.
Think it over very, very carefully before you sign those loans and remember that college is no guarantee of success or even a good job. You may go into a lot of debt and find yourself working for a low salary and crappy benefits. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to go to college to succeed in life.
In my case quite a lot about what I learned about writing, for example, I learned on my own. I learned it by reading books, reading articles online and just sitting down and doing it. Over the years I’ve written lots of different software reviews, opinion articles, previews, hardware reviews and gobs of other stuff. I didn’t learn how to do that in college, I learned on my own and built a career for myself by providing the value of good writing (and online community management) to my various employers.
I wish I could say that the classes I took in college really prepared me for all of that but they didn’t. I did it on my own.
Maybe you will too. 
Edit: Here are a couple of horror stories for you to bear in mind as you consider whether or not to go to college for a liberal arts degree:
Michelle Misiaszek: ’Drowning in debt at 26’
Edit 2: Take what I say with a grain of salt (as you should with anything you read on the Internet) and make your own decisions based on your own needs, means and abilities.
I don’t want to push anybody one way or the other but I encourage people to think outside of the box and not get caught up in a mad rush to do the exact same thing everybody else is doing.
Ultimately it’s your life though and you’re the one that will have to deal with the consequences of your choices whether you go for a liberal arts degree or not.
Edit 3: See the NES thread about this for some interesting comments by NES members.
Related posts:
- Is New Hampshire Turning Liberal? Who’s Responsible?
- Leftists, Guns and Free Speech at the University of New Hampshire
- 48 Liberal Lies About American History
- Massachusetts Home Prices Falling…Liberal Democrats Might Leave New Hampshire
- Panda Bites Stupid Person
The advice you give in this posting of yours borders on — nay, qualifies as — downright irresponsible… or so it is, at least, my opinion. While it’s true that going deeply into debt for exorbitant amounts of money in order to get an undergrad education isn’t the smartest thing a person can do, it seems intentionally mean-spirited misguidance for you to suggest to young people who may happen to find your posting, here, that they should opt out of getting a degree. All one need do to grasp the foolishness of that is notice all the employment postings on Craigslist or Monster or any other such web site which state, unequivocally, that a bachelors degree is required. Sometimes, they don’t even care what the bachelors degree is in, just as long as the applicant has one. Having one is an indicator of a certain minimum amount of education on the holder’s part, as well as said holder’s ability to discipline himself/herself to the completion of the coursework and having earned the credential.
I’m 52 years old (at this writing). A bachelors degree, today, is what a high-school diploma was when I was young. Just as people with no high-school diploma had trouble getting the really good jobs when I was coming-up, those with no bachelors degrees have trouble getting the really good jobs today.
Of course there will always be extraordinary people — such as you seem to be suggesting that you are — who can make it through life on their unusual wit and preternatural skill without a college degree. However, even in your case that can’t really ever actually be known because you, in fact, have a degree; and even though you think that it has never factored-in to any employer’s decision to hire you, the fact that you have it probably made you more attractive than you realize to said employer than other candidates who possessed whatever other skills not learned in college which you possessed.
There are seemingly countless ways for one to obtain an accredited undergraduate degree without having to mortgage one’s soul. If one insists on going to an institution of higher learning to obtain a four-year undergraduate degree with a $125,000 price tag, then, in my opinion, they get what they deserve. That’s a lot of money, even by high-end school standards; and in my five decades of experience — more than three of them as a hirer — it is, in most cases, an high amount of money that needn’t have been spent to get a decent and respectable four-year, accredited undergraduate degree.
Here in California, it’s possible for high-school graduates to knock out the first two years of a four-year bachelors degree at any of the state’s accredited community colleges for only $20 per credit hour. That’s only $60 per three-credit-hour course; or $1,200 for the entire freshman and sophomore years (which is one-half, or 60 semester hours) of a four-year (120 semester hour) bachelors degree. From there, completion of the third and fourth (junior and senior) years, and obtaining a full four-year bachelors degree, is possible at an accredited state school (or even an accredited private, in come cases) for typically around $400 to $700 per three-semester-hour course; or a total of another maybe $8,000 to $14,000 (atop the original $1,200 for the entire first two years), resulting, in the end, in a four-year bachelors degree costing from just under $10,000 to just under $16,000, front to back.
That’s around one-tenth of what Michelle Misiaszek borrowed, and which she now decries. Even if the student bypasses the $20-per-credit-hour community college and takes all four years at the more expensive four-year-degree school, it would still come out to only around $16,000 to $28,000 for the entire four-year degree. This amount, of course, doesn’t include books or housing; but then again, neither should the $125,000 that Misiaszek paid since most makers of student loans cover tuition only, or tuition and books only, but not also such things as housing (though, that said, some private lenders may very well cover everything from soup to nuts).
The only reason that Misiaszek or anyone else endures the kind of outrageous price tag that she did for an accredited undergraduate degree is not because she or they were duped into believing that a degree was necessary but, rather, because they were duped into believing that only a degree from an expensive, hoity-toity, uppity, all-full-of-itself school was worth having. There’s the mistake.
Now, that said, it is true that some masters programs or law schools, and some jobs/careers favor those who have degrees from the hoity-toity schools in largest measure because the hoity-toity schools are often better and more rigorous than equally accredited, but nevertheless sub-standard-by-comparison, state (and some private) schools. Accreditation, remember, is a measure of minimum standards, not maximum ones. Two equally regionally accredited schools compared, side-by-side, may be far from equal in terms of where they each reside in relation to the upper-end of the overall quality scale. And if one needs, for whatever reason, to have a degree from a school that is higher on the quality scale than the less expensive state schools, then he or she should understand — and know, going in — that that kind of quality has a price tag… sometimes a hefty one, perhaps as high as $125,000… often not-insignificantly more.
It’s true that getting a college degree is not guarantee of getting a job… but that has always been the case. Since higher education’s very beginnings, a college degree has never, in and of itself, been a free ticket to a good job or career… especially now that a college degree has become the minimum standard credential, as having a high-school diploma once was, for even being considered. Beyond the degree, it is the individual, and what he or she brings to the table, which determines whether he or she will land the job. It was nearly five centuries ago when Niccolò Machiavelli wrote that it is not the degree that makes the man, but the man who makes the degree. It is not the credential itself or alone but, rather, what its holder does with it and adds to it that most matters. And that has always been true… perhaps more now than ever.
To expect that any degree — even one from a hoity-toity school — will be a guarantee of employment is just foolhardy… ridiculous, on its face. To go further and extrapolate that fact into the far-from-foregone conclusion that, therefore, a college degree is not worth having is syllogistic fallacy of the most irresponsible and shameful kind.
And as long as we’re covering irresponsible things you wrote here that are worthy of shame, UMass is not a “diploma mill.” Please don’t refer to it as one. It only adds to the misinformation that you are conveying, here, to young folks who are exploring their higher educational options.
Obviously, you do not know the definition of what has come to be called a “diploma mill” or “degree mill,” either of which is characterized by both having no accreditation of any kind; and by offering so-called “degrees” in exchange for mere money, but requiring of the “student” little or no actual work. A given school cannot possibly be a diploma or degree mill if it is accredited by an agency approved by the United States Department of Education (USDOE) or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
UMass is “regionally” accredited, which is the most common (and some would argue the best) kind of accreditation that a college or university can have from a USDOE- and/or CHEA-approved agency. However, as I earlier mentioned, accreditation is a measure of minimum, and not maximum possible, standards. All of UMass and Harvard and Yale and nearly every other public or private state college or university in the nation are regionally accredited…
…but few would argue that they are all equal in terms of overall quality. All accreditation means is that the school meets certain minimum standards of rigor and responsibility in terms of its coursework, the education and expertise of its professors, how it manages itself and its finances, and such things as that. If a school is accredited by an agency approved by USDOE, then all it means is that said school meets the minimum standards for its students to qualify for government loans and tuition reimbursement programs; and if a school is accredited by an agency approved by CHEA, then it means that the quality of its coursework meets certain minimum (but still very high) standards. Most accrediting agencies are approved by both USDOE and CHEA, so most schools accredited thereby meet both kinds of minimum standards.
A school being regionally accredited (or accredited in most any other way, as long as it’s by a USDOE- and/or CHEA-approved accrediting agency) absolutely, positively guarantees that it’s not, categorically, a “diploma mill.” It may or may not be as good a school as you’d prefer, but that doesn’t make it a diploma mill. It merely means that on the scale of costs, it should probably not be charging students as much as a school that you and others might find objectively better. And I would agree that probably none of them should be charging $125,000 for a four-year undergraduate degree, in any case!
There will always be people — people like you, apparently — who could have probably done it all without having a degree… smart and self-motivated people who know how to learn things quickly and all by themselves, and who can make big things happen for themselves in their lives with or without a higher education credential. But those people need to realize that they are the exception, rather than the rule; and so, therefore, for such as they to project onto all others their own specialness and lack of need (whether real or only imagined) for a degree is irresponsible by its ability to mislead the rest of us mere mortals who will need a degree just to have a place at the consideration table… just to get our feet in the employment or career door.
In that sense, having a degree at all is a bit like an institution’s being accredited at all. The mere fact of a given institution’s not being accredited is not tacit evidence of it also being a diploma or degree mill. There are many unaccredited programs that are nevertheless rigorous and easily on-par with accredited ones. However, without the imprimatur of accreditation, there is no easy way for the prospective student (or for the prospective employer trying to figure out if s/he wants to hire someone with a degree therefrom) to figure out if the school is any good. Oh, sure, one could do one’s own due diligence and, in time, figure it out. But no prospective employer is going to take that kind of time. He or she wants to just look the school up in the big, official book of accredited schools (or on the USDOE or CHEA websites) and see if it’s accredited. If the potential employer must do special due diligence to figure out of a given job candidate’s unaccredited degree is from an school that is nevertheless credible, then there’d be no time for anyone to actually ever get hired.
There is a parallel for those who have a degree… especially one from an accredited school. Right out of the gate, it tells the prospective employer that the candidate likely knows how to do such basic things as spell, and write, and string words together into cohesive sentences; and so is less likely to embarrass the employer if he or she is actually hired. It tells the prospective employer that the candidate has the sticktuitiveness to complete something as long-term and arduous as a degree; and so might do well on long-term projects at work. These sorts of very minimalistic things — and often much more — may reasonably be intuited by the prospective employer just by the fact that the candidate has a degree… and all without said prospective employer having to do his or her own time-consuming (and unreasonable, under the circumstances) due diligence to figure it all out.
Your anger and bitterness about the perceived worthlessness of the degree you have is palpable. If I could be in your shoes and know what you know, perhaps I’d agree. However, I think you do a great disservice to young people everywhere who may stumble onto this posting of yours, as I have done today; and who may, because of it, subsequently decide to just skip the degree and try their luck in life without it. And who knows, they may even have success… but, in my experience, likely only for as long as they’re young. But as they age they will find that the degree matters more than maybe they first realized.
When one is young and capable of amazing, impressive, prodigious things, as it appears has always been the case with you (and please know, if so, just how blessed and gifted that makes you), it’s easier for them to get those older who are in hiring positions to give them a chance that maybe someone further up in years would not so easily get. It’s also sometimes easier for younger folks to get jobs, regardless of their education, simply because they’re often willing to work for less than are older folks.
You’re in… what… your very early forties now (as of this writing), so you haven’t experienced this yet, but trust me when I tell you that there will come a day when you have, in the minds of those younger who are in hiring positions, somewhat aged-out of your profession. When that happens (and you’re potentially as little as a decade or so away from it beginning in your life), every little thing that will make you appear more qualified in the mind of the hirer will matter… starting with (and I emphasize the phrase “starting with”) your bachelors degree which you now believe so worthless. Having it in your hip pocket will matter some day. You’ll see.
In the meantime, for those of us less gifted than you appear to be, not having a college degree is a flat-out mistake; and your misguiding your readers to the contrary is flat-out irresponsible. Please don’t get me wrong: You’re entitled to your opinion; but hopefully you will allow that opinion to be fairly balanced by permitting this commentary to remain beneath it on this page. Let the reader decide.
_________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg@greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
Gregg you sound like somebody that works for a university. Is that the case? Are you employed within any kind of university system? If so it doesn’t surprise me that you’d write a wall of text supporting the idea that people go into debt to obtain a college degree. It probably serves your financial interest to do so.
Did it occur to you that it might be better for some people to go the trades route instead? One of the biggest problems with a “liberal arts” degree that it often lacks concrete skill sets that can be sold in the market place.
I think the irresponsible one giving potentially bad advice here is you. You seem to be regurgitating the idea that everybody MUST go to college and I strongly disagree with that. I can understand the value in degrees that offer strong career possibilities but a degree in basket weaving isn’t going to offer a whole lot on its own.
As far as age discrimination goes that is always a possibility. But my political science degree didn’t get me hired when I got out of college and it surely isn’t going to get me hired as a community manager, producer or writer in ten more years.
What will? My skill sets and experience. It is my responsibility to make sure I stay current within my discipline and keep advancing my skill sets. No degree from a diploma mill like UMass is going to do that for me (and yes it’s a diploma mill in its own right regardless of accreditation but that’s a different topic).
Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts though. I disagree with much of your perspective but it’s always a good idea for anybody reading a blog to get a dissenting point of view. Helps stimulate critical thinking so thanks for that.
The only people I know with liberal arts degrees are Liberal Socialists. They are either blaming their pathetic existance on the Administration or they are employed by a State funded school and are simply tax dollar leeches who only push their Socialist agenda.
It doesn’t surprise me that Gregg is from one of the Socialist utopia’s in this country, California. Gregg go preach somewhere else, not all right wingers are bible thumpers either. I suppose your next tirade is going to be on “How GUNS cause CRIME”…
Liberal Arts, what a joke…