Re:A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
by jmchuster on Friday July 31, 2020 @09:10PM
(#24016335)
Oh, for sure, slips of paper can be super-valuable. I don't think their main value, however, come from the implied expert-level assessment. Rather, I think their value comes from the implied gating requirement to even get in in the first place. Harvard is more famous for how hard it is to get into, rather than how hard it is to graduate, and then the resulting exclusive club you get to become part of once you're in.
Being part of an exclusive club and having a built-in reputation opens many more doors and makes getting some jobs a lot easier. So then you have to calculate the value of that potential. Department of Education estimated the earning potential for Ivy Leagues to be on average 40k more a year, up to 130k more a year.
If we're comparing a college then with no reputation vs taking only online classes, I wonder if there is much if any appreciable difference per year. Maybe at that point the value of the college education is mostly in the knowledge and skills you gain and the paper itself has negligible worth. So then make sure you're only paying a negligible amount to get that paper.
Re:A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
by NigroqueSim on Saturday August 01, 2020 @12:27AM
(#24017615)
What? Giving an exam is expensive? How many years of college can you test out with AP classes alone?
I would add the costs behind providing that slip of paper are not insignificant.
It requires having people with expert level knowledge of the field assess your work and your knowledge over a broad range of courses.
So universities in the US are ridiculously over priced, but the value they provide is still > 0.