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Outcomes/Careers/Benefits of Higher Ed

Book says many U.S. universities are waste of money Reuters July 29, 2010 Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money And Failing Our Kids - And What We Can Do About It, urges parents and students to consider colleges that spend on teaching instead of sports and which encourage faculty to interact with students instead of doing research, taking sabbaticals and sitting on campus committees.  Andrew Hacker, co-author with Claudia Dreifus, said that "Higher education has become the preserve of professors ... (who) really have lost contact with the main purpose of higher education, which is the education of students."

Liberal Arts Colleges Worth Your Money Huffington Post July 28, 2010 Getting a top liberal arts education will cost you a pretty penny, but doling out money for four years at a top school can pay off career-wise. In a recent report, salary data site PayScale revealed this year's top liberal arts colleges by salary potential, showing which schools produced graduates with the largest starting salaries.  Click through our slideshow to see the average starting salary for graduates from each school compared with its annual tuition.

10 Reasons to Go to a Small College U.S. News & World Report - Blog July 28, 2010 One of the critical decisions to make in choosing a college is between the research university and the small college. In the spring, we looked at the case for the research university. This week, we consider what advantages a small (or liberal arts) college has to offer. The typical small college has an enrollment of less than 5,000 students, doesn't have a graduate school, and has a student-to-faculty ratio of under 10:1 - some are even as low as 5:1.  Here are some of the pluses of choosing a small college.

Education 'helps brain compensate for dementia changes' BBC News July 26, 2010 People who stay in education for longer appear to be better able to compensate for the effects of dementia on the brain, a study suggests.

Fewer Americans See College as Good Investment Wall Street Journal - Real Time Economics Blog July 23, 2010 In a survey of 3,000 people, 63.5% said a college education is still a good financial investment for young adults given rising costs, compared to 79.1% last year and 80.9% in 2008. The declining sentiment is reflected across all age groups — 63.5% of those aged 18-29 said college is a good investment, compared to 76.7% last year. Just 61.5% of those over 65 years old said it is a good investment — 82.1% said the same in 2009.

Countdown to college: Is a 4-year degree worth it? McClatchy Newspapers - Opinion Piece July 19, 2010 Employment numbers indicate that a college degree is worth the investment. In February 2010, the unemployment rate among those with a least a bachelor's degree was 5 percent, compared to 15.6 percent for those with a high school diploma.  The long-term benefits are even more encouraging. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, "over an adult's working life, high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn $1.2 million; those with a bachelor's degree, $2.1 million; and people with a master's degree, $2.5 million."

Higher-Education Misperceptions, Myths, and the Media Chronicle of Higher Education - Analysis July 15, 2010 Last week, the New York Times told the story of Scott Nicholson, a 2008 graduate of Colgate University and stand-in for all those millennials who forked over big money for a college education and still find themselves unemployed.  That story topped the Times's most-e-mailed list for a while and garnered over 1,400 comments - a good number railing against the pointlessness of a liberal-arts education.  Such stories don't necessarily affect a particular college, but can make a lasting impression about college in general. They feed into a popular meme that colleges are either pointless, bloated, filled with entitled brats, or all of the above.

Pricey colleges are good values Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa. July 15, 2010 When it comes to college tuition, it seems like you get what you pay for.  Tuition last year at Bucknell University was $40,594. Sixty-two percent of students received some financial aid, with the average award of $25,000, while the average graduate's loan debt was $18,800.  The university may have one of the highest tuition rates in the Valley, but it also ranked No. 2 recently among all liberal arts institutions with its graduates obtaining the highest mid-career salaries - an average of $115,000 a year. Over time, a person with a liberal arts degree can catch up to those earning the bigger salaries right at the start, studies show.

The Real Challenge for Higher Education Inside Higher Ed - Opinion Piece July 14, 2010 To better understand America's lack of a pervasive education culture, consider the fact that as a nation we generally don't greatly value educated people and don't seem to believe that being educated contributes to quality of life beyond that offered by greater economic success.  If you asked the 6th grade students described above a second question, something like, "Do you think it's important to be an educated person in order to have a satisfying life?"  I think the "yes" answers in Europe and Asia would be very high, and in the U.S. very low.

Starting salaries of new college graduates drop 1.3% Associated Press July 13, 2010 The National Association of Colleges and Employers said in its quarterly report on salaries that 2010 graduates' average starting salary was $48,661, down 1.3% from the initial salaries of 2009 graduates.  People majoring in general studies saw some of the biggest drops in compensation. The average offer for them tumbled 17.7% to $37,356.  A few industries bucked the trend, however, raising compensation for new hires. Offers for economics majors rose 2.1% to $50,885, while those studying finance got a 0.8% bump to $50,356.

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