Opinion Mike Rowe - 4 Year College Degrees Are Now Shameful

Senzo Tanaka

Senzo Tanaka

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Agree or disagree? Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame says that 4 year college degrees are now a source of shame. Some aren't even proudly displaying their degrees since they are considered just paid education and they aren't being valued as they once were:



Personally, I've always felt that experience is more important than a degree. I'd take the kid with a GED but is passionate about technology over the person that went 4 years to college and was told how to use technology. Every single person I've ran into with a degree only knows what they've been taught but the stoner that is on his PC every waking hour knows everything and is almost overqualified.

I totally agree with Mike that not everyone needs to go to college and there are 6 figure jobs waiting out there if you just learn a trade. I don't however agree with the other guy acting like this is new phenomenon that started under Biden or recent years. This has been a slow but steady realization that started when colleges started promoting that EVERYONE needed to go or else you'd end up in the streets. People bought into it for awhile where even entry level jobs were requiring a bachelors. That has finally started to change as it should.

I want the world to be educated but college has turned not into a place of learning but a place of indoctrination by professors. They teach you what to think instead of how to think. College also forces you to learn a bunch of classes that have absolutely nothing with your field of study. Degrees should be 2 years or even not even be based on years but work put in. If there's a specific area that you want to study, you should be able to study and certify. That's a college I would be in favor of and support.
 
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Better movement than the entitlement of new grads that believe they are owed something based on University prestige alone...
 
I wouldn't say shameful, maybe less prestigious.

There was a time when graduating high school was an accomplishment, people would throw open houses and celebrate.

But today, graduating high school just means you are not mentally challenged and can follow orders. Actually, you can still be mentally challenged and still graduate high school.

State colleges have become the new high school. Everyone is accepted, everyone graduates, you just have to pay a lot of money to go college. It doesn't seem like it is still much of an accomplishment.
 
fedorthegoat777 said:
State colleges have become the new high school. Everyone is accepted, everyone graduates, you just have to pay a lot of money to go college. It doesn't seem like it is still much of an accomplishment.
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That's one of his points. The GPA average for students at Harvard was 2.55 which is essentially a C+. Harvard was not an easy college and if you excelled, you were basically one of the smartest people in the world. Now? It's 3.8.That basically means everyone in Harvard is getting an A and something tells me that we aren't dealing with the brightest minds in the world anymore.
 
The origins of the "you must go to university if you want to be successful" is based on a flawed study saying that people with postsecondary degrees make a bit more money. It was flawed because they never accounted for the fact that in the past, driven and smart people tended to go to university more than unmotivated and inapt ones. Also universities required a decent chunk of money to attend, which skewed towards richer people who had the parental guidance and resources to succeed.

Nowadays we have way too many people in universities. As a TA in computer engineering for 4 years at a good university, I can say from my experience that probably more than half of the first years in university were completely wasting their time. They didn't have the aptitude and/or motivation to succeed. And this is a field where online resources are plentiful (if not better than the in-class resources), so I imagine in other engineering/STEM fields it would be even worse.

And these numbers are also supported by data. About 40% of undergraduates never finish their degree. Even of the 60%, only probably half have good enough grades to be competitive in the labour market (depending on their field of expertise). And even if they graduate, only 25% of students ever get a job in a related field of their studies.


So, of the 60% who graduate, only 25% get a job related to their major. That already cuts down the usefulness of education to apply to only about 15% of all attendees. Now, that isn't the end of the story. Of those 15% we have to ask: did they need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 4+ years of their life or would they have been just as well off learning on the job, learning practically, teaching themselves, etc.? I know for my field, many of the top students already knew the majority of the curriculum (from self-learning) and were simply using university scores as a way to signal their worth to potential employers.

Beyond the monetary, time and opportunity costs, you also have to look at universities as a supply/demand. They can raise their prices because the demand has been so high for so long. And since costs are artificially high, people who may have the aptitude and motivation to succeed in universities may be priced out of going to university.

This "you must go to university if you want to be successful in life" attitude has made universities a waste of a majority of student's time and money.
 
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Senzo Tanaka said:
That's one of his points. The GPA average for students at Harvard was 2.55 which is essentially a C+. Harvard was not an easy college and if you excelled, you were basically one of the smartest people in the world. Now? It's 3.8.That basically means everyone in Harvard is getting an A and something tells me that we aren't dealing with the brightest minds in the world anymore.
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Harvard's New Grading System:

If you are black you get a 3.7
black and a woman 3.8
black, woman, and gay = 3.9
black, woman, gay, and part of numerous social warrior groups = 4.0
 
Senzo Tanaka said:
Agree or disagree? Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame says that 4 year college degrees are now a source of shame. Some aren't even proudly displaying their degrees since they are considered just paid education and they aren't being valued as they once were:



Personally, I've always felt that experience is more important than a degree. I'd take the kid with a GED but is passionate about technology over the person that went 4 years to college and was told how to use technology. Every single person I've ran into with a degree only knows what they've been taught but the stoner that is on his PC every waking hour knows everything and is almost overqualified.

I totally agree with Mike that not everyone needs to go to college and there are 6 figure jobs waiting out there if you just learn a trade. I don't however agree with the other guy acting like this is new phenomenon that started under Biden or recent years. This has been a slow but steady realization that started when colleges started promoting that EVERYONE needed to go or else you'd end up in the streets. People bought into it for awhile where even entry level jobs were requiring a bachelors. That has finally started to change as it should.

I want the world to be educated but college has turned not into a place of learning but a place of indoctrination by professors. They teach you what to think instead of how to think. College also forces you to learn a bunch of classes that have absolutely nothing with your field of study. Degrees should be 2 years or even not even be based on years but work put in. If there's a specific area that you want to study, you should be able to study and certify. That's a college I would be in favor of and support.
Click to expand...

Sort of

Bullshit degreees are bullshit
 
Lucas1980 said:
Mike Rowe is the man....I still miss Dirty Jobs but his show on You Tube "Somebodys got to do it"...is worth a watch
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I'm currently listening to him interview Neal McDonough on "The Way I Heard It" . . .
 
Definitely times have shifted and getting a degree in basket weaving doesn't do anything for you. Just being a person with a degree isn't the same impact as years ago.
 
It’s been trending this way for decades. In my father’s time, a college degree pretty much guaranteed you a good job. In my grandfather’s time a HS diploma pretty much guaranteed you a good job. By the time my son enters the workforce he’s gonna need a phd just to prevent ai from discarding his resume.
 
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