Tonight on Stossel: The College Scam

[jct74]

Sounds like an interesting show this week.

This Week's Show: The College Scam

How can college be a "scam"?

We hear that young people need to go to college.

"Your future depends on it!"... "It's the only way to get a good job!"

Hillary Clinton says: "Graduates from 4 year colleges earn nearly twice as much as high school graduates...an estimated one million dollars more."

Many experts agree.

But I argue that for many students, if not most, college actually is a scam. Clinton's $1,000,000 earning disparity is deceitful because it's based on a census study that doesn't factor in the fact that kids who apply to college are already more motivated.

The truth is that many colleges don't teach much. Many students are not right for what is taught. Yet this decade, college tuition rose 92% (the CPI was up about 27%).

Tonight, I expose blaring liberal bias on campuses, and lazy tenured professors, who spend little time actually teaching America's kids.

We meet an entrepreneur who pays people not to go to college.

And I confront a representative from my alma mater, Princeton. The college constantly tries to get more money from its alumni, but I'm guessing they might stop contacting me after this week.

Is college worth it? Find out tonight at 10pm EST on FBN. The show will re-air Saturday and Sunday at 9pm & midnight EST.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2011/06/30/weeks-show-college-scam

Here's a video of Stossel talking about the upcoming show:
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1032356599001/stossel-college-a-scam-for-many/

UPDATE: Video is up







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhXKkswynC0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmOU8Apd0As
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r02NEElBZHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qGR7KA-c8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoqBO_ltiI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGUD-CBo6AQ

 

[QueenB4Liberty]

Awesome! Will definitely catch this sometime this weekend.

 

[jmdrake]

Let's see. A successful news commentator who graduated from Princeton is telling people not to go to college? Did any of his children not go? Will his grandkids not go? I don't go along with every thing every commentator who has embraced the liberty movement says. And Stossel has said some incredibly stupid things in his career. (Non-organic fruits and veggies don't have pesticide residue. Soft drinks are as healthy as fruit juice. etc)

Go to the classifieds for any major city and go through the help wanted ads. Look at how many ads require at least a BS in a certain field. Now granted some degrees are "BS" to start with. People don't need to go to college with the illusion that their degree in "urban studies" will do anything for them except qualify them for graduate school.

Does that mean that college is the only way to get ahead? Of course not. You can learn an in demand trade like plumbing. (The building boom is down, but people still have clogged toilets). But on the job training is getting harder to come by and people are spending college like tuition to go to trade school.

 

[Watch]

You make valid points JMdrake, but you are missing the point of the problem with the education BUBBLE. The question really is: Does the cost of education equal what it gives you universally?
Economically I would say no, maybe that is because I am an Austrian economist.
Where I work on the application it says we require drug testing for all applicants. I have worked for my company for 5 years, and have never had, nor heard of a drug test being ordered for ANY applicant. To this what do you say?
If that anecdote doesn't serve purpose how about this one: I spent 42,000 on my AS, tuition alone. I'm about to go back to school to see if I can further my AS. What if I call my school(which was a tech school in Florida) and they tell my degree isn't nationally accredited. What then is this degree worth?

This is a problem because the FED told Sallie Mae to lend me 72,000 knowing full well I don't have a job.

 

[Velho]

I spent 42,000 on my AS, tuition alone.

Holy shit. I never thought education could be so expensive.

 

[Watch]

Holy shit. I never thought education could be so expensive.

Yeah, I have Science degree in Arts... shakes head..
I can fully to admit to being 19 and not knowing much about credit and things before I signed up.
My other option I was thinking of was a Jesuit school I had a $24,000 scholarship to(sounds nice until you realize that is the TOTAL sum of all four years) that was 36,000 a semester, not including room and board which was required as a freshman.
My student loan payments before re-consolidation with my father co-signing was 674.00 a month. Thankfully I re consolidated(still have pops to co-sign), and it dropped to 541.00. I was paying MORE than my father's mortgage!
I've come to terms with my loss, and make up for it by saying that I met some amazing people(which I did, and I will never argue money can buy the friendship of a good person).

 

[Southron]

There is way too much pressure to go to college. Learn a trade and pocket the difference and save for a house.

Should be interesting to watch.

 

[Watch]

This is very good advice, this is the advice I give to people all the time
I would only add this: Learn the trade, and then learn how you can be better than everyone you know in the trade, and then shall you pocket the difference.
For me, to get an internship in the door of the place I wanted to work, I had to have either a degree, or a certificate(spend 20k on a certificate?? Well shoot I am not that dumb [sarcasm]). So I did that, I got a job and guess what happened in 2008?
Dun dun DDUUUUNNN!!
The little non-union place I was working for crashed.

 

[qh4dotcom]

A comment on that link

Rising tuitions can be explained quite easily. Government intervention into student finance (gov't guaranteeing student loans) ends up artificially lowering student loan interest rates and allows for students to have access to loans that normally would not in a free market. Lower interest rates, loans for people that wouldn't normally qualify . . . sound familiar? This easy money policy allows tuition prices to rise the same way housing prices artificially rose as a result of government's easy money policies. A free market would force professors to work harder, universities to get more efficient, and the quality of education would have to increase as tuition prices decrease in the same manner that every other free market acts.

 

[ItsTime]

Go to the classifieds for any major city and go through the help wanted ads. Look at how many ads require at least a BS in a certain field. Now granted some degrees are "BS" to start with. People don't need to go to college with the illusion that their degree in "urban studies" will do anything for them except qualify them for graduate school.

A lot do and a lot don't. A lot want a BS OR equivalent work experience. So someone who did not go to college and worked in a company from the ground up could work his way into good paying jobs without the debt college brings.

I can't tell you how many jobs I have been offered without the degree they were "requiring" just because of my work experience. My degree in political sci is really useless in the real world.

 

[qh4dotcom]

Any video of Stossel's show?

 

[frodus24]

As an Assistant Director of Financial Aid at a private university, I can visually see what really goes on in higher education. For a great many students, I feel that it's a rip off. Tax payer money is wasted with grants. Many of the students that I work with take out Stafford Loans (Sub and UnSub), Perkins and Private Loans. Normal borrowing amounts for a first-year student amount to $9,500.00-$13,500.00. And these students are "very need" based types of students who do not excel in high school. So, upon completion and graduation, they are burdened with an exorbitant amount of debt and will most likely never be able to repay. The middle class is being eaten alive as well. Parents take out PLUS loans that range up to $20,000.00 a year and struggle to repay. It's an unbalanced approach in this empire. The loan bubble could be the next to go "POP"!

 

[Son of Detroit]

There is way too much pressure to go to college. Learn a trade and pocket the difference and save for a house.

Should be interesting to watch.

What if this is NOT what you want to do with the rest of your life? I don't want to be a plumber or electrician. I want to go to law school, and thus I have to go to college to get my bachelor's degree.

Just as the college route isn't for everyone, the non-college route isn't for everyone either.

 

[Rothbardian Girl]

As an Assistant Director of Financial Aid at a private university, I can visually see what really goes on in higher education. For a great many students, I feel that it's a rip off. Tax payer money is wasted with grants. Many of the students that I work with take out Stafford Loans (Sub and UnSub), Perkins and Private Loans. Normal borrowing amounts for a first-year student amount to $9,500.00-$13,500.00. And these students are "very need" based types of students who do not excel in high school. So, upon completion and graduation, they are burdened with an exorbitant amount of debt and will most likely never be able to repay. The middle class is being eaten alive as well. Parents take out PLUS loans that range up to $20,000.00 a year and struggle to repay. It's an unbalanced approach in this empire. The loan bubble could be the next to go "POP"!

This is EXACTLY the situation I'm finding myself in. I did moderately well in high school because I was a bit of a slacker, but I didn't excel, and I'm now paying the price for it. I guess the only thing I can really do at this point is put my nose to the grindstone in college and hope to get a full or at least severely discounted ride through law school, which would be the next step after college for me at this point.

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

it's simple, because of the higher cost of living now, people seek higher education to make more money, just to be able to live.

 

[jmdrake]

A lot do and a lot don't. A lot want a BS OR equivalent work experience. So someone who did not go to college and worked in a company from the ground up could work his way into good paying jobs without the debt college brings.

Well in the computer science world many want a BS and work experience. I know more about that because that was my career most of my life. Answer me this. If you were an employer and you had a choice between someone with a BS and 5 years experience and someone without a degree and 6 years experience which would you choose? Of course it depends on the field, but I'm talking in general.

I can't tell you how many jobs I have been offered without the degree they were "requiring" just because of my work experience. My degree in political sci is really useless in the real world.

Well hopefully you're putting your poli sci degree to use this year. Seriously though, not all degrees are created equal. It's not everyday that someone needs a political scientist. It is everyday that someone needs an engineer or a nurse or a programmer or an accountant or a myriad of other degrees where people typically want someone to have at least a BS.

 

[jmdrake]

You make valid points JMdrake, but you are missing the point of the problem with the education BUBBLE. The question really is: Does the cost of education equal what it gives you universally?
Economically I would say no, maybe that is because I am an Austrian economist.
Where I work on the application it says we require drug testing for all applicants. I have worked for my company for 5 years, and have never had, nor heard of a drug test being ordered for ANY applicant. To this what do you say?
If that anecdote doesn't serve purpose how about this one: I spent 42,000 on my AS, tuition alone. I'm about to go back to school to see if I can further my AS. What if I call my school(which was a tech school in Florida) and they tell my degree isn't nationally accredited. What then is this degree worth?

This is a problem because the FED told Sallie Mae to lend me 72,000 knowing full well I don't have a job.

Borrowing money to go to school is a bad idea. It's a doubly bad idea if all you're getting is a 2 year degree. I borrowed some for law school and wish I hadn't, but I wasn't doing that all on my own terms. (Hint to anyone who's not married. Whatever you want to do with your life do it before you get married. Then don't take any advice from anyone on what you want to do with your life). I did undergrad and grad school debt free. I did two years undergrad at a private school that my parents helped pay for, but I finished at a state school where my part time computer tech job covered all my costs. And many graduate schools provide free rides for people willing to teach part time. (Not true for law or medical school. But true for chemistry, physics, comp sci and engineering graduate students).

 

[jmdrake]

There is way too much pressure to go to college. Learn a trade and pocket the difference and save for a house.

Should be interesting to watch.

Here's the problem. You know have to pay an arm and a leg for trade school. We need more OJT (on the job training) opportunities. I know a lot of people who haven't gone to college and are just basically drifting at this point. Some are trying to get the money for trade school. It's not the panacea some people think it is.

 

[Fermli]

when will it air on Fox News?

 

[gerryb]

College degrees are overpriced from conventional institutions.

You can get a fully accredited degree for $5,000-15,000 from several colleges -- using CLEP, DSST/DANTES, and other "testign out" methods.

Gary North has some good articles on this.