The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/education/edlife/edl-24masters-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
It seems clear to me that we are having an education bubble exactly the same as the housing bubble. When I started my MBA more than 15 years ago it was purported to be the only graduate degree that had an economic payback (meaning the lifetime incremental increase in income outweighed the lost wages and direct cost of the education). Even as an undergrad I recall quite clearly the many professors lamenting how unprepared we were for class and this was 20 years ago. If students were not considered college ready 20 years ago, how much worse could the situation be today? Now, due to government interference exactly like the housing situation, people are basically being forced/coerced into getting a bachelors degree (of course, with the Fannie/Freddie analogous financing by Sallie we have more parallels) which are driving up costs (how is it possible that the price of education outstrips inflation for decades? EXACTLY like the housing bubble!) and reducing long-term benefits. Now we see that to get a job that used to only require a bachelors, now a masters is required. This is a telling point to me:
“Nearly 2 in 25 people age 25 and over have a master’s, about the same proportion that had a bachelor’s or higher in 1960.”
Just like the high school diploma has been cheapened to uselessness by the governments absolute insistence that everyone get one (regardless of qualifications), now the bachelors degree has become nearly useless. Soon, as the article mentions, a PhD will be required to be qualified and without a doubt getting one will be at least as easy as it used to be to get a high school diploma.
In the Philippines it is quite routine to see college graduates working at McDonald’s. They even specify a degree when the advertise the job. And why not? If you can get them, at least you can feel reasonably sure they will show up for work!
