At the beginning of Chapter 1, Arum and Roksa describe the situation of “Nathan”, a recent college graduate, similar to “…many of his peers…” The book is worth the price, if only for this story.
Nathan graduated in business administration with a 3.9. He lives at home, makes very little money (compared to what colleges “promise”), and is sure that his college degree will be worth it. There is more about Nathan, but you have to go to the book for that.
Is Nathan’s degree going to be worth it? Probably, but only because, as I have argued in this blog, the dumbing down of college has dumbed down high school, leading to even lower expectations for people with just a high school degree. (See posts in the category, University Education Dumbs Down High School.)
The important question is whether Nathan’s high expectations, as a college grad, would be appropriate 30+ years ago, but not now? I think the answer is that they would have been then, but aren’t now. If education is valuable in the workplace, then how could it be that spending 10 hours a week studying (as Nathan did for his 3.9, or even 13 as today’s average student does) will lead to the same gain in value as studying 25 hours a week (the average in the 60’s)? If Nathan based his expectations on his education and not his degree, he would have a more realistic view.
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