Quote Originally Posted by Johnson85 View Post
Yes and no. They don't need college to learn something particularly relevant to what they eventually end up doing for a living. They just need the sheepskin to be given a shot at a job they think they want to do.

Every body needs to learn some marketable skills. Anybody spending money on college without a specific application when they get out is rolling the dice when they don't need to.

This is still not true on average. Supposedly if you put college grads in one group and non-college grads in the other, the college graduate at the 25th percentile in earning in the college grad cohort out earns the the high school graduate that is at the 75th percentile in the non-college grad cohort.


We probably see the flip side. I see a lot marginal graduates that just barely get their foot on the bottom rung of a white collar ladder, and many of those end up moving up enough to be worth it and the ones that don't don't have a horrible deal. You probably see a lot of marginal graduates that don't get that bottom rung and get nothing out of it except debt and foregone earnings.

Even before the college bubble and credentialism really took off, only about 1/3 of college graduates worked in something related to their college degree.

But definitely agree that if you're a marginal student or your heart is just not in college, going the skilled trades route is probably a better option. We've gone so overboard with shuffling everybody with a pulse through college that it doesn't take much to stand out in skilled trades. And if you end up not liking it, it's a lot less painful to go do something else than it is to be a college graduate with $40k in debt and no real job skills.
I agree on much of your comments but I think you took a few of my comments out of context a little. Look at the number of jobs in market, a small % actually require a college degree. Now we can debate some bogus requirements that a company may put on them even while 80% of mfg jobs require no degree. I even see companies promote non engineers for example into engineering roles if they have been in mfg long enough and know enough. Now they can't do what an engineer can do but they fill those roles anyway. Why, because they can't find enough engineers and they pay them less.

Throw in retail, etc. where the % is even higher of non degree requred. Yes those in management likely have a college degree whether it is in their field of study or not but then you have to ask what did the degree accomplish but meet some bogus phony requirement from the company? Answer is nothing. The % of people in mgr roles requiring degrees has increased over years but in reality it isn't necessary in half the roles.

Now look at the 250K or so investment for that liberal arts degree vs a skilled tradesmen that makes 150K a year. I see this all the time. it is about the rule not the exception. My wife is even an accountant running the finances for a large organization with a college degree and she only makes 35-40K a year working in her field. She does get some benefit perks so there is that. She is in her 40s age wise too. Ole Joe could learn her job on the fly but better with degreed person.