This site has a shitload of charts and graphs of information gleaned from census data, from 1790 through 1890.

Where they were from, what they did for a living, how much they made, how many kids, and dozens of other measures. How many Irish in New York, how many single vs married in Austin, how many negro vs white in Mississippi.

http://cellar.org/2012/college.jpg

from here

That graph pisses me off

Yep, me too. Things are broke.

The cost of a degree is crazy. We had more than $100K into my daughter's degree before she quit. It's looking like, even though her grades are respectable, she just isn't into university-level education. Wish she'd been honest at the start, or sooner at least. (No, we didn't push for university over a trade school.) She wanted to do what two of her older brothers did and had blinkers on.

Dare I say it? Maybe university should go back to being the province of those destined for academic careers, and community colleges/trade schools should provide the majority of people with a marketable skill.

I don't know. I'm all in favor of as much education as everyone is willing to absorb, but college has degenerated into frat parties and football. So while that's education of a sort, I suppose, it's not university education anyway. What about college sports? Well, what about them? They certainly aren't academics. As far as I'm concerned they have no place at university beyond intramurals or very local, amateur leagues. :bolt:

you have to go low end these days and go-to teck schools...

Or just regular school...then you'll be able to spell.

or medical school so you can treat yourself and not have a bunch of mad scientists stareing over you for the rest of your life....

JBK, I've been reading a book about parents relating to their children who are dramatically different from them in some way, and I recently finished the chapter on schizophrenia. It was pretty interesting, and helped me understand your art and poems a little more, I think.

One of the more telling parts of the chapter was the number of people who discovered that they had schizophrenia when they took LSD and nothing changed, and only then did they realize that not everyone's brain was like that every moment of every day.

That would scare the crap out of me.

Oh, and that graph? I hate its disingenuousness. disingenuous-ness? The relationship between the length of the line (years) is on a different scale from the height (dollars). Although there are 10 years and 10 ten thousand dollar increments, the ratios are different. The way the graph is drawn makes the cost increase seem more dramatic than it is.

And it takes one cost and doesn't compare it to other economic factors, like inflation. It's meaningless.

College education these days is pretty piss poor and that could be a whole 'nother thread. I taught a college for "dumb poor kids" and a friend of mine taught at a college for "dumb rich kids."

My wife taught for years at Fordham, a fairly respectable school, and she'd tell me about her students who would say they missed class because they had the 'flew.'

The graph should look more like this:

It's like we both know the stop sign is red, but I've no idea what you're seeing. I don't know what's going on in your head either, how you process input, or form your thoughts.

Of course what goes on in my head is normal, the standard...



just like everyone else. ;)

The vertical axis is not in $10,000 increments, it's in percentage change from the 2000 figure.

And I think the comparison is very meaningful. The reason for paying that tuition is the return in salary. Tuition is going up - faster than CPI - and salary for graduates is falling. Soon, if not already, it will be a financial mistake to go to college (for *many* degrees, says the philosophy gradaute, coughing nervously... engineering and medicine are probably still worthwhile).

Oops. Never mind. In that case, it does make sense. I need to follow links and read.
I agree with you about it being a financial mistake to go to college with the idea that college will somehow increase your earning potential. (With the exception of subjects like engineering and medicine and so forth.) As for liberal arts, *cough*fine arts*cough*, and what's that thinking cure called? Philosomething? College should be regarded as the very expensive 4 year vacation that it is.

At big companies I've seen a ton of jobs that require a degree, but they don't care what in, or where from, because they're going to tell you what to do, and exactly how they want it done.

A -That's a sharky looking graph

II - While a bachelor's degree might not pay for itself, it's the ticket in the door for many jobs. Even if a social worker makes the same as a garbage collector, I think I'd rather get the degree and be a social worker.

3 - If there is a trend to forgo college, the drop in enrollment should cause a reduction in tuition.