Status Updates From Is College Worth It?: A For...

Wish this book had been written when I was starting college. I would have done things much, much differently.

suck up $s

58% of all first-time students who started 4 year schools in 2004 graduated within 6 years. Why should America tell its high school graduates that college is always the best investment, when many pay an enormous amount of $ for no degree? With unemployment rate for recent grads hovering around 50%, we suspect the calculus for the return on college is likely to change.

The Journal of American College Health found that 42% of students living in coed dorms binge drink each week, compared to only 18% of non-coed residents. Almost needless to say, the study found binge drinkers do worse in school, sleep less, and disrupt other students more.

K-12 spending has tripled over the last 50 years, and the results are getting worse not better. Until K-12 education improves dramatically, there is only so much room for improvement in higher education. The crime here, beyond the squandering of public dollars, is the waste of time we inflict on children. 12 years of education are compulsory, and many kids have nothing to show for it afterward.

In 1960, 75% of professors were full-time, tenure-track professors. Today, only 27% are. Many colleges and university's are more concerned with their bottom lines than their student's academic well-being.

In 1960 fewer than 10% 25 and older Americans had a college degree, By 2012, the number was a little more than 30%. Harvard predicts only 1/3 of jobs created in the near future will require a BS or higher.

29 states allocated less money to higher education in 2011-12 than they did in 2006-07.

"If you live like a professional while you are in school, you will live like a student while a professional."