NBC: Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college

[Wahoo Redux]

This is the abstract.  Did you read the paper itself?  Just curious.

PEW Research Center blames COVID for graduates living at home.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/04/a-majority-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-live-with-their-parents-for-the-first-time-since-the-great-depression/

Don't know if they have the same metrics.

Quick skim. Their data is pre-Covid.

Right.  It looked like data that was 10 years old at this point (is that too old?) but still post 2008, which hopefully they took into account.  I didn't want to misunderstand.  Without reading the paper, I am not sure what to make of their analysis. 

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the declining value of the college degree.  This whole thread speaks to it.  But I become leery of researchers narrowing down their data to find what they want to find.

[jimbogumbo]

One reason a college degree is losing value is the increasing availability of jobs, as well as room for advancement. My daughter has recently switched jobs, and with "just" an AS she is earning over twice what a recently minted BS in virtually all fields would earn.

[Anon1787]

The authors can be criticized for their choice of comparison years (1996 & 2013 with slow job growth after the 2008-9 recession).

Looking at their graph on the mismatch rate shows a low 20s mismatch rate in 1991, then an increase and a decline, but following the 2001 recession the mismatch rate goes consistently higher to the 35-40% range until about 2018 when the graph ends.

[pgher]

One reason a college degree is losing value is the increasing availability of jobs, as well as room for advancement. My daughter has recently switched jobs, and with "just" an AS she is earning over twice what a recently minted BS in virtually all fields would earn.

And along with this, the dominant national conversation takes Ivies and/or flagship publics (especially those with big-name sports) as the normative college experience, whereas a majority of students are pursuing an AS, AA, or certification.

[mahagonny]

Latinos do not like the term 'Latinx.' Not that most of them don't like it. Something like 2% are OK with it, and a whopping 40% of them consider it offensive. Insidehighered is still scratching their heads, while adding to the problem. More than that, academia is the origin of the problem. With my horrible attitude about the people who run higher education, I find this funny.
Why they don't like it may be several reasons. Someone delves into it here.  https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916

I suspect, also, that Latinos are more conservative than some others and are not pining for gender neutral terminology. Their language is gendered and why should English speaking people redesign it to fortify their politics?

Of course, one of several dynamics. Enrollment has dropped much more in two year schools than in four year ones.

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/11/22/why-fewer-men-are-attending-college-and-what-should-be-done-opinion

[mahagonny]

...OK, so I'm not just being snarky here, here's something constructive that would help us all: stop saying Latinx. And probably Mx. should go too, although, being gender non-binary, I may have to think that over some more.