Dropping out: Is college worth the cost?
Video Statistics and Information
No captions available for this video.
Channel: CBS News
Views: 178,630
Rating: 4.8078213 out of 5
Keywords: dropping out, 60 minutes, college, university, peter thiel, campaign, dontations, ron paul, paypal, founder, venture capitalist
Id: u7ZBOBZUyiU
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 42sec (822 seconds)
Published: Sun May 20 2012
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.
I teach my kids - "Preparation is 99% of success" - and if a student doesn't have a plan for their lives by the time they complete their high school degree, with a proven track record of success and every detail and contingency mapped out, then I tell them to plan on going to college.
Let's forget about credentials, the cost, the time, the "entitlement", and the "anti-intellectual" counter-culture. The bottom line is if you're not prepared for life, college education is an option that WILL assist in that preparation IF, AND ONLY IF, you make considerable effort yourself.
This means, "Do something more than attend class and complete homework." College education is only as valuable as the effort you put into PREPARING yourself for a successful life. And, yes, this isn't easy, especially now. It's a wake up call for a lot of young people that you cannot hope to be prepared in this age if you're coasting, going through the motions of your degree.
Too bad. Life is tough. By the time I was a senior in high school, AOL was the primary means by which most people surfed the internet. No one knew what Google was, nor did we know where to go to find information about the job markets around us. Today, young people have a shit-ton of useful websites to research potential career opportunities. Most of these careers call for a college degree. Also bear in mind that some of these careers, especially ones touted as high-earning/most in demand, are likely to be saturated job markets by the time you acquire your degree.
So, that's the most practical advice I can offer as a teacher to people that ask if college is worth it. The most disingenuous thing about this billionaire philanthropist is that he holds a bachelors and a jurisdoctorate, and had he failed, he would have had the credentials to sustain him in an industry somewhere because of his credentials. Good for him that he succeeded. But what is he doing to ensure that if the entrepreneurial idea fails that his student will be able to thrive independently in some industry as s/he works to achieve his/her personal ambitions? That's what college education does, and if he thinks his approach is better, then what precisely is this guy's plan?
The reason this billionaire's idea will fail is the same reason every "good" idea fails - a lack of preparation. It's 99% of success.
Thiel is right. The bottom line is that college is overpriced and not worth it when you factor in the costs.
He is NOT saying that getting an education is not worth it. Education is absolutely worth it and you don't have to go to college to get an education.
Most people these days go to college to get a DEGREE. Traditional college systems are stagnant and not innovative in terms of educational technology. The only exception is MIT and a few other ivy leagues but even their technology is not exactly a game changer. I am talking about MITx. We all know that MITx will only offer a handful of courses that issue a certificate. They won't offer anything that can replace a traditional college degree. Don't plan on seeing any traditional universities releasing a game changer that replaces the traditional college degree.
The game changer is going to come from private non-profit or for-profit online schools. Most of these startups have everything to gain by replacing the traditional degree with a low cost online degree. The real trick to this of course, is figuring out a way to pay for the creation of high quality educational courses. However, this will eventually happen and we will have an online university system that issues low cost accredited degrees that employers value. The demand is huge for this type of system. It will be created by someone.