Are College Degrees a Waste of Money?

From NPR earlier today:

Are College Degrees a Waste of Money?

Author and career coach Marty Nemko argues that when kids are not adequately prepared for college, they are simply wasting their time and money on four years of college-level course work. "College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it," he writes in his article, America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree.

The majority of students entering college today are unprepared, Nemko explains, "When you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout."

It's a good question to ask. Taken together with this, College students stumped by X + 2 = 4, it really makes you wonder about the value of education these days.

One thing that a college degree is guaranteed to get you is a mountain of debt. Everything else is up in the air. A few callers to the NPR show noted that taking up a trade (instead of spending significant amounts of time and money on college) is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, just think about the amount of money college educated folk shell out to the likes of the mechanic and the plumber. But if you can't solve X + 2 = 4 you're not likely to be any good at either trade.