Why A BA Is Now A Ticket To A Job In A Coffee Shop

[Purveyor]

There's a growing perception out there that a college degree no longer delivers the value that it used to.

Too many college kids are living in Mom's basement, or working at Starbucks. Like most personal finance columnists, I get the letters from them: what do I do? How do I fix this? For many, the answer is grad school. But I get the letters from grad students too. A while back, I found myself talking to a professor whose school has a number of impressive-sounding graduate programs that were originally conceived as add-ons for a professional degree in law or medicine or business. They are now attracting a number of students who just go for the standalone degree. He didn't understand what the career path was for these kids, and he wasn't sure that they did either.

"It sounds good, so they can persuade their parents to pay for it," he said, a touch guiltily.

A new paper from Paul Beaudry, David Green, and Benjamin Sand argues that these worried kids--and their worried parents--are not just imagining things. The phenomenon is all too real. Skilled workers with higher degrees are increasingly ending up in lower-skilled jobs that don't really require a degree--and in the process, they're pushing unskilled workers out of the labor force altogether.

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[Jackpine Radical]

1. How can this be?

Can't Starbucks find enough PhDs anymore?

[limpyhobbler]

3. LOL

I was gonna say, it would be better if a BA was literally a ticket to working in a coffee shop. It would be nice to have that kind of job security.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. Never pay lots of money for something unless it has value.

I think my degree served me well but I paid too much for what it compared to the ROI.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Education has value far beyond its economic return.

I have alsways supported free education for as far as your abilities will take you.

[Cleita]

6. This is why I'm in favor of free education through graduate school for

qualified students because I believe we should be educating the brightest not the richest.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. The college education is reverting to what it was before the Depression--

A powerful class divider. The rich go to The Right School for a few years before joining Daddy's firm, while the poor go to work, or to an expensive tech school which puts them in debt for a long time & makes them dependent on the wealthy. Under this model, medical school too is a trade school.

[Cleita]

13. I personally think we should be levying an education tax on all the big corporations

and Wall Street who do business in our country. They are the ones who benefit from an educated population. Of course we would need a separate fund to educate medical professionals, but I think taxing those others would be the right thing to do for the majority of professions.

[RebelOne]

14. My daughter was working in the graphic arts department

of a college in Miami. Fortunately, she received a free education at the college because she was an employee. Her only expense was her books. Once she received her BA, she went on to become a teacher at a middle school. She has now earned her master's degree and will be earning a lot more money in the education field.

[Cleita]

15. That's wonderful. I'm always happy to see a deserving student

get the education they deserve. The children she teaches will be better off because of it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Love is free. Everything else costs.

[Cleita]

5. I once applied for an accounting job, and this was twenty five years ago, that I was qualified

for and had twenty years experience in doing, and was told I needed a degree. When I mentioned my years of practical experience with verifiable references if they wanted to double check, I was told that everyone, including the personnel on the loading docks had to have a degree. I guess what I thought was a quirky company at the time has become a mainstream trend.

[slackmaster]

8. It's been that way as long as I can remember. Even an advanced degree does not guarantee...

...that you can find suitable work that you want to do in the field that you studied. Indeed, it's not a guarantee of employment at all.

Sure, there have been periods where certain specific degrees like one in EE put you in a good position to get a decent job, but it's always been necessary to burn up some shoe leather. Most people spend several years underemployed after they finish school. That's just a fact.

[hack89]

9. Which is why my kids are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees

at least they have a fighting change of getting a good job.

[pnwmom]

10. With the way the government is pushing STEM degrees, it's only a matter of time

till graduates with those degrees flood the market. Also, they're competing with workers from all over the world -- either offshore, or here, through the visas program.

Don't get me wrong -- my family is filled with scientists and engineers. I'd support any child who wanted to go that route (and have). But the same thing is happening in those fields. A nephew with a engineering degree from a top school got laid off with his whole division three months after taking his first job. Then it took him a year to find another job, and the position wasn't an engineering job -- it was as an assistant. Finally, three years out of college, he ended up in a real engineering job, but he still hasn't caught up in terms of salary.

[bluestate10]

12. Depends upon what the BA is in. Most Engineering BAs have job offers. nt