5 Reasons Why Your New Bachelors Degree Is Worthless

BY LIZ SEDA
With the increasing cost of college tuition, student loan debt, job scarcity, and opportunities for
entrepreneurship online, is it any wonder that grads are wondering: was getting my degree
worthwhile?
Well, thats up to you do to decide.

5 Reasons Why Your Bachelors Degree Is Worthless

1.) Academic Inflation

In 1970, only 26% of middle-class workers had education beyond high school. Today,
almost 60% of all jobs in the US require a higher education. Your new bachelors degree is
becoming increasingly worthless as more and more people graduate from college, as jobs that
used to need only a bachelors degree now prefer masters degrees.
If the excess of bachelors degrees wasnt enough, now we have an increase in masters degree
students who have decided to stay in school to wait out the recession: not only have you gone to
school to earn a commodity, its now a sub-standard commodity.
Its only a matter of time until youll need a bachelors degree and a certification to mow lawns
there go all the summer jobs for kids.

2.) The Illusion of Safety

What used to be a guarantee of safety and stability has recently turned into an exercise in musical
chairs. There arent enough jobs for everyone, and you find yourself scrambling to not be the odd
man out.
According to a CNN article, less than half of college graduates under the age of 25 are working
at a job that requires a college degree. The same article mentions a 2012 study from Georgetown
Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce titled Hard Times: Not All College Majors
are Created Equal, showing that bachelor degree grads have an unemployment rate of 8.9%.

3.) Drowning in Debt

On average, the cost for one year of attendance at four-year public college or university
costs 40% of a familys income, and on average, approximately 40% of students leave school
with a debt of $22,000. If youre from a family that earns between $40k and $50k, that number
jumps to $28,000.
Middle-class families will have more debt from student loans than their upper-class peers, who
can pay for their education outright, and their lower class peers, who often qualify for grants and
financial assistance. You might even end up being the one paying $1,000 a month for 20 years
just for four years of school.

4.) The Source of Creativity

People seem to think that the simple act of attending college makes you more innovative and
creative. Thats simply not true.
Creativity and innovation dont come from what people teach you: new ideas come from your
personal experiences, and your interaction with your environment.

5.) Your Professors Arent Concerned About Your Education

I know people who graduated with a degree in engineering who couldnt do a derivative. Im not
joking.
Many professors are far more interested in tenure and their research than they are about making
sure you get the best education they can possible give you. They grade you on curves so you
cant possibly fail, and the curriculum never changes. In fact, one study showed that 45% of
students are no better at critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing after
their sophomore year than they were when they began.

5 Reasons Your New Bachelors Degree Was Worth The Effort

1.) Youll Be Better Off With One Than Without One

Although getting a degree isnt the golden ticket to success anymore, its still a rite of passage in
America. If you do need to get a job, having a degree can only help younot only will you have
more options to choose from, but youll also get paid more. Its estimated that a degree is worth
$1.3 million in additional lifetime earnings.

2.) Head-Fake Learning

College is about more than book-learning: it also teaches you how to think. Its about learning
how to become a leader and how to make impossible deadlines work on 3 hours of sleep.
If you take advantage of everything higher education has to offer, its an opportunity to learn
how to initiate change, negotiate and experiment in life without any dire consequences.

3.) Experience
Going to college really is a once-in-a lifetime experience: living in a dorm room, having allnight study sessionsits not something that you can put off. Education you can get at any time,
but this experience you can really only get once. Once youre older, you mature too much to take
the kinds of risks that are taken in college.
You fundamentally change as a person during the course of those four years. Anyone whos gone
to college and has friends who havent know what its like to go back home and realize that their
old friends are exactly the same as they were four years ago. Im not saying that people who
havent changed are somehow worse off in life, Im saying that if you want to experience that
kind of world-view change, college is the best place to do it.

4.) Intellectual Stimulation

Its not until after college that you realize how mentally stimulated you were every single day.
You were learning new concepts from half a dozen different subjects every single day; you could
pick what you wanted to learn about next semester using electives, and at any given point, you
could meet someone on campus who could completely alter your world-view with a single
conversation.

5.) Its Really Fun

You have your entire life in which to work: even if you end up being self-employed, work is
never going to be as carefree as college was.
A college degree doesnt guarantee security, just as not having a college degree doesnt guarantee
failure. When making the decision whether to attend or not, check the facts as they pertain to
your individual situation. If you do go to college, it should be for more than just getting a good

job and making money; that may not happen for you. It should be for the experience, intellectual
stimulation, and all the things you learn in tandem with your classes. Dont depend on a
company to save yousave yourself by getting the most out of your four years at school.