The new economics of higher ed make going to college a risky bet

From 2010 opinion polls:<p>&gt; Ninety-six percent of parents who identified as Democrats said they expected their kids to attend college — only to be outdone by Republican parents, 99 percent of whom said they expected their kids to go to college.<p>This is why, when we talk about student loan debt forgiveness, the condescending people who yell &quot;You made a choice! You signed a contract!&quot; are completely missing the reality. Every adult is pressuring these kids to go to college. Their own parents, their school teachers, potential employers, etc. The kids have been lectured practically from birth that they need to prepare to go to college. It&#x27;s massive social conditioning, almost a religion.

One thing I never understood were people who paid money to go to an American university to major in a language like French, German, or Japanese.<p>Why don’t they just take their 60k a year tuition and spend it living in the country that actually speaks that language?<p>I’ve seen third or fourth year students majoring in French with worse language abilities than the engineering students who spent a semester on exchange to France or Switzerland.<p>Some majors are a complete waste of time and money.

Quote<p><i>Webber next considered the impact of a student’s major. If you choose a business or STEM degree, your chance of winning the college bet goes back up to 3 in 4, even if you’re paying $50,000 a year in tuition and expenses while you’re in college. But if you’re majoring in anything else — arts, humanities or social sciences — your odds turn negative at that price; worse than a coin flip.</i>

Knowing what I know now, if I were Gen Z I would definitely think twice about going to college, unless I was very passionate about a field which required a degree and paid well. I wouldn&#x27;t go &quot;for the experience&quot;. You can bum around in a van on a college campus for free