Is College Worth the Investment??

Will College Pay Off? is the title of a recent book by Wharton Business School Professor Peter Cappelli on college costs, graduation rates, and job placement.  As college tuition costs continue to significantly outpace inflation year after year, this question has become a hot topic.  The answer is complex and difficult to assess.  Skimming through the book, I encountered troubling statistics about U.S. college graduation rates—currently at about 60%--and the fact that Americans lead the world in spending for college degrees. 

Historically and continuing today, college graduates earn more on average than those without a college degree, but according to some studies, that gap is narrowing.   Many critics and parents ask: is the ROI—Return on Investment—worth it?

(For more discussion of the trends in college costs and job placement, see this week’s New Yorker’s discussion of Cappelli’s analysis in “College Calculus: What’s the Real Value of Higher Education?” September 7, 2015 issue. )

Although I don’t believe it’s possible to assign a monetary value on a college degree, I understand many families who are reluctant to pay such a high cost for their daughter’s or son’s undergraduate degree.

Aside from evaluating a college or universities career services and internship possibilities, how can applicants determine whether or not attending a particular school will help them establish a viable career afterwards?

Here are some databases you might use to infer the ROI and job placement of schools on your son’s or daughter’s college list:

--Collegerealitycheck.com: compares average net price and graduation rates of up to 5 colleges at a time.

--PayScale.com: ranks colleges that graduate highest earners--but this is skewed toward institutions

that only offer technical degrees, which brings up their ratings considerably.

--TheWhite House College Affordability and Transparency Center College Scorecard: gives college costs, graduation rate, median borrowing, and employment information for some colleges.

--PrincetonReview.com: after searching for a particular college, check under the career tab to see the school's graduation rates, ROI and and ROE (Return on Education) rating by the Review.  These are certainly not exact figures but might give you a basis for comparison among different schools.

How to Raise an Adult--new book vital for parents of teens. . .and younger

Check out this new book by former Freshman Dean at Stanford, Julie Lythcott-Haims:

How to Raise and Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare your Kid for Success

The first two sections of the book examine the phenomenon of helicopter parenting (over-parenting) and the third charts “another way,” in which I found many thoughtful ideas and suggestions.

After her 10 years experience working with Stanford students, extensive research, and considerable reflection, Lythcott-Haims proposes an alternative parenting method.  Here are her main points, each of which is developed in a separate chapter:

Give them unstructured time--this, of course, needs to start early, before elementary school.)

Teach life skills--Lythcott-Haims lists and explains skills important for different developmental stages.)

Teach them how to think--she gives possible scripts for initiating conversations at dinner and other situations.

Prepare them for hard work--this very valuable chapter details the benefits of assigning chores.)

Let them chart their own path--how to remove the “scaffolding” to empower kids to become independent young adults.

Normalize struggle--Let your children fail—and learn from it.

Have a wider mind-set about colleges--Lythcott-Haims discusses how to look beyond brand new schools to find an excellent education.

Listen to them--this goes without saying. . .

*Also, on the same topic, see my earlier blog post on “life skills” essential for college (College Readiness: Beyond the high school transcript).

This book may be the start of a critical conversation about how parents (myself included) can learn to empower rather than enable our kids.  Happy reading!

Transition to college--advice from a former freshman

I'm thinking about this year's incoming freshman this August as they prepare to leave home in the upcoming weeks.  I wish you all well and hope that your first year in college is both exciting and successful.

This week's New York Times Education Life Section focuses on the first year of college--making friends, adapting to dorm life, choosing a major and so on.  I think the article "Making Friends in New Places," gives particularly helpful advice.

I also asked my daughter, Lily, who completed her freshman year at Tufts in May, for advice she would offer incoming college students.  Here are her tips for adapting and thriving in the first year of college:

1) Know and follow your daily rhythms.  Are you a morning or late night person?  When do you study best?  Plan your class schedule as much as possible around times when you will be alert and ready to focus.

2) Balance your course load, especially the first term.  Don't take an overload freshman year no matter how tempting the courses look in the catalogue.  As you gain more experience with a college workload and schedule, you will be better able to take on a heavier course load.

3) Establish a eat, study, sleep routine.  You might have heavy class days M W F and more time to study on T Th or vice versa, but try to keep your weekly schedule consistent and you will use time more wisely and study more effectively.

4) Don't be afraid to drop a class.

5) Ask for help sooner rather than later.  Deal with both academic and residential life conflict as it happens.  It won't go away on its own.  Know where to seek help whether from tutors, RAs or other faculty/staff members.

6) Learn how to spend time alone--studying or resting.

7) Avoid the FOMO syndrome (fear of missing out) your first few weeks. You don't have to pursue every opportunity or new relationship right away.  There will be more chances later.

8) Step out of your comfort zone and try at least one new extra-curricular activity.

9) Keep your social options open during the first term. Don't be exclusive either with a romantic relationship or friendship group; rather seek out and meet new people.

10) Explore the neighborhood or community where your school is located.  Leave the campus "bubble" to gain perspective and enjoy new experiences.

11) Find a way to give back to your campus and/or community  Helping others will boost your self-confidence and your sense of belonging.

Spring Break—an ideal time for campus visits

If you are a parent of a stressed out high school junior, don’t panic—you can visit college campuses either in person or virtually and come away with a 360 degree view of a school in either case.

Whichever route you take, actual or virtual, consider visiting or researching different types of schools: research universities and liberal arts colleges; rural, suburban and urban campuses; private and public universities.  

By experiencing the the overall “vibe” of different campuses, students can begin to focus their college list further, even if they don’t visit all the schools they are interested in. 

Also, it’s a good idea to visit some schools that may only moderately interest or attract your student as during the year between junior and senior spring, young people’s ideas and attitudes can evolve quite a bit.

For tips on planning a college tour, check out an earlier PYW College Search Blog Post: 

Do’s and Don’ts for CollegeVisits

And for virtual tours, visit:

CampusTours.com

YouVisit.com

Both sites offer full online campus tours as well as videos of students, professors and school events that give viewers a more complete picture of campus life.

Living and Learning at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

On our return from our college visit trip to LA a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  The most selective of the CSU campuses, Cal Poly enrols approximately 19,000 students with about 4,500 students per undergraduate class.

Touring the campus with Theresa, a current first year architecture student, gave us an inside view of the university as well as her particular experience in the “Living Learning Program,” a unique opportunity for students to combine their educational and social lives through their campus housing. 

We met Theresa at her residence hall, one of the six “Red Brick” dormitories, which comprise the “Living Learning Program.” Theresa lives in “Sequoia,” a residence of 270 students, 90 per floor, all of whom are enrolled in the same academic program as she is.  She lives in a double on an all women’s hall.  Her room (11’x13’x9’) is well-maintained, spacious enough for a bed, dresser, wardrobe, three drawer filing cabinet, desk and mini-fridge.  It is functional rather than aesthetic.  Some of the rooms on the hall are triples, the same sized room which, amazingly, fit enough furniture for three students.  When we passed through the spacious, clean common rooms, they were in use by small clusters of students, some of whom appeared to be studying, while others were socializing.  The whole atmosphere was comfortable and low-key.

Theresa explained that most classroom buildings on campus also belong to a particular program or major such as business or engineering though a certain percentage of general education classes are held in each location.  The architecture program is located near the engineering quad and contains large studios where each quarter she is assigned a “space” along with about 40 other students in her class. 

Theresa in her design studio

Classroom building for architecture

She has 24/7 access to the studio and this is where she completes a lot of her design projects.  Each quarter this year she takes two general education courses and the rest of her academic schedule is devoted to her architecture study/studio work.  In the fall her composition class had only about 20 students and her physics course there were about 20 students.  This winter quarter she is enrolled in big lecture survey courses of between 100-200 students each.  She is really enjoying both of these survey courses, art history and architectural history as they relate directly to her major.

Theresa described a couple of the benefits of Cal Poly’s five-year architecture program: in her fourth year she will have a hands-on internship, which could be in an international location like Copenhagen or Switzerland.  As part of a pilot program, this year she has been paired with a peer mentor, a third year student in the architecture program who gives her advice about coursework, summer jobs and other topics. 

Social life for Theresa is pretty low key.  We toured the nearby town of San Luis Obispo (close enough to walk to but there is also a shuttle), where we ate lunch in a inexpensive deli-type restaurant.  There are numerous other casual restaurants and coffee shops, chain stores for clothing and other goods, a movie theatre. Theresa has made friends with her roommate and with other students in her program/residence hall.  The program-based housing appears to be both an academic and social benefit for her.

Overall, I was favorably impressed by Cal Poly’s campus and by Theresa’s experience in the Living Learning Program.

The Claremont Colleges—the appeal of a liberal arts consortium

My daughter Abby and I just returned from a road trip to LA where we visited the Claremont Colleges, Occidental and USC.  After attending information sessions, campus tours and wandering around campus observing and talking with students, I am sold on the advantages of a liberal arts college consortium—as it combines the best of a small school with the resources of a larger one.

The Claremont Colleges are five liberal arts schools and two small graduate programs all located

Clock Tower at Pomona

within one square mile in the city of Claremont, about 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.  The five schools range in size from about 800 (Harvey Mudd) to 1500 students (Pomona). 

Each of the five colleges has a distinct mission, focus and curriculum yet all five share common resources including a shared course catalogue accessed by all students who can take up to 30% of their courses at any of the other institutions, a library of 2 million volumes, a concert hall, bookstore, facilities and joint sports teams (Pomona/Pitzer and Claremont McKenna/Harvey Mudd/Scripps).  Students can eat at any one of seven dining halls and many social and social justice activities occur outside individual school boundaries. 

Meanwhile on each campus, class sizes are small, student-professor

Residence Hall Courtyard at Pomona

relationships are warm and nurturing and students can pursue their own passions surrounded by like-minded friends.  Pomona is the traditional liberal arts school; Pitzer is the ‘60s activist campus; Claremont McKenna focuses on politics and leadership while Harvey Mudd features engineering and science and Scripps is a women’s college. 

Mural at Pizter

Abby was drawn to both Pomona and Pitzer so we visited those campuses more in depth and we were both favourably impressed by our student guides and the engaged yet casual “vibe” on each campus.  In recent years following Pomona all of the Claremont schools have become quite competitive so admittance is very selective.  If you are drawn to a liberal arts curriculum and want to attend college in the west, any of the Claremont schools is a very attractive option.

Desert landscaping at Pitzer

Organic Garden at Pitzer

(If you want the liberal arts consortium advantage but prefer to leave California you might consider the Massachusetts Five College Consortium of Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and U Mass Amherst or the Tri-College Consortium of Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore outside Philadelphia.)