Undergraduate Education Today: Great vs Polarized, Dangerous, Unnecessary, Expensive?

Corrected for inflation, the cost of an undergraduate degree has almost trebled since the 1970s. This higher cost has not been accompanied by a parallel increase in grants and scholarships, shifting the increased costs to students and their families. Most of these deal with this anomaly with student loans at a time when interest rates have also increased. With bankruptcy law specifically tilted against student loan defaults, this debt often travels with graduates (and even those who drop out) for decades. Roughly averaging $40 thousand, often a vast multiple for advanced professional degrees (in business, law, engineering, and medicine), this average undergrad debt load results in reduced consumer spending, delays in marriage, decisions not to have children, etc. While the earnings advantages of undergraduate degrees tend to pan out, looking back from retirement years, it is a long hard road to get there.

But college also is faced with political polarization, from schools pushing out DEI programs (per the Supreme Court’s ruling against UNC and Harvard DEI-tilted admissions programs) to curricula considered “woke” by state legislators in red states. For college students who expect to be sexually active, colleges in states with strong anti-abortion laws are non-starters. The October 15th USA Today reports on survey results based on application trends: “More than one-quarter of college applicants have ruled out a school solely because of the political climate in its state, a new survey finds.

“And those concerns span the political spectrum… Liberal applicants exclude colleges in states with restrictive abortion laws or lenient gun laws, the survey found. Conservative students avoid applying to schools in states with liberal LGBTQ laws and lenient crime statutes… The findings come from a survey released Monday [10/14] by Art & Science Group, a consulting and research firm that serves the higher-education sector… ‘For a student to say, ‘I’m willing to rule out a state, a school in a state,’ before they even decide where to apply, that’s a strong indication of how important these issues are to young people,’ said Nanci Tessier , principal at Art & Science Group… In recent years, college leaders have grown wary of partisan state politics scaring off prospective applicants at a time when college enrollments are flagging .” Polarization perpetuated.

A may 23rd Pew Research report, presented by Richard Fry, Dana Braga and Kim Parker, even asks “Is College Worth It?” The numbers suggest that just might be a resounding “no” for a rapidly rising number of high school students contemplating their future:

• Only one-in-four U.S. adults say it’s extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job in today’s economy. About a third (35%) say a college degree is somewhat important, while 40% say it’s not too or not at all important.

• Roughly half (49%) say it’s less important to have a four-year college degree today in order to get a well-paying job than it was 20 years ago; 32% say it’s more important, and 17% say it’s about as important as it was 20 years ago.

• Only 22% say the cost of getting a four-year college degree today is worth it even if someone has to take out loans. Some 47% say the cost is worth it only if someone doesn’t have to take out loans. And 29% say the cost is not worth it.

Republican-leaning students are more likely to opt for non-college-educated careers than liberal potential applicants. As the second Pew chart above suggests, the recent spate of solid wage increases seems to have tilted the earnings field somewhat back to those without college degrees who have trade skills that are in demand, without the same debt level as college grads face.

Still, those colleges and universities at the top of the academic food chain are seeing applications soar, often accommodating three-times the number applicants faced in the 1070s. Graduates of these top schools do earn more than their comparable graduates at lower-rated universities, which often foster a greater percentage who also move on to post-undergraduate degrees. And while financial aid at these elite schools is often higher than most, the competition to enroll is exceptionally more difficult. Since many of these upper-level schools also reflect graduates with the greatest “income inequality” numbers, this elite force also tends to reflect the wealth of families who can afford to pay for college prep at levels unavailable to most students. And so, the economic disparity moves from generation to generation.

An extreme example of this “preparation” has moved well beyond the chi-chi expensive elite Ivy-feeder, name-brand prep schools, is a new extra level of opportunities only available to parents with considerable disposable income. “Tuition-gate” criminal prosecutions of parents, willing to bribe school admissions officials with fake credentials… and particularly their expensive enablers… brought criminal convictions (and the admitted students tossed). With that avenue turned off, still bringing true admissions expertise into the pre-application process, regardless of the cost, helps perpetuate this rising wealth gap, income inequality, that has killed off the upward mobility equalizer of higher education.

Douglas Belkin, writing for the October 15th Wall Street Journal, focuses on one particular “expert,” able to build a college consulting empire valued at almost over half a billion dollars: Jamie Beaton, a 29-year-old Rhodes scholar from New Zealand with a reputation as the man who has cracked the code on elite college admissions—and who is Wall Street’s favored partner to mine the rich vein of parental anxiety embedded in the college process.

“Private equity is also paying attention. Crimson, launched in 2013, is now valued at $554 million after several funding rounds, according to PitchBook. Investors include venture capital giants Tiger Management and related firm Tiger Global Management, plus Icehouse Ventures, former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Verlinvest, a Brussels-based fund created by the founding families of Anheuser-Busch.

“This year, Beaton’s clients made up nearly 2% of students admitted to the undergraduate class of 2028 at several elite schools including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Among his clients, 24 earned admission to Yale, 34 to Stanford and 48 to Cornell. The acceptance letters were certified by PricewaterhouseCoopers and a list of students admitted was provided by Beaton to The Wall Street Journal.

“Clients pay Beaton’s firm from $30,000 and $200,000 for a four- to six-year program that includes tutoring in academics and test-taking, and advice on how to gather stellar teacher recommendations and how to execute extracurricular projects. Those can range from writing a book, to publishing an academic research paper or starting a podcast… Eager families pay more and more for a leg up into an elite school, aiming to acquire what is seen as a vital chip in a winner-take-all economy… Revenue in college consulting overall has tripled to $2.9 billion over 20 years, according to IBISWorld, a market research firm.” It’s not illegal, even if it is neither fair nor good for the country as a whole.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as many other nations now provide high quality, but less expensive college programs (some even virtually free as in Germany), money is the lethal bullet that has perpetuated American inequality, feeding the angry political polarization that has torn this country apart.