There’s not a lot here that’ll be new to CC posters, but I wanted to share the article for folks without a NYT subscription who might be interested in reading it: Harvard or Happiness? 11 High School Seniors Debate College Rankings.
One interesting point to me is that nowhere in the interview do they talk about the cost of college.
In fairness, a few of the students in the group do express concern about the cost.
True. I shouldn’t have said “nowhere”. Was misremembering from reading it pre-coffee this morning. Thank you.
I was surprised every student viewed college as a credential check rather than a time for self-exploration.
While I find that disappointing, I guess I don’t find it that surprising. I think over the last generation or so there has been a shift in mindset between college as a chance to explore and grow to college as your ticket to a middle-class (or better) profession. I would also postulate that this shift in mindset has coincided with the shift from a broad-based humanities education to the growing popularity of STEM (and the corresponding decline of the humanities that we’re seeing at many universities). College is seen as professional training and your major is a professional credential. Things that don’t support those goals are starting to be viewed as “fluff” rather than essential to becoming a well-rounded, reflective person.
I think that’s a contributing factor, but I would also point to the increased financial stress from the explosion in college costs. Sixty years ago when my dad was paying his way through the local public college with a part-time job at a building supply company, there wasn’t as much financial pressure after graduation; of course you needed to support yourself, but if it took a few years to figure out a career and get on a long-term path (which it did for him), it wasn’t the end of the world because you likely had no educational debt. Now, a B+ student like him from a working-class family would probably be looking at high-five-figure, and maybe even six-figure, debt to finance four years at that school, so there’s little time to “figure it out” - you need to be able to service that debt six months from graduation, and for many years to come.
Agree completely - I think it’s entirely cost related. Either the student has a fair amount of debt or the parent is footing the bill and telling the child, that even though they may have a passion for social work, they have skills in a STEM discipline which will pay 3x the salary when they leave school. Since the parent is footing the bill, they see a higher paying job as it meaning the child will need less financial support on top of the 4 years of college they’ve already funded.
A generation or two ago, during the post-WW2 college expansion, any bachelor’s degree was less common and therefore a positive distinction in the job market. College was also less expensive then (as noted by previous posters). So exploring your intellectual interests in college was not incompatible with earning a credential toward a higher paying job, since the latter was much more automatic at college graduation than it is now. Employers then were also more willing to hire with the expectation of on-the-job training or learning – now, they expect job applicants to have the training, learning, and credentials already done (at the job applicants’ own expense).
So it is not surprising that pre-professional aspects of college (including choice of major) have become more important recently compared to a generation or two ago.
While social work is a notoriously low paying job that prefers high educational credentials (so no surprise that there are not enough social workers specific to the job, leaving social work problems to the social workers of last resort with badges and guns), note the many STEM disciplines also do not have very high paying career paths associated with them.
With respect to the headline, it seems that the Times chose alliteration rather than a full support of its topic. It has been 10 years since Harvard was ranked first in its U.S. News category.
I bet that message comes from their parents.
Thanks for the article.
Regrettably, it’s depressing and a lot of those kids are very misinformed.
Well I object to the title. You can be happy at Harvard 
And as for cost, the financial aid there is generous. But obviously there are priorities that can be better met at other schools.
Seems to confirm that NYC public school kids are as clueless as internationals about American colleges.
There is nothing to think about.