<p>I was reading an article about this and as a college senior I became curious. I will be working for a few decades as an aerospace engineer and was wondering where I'll end up. </p>
<p>Only 30% of Americans are BA holders and the job market is still tough for many (but the majority of STEM majors are still doing well). Apparently educators want to push that up to 60% by the next decade. With that it seems inevitable that the BA degree will become much more common in the near future. What would happen then? Would the job market become even more competitive? Would salaries dramatically lower? Would it be wiser to get a master's degree today? </p>
<p>Yeah, I feel like it’s definitely wiser to go to masters school nowadays. My brother graduated as the class of 2015, got a BA in Biology and works in a lab now. Of course, just a few more years of some kind of medical school could probably double his salary. In the 60’s, you didn’t need to go to college to get a well-paying job. Today, you need to go to college and probably masters school if you want to make a lot of money.</p>
<p>For bachelor’s degrees associated with specific in-demand types of jobs, probably nothing much will change, because the supply tends to be limited by the rigor of the course work (e.g. ABET accredited engineering majors).</p>
<p>For bachelor’s degrees in general, the increasing number of graduates has already led to the situation where employers are asking for it as a credential, even though it is not specifically needed for the job in question. I.e. high school diplomas and associates degrees have been devalued, even for those who are capable of doing the jobs where a non-specific bachelor’s degree is listed. If the bachelor’s degree completion rate further increases, then it is possible that the master’s degree will become the non-specific credential desired by employers, devaluing the bachelor’s degree as such.</p>
<p>However, increasing the bachelor’s degree completion rate to 60% is probably unrealistic, since academic rigor in even the least rigorous colleges and majors stops many entering students from completing bachelor’s degrees, and the rapidly rising cost of college education stops many others from completing or even entering college.</p>
<p>I know that credential inflation would, at the most extreme long-term limit, mean that a PhD would be the non-specific credential for just about anything.</p>
<p>But there are practical limits to this: one can only lower the rigor so much (even if undergraduate and graduate education became free of charge).</p>