How *should* college admissions work?

[Kimstu]

@Sam_Stone

Take two people of equal ability. One goes to college and takes Psychology, while the other decides to apprentice as an electrician. The second person starts earning an income immediately. In four years, the electrician will have work experience, savings, perhaps already started a family, and earning on average around $28/hr in the U.S. The person who got a degree in Psychology comes out with no job experience, $50,000-$100,000 in debt, and gets a job as a counselor with an average starting salary of $18/hr.

Where are you getting that $50-100K number? As we’ve been discussing in a concurrent thread, the average college student loan debt per borrower is something like $32K, and the median debt amount is $17K.

It’s not that undergraduate student loan debt can’t go as high as the figures you mention (indeed, it can go even higher). But the average student doesn’t end up owing anywhere near that amount, and AFAICT psychology majors are not more indebted than the average.

@Sam_Stone

And that’s if they are lucky. When I was in college I worked part-time at Radio Shack to pay my way. One of my co-workers was a full-time employee with a Masters in English Literature. Radio Shack was the best he could do with that degree.

But again, the average Masters’ degree holder in English literature isn’t working at Radio Shack. Individual anecdotes don’t prove anything about general trends; for example, I know an electrician who’s nowhere near as well off as your imaginary electrician in your hypothetical. You need to provide representative data, preferably with cites, if you want your numbers and claims to be believed.