College. For What It Is Worth.
It seems like every other week that I read a new article in a different journal questioning the value of a college education. “College. Is It Worth It?” I hear the same thing from community members and business leaders in small, rural Maine towns. “$86,000 and a psychology major and they can’t find a job. Electricians get well paid and we always need more of them, you know.” And then there is often something about AI. And the next two words are usually “trade school."
Communities in other parts of the state are talking about AI and chips and competing with China and maintaining our democracy.
I remember a guidance counselor from a struggling Washington County community we supported for years telling me that it was hard to promote the opportunity of college when they had no jobs in the town that needed a “college degree.” In fact, there were almost all of the small number of teachers with college degrees and a mental health counselor in town, but not much beyond that. It was one of those towns quite committed to trade schools and quite opposed to college, and yet, I always thought that what that town (and many others like it) needed most was not twenty more electricians. It is hard to wire a brighter future.
As an aside, I found it interesting when I was talking with a young electrician who had just finished his electrical associate’s degree at the local community college. He thought that the courses were too theoretical and didn’t apply to his work as much as he had hoped.
In fairness, those “trade schools” that everyone is referring to, almost always the local community college, offer much more than manual labor trades that we often think of as “the trades.” They help students prepare for a career that may require an associate’s degree, and often they do that at less cost and in less time. If you want to be a lineman, Kennebec Valley Community College is probably a much better option than Harvard.
“But, an electrician can make a lot of money,” they say. That isn’t my experience, and the data doesn’t support it. An electrical contractor, someone who owns their own electrical business, can make a lot of money, but to be successful that takes a lot more skill and knowledge than ohms and amps.
But what about “college” being only for the elite and privileged and wealthy? Yes, if you graduate from a four-year college (or even a two-year college) you are privileged. You have a breadth of opportunities ahead that many people don’t have, even though you may not be the first hired. Yes, plenty of people go to college and don’t make the most of the opportunity, sadly. Yes, American higher education is highly imperfect and could be much better, but it is also generally considered the best in the world, still.
If your parents are wealthy, a four-year college can cost you $86,000 each year. If your parents aren’t wealthy and you have worked hard in school, it can cost you less than a community college. If your parents make less than $100,000 a year, Harvard would cost you $0. The bigger challenge is that these four-year colleges are often made up of a mix of higher income students and lower income students. That almost always creates a significant social challenge for a lower income student, but that is a challenge they can confront now, later, or not at all. A college of any duration seems like a good place to take on that challenge.
So how do we measure the worth of a college education? The 5th most important thing a college education offers you is knowledge. The 4th most important is the ability and desire to learn more, which, let’s face it, will be critical in any job. AI will keep learning more. 3rd and far more important than #4 and #5 is connections. To some it is a dirty word. To others it is how you get a job and how you get ahead. Schools don’t do well with connections because it doesn’t fit on a rubric. Students get a lot of connections for their life ahead from their college experience, professors, and most importantly, their peers.
2nd is confidence. This seems either blasphemous or arrogant, but a college degree gives people a level of confidence that they can take on whatever problems they choose. Beyond just wiring a house, they can wire a brighter future for a struggling town. If not them then who?
#1 is an environment of high expectations. Does writing a twenty page paper have four times the value of writing a five page paper? It is about setting high expectations and about being surrounded by others trying to meet equally high expectations. This environment of high expectations is closely attached to the first four on this list. I see it every day in my work in rural Maine — businesses and communities where expectations are very low, and, a few people in every community that just expect more for the future. Yes, many expect to make a good salary, but many just expect more for their future and the future of others.
The challenge before us is how we can help more young, rural students understand all their opportunities in higher education. It is how we can help them believe that those opportunities are open to them if they believe in themselves and put in the effort starting early enough. And, it is to help them see the value of higher education beyond what is most easily measured and talked about by others around town these days.
Dreams, Aspirations, and a Road Forward
There are dreams. They’re important. They give us hope for the future.
Then, there are aspirations. They involve a road that often starts with a dream and leads to a goal that you are proud of. It is rarely a straight road. A longer road often leads to more places and more opportunities. There is rarely a right road, even though many of us look for one. A well-chosen road is always challenging, hard work, fun, frustrating, and very rewarding.
You can dream to be Cooper Flagg from the couch. You aspire to be Cooper Flagg in your backyard with a hoop and a ball. You dream of being a vet by loving your dog. You aspire to being a vet by loving your dog and asking lots of questions on the next trip to the vet's office.