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College of Charleston,
Denny Ciganovic,
Katie Moore,
Matt Horton,
Nathan Frandino,
recession,
supply and demand,
Tom Martin,
Value,
value of a bachelors degree
Nathan Frandino, a senior at the College of Charleston, will graduate in May 2010. Despite graduating in South Carolina, where the jobless rate is 12.1 percent, he remains positive about future employment. Frandino recognizes that in this recession employers are searching for candidates who have a bachelor’s degree and experience in the real world application of that knowledge. “I don’t think the recession will affect me as much because I have experience outside of the classroom working in my field,” said Frandino.
Matt Horton graduated from College of Charleston last May and echoes Frandino feelings toward recent college graduate employment. “I know a lot of people that I graduated with that are unemployed or went to grad school because of the recession,” said Horton. A bachelor’s degree alone is not going to get you a job he explained. “I don’t think the intention of a bachelor’s degree alone was to get you a job. I have my job as a television news reporter because I had multiple internships and made myself stand out,” said Horton.
Why are people worried?
Due to high unemployment rates many people are left wondering at what point in the higher education process does the cost of an education outweigh one’s earning potential. In this competitive environment graduates are being forced to take lower paying jobs in lieu of unemployment.
Still, even in relation to rising college tuition's it is more valuable to have a bachelor’s degree. As reported by The Post and Courier in September 2009 “Among people with a bachelor’s degree the unemployment rate is still low at 4.7 percent, but its up from 2.7 percent a year ago.”
Theory
The Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education report from December 2008 suggests that the U.S.’s global competitive edge in education is slipping and recommends that, by the year 2025, 55 percent of young Americans complete their schooling with a community college degree or higher. Right now only 40 percent of young Americans have completed at least an associate’s degree and unemployment rates are still continuing to climb. If this goal is reached standards held maintained by today’s employers will rise as a direct result.
Economic theory would say that it is more beneficial to the student to continue education until earning potential exceeds the cost of an education. In this case, the marginal benefit is the change in earning potential for each additional dollar spent on education and the marginal cost is every dollar spent in working towards a degree.
A larger number of people in the work force with bachelor’s degrees means that the marginal benefit of each dollar spent working towards that degree will be lower than before. Supply and demand theory suggests that if there is a high supply of bachelor’s degrees the demand for candidates with bachelor’s degrees will be reduced due to the fact that they are not rare. The income made will directly correlate with the lessened demand for bachelor’s degrees. Lower demand means that the marginal benefit of a bachelor’s degree alone is smaller. This is directly related to the increasing popularity of online degree’s being offered by schools like University of Phoenix.
Individual demand and the marginal benefits that can be obtained from a good is seen as the ultimate source of economic value in neoclassical economics. This is why graduating students are worried, but this concern is based on theory not fact.
Facts
In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Anthony P. Carnevale, points out that since 1970 the wages for people that have a college degree or higher versus a high school diploma has increased from 36 to 76 percent. The wage gap between the two has grown even as the supply of college educated workers has increased. This should put the worries created by supply and demand theory to rest.
The Catch
The unspoken understanding in the United States is that in order to attain the American dream one must receive a bachelor’s degree. According to Denny Ciganovic, Director of Career services at the College of Charleston, four-year bachelor’s degrees are not for everyone. Jobs that require one or two years of trade school are in high demand Ciganovic explains. “It’s not necessarily the case anymore that you need a four-year degree to get anywhere…the jobs that are being created (today) don’t require as much schooling but still pay very well,” said Ciganovic.
Bachelor’s Degrees are still worth it.
College education often provides access to jobs with employer-provided benefits such as health care and pension plans. Almost 95 percent of people with college degrees have employer-provided health care.
The benefits of attending college are found both across and within professions, not just monetarily. In many respects college teaches nonacademic, social skills that can benefit a person. In a national survey of employer’s communication, a strong work ethic, and the ability to work in a team are all highly sought after attributes in potential employees. “Employers still see a value the general knowledge and work ethic that a student acquires in college,” said Marcus A. Winters in an article in The Chronicle Review.
Students that go away to college and live in a residence hall experience a lot of personal growth. But many students do not have the opportunity to go away to college in this sense attaining a bachelor’s degree online is beneficial. Online degree programs are fairly new in the higher education world but that does not make them any less of an education than a regular bachelor’s degree. “Employers know schools like the College of Charleston and the Citadel, and some of them might be a bit unsure in hiring an employee from a school that they don’t know,” said Ciganovic.
Tom Martin, Executive-in-Residence at the College of Charleston, agrees that in this recession the job market has become very competitive and therefore it has never been more important for students to make themselves standout no matter what school you go to. “I don’t think that there is a hard and fast rule that says if you take distance learning you’re not as prepared as you would be if you took in class courses. I’m teaching a course online right now at George Washington University and I think the content was good and the students were well prepared,” said Martin.
In some students case’s that means a variety of internships, doing well in your course work, or pursuing an advanced degree explained Martin. “I don’t have a master’s degree, many of my colleagues that have high leadership positions in their professions don’t have a master’s degree,” said Martin. It’s what you do with your degree that makes you a valuable employee.
Conclusion
It is still valuable to attain a bachelor’s degree today. The value of a bachelor’s degree its self has not changed. A bachelor’s degree alone will not get a person a job. Employers are looking at out of the class room experience. The theoretical argument of supply and demand does not hold up to the facts. More jobs are being created that don’t require a four year bachelor’s degree but rather two years of trade school.
