For some understandable yet deeply misguided reasons, a defining majority of our country’s discourse has focused on the financial outcomes of college – the blindingly narrow “return on investment.”
Reducing college to dollars and cents is a way to measure the impact of college, 但这是一个可怕的故事. 不幸的是, that single metric has led higher education into some awful places such as believing that college tuition is too high, 学生债务是沉重的负担, 最糟糕的是, that going to college is no longer a “good investment.” It’s worth repeating that getting a college degree is likely the single best investment you can make, 即使你通过贷款得到它. 

The “return on investment” paradigm has also led us into some dark policy corners such nudging students into STEM studies and away from the liberal arts. 和, 更进一步, offering college funding agreements that make it more expensive to study subjects like history and writing than subjects such as engineering or computers.

Behind policies and practices such as those is the presumption that people who get degrees in the “hard” STEM subjects get better jobs and make more money than those who earn degrees in other things – the engineering major versus the philosophy major, 例如. 再一次。, 那只是基于金钱, what you get in your bank account in exchange for your investments of time and money.
But, and here’s the important part, that’s not entirely true.

结果, getting a STEM education may help you get a good job early but if you want a good career, 你最好去文理学院.  换句话说, 即使你只衡量金钱, a liberal arts education is probably worth a ton more than most people may think.

在基本层面上, those of us in the liberal arts cheerleading squad always knew that the financial rewards available by studying 英语 and history and arts were hefty. 我们中的许多人只是拒绝这种测量, refusing to put a crass calculator to the power of enlightenment.

A recent piece by David Deming in the New York Times, “在薪资竞赛中, 工程师在冲刺，而英语澳门合法赌场官网的学生却在坚持,列出了金融方面的理由. 坦白说，我真希望是我写的. 和 it should absolutely be required reading for every college-bound high school student and every high school and college counselor.

戴明的发现, 基于人口普查和其他来源的数据, paints the clear picture that graduates with skills-centered degrees, STEM-type度, get jobs with good earnings right out of the gate. But by the time college graduates enter their peak earning years, liberal arts learners have caught up and passed them.

根据戴明传递的数据, by age 40 male STEM-type graduates pulled in an average salary of $124,458. At that age, “social science and history majors” earned $131,154. Even the average college graduate in any subject made nearly $112,000 at age 40 – eliminating just about all of whatever financial boost STEM graduates eared right away. 女性毕业生的情况也类似.
和, 显著, by the time STEM degree holders reach 40 years of age, more than half of them aren’t in STEM jobs anymore.

除了, as workers age and their salaries and job responsibilities grow, they tend to transition into management and leadership roles. Those jobs are more likely to require tools such as communication, empathy and abstract creative problem solving – skills picked-up by studying arts and letters.

Underscoring that point is that STEM skills often require updating and getting more knowledge throughout a career. What a computer science graduate may have learned when they earned their degree, 比如25年前, is probably largely outdated and irrelevant now. To keep their jobs, they have to go back to school, frequently.
Not only does that reality mean that STEM practitioners will have to spend more over their careers to keep up, 这给雇主带来了压力. Just as wages are expected to grow due to age and experience, employers face an economic choice – pay someone in mid-career more or pay someone younger and less expensive. 如果他们都学到了相同的新技能, it’s a decision likely to cut against STEM degree earners as they advance, 降低了他们职业生涯的收入.
这么说吧, the more that technologies change the job market, the better it will be to have a degree in a non-technology, 非科学领域.  Liberal arts skills last longer and are more likely to remain relevant in twenty or thirty years.
If you’re determined to measure college based only on the money it delivers, 很重要的一点是要弄清楚, 即使在那时, studying STEM and technology may not provide the return we think – especially long term.

德里克·牛顿

I write about education including education technology (edtech) and higher education. I've written about these topics and others in a variety of outlets including The Atlantic, Quartz和赫芬顿邮报. I served as vice-president at The Century Foundation, a public policy think tank with an emphasis on education and worked for an international education nonprofit teaching entrepreneurship. I also served as a speech writer for a governor of Florida, worked in the Florida legislature and attended Columbia University in New York City. I'm a member of the Education Writers Association.