Monday, July 13, 2015

BOOK SHELF - College Degree Value

"Why getting a college degree doesn’t always pay off" PBS NewsHour 7/9/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Today college is seen as crucial for career success and prosperity.  "Will College Pay Off?" is a new book by Peter Cappelli, and the answer, he suggests, is that it depends -- on the price tag, how fast a student finishes and what job they get afterwards.  Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to Cappelli about finding an educational path that makes financial sense.

PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour):  Graduation day for the class of 2015 at Philadelphia Academy, a charter school in Northeast Philly.

MAN:  The greatest senior class in Philadelphia Academy history.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

PAUL SOLMAN:  Since history here only goes back 12 years, the greatest might actually be a true superlative, but this is also a fairly typical senior class in America these days with about three out of every four grads attending college in the fall.  The national average is 66 percent.

STUDENT:  I’m going to Temple University.

STUDENT:  Delaware University.

STUDENT:  Bloomsburg University.

STUDENT:  Community College Philadelphia

PAUL SOLMAN:  And since everyone knows college is crucial for career success, these kids will prosper, right?  After all, it was in the 18th century that Benjamin Franklin, who founded the University of Pennsylvania here in Philadelphia, said, an investment in education gives the best returns.

PETER CAPPELLI, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:  You can do enormously well going to college in the U.S., the right kids going to the right college.  And you can do really poorly as well.

PAUL SOLMAN:  Peter Cappelli, a professor at Penn’s Wharton’s Business School, is the author of “Will College Pay Off?”  He says that, from a strictly economic point of view, the answer isn’t always yes.

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