Gaming the college system

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/09/difference-engine

In their latest book “Aspiring Adults Adrift”, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, of New York University and the University of Virginia respectively, fear that universities focus too much these days on students’ social lives at the expense of academic rigor.

Two out of three students at American universities and colleges change their major at least once during their four years on campus; one in five does so two or three times.

parents should let their preferences be known, but then leave the selection proces to their daughter or son, hopefully guided by a school councillor rather than merely friends. Another piece of advice was to visit as many campuses as possible beforehand.

getting a university degree, even merely a baccalaureate, is worth it nowadays. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the median annual wage of Americans with a bachelor degree, and lucky enough to have found (not easy) full employment, was $48,000 last year, compared with a little over $25,000 for those with only a high-school diploma. But college graduates in the lower quartile made no more than $27,000.