GO TO COLLEGE, GO BROKE

Does going to college in America cost more than it is worth?

Many dentists, veterinarians, and chiropractors in the U.S. face increasingly large bills for their professional degrees that have led some potential students to look for other careers. And those in rural communities are being hit the hardest and being drastically underserved, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article that showed how many of these professionals run into a brick wall right after graduation. The paper spoke to a 29-year-old veterinarian who pulls in about $100,000 a year, but has to pay back over $400,000 for her education at a top-flight university.

“It doesn’t dominate my thoughts, but it’s always there,” Sara Jastrebski told the paper.

The paper took a look at how individuals in these fields fared two years after graduating and found that 76 percent were stuck with higher debt loads at graduation than earnings two years on. The report focused on the professions mentioned above and found that each had “median debt loads that topped median earnings” in the two years following graduation.

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how attending top universities was once seen as a status symbol and ticket to upward mobility, but turned out to be a challenge. (See “LOSSES MOUNT AS STUDENT LOAN DEFAULT RISES” and “INVESTORS NOW TARGET OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT HOUSING.”)

We have reported on the growing demand for virtual learning that is affordable and effective. (See “MEGA-TREND OF THE FUTURE: RICE UNIVERSITY TURNS TO ONLINE LEARNING” and “INDIA’S ONLINE-LEARNING AN INVESTMENT WINDFALL, SOLIDIFYING ‘INTERACTIVE U’ FORECAST FORECAST IN TRENDS JOURNAL.”

The Journal’s report pointed to New York University, which claims to teach 10 percent of the country’s dentists. The average student at the school can expect to pay out $572,000 during the four-year program and pull in about $82,000 a year two years after graduation. NYU is no outlier. The American Dental Association told the paper that the average graduate owed about $305,000.

The report also said the median debt load for new chiropractors and veterinarians was, on average, about $200,000. In 2020, the median chiropractor can expect to pull in $77,000, veterinarians made $99,000 and dentists $162,000.

TRENDPOST: It wasn’t always like this in America. Back in the 1970s when Baby Boomers were flooding college campuses (especially among boys to get a draft deferment so they would not have to go fight the Vietnam War), tuition and fees cost $1,562, a year. And since 1990, the average tuition and fee rates have increased 130 percent after adjusting for inflation, according to the Education Data Initiative. 

We note this to emphasize not only how those among the top of the money class can afford an education in America … but how cost increases do not equate with added value. Indeed, dental, veterinarians and chiropractors are not being taught 130 percent more than students were in 1990. Yet, this hard fact is totally ignored. 
Indeed, while the cost of learning has skyrocketed, considering the socioeconomic decline of America, it costs much more to learn a lot less.