In 1970, only half of Americans graduated from high school, less than 10 percent went to college. When you were 15 or 16, you went out and got a job. Those who DID go to college were guaranteed a good career, because they were overwhelmingly doctors, accountants, lawyers, and architects. Parents saw that, and told their kids that the key to a great job was going to college. It was good advice, except too many people followed it.
The government, being run by those same parents and their peers, approved a plan to give out student loans and grants so all of those people could go to college. This greatly increased demand and money chasing those college educations. Everyone wanted to have a high paying college job because they considered physical labor to be for people who weren’t smart enough to go to college. We’ve all heard the insults- if you don’t have a college degree or if you joined the military, it’s because you are stupid.
Colleges attempted to meet demand by adding all sorts of degree programs. The government soon passed rules requiring a college degree, any college degree, in order to get a job. You couldn’t get a job sweeping the floors of the courthouse without a 4 year degree. Tuition began to rise- much faster than inflation. By the time of the turn of the 21st century, the cost of a semester’s tuition was up from $400 in 1970 to over $3,500, an increase of 11.2% per year- more than 3 times the official rate of inflation. During the same period of time, $400 in gold increased to $2,600 worth of gold. By 2000, it cost more than $55,000 to get a 4 year degree by the time room and board was factored in. The demand and profit in college became so great that colleges began opening in strip malls.
In the Orlando area alone, there are more than 40 colleges and 500,000 college students. Of course, most of them won’t graduate. That’s actually good news because there can’t possibly be enough jobs to handle 100,000 college graduates a year in a town of only 3 million. Even so, more than 25,000 people a year graduate with bachelor’s degrees each year, and another 16,000 with associates degrees.
So by the year 2000, people were earning degrees in things like Outdoor Recreation, or Medieval and Renaissance French Poetry. (Yes, I actually have met people with degrees in these majors) There being no demand for those jobs, the people who took out those huge loans were now having to pay $550 a month for a degree that didn’t get them a job paying nearly enough to do that. So that’s how we got here:
This woman thinks she is better than the cashiers at Target. A minimum wage job is beneath her. You can see the attitude. She thinks her bachelor’s degree- whatever it happens to be in- guarantees her a job because she is smarter than those uneducated morons who didn’t go to college.
The college majors with the highest unemployment are:
- Anthropology
- Computer Engineering
- Fine Arts
- Performing Arts
- Computer Science
- Architecture
- Art History
- Physics
- Early Childhood Education
- Environmental Studies
Note that 3 of the 10 most unemployable majors are in the arts. Art and expression aren’t things you can learn from a book for the most part. Sure, there are some things you can learn like music, but there aren’t nearly enough jobs in that field to keep up with new graduates.
Computer science and engineering are in that list because the technology of computers is changing so rapidly that the things you learn in college are obsolete before you even graduate. The professor teaching your course is likely passing on obsolete knowledge using outdated textbooks, and granting you degree certifying you are well versed in yesterday’s technology.
Physics and education are there for teachers. Those fields, even for those who CAN get a job in them, don’t pay enough to justify those loan payments.
The best degrees for employment are the same as they were in 1970: medicine, law, and civil engineering. The only problem is a medical degree now costs half a million dollars and twelve years of your time. College needs to be trimmed down and made cheaper. For most people, college is simply a bad investment, especially in a useless major. However, picking a good major won’t help if you can’t understand or master the material.
Two year colleges have a 43% graduation rate. Four year colleges are better at 71%, but how many of them are graduating with useless degrees? Of 2018’s entry class, 77% of Asian students, 73% of white students, 52% of Hispanic students, and 45% of black students graduated. Black student enrollment at elite U.S. colleges has declined significantly following the 2023 Supreme Court ban on affirmative action, with some institutions seeing nearly a 50% drop in new black students.
Factoring in the useless majors and dropout rates, perhaps only 20% of those who go to college will actually gain real benefit from them.
Colleges like Yale and Harvard report graduation rates in the 98% range, but I can’t help but wonder if that is due to students being passed along whether they learn anything or not.
I got a nursing degree. Half of the people trying to get into nursing couldn’t even finish the prerequisites. Half of those who entered the two year nursing program didn’t finish by getting their RN license. So we are talking 25% of those who tried to become nurses actually made it. Of those who DO make it, unemployment rates are under 1.5%, indicating a shortage of nurses.
Firefighting was about the same. There were 25 people in my fire academy class. There was a waiting list to get in. 80% of those who began the class went on to be licensed firefighters. It was still difficult to get a job, though. When my department had an opening, we generally had more than 200 applicants for every job opening. A third of those who became licensed never got hired. About a third of them left the profession within 5 years. It’s a tough job with a high attrition rate. About a third of them wound up rising to the ranks to retirement , and couple of them became chiefs. All of them I have spoken with have retired or left firefighting.
3 Comments
Don in Oregon · May 13, 2026 at 9:48 am
Here’s an excellent analysis from 2011 on how to cut the high cost of college:
https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Opportunities-for-Efficiency-and-Innovation-Fried-FINAL.pdf
Rick · May 13, 2026 at 11:03 am
The true cost of ‘free’ money.
Fedgov low interest student loans with very amenable terms. In response, tuition rocketed to the stratosphere.
Rick · May 13, 2026 at 10:56 am
Employers increasingly require college degrees.
(My wife, 30 years experience in her field, was denied promotion because she did not have a 4 year degree after her employer reshuffled the job titles and pay scales. In fact, her duties and pay was reduced.)
This created a mad rush to get a 4 yr degree.
Then fedgov started to finance student loans. Employer demand plus the flood of easy money, prompted colleges to create a great number of silly degreed programs.
Truly, underwater basketweaving had arrived