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Is College Worth The Cost? Study Weighs Investment

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By RICHARD BRAKE

Special to the Tribune

Published: January 3, 2009

High school seniors are working these days to meet college-application deadlines and tuition. Since 1982, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, college tuition and fees have increased 439 percent. That is about three times as much as the increase in median family income.

With that statistic in mind: Is college worth it?

The National Center for Public Policy is not the only startling study. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute reported that in at least one area of knowledge - civic literacy - a person can learn as much outside college as in it.

Students now must dish out more money to learn less?

Not surprisingly, the center gave 49 states an "F" for the affordability of their public colleges. Only California passed, and it got a "C-."

What is the return from this massive investment? When measured in knowledge about America's history and institutions, it is very little.

In 2006 and 2007, the institute conducted the first scientific surveys of civic learning among college students. Each year, about 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 campuses nationwide were given a 60-question, multiple-choice test on American history, government, international relations and free-market economics. Both years, the typical college student failed, answering only about half the questions correctly. At some of the most prestigious and expensive schools such as Yale, Princeton, Duke, Cornell and Georgetown, students actually lost knowledge. In 2007, for example, Yale seniors scored 3 points lower than Yale freshmen. The institute dubbed this "negative learning."

This year, the institute extended its study beyond the campuses, giving a 33-question test on basic civic knowledge to a random sample of 2,500 Americans. Respondents ranged from those without high school degrees to those with doctoral degrees. The average American scored 49 percent, an "F." The average college graduate also failed, gaining only about one correct answer on the test for each year invested in college.

There were people in the survey sample who personified the American who never went to college but is more knowledgeable about America than the typical college graduate averaging 77 percent on the test - 20 points higher than the average college graduate. They also spent more time than most Americans spend reading and talking about current events and public affairs. Overall, 218 Americans without a college degree, or 8.7 percent of the sample, scored as high as or higher than college graduates on the institute exam.

Gaining knowledge about America's history and institutions isn't the only reason to attend college. There are other subjects worth learning about, professional paths that cannot be followed without a degree.

But if colleges continue escalating their costs and "dumbing down" their curricula, an increasing number of Americans may discover a liberating fact: With the right reading and conversational habits, it is possible to become a more knowledgeable, a more active and a wealthier citizen than the average person who invests tens of thousands of dollars in a college degree.

Richard Brake is director of University Stewardship at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

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