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This was a fun conversation about THE GREAT SHADOW and the history of sickness! Have a listen.
thenocturnists.org/podcast/the-history-of-being-sick-with-susan-wise-bauer-m.div-phd
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRSiekESih4
us.macmillan.com/books/9781250272911/thegreatshadow/
us.macmillan.com
“Lively, informative ...offers wide-ranging evidence of alternative frameworks for disease." ―Science "Allows readers to practically experience firsthan...4 hours ago
The second entry in my "how AI is changing our views of college" series comes from the Times of London (I appreciate an outside gaze on our American priorities). This is a fascinating piece to me, because it has two parts:
1) "It's inefficient to pay a quarter of a million dollars for a college degree if that degree doesn't appreciably raise your chances of getting a good paying job."
Agreed, if the purpose of the degree is economic advantage. As a humanities idealist, I'd argue that a college degree has many more intangible benefits. But even as a humanities idealist, I'd be hard pressed to say that those intangible benefits were worth 250K. The ridiculousness of soaring college costs has to be part of our ongoing conversation about whether kids should still be planning on college.
2) "It's a much better use of funds for high school grads to train with tech companies for specific jobs. Look at these cool opportunities..."
HOLD THE PHONE. Sure, that could be a legitimate option for tech-oriented kids, but let's be WAY cautious of proposals that essentially sub Palantir and Peter Thiel in for the current (very flawed) university system. That is absolutely abandoning the deep blue sea for the devil. (Choose your preferred metaphor here.)
Have a read and tell me what you think. This is a generous excerpt--full article provided via the share link below.
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Only 22 per cent [of Americans surveyed by the Times] think a college degree is necessary for young people to achieve the American Dream in 20 years, according to the poll of 1,821 respondents. It contrasts with the 49 per cent of Americans who said in a 1978 CBS-New York Times poll that a college education was necessary to get ahead.
By 2000, university graduates were paid an average of 79 per cent more than those without a degree. That same year, President Clinton claimed that going to college offered “nearly double the stock market’s historical rate of return”.
But today, more Americans than ever are asking: is college really worth it?
...Recent graduates are facing higher than average unemployment rates while artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate many white-collar jobs.
...[C]ollege graduates aged 22 to 27 face a 5.6 per cent unemployment rate, higher than the overall rate of 4.2 per cent, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York....These dynamics have shifted the calculus on whether Americans think college is worth it...
Jacob Ayoub, 23, spent four months feverishly applying for more than 200 jobs before getting his foot in the door at a finance firm, which he declined to name.
Ayoub’s parents, both retired finance professionals, paid for his tuition at Boston College, which reached more than $250,000 by his graduation last year. Even without the pressure of huge loans, Ayoub still felt a “general impending sense of doom” when he could not find work.
“When you’re graduating without a job, you don’t have a plan and that’s definitely a pretty stressful situation,” he said. Though Ayoub does not regret attending college, he said he wished he had learnt about alternative career paths in high school, such as becoming a pilot...
Increasingly, technology titans are encouraging America’s best and brightest to try a different route. Last year Alex Karp, chief executive of the software company Palantir, launched the “Meritocracy Fellowship”, a four-month scheme that pays 22 high school graduates $5,400 a month to forgo college with the hope of landing a full-time position at Palantir, one of the most valuable companies.
The PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s fellowship, which launched in 2011, pays young entrepreneurs $200,000 to skip or leave college to build their own start-ups.
This sounds sensible to Collin Butrlakorn, 23. He dropped out of Pacific University in Oregon in 2022 after injuring himself playing basketball on a scholarship. He then enrolled at Linn-Benton Community College in Oregon, which cost $6,000 a year, before dropping out again to pursue a career as a videographer. He is now working as a sales rep to save enough money to move to Austin, Texas, for its growing film and TV production industry.
Butrlakorn said that he owed about $13,000 for his education and would be “potentially making over six figures without a college degree. That made a lot more sense to me”.
Brown-Weaver, who is in his second year at Accenture and living at home while saving up to buy a house, said his story should encourage other young people to think outside the box. “I feel like the school system force-fed college to us as if it were the only option,” he said. “But it’s not. There are so many other options out there … you can really do anything in this current world if you put your mind to it.”
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What’s the point of going to college, Americans ask
www.thetimes.com
In the age of AI and precarious employment, more parents and young people are ruling out university, a Times survey shows21 hours ago
On your point #1, I rather agree with you, but IF (a critical IF) it comes down to going into significant longterm debt, the economic return on a degree absolutely should be considered. Owing $300K at the end with only weak job prospects is imprudent. There is ample “goodness, truth, and beauty” in the humanities, but prospective students need a game plan (e.g. where’s my BA in Philosophy taking me?) and if means are limited, shouldn’t borrow excessively to fund something that simply won’t pay back.
The value of something is contingent on its cost, which isn’t the same for everyone. As Farrar pointed out, many families do not pay sticker price. But even of the families who do, it’s less of a sacrifice for some than others, which makes the relative cost lower, which shifts the cost-benefit analysis in favor of a college degree. Every family has to assess the value of a college education based on the cost of it FOR THEM, but for those who don’t have to sacrifice much, I’m a big believer in education for education’s sake. Obviously that’s not worth $250k in debt. But if you can do it without debt or extreme sacrifice, the value of higher education is measured in more than earning potential.
As I'm constantly pointing out, the real price that most families pay for a college education is typically much less. Most families have an option for a four year school that's less than half the $250k mentioned here and many have an option even less, sometimes significantly less. I hate that articles like this focus on sticker price so heavily when so few families actually pay sticker price. It always feels like a straw man argument. They say "college isn't worth X" when most families don't pay X.
Crazy to see my son’s little community college listed in that excerpt. He did two years at that cc then 2 years at the state university. He *just* landed a good job this week, two weeks before graduating with his degree. The sense of relief he has felt having that assurance as he ends school is incredible. He applied for so many positions without a single acknowledgment (and couldn’t secure an internship last year). It’s a hard time to be starting out as an adult.
Several things can be true at the same time. A 4 year degree is way too expensive, most kids would benefit from college classes where they meet diverse people and opinions and learn how to work with others, and not all kids are going to thrive in a college environment. All 3 of mine that have done college classes. The older 2 have chosen to take some time off (there's also a huge trauma involved as their Dad passed away while they were in college), both are working. 1 is working in their wanted field (education) as a nanny. The other is trying out things. The 3rd got his diploma from a 2 year technical school in construction and enjoyed both his hands on classes and the core classes needed. He says psych was one of his favorite classes. Next kiddo starts DE in August, and may be my 1st to go straight to 4 year school in something stem related. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where lots of different types of schools are available, at a lower than national price. I don't know the answers, but getting rid of college entirely is not the answer.
I'm starting to think those who can do, and those who can't go to school to jump hoops. My daughter was excited to be taking the psychology of personality class with a professor with a PhD in personality, only to have him shoot down her ideas on day one with no discussion. I pried more into the nature of her struggle and why she wanted to drop out, just 4 classes to go. It was "surface level," she said. There was no discussion of motivations as formation of personality in early childhood, just identifying outer traits, something she said was useless. Her plan next semester is yoga, stretching, producing a music group for showcase, and all the hours in between in the library to write that book! More power to her, because it'll be of more value than that degree.
I think it truly depends on the student's career goals. More and more degrees are becoming obsolete. I was a sociology major, but ended up with my own business for a while. I learned all about running a business on my own, doing research on the internet and seeking advice from more experienced friends. You can really learn anything you want these days without paying thousands of dollars. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or anything that requires education and a license, of course you need college. But people who want to learn and don't need the degree or certification, can learn anywhere. Anecdotally, My son's peers just graduated from college last year. My son opted not to go to college. He's making a lot more money than most of them, learning the freight broker business from a friend. Some of his friends couldn't get jobs in their chosen fields. Does it work out that way for everyone? No. But I think fewer and fewer people actually NEED a college education to get ahead. What's more important is to have good critical thinking skills, the ability to see problems and solve them, and the ability to adapt as this world changes quickly.
This is a tough one. On one hand the high school-college-career path is easier because it is laid out for you. I simply don’t believe these young adults are not finding jobs. Rather, they expect a specific picture of a career and are not willing to do anything other than that particular schema. They think the perfect job is due to them. That is entitlement which is a bigger issue with this generation. Being a successful entrepreneur is not a predictable path. “What, like it’s hard?” Yes. Yes, it is hard. And without talent and perseverance, it won’t work. My advice, take a job you consider beneath your degree. Do the thing. Earn respect. Learn how to live in the world. Develop your skills as an adult. Work. Work. Work. Earn it.
The School System has fed kids to consume A LOT of Issues, which also works due to Extreme Bullyjng and even Positive Peer Pressures. I often highlight this one “TakeAway,” unfortunately, rarely “caught” by parents or their ‘student’ child[ren] until it is too late. Your book and my Spine, highlights many of those in a non-judgmental, no nonsense approach to early parenting skills which can increase, solidify (Goals, if nothing else) especially from the preschool years and still effective from Kindergarten - Second-Grade Second Semester. Increasingly, I see worn out, burnt out, exhausted, relationship ending families, where parents are spending more time justifying that K - 12 “Experience” & “Childhood,” constantly making the same poor decisions, too many of them lethal, terminal and not just tragic, to “Fit,” a Construct and Indoctrination which has severed not one single, human being for the short term but most especially for the longterm future & memories of the students, the teachers, employers, parents, sibling, and all family & relational Dynamics
For the last few months, I've been collecting journalism, opinion pieces, and essays about what will happen to higher education in the age of AI.
I'll post those over the next few weeks, and I'll look forward to your reactions. But I thought I'd start with this essay from the New Yorker, by Jay Kaspian Kang, which in a way is beginning at the end.
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If we agree that college primarily serves a credentialling process that stamps select young people as worthy of work, and, if we agree that A.I. helps to expose it as such, might we not conclude that, at some point, people will collectively stop paying into the system, or will start seeking out other, less expensive credentials?
I do not think that A.I. will singlehandedly destroy college. But I do think that it will accelerate an already growing disillusionment with higher education. In 2013, seventy-four per cent of eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-olds polled by Gallup said that a college education was “very important.” By 2019, three years before the public adoption of ChatGPT, that number had dropped to forty-three per cent; it fell again, in 2025, to thirty-five per cent, a decline that represented the steepest drop among all age groups that were surveyed. This drop might level off at some point, simply because most things regress to previous norms. But I cannot come up with any reason why the trend would reverse direction without radical changes to cost and access at the types of élite colleges that facilitate class mobility. What seems likely is a winner-takes-all scenario, in which the élite schools and flagship state universities survive on account of their cultural, financial, and reputational advantages, while other schools die out, leading to either a huge expansion in enrollment among the survivors (unlikely) or a steady drop in the number of young people who seek out a four-year degree. That may be a good outcome, but the gospel that I grew up with—the idea that everyone should get a college education not only for upward mobility but also to explore reading, thinking, and writing for their own sake—will be dead.
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I think Mr. Kang has put his finger on it. At least three quarters of our higher education institutions have survived by positioning themselves as credentialing institutions: That four-year degree will make you more employable. It will be your ticket to a good job, a higher salary, and a life better than the ones your parents led.
AI is beginning to wipe that particular reality away.
To be clear: Higher education is more than due for a reckoning. The Higher Education Act of 1965 opened the doors for students to borrow for their degree in a way that had never been possible before, and from there through the 2000s, colleges were able to consistently hike their tuition rates because students were borrowing to attend--and students believed that the loans would pay off, in the end, because of those good jobs and higher salaries. That is no longer the case, but at the same time, the entire apparatus of student loans has quadrupled and encouraged even more debt and even more borrowing.
Upward mobility won the day. Exploring reading, writing, and thinking for their own sake has increasingly become a privilege of those who can pay for it without borrowing.
This is not sustainable for higher education. We're looking at a sea change here, and the tide is just beginning to swell.
www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/will-ai-make-college-obsolete?_sp=5ad68571-16a8-4d3f-8782-4921...
www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/sea-change-shakespeare-origin-history
www.bu.edu/fairstudentloans/a-brief-history-of-student-loans/
Will A.I. Make College Obsolete?
www.newyorker.com
During a time when American trust in institutions is at an all- time low, A.I. is poised to accelerate a growing disillusionment with higher education.7 days ago
When college education dies, it will not be because of AI. It will be because it was over sold, over-priced, and had failed a large percentage of it consumers, in the generations leading up to Gen Alpha, beginning decades before AI entered the conversation. I’m in the final semester of my master’s program, at age 50… I would do this graduate work again, in order to be licensed to become the professional I have spent a lifetime searching for, before I realized this particular help doesn’t exist yet… The quality of educational effort that was required of me in the 1990’s and of my husband in graduate school in the early 2000’s, no longer is being required in my opinion. This point is in addition to the failure college has been to generations. I’m curious and horrified to discover what’s in our society’s future.
I don't want college to become obsolete, but I'd love it if it stopped being the main goal we push people towards. We are in a trades crisis, and even college-bound people could work in a trade for a few years before going to college, and be more financially stable and less in need of loans.
I was just discussing this with friends this morning, a group of friends who are all giving our children a liberal arts homeschool education. It is hard to justify the cost indeed, without knowing if the return on investment will be financially beneficial.  i’m a veterinarian, which required eight years of college education, and I will be paying that debt off until I am 56. I love it and it was worth it to me, but I’m not going to encourage my children to incur that sort of debt unless they know they have a very good prospect for paying it off. Luckily, our state university offers a full tuition scholarship for a good GPA, and we were able to save for them in 529 plans from the time they were babies, so they will be able to go to state schools if they want to. My oldest is graduating today (!) and planning to start at a university to work toward becoming an engineer, but he is honestly wrestling with the thought of being an electrician instead. He likes to be active, and also the trades are probably going to be more resistant to AI undermining. None of my kids love the humanities like I do, but at least I have the comfort that I’m giving them a very good liberal arts education before they leave home. And hopefully some of it sticks and they want to continue to learn and read in different areas throughout adulthood. But… I don’t really expect a state college to give them a good liberal arts education. I do think there’s benefit and being exposed to different viewpoints and people of different backgrounds, more perhaps than they would if they did not go to college. But… is it worth the price?
In case it's not already in your collection of sources, here's the Report of the Yale Committee on Trust in Higher Education. It went beyond the daily churn of committee work in describing the depth and breadth of the problem, and the recommendations apply to some extent to other institutions as well. president.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2026-04/Report-of-the-Committee-on-Trust-in-Higher-Educati...
I’d add the advent of social media. It’s not just AI. There are many kids making a fairly decent amount of money in YouTube, TicToc and other platforms. Kids that with a college degree would be slaving 12 hour a day jobs for just above minimum salary. Opinion polls in LATAM speak loudly when show that most kids aspire to be an influencer. Just saying.
I wanted to go to school to become a different kind of person than the people who raised me - someone who saw the world more expansively and understood a great many things and could navigate the world in a smarter way. The particular colleges and universities I chose were somewhat incidental to those goals. But I am aware that my ideas about education are in the minority, even in this comment section.
Ooh I have too Susan Wise Bauer and I would be happy to share resources! I moderated a panel at the IECA--Independent Educational Consultants Association global symposium in February on this topic with some amazing people.
