Bryce Harrison hoped his bachelor degree in political science would land him a job. But Harrison, a graduate from Goucher College, a private school in Baltimore, has had no such luck seven months after graduation.
Harrison is one of thousands struggling to find a job in the current economic state. Facing enormous pressure from the public, both federal and state officials are urged to hold colleges accountable for what happens after graduation, with frustration mounting over student debt.
At the state level, officials like Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina have been intensifying efforts to throw employment into the equation to find how much state funding should be given to public universities.
At the federal level, congressmen are also pushing for new ways of gauging the value of college. Senators Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) introduced the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act this week. The Act would require states to make the average salaries of college graduates, categorized by major, more accessible. They claimed that these salary data would help prospective students compare salaries by college and major to assess the best return on their investment.
On the surface, the Act seems to do students a big favor by mandating colleges to provide salary information. But some wonder if this Act is redundant. Some colleges are resisting the push, saying it would be burdensome for states to collect information that would tell students little they don’t already know. To judge whether this Act is redundant or not, we need to look at what information the market has provided to students in this field.
Students who really want to compare salaries of graduates from various schools or programs may find websites like glassdoor.com and collegeatlas.org useful. These institutes have researched and gathered information regarding salaries of college graduates with plenty of statistical details including the average, median and ranges. For instance, if you want to find the salary of a software developer at SAS Institute, Inc., Glassdoor can tell you the average, minimum and maximum, along with bonuses and other compensations.
This kind of information is already free to the public and easy to access for students and parents who are serious about finding it. When it comes to the relation between different programs and salaries, a comprehensive database doesn’t really tell a lot on the different of salaries. People don’t need a database to tell them that students who major in social work generally earn less than those who major in engineering.
The Act has also brought up concerns regarding disclosure of privacy. It requires states to put together wage data submitted by employers with information on graduates submitted by colleges. Virginia is one of the first states to publish the wages of college using social security numbers. However, this presents a potential risk of privacy – the data could be sliced so thinly that it is likely to reveal information about individuals.
Salary data themselves are hardly a compass of guiding high school seniors on what university to attend. Data themselves might contain misleading information if you ignore common sense. We all know that Harvard and Princeton are superb Ivy League universities. But when you compare to averaging starting salaries, they are surpassed by colleges with engineering-intensive majors like Stevens Institute of Technology. Just because the starting salary is lower doesn’t mean Harvard isn’t a great university.
Let’s get back to using common sense. We go to college to open our eyes, strengthen our minds and to think independently. Earning a good living is part of the goals but certainly not the only one. If the goal of going to college is to earn money to pay off the debt, then college education is a burden instead of a wealth in our lives.
