Daily Princetonian: Many people shouldn't go to college

Found this over at Instapundit with the quote: "So you've heard it from me, you've heard it from Barack Obama, and now it's the Daily Princetonian"

I'm assuming that the Daily Princetonian is a student newspaper and this column was written by a religion major. So therefore was it a matter of time before a college student or college newspaper write such an opinion. Some of the arguments here make sense:

Policymakers and university administrators have admirably worked to expand access to college over the past several decades. In terms of enrollment rates, their efforts have been successful — matriculation increased by thirty seven percent between 2000 and 2010. So, the good news is that we’re getting young adults on campus. But we are profoundly failing them as a country after that; America’s graduation rate sits at an abysmal 53 percent, including community colleges. This disparity betrays a critical disconnect, one not discussed often enough — that a large swath of those lured to college should never have attended.

Seemingly insurmountable odds work against the typical young American. A college graduate today has to contend with an average of nearly $30,000 in student loan debt. The overall jobless rate for those between sixteen and twenty four is fifteen percent, more than double the national average. That said, the reality is that a large number of college students have no business being at four year universities.

American culture aggressively pushes the college experience and dismisses skeptics as snobs. Master plumbers, for example, make roughly between $50,000 — approximately the national average — and $80,000 a year. So why is it considered so wrong to encourage people to pursue the profession, or another like it, instead of a college degree? One path all but ensures a life in the middle class; for far too many, the other only guarantees crushing debt and no degree.

Therefore those who are in college now, probably weren't ready or qualified for college. This is something you'd really have to want in the first place, expectation or no expectation. And you can't expect everyone else to take care of it for you, if you have no skin in the game anyway.

Of course skin in the game for me would mean cash money, if one is lucky no loans at all! Perhaps some grants and scholarships, but nothing would beat a part-time job while you're in school. Especially if you can't afford to go on your own.