More Educational Speculation [updated

The NYT has a piece that considers whether folks should save money and avoid college.  That is, many people do not successfully complete a college degree and might be better off saving the money and pursuing a vocation instead.  I am not going to rant about this because the second half of the piece does a nice job of marshaling the data to raise questions about the first half, especially that even some college education leads to higher wages, better citizenship, health and other stuff.  Plus it also mentions that college is not just about getting a passport stamped but also about the experience.

That experience may not be worth $100k or more on its own, but combined with the increased earning potential, I am pretty sure that my profession is not quite doomed (especially since the US dept of Labor says that post-secondary education is going to be one of the top growing job sectors--what have they been smoking?)

[updated] And here is a blog that shows the figures on impact of a college education on earnings, making the case that higher education is a good investment.