In March 2011, for the first time ever, more than 30 percent of U.S. adults 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. As recently as 1998, fewer than one-quarter of people this age had this level of education.
From 2001 to 2011, the number of Hispanics with a bachelor’s or higher education increased 80 percent from 2.1 million to 3.8 million. The percentage of Hispanics with a bachelor’s or higher education increased from 11.1 percent in 2001 to 14.1 percent in 2011. Overall, the increase in the proportion of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher went from 26.2 percent to 30.4 percent.
“This is an important milestone in our history,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said. “For many people, education is a sure path to a prosperous life. The more education people have the more likely they are to have a job and earn more money, particularly for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree.” MORE
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Thank you, Greatescape! I have seen no evidence of UWF or any school in the Florida SUS “dumbing down” their course work. To the contrary, I have seen evidence that the work required to graduate from a state university has increased in difficulty over the past two decades.
Leo, not all college graduates are created equal and I urge you not to let your experience with one rotten apple taint your judgment. The students I work with at UWF are all incredibly bright and talented. I can assure you that none of them would misspell Pensacola or leave areas blank on an employment application.
To the 30 per cent of the population that has graduated from college, I say well done! Don’t let the naysayers make you any less proud of your accomplishment.
Leo — I don’t know what you pay incoming graduates, but your experience does not coincide with mine. I interview many potential employees every month & they are bright, interested & ready to enter the world of work. Of course, our incoming salary is around $25+ an hour. We expect the best & we haven’t been disappointed by recent graduates.
Could this dramatic increase in the number of college graduates have anything to do with the dumbing down of the curricula? My son graduated from FSU last year with a BA in Political Science and is currently attending law school. He showed me several of his undergraduate texts and assignments and we both laughed at the lack of challenging material. We agreed that he had far tougher work assigned to him in high school.
Our public colleges and universities have become little more than glorified vending machines, insert $50,000 and out pops your genuine imitation sheepskin.
On occasion I interview potential employees for our rather small firm. I have seen college graduates who are unable to completely fill out an application, do not understand the rules of writing simple sentences and lack adequate verbal communications skills.
I asked one candidate to solve a simple math word problem (taken from a 6th grade text book) and he refused, saying he wasn’t a math major and it had no bearing on the position. The young man had a BA from UWF and I suspect he simply did not have any concept of how to solve the problem. I included it in his application process in order to test his critical thinking abilities. Apparently he has none.
His grammar was atrocious and he did very poorly filling out the application, misspelling several words including Pensacola and he left blank the section asking him why he thought he should be hired. If I had met him socially I would have guessed he was a high school drop-out but UWF confirmed he was indeed one of their graduates.
I am afraid the public system of higher education in this country has opted for the quick buck; a quality college education seems to have become a thing of the past.