Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It?

Should you still go to college? At this point you really have to start to wonder. The prices get higher and higher. Paying a fortune for Stanford is one thing, but $95,000 a year for George Washington University, room and board included, is another. The school is ranked 59th by U.S. News & World Report. I know that is only a sticker price, and not the final charge, but as a starting point for negotiations it is ridiculous.

It gets worse. It seems that more and more jobs will require AI skills of some kind, yet few major universities are embracing AI instruction as a general practice. The computer science departments have done plenty, but humanities departments, law schools, and many other parts of our universities are working to ban or restrict AI. That enterprise is doomed to fail; professors in every discipline should be teaching their students how to use AI to learn the subject matter.

The simple reality is that in many cases the students know more about AI than their professors do. So what exactly are the professors supposed to teach? It is no wonder AI makes them nervous.

Another issue is declining enrollments. Many schools are in financial trouble, if only because there are not enough young people turning 18 and looking to continue their education. This problem cannot be fixed anytime soon, especially with the Donald Trump administration being much tougher on foreign students and their immigration and visa renewal prospects.