A study performed "...at Mount Royal University...meta-analysis aggregated numerous studies measuring college students’ IQs conducted between 1939 and 2022. The results showed that undergraduates’ IQs have steadily fallen from roughly 119 to a mean of 102 today..."
Joe adds: If intelligence is "normally" distributed, then an IQ of 119 puts you at the 90th percentile (at least 1.3 standard deviations above the average*). That is, you can mentally process text and abstract ideas better than 90% of the population. An IQ of 102 means that you have no advantage over the average person in the population in performing those tasks.
"...being accepted to college today no longer requires the intelligence that it used to..."
One influential study showed that for white American undergraduates with an IQ only slightly above average, their chance of graduating is essentially 50-50.
...the (average) price (of college per year) increased to $28,775.
Joe notes: A substantial number of the students admitted to college and who incur debt have IQs BELOW 102! They are doomed to wrack up large amounts of debt with no increase in earning power.
“employers can no longer rely on applicants with university degrees to be more capable or smarter than those without degrees.” Joe adds: And therefore businesses see no reason to pay them any more than somebody who does not have a degree. That is, the attainment of a college degree (in and of itself) confers no incremental ability to earn more.
Joe notes: So it is even worse for somebody who graduates from college than for the person who flunked out after one semester. The person who graduated wracked up six years of debts (what it now takes to obtain a four-year degree) and still has no advantage after graduating. Oh, and they lost six years of wages while pursuing their degree.
Joe continues: One of the richest people I know cheerfully admits that he failed in his first term at MSU. He got some life-experiences and then tried five years later, graduating with a degree in accounting and passing his CPA exam on his first try.
Another person I know who graduated with a four-year degree took a six-week course to learn a medical-technology. That paid the bills while she pursued a degree in Nursing which she attained in 18 months. She now makes a comfortable wage with the skills she learned outside of her traditional, four-year degree.
Hat-tip to CoyoteKen
*In round numbers, the "average IQ" is 100 and the standard deviation is 15 points.
IQ in the US rose from approximately 80 in 1934 to 100 in 2000 and has been in slight decline since then. Nutrition, exposure to more vocabulary and exposure to higher math like algebra and trigonometry and the increased prevalence of printed matter have been suggested for the rise in IQs.
Depends on 3 things: the university attended, the course of study / diploma achieved, & the individual's self-worth.
ReplyDeleteCC
Colleges have been opening their door wider and wider to get their sacred 'diversity' and it shows in the average student IQ. The current crop can not do the work of 20 years ago so they dumb down the coursework to keep that student loan money flowing. Witness the FIU bridge collapse.
ReplyDeleteERJ, one note from a hiring point of view is that in my industry, a college degree is considered de rigeur, even for positions that really do not require it. That has always bothered me, as it means that skilled and intelligent people who could learn the job are effectively barred from even darkening the threshold due to a degree which in some cases has no immediate impact on the job they are doing - and in some cases, creates an issue as well as "college educated" folk consider some jobs beneath them.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the value of degrees from colleges, name only matters for a very few career fields at this point. Most companies just want to see that you graduated (whatever that means - increasingly little, it seems).
A second note: Attending college may not be a net negative if 1) One minimizes educational expenses (local community college for 2-3 years, terminating degree at state school); and 2) The degree has a clear and paying path forward. One potential modifier would be careers for which an advanced degree (Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist) is required but for which there are significant financial gains once the degree is secured.
DeleteSome positions should always require advanced degrees. Recurrent education too.
DeleteThese would be medical personnel, engineers, et.
Yet even there, it is what is required to confer the degree which is in contention.
An engineering degree, say should not require classes in diversity and equity.
College has become a "Pay to play" in our society. It's the price of admission to "The Club." A degree is now worth about the same as a roll of toilet paper, but costs a hell of a lot more... Follow the money. See who wins RIGHT AWAY, as opposed to who MIGHT win with a college "education..." I rest my case...
ReplyDeleteMany employment positions had already required at least a 4 year degree. Typically those were in science and technology. Then that requirement spread into the non-science industries.
ReplyDeleteEven still, I was surprised when the job my wife had done for 25+ years now required a 4 year.
Being at the top in her field, she wasn't concerned for advancement in pay ranges.
Initially what happened was a reshuffling of job titles, including the creation of new titles.
Wife, most senior employee, was now a 'technician' albeit at the top of the highest pay scale.
Then different tasks were culled from her to be given to less qualiified - but degreed - personnel.
I predicted then that the degree requirement will become so ubiquitous that it will become meaningless.
But wait, how will a degree become meaningless, i.e., unworthy?
Because the requirement is for a degree. Not said is degree in any specific discipline. Hence the rise of meaningless degrees such as black history or gender studies.
Now here we are where employers have developed lists of DO NOT HIRE even if applicant is degreed from formerly prestigious university.
The purpose of a university education long ago ceased to be about education. The goal is and has been for decades now, to transfer money via "tuition" and the related loans into the bank accounts of the universities and it's bureaucratic denizens.
ReplyDeleteAnd IQ will continue to decline as math and language are kicked to the curb, along with history and civics. Purposely 'undereducating' our children will not end well.
ReplyDeleteIt has always been my understanding that your IQ is a measurement of your 'ability/capacity' to learn. Learning does not raise or lower your IQ as it does not change your ability or capacity to learn. Alcohol and drugs can lower it as they diminish your capacity to learn.
ReplyDeletesam
According to John Keersmacker, the single most stable element of the standard IQ test is your vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the same source, the only thing IQ is useful for is to predict whether you will be able to complete your first year of college.
His explanation was that lectures ASSUME a certain level of vocabulary attainment. Lecturers use the most economical words for them. If there is a particular word that tidily captures what they are trying to communicate, say the word "tenuous", then they will use that word.
If you do not know what "tenuous" means, if you do not write it down and look it up then you are guessing at what the professor was trying to tell you.
So the ability-to-learn is at least partially dependent on your life experiences. You could take the smartest kid in China and throw him into a University where all of the lectures are in a language he does not understand (and the tests are written in that same language) and he will struggle.
Viewed from that perspective, IQ is not hardwired at birth.
College education was traditionally the province of a small portion of the country. Widely available college expanded that pool slightly, at the expense of a huge number of students for whom it doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteTech schools are coming back but in my opinion not fast enough and there is still too much of an emphasis on college.
I'm glad to see some of the "leading lights" of snooty colleges being cut down to size...
Jonathan
https://governor.utah.gov/2022/12/13/news-release-gov-cox-launches-skills-first-hiring-initiative-for-state-government/
ReplyDelete“Degrees have become a blanketed barrier-to-entry in too many jobs,” Gov. Cox said. “Instead of focusing on demonstrated competence, the focus too often has been on a piece of paper. We are changing that.”