tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post8310002317761032121..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: TAKEN TO THE WOODSHEDRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46709878103161523852015-12-01T22:02:28.947-05:002015-12-01T22:02:28.947-05:00One additional data point on age of degree recipie...One additional data point on age of degree recipients: a study from the Department of Education found that about 15 percent of bachelor's degrees in 2007-2008 were awarded to people aged 30 and older. <br /><br />Table 1 (on p. 4 of the <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014141.pdf" rel="nofollow">report</a>):<br /><br />DEMOGRAPHIC AND UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE CHARACTERISTICS: Percentage distribution of 2007–08 bachelor’s degree recipients by demographic and enrollment characteristics: 2012<br /><br />Age at bachelor’s degree award:<br />23 or younger: 64.8 <br />24–29: 19.8 <br />30 or older: <b>15.4</b><br /><br />http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2014141Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13461525625620591341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-58076962352055753942015-12-01T16:46:24.501-05:002015-12-01T16:46:24.501-05:00No problem - I should add that the last thing I sa...No problem - I should add that the last thing I said sounded somewhat like an insult. I didn't mean that. Only, my experience is that people in the North East (especially middle/upper middle class people in the North East) have a very different view on college than much of the rest of the country, and especially the West. In Idaho, where I'm from, most people have no idea about the difference between Penn and Penn State, for example. If anything, they probably think higher of Penn State, because they heard of it (because of football.) (On the other hand, I have had quite a few Penn students who had no idea that Cal Tech was one of the top schools in the country for sciences.) Now, the view out in Idaho, and lots of the west, is pretty clearly anti-intellectual in a way that's not at all admirable, but not every bit of it is bad. Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-82005392113761997702015-12-01T11:12:55.553-05:002015-12-01T11:12:55.553-05:00Thank you, Matt. I suspect your experience is mat...Thank you, Matt. I suspect your experience is matched by that of many people at campuses across the country. And to think that when I left Columbia for UMass I thought I was returning to "the people." How blinded we are by the particularities of our experiences!Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-87676832504458373452015-12-01T10:59:06.480-05:002015-12-01T10:59:06.480-05:00I went to college at Boise State University in the...I went to college at Boise State University in the early to mid 90's. Boise State is no one's idea of elite, but in Idaho going there was looked at as a perfectly respectable and even good thing to do. (It was also extremely cheap - not including room and board [most people lived off-campus anyway], it was about $800/semester when I started and about $1000/semester when I graduated. It's more now, but not that much more. This had good and bad aspects that I'll come back to.) But, when I went to BSU, something like 40% of the students were "non-traditional", meaning that they were 24 or older. Lots of them were people who had, say, gone into the military, or worked, or went part-time, or went for some years and then came back, or who had a kid and then came back. People also went somewhat erratically. This was one down-side of it being so cheap - starting but not finishing, or going some times and then not others, wasn't a huge lost investment in the way it would be if it cost (even!) $10K/year, let alone $50K/year. So, people would go in and out, and finish very slowly, or even not finish. Or, they would change their mind part way through as to what to do. (That, and working all during school, is why I took 5 years to graduate.) I believe that it's been a goal of BSU to become a more "traditional" school as far as age of the student population and percent living on campus, but I'm not completely sure that's a good thing. I found it really useful to have lots of different sorts of people, with different experiences, in my classes. <br /><br />(You can bet that, from Idaho, where even something like SUNY Albany sounds elite, U Mass Amherst seems very elite indeed. I think it's really only a sort of strange provincialism of the east coast upper class that makes this not clear to many people!) Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-79623950346278636002015-12-01T10:46:50.853-05:002015-12-01T10:46:50.853-05:00Thanks, Jim. I am going to leave the number crunc...Thanks, Jim. I am going to leave the number crunching to you, as my "old computer code" [which is to say my brain] just locates appropriate passages in the Critique of Pure Reason. :) <br /><br />By the way, the data on AA degrees and "some college" are of course interesting, but do not I think fundamentally alter my point about the very large number of people closed out from good jobs.<br /><br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04503871750113300199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-27095400738778433342015-12-01T10:03:38.212-05:002015-12-01T10:03:38.212-05:00I downloaded the raw individual data and calculate...I downloaded the raw individual data and calculated it directly myself (I selected all those in the survey over 45 and used the proper weights--then just reported their educational attainment). I have worked with CPS (ASEC) data a lot in the past so it was quite easy--it is like "riding a bike" when some of your old computer code runs flawlessly. In fact, if you would like this data manipulated, crosstabbed, or stratified in some way let me know.<br /><br />Raw ASEC data is at: http://thedataweb.rm.census.gov/ftp/cps_ftp.html#cpsmarch<br />NBER has good input statements for various statistical programs: http://www.nber.org/data/cps_progs.html<br /><br />I should also note that another large group have an associates degree of some sort (9.4%) and that even more have had "some college" (16.1%). That is 55.6% of 45 year olds have attended at least some college. <br /><br />I am going to try to find some data on the age of graduation from 4-year colleges (when I have some time).Jim Westrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11523640492416820740noreply@blogger.com