Ode to a Scrambling Middle Class
We are thrilled to welcome Maya Frost as a guest blogger on The Way We’ll Be. Maya is an internationally recognized expert on nontraditional and innovative paths through higher education. Maya is the author of The New Global Student, a primer for students and parents interested in global and unorthodox higher education while avoiding the anxiety and expense of traditional college. You can read more about Maya at her website and blog. Thanks Maya!
This has been a tipping-point summer for higher education. Shrinking endowments and slashes in state funding have crippled universities of all sizes and descriptions, resulting in unprecedented cuts in administration, programs and services. Meanwhile, family resources have been decimated by job losses, reduced housing values, and an inability to get credit.
Middle-class families are asking hard questions about the value of a name-brand university degree and rejecting the option of taking on a great deal of debt to pay for one. As a result, community college enrollment has surged across the United States, and many students are now planning to earn their degree at a state school instead of a private university.
Accepting students with the means to pay full room, board and tuition is a time-honored approach to filling the coffers at private universities, and in the current economic climate, the admissions gap is likely to widen at elite colleges. Administrators have reinvigorated their efforts to attract those who are not making their enrollment decisions based on financial aid. A higher percentage of students from wealthier families will earn their diplomas at top schools alongside the lucky few who are offered full scholarships based on need (and the colleges’ quest for more diversity). Meanwhile, the middle-class kids will walk en masse at graduation ceremonies at not-terribly-impressive-but-reasonably-good universities across the country.
Savvy employers understand this shift. They have their own economic challenges and need to find employees who are truly valuable rather than simply impressive. Business leaders and non-profit directors are becoming less impressed by an Ivy League diploma or a straight-after-graduation master’s degree. Instead, they are looking for real competence, relevant experience and honest enthusiasm in young people who know how to get things done with limited resources.
Prestige is losing its power. We’re entering an era with a renewed emphasis on the value of practical skills, a can-do attitude, and no excuses. Leaders will look for those who have had nothing handed to them and will handpick employees—and future leaders—who know how to scramble.
I’m betting on those who are hungry—for learning, for experiences, and for personal development and success. The scramblers have been responsible for the success of our nation throughout history, and their counterparts in India, China and elsewhere are driving the explosion in innovation and collaboration abroad. Those who have had no choice but to use their creativity and talent rather than their connections or family funds to get ahead will be perfectly positioned to seize the most thrilling and fulfilling opportunities in the 21st-century global economy.
Watch the scramblers—and see where they lead us.
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Say what you will, but one of the most important points overlooked in your comments was the power of networking with old school chums. Ironically, I have seen this become more important, the more time passes since getting that degree, since some of those people will have made it into decision making positions. There are few substitutes for old friendships with well connected graduates of elite private schools.
That said, in my own circle, we are proud to have put together a team with no more resources than a stick and a rock, yet have done some great stuff. It is acknowledged and we are praised for such fine work.
But it does not seem to transfer into advancement beyond a certain level. Management prefers to hire old friends from outside our loop for the top positions.
Agree, networking is most important! That being said, half or more of this year’s college grads will never break even on the cost of their college loans. Most would do better to get a good union apprenticeship, electrician, plumber, crane operator . . . .
“Shrinking endowments and slashes in state funding have crippled universities of all sizes and descriptions”? Seriously? University SPENDING has nothing to do with “crippling” universities? If Americans are expected to live within their budgets, why aren’t these institutions? Their reaction to the financial meltdown is “Waaa, we need more money.” Most Americans are scrambling in response to the same meltdown, but they realize that they have to cut their SPENDING.
In my opinion, full-ride scholarships are ridiculous. Why shouldn’t students have SOME education loans, and spread the scholarship money further? Not oppressive debt (those kids need to ask whether they NEED to go to a school that charges $35,000 a year), but rather some sign that you are contributing to your own future.
My question is how will this change athletic scholarships? Atletics make a lot of money for most Universities. Will the Elite Schools require stricter adherence to their academic requirements? I like Maya’s thoughts and hope she is right. I have seen many a student graduate with a debt that was simply to large to pay back with a degree in the field they chose. Great minds can go to schools they can afford and find the elite schools at the graduate level. The average go-getter deserves a break. Let students go to the schools they can afford and they are under less preassure and can put more effort in to their studies. The burden now falls on the small state universities and community colleges to produce faculties that are of excellent quality. Some of the adjunct instructors have more experience in the workplace than the professors.