The Value of University

My Grandpa, J.D. Palmer, in the 1950’s, left the family farm in central Washington State. He hitchhiked to Seattle Pacific College (now University), and began his collegiate journey. That journey would be the single proximate cause of the success of his entire life. It is where he met his beautiful, intelligent and loving wife, Eva. It is where he excelled in study; where he set himself apart as a 4.0 student. It is where he became sophisticated, participating in all the activities that transform a limited country boy into a well-rounded educated man: track and field (where he ran with world class Ben Mooring and Eugene Peterson), student government, church, and many studies. He made lifelong connections with people in his future field. In those days, a four year college degree was the basic building block for getting ahead in life.

In his day, J.D. Palmer could leave Seattle Pacific in the spring, and head back to the farm just outside of Yakima for the summer. There, he worked long hours in the creamery. He spent the weekends thinning fruit trees, picking produce, and other hard labor for local businesses. The money was terrible, but if he worked harder than most, and put in the long hours, he could just afford to pay for the upcoming school year in the fall. That was how he did it. Mid-year hard work was how he could afford to climb out of poverty by way of college.

Grandpa Palmer didn’t stop at a four year degree. He accepted a job in teaching just after graduating. He loved it, and he seemed to be made for the world of education. After gaining some experience teaching in elementary school, he decided to get his Masters Degree in the field. It could only help. More sacrifice, as his family grew. More time pouring over the books, and pursuing that degree. Getting it helped him to secure his first principalship. He climbed the institutional ladder through hard work and excellent leadership.

Finally, when his kids were old enough, my Grandpa went back to get his Doctorate. The highest level of higher education in our family, directly or in wider cousin circles. It was years, and much sacrifice at the University of Southern California. Earning that coveted diploma did a few things for the family. First, it allowed Grandpa to become a superintendent of schools, in Redlands California. Second, it made Grandpa a lifelong and devoted follower of Trojan football. Third, it set a bar of expectation for all to follow after him.

Our family milieu was firmly pro-education. It was the way Grandpa went from hayseed to Superintendent. Going to college was part of what it meant to be a Palmer; you go to church, love the Lord, love your family, be a pillar in the community, and find a way to go to college. An expectation for pursuing higher education was so important, he and my Grandmother saved money for their children and grandchildren to go to college.

My father, Bruce Palmer, followed his father’s footsteps in the late 1970’s. He moved away from home in California, and enrolled at the same place: Seattle Pacific College. While he was there, it became a university. He got his degree in Business. He met his wife there, and just like Grandpa, was married before graduating. Even in the early 80’s a college degree was a surefire way to get your foot in the door at corporate America, and it was how my dad made his leap into the middle class.

But, by then tuition was not something that a teenager could swing by working hard during the summers. My dad, along with everyone else, needed some help. Because my grandparents valued college so much, they had set money aside for him. But, even in those days, it was possible for a student with some planned help, to graduate from a four year university (even a private Christian school) without student debt. It was also in this era (about 1976) that congress made student debt especially difficult to erase with bankruptcy.

It was in the late 70’s that our nation began to allow financial institutions to loan bad debt to teenagers, at the cost of their futures. If one follows the logic: a four year degree makes a person far more valuable to an employer, and they will pay the graduate much more. Financial institutions are therefore making an investment that pays off for both the student, who will make more money in the long run, and the debt collector, who earns interest over the life of the loan.

My father took a job as a pharmaceutical salesman. He worked the Alaska territory for almost a decade, before settling down in Spokane, Washington, until his retirement a few years ago. When it came time for me to decide whether or not to go to college, both my father, and my grandfather strongly encouraged me to do it.

My decision to go was based solely on the strenuous advice of my grandpa, and my dad, who argued that it was the best first place to go. Get your education, and no matter what you do, you will find a valued use for it. I had almost joined the Marines. But, another mentor of mine said, “You’re young. The Marines aren’t going anywhere. Get your education while you have the time and energy, and you’ll have it out of the way. Plus, you can join the Marines as an officer if you do the college thing first.”

It seems that I was the first generation of Palmers to encounter the massive change in college costs. Put simply, college had become, and continues to be exponentially more expensive, and exponentially less valuable. In 2002, I boarded a Greyhound bus and made the trip from Spokane to Seattle. I too enrolled at Seattle Pacific University.

Paying for school was a nightmare. I had some scholarships, but not a lot. School cost about $25,000 a year. Like the Palmer men before me, I had worked hard, and was willing to commit my entire life savings (up to that point), representing countless hours working at Hollywood Video, Grocery Outlet, and Denny’s on weekends, holidays, and through the summer. It was about $2,500. I remember signing the check with a shaking hand at the registrar’s office. It wasn’t even enough for room and board for one school year, never mind the tuition, books and fees.

I focused on classes that I found fascinating, allowing my major to spring up organically. I had taken many classes in communication, and in theology. Finally, I declared my theology major, just in time to have all federal subsidies stripped away: it was a new ruling, citing separation of church and state, and any students wanting to pursue spiritual studies would have to find their own way to pay for college.

It was then that I faced a life changing decision. Do I take out lots of personal loans, with horrible rates and fees, and complete my education? Or, do I add a couple years to the experiment, take less classes, and try to lower the debt burden by working full time? I knew the loans were easy to sign for, but like iron shackles put around the neck. The debt was expensive, and repayment over many, many years is still the only way out.

Again, I found myself signing documents with a shaky hand in the registrar’s office. In the end, I graduated with $60,000 of debt. It was horrible debt. 10% origination fees, 8% interest (adjustable). It was a crushing way to start adult life. So, what is the value of a liberal arts degree in the modern world?

I, like most of my peers, did not meet and marry at college. It was more taboo, marriage was the kind of thing you would do when you settled down, when the future was a little more certain. We all thought ourselves too young for matrimony. Of all my friends, I only knew one guy who wound up marrying someone he met at college. Perhaps that is for the better, perhaps not; but finding a quality person who is motivated to succeed in life, and desirous of getting married, isn’t happening on the college campus. Again, what is the value of a liberal arts degree in the modern world?

I went back to Seattle a while ago, to meet up with my old college roommate. I asked him this very question. Perhaps my experience is a one-off, but neither he, nor I, knew of anyone that we went to college with who wound up in a field where their degree put them ahead. It didn’t get them a job, it didn’t get them a promotion, and it didn’t help. It hurt. All of my peers had to find a way to pay off the equivalent of a mortgage without the benefit of a house, without low rates, and without the ability to sell in an emergency. Some of them found work in the swelling Seattle IT market.

I graduated over a decade ago. My mentor was right, the military didn’t go anywhere. I went to an officer interview board for the United States Army before I took my last finals, and swore in just before graduating. Just after shipping off to Basic training that fall, I got a letter in the mail. That 8% interest rate had just been adjusted, to 12%. The Army did not offer loan repayment to my particular track; I wound up paying out of pocket for years and years. Most officers who go to college outside of the Academy go through ROTC, which foots the majority of the bill. For my entire time of service, while other officers were in fine living quarters and going out for meals, I was renting a trailer and eating sandwiches. I paid down the debt like a madman. I wanted out of the shackles.

Finally, I got deployed to Iraq, and it was there, without any overhead, or taxes, and plenty of extra pay, that I finally felled the giant. My debt was gone. Paid in full. I’m not sure of my peers, but I suspect most of them are still making payments, without the benefit of higher pay.

When it comes to the value of a university degree, simple economics has been ignored, I suspect because there is too much money to be made. The bubble has nearly run its course. Disaster looms.

I think the American landscape is changed. Universities and colleges have become more about social programming than individual preparation and mental sharpening. Perhaps with the exception of a specialized field, like medicine or computer programming, a 4 year degree does not qualify someone to step into corporate America and succeed. Reading today’s published cost of Seattle Pacific University, I see that a student should expect to spend $54,735 for a school year. That’s more than twice the cost when I was attending. Exponential growth of cost. This phenomenon is based on the poor lending practices, and over government regulation, that would cause an overvaluing in any market.

One cannot write about the value of a college degree without discussing the content of those degrees. The devaluation of a liberal arts education has more than one contributing factor. It must be more than supply and demand; too many people have a degree, thereby decreasing education value in the marketplace. The product itself has lost value.

When my grandpa was attending college, he was taught exceptional material from exceptional professors. The academic standards were high. And, if you could not hack the load, you left. Nowadays, with high volume of finances to be made off of students, universities have sacrificed their academic standards. Furthermore, academia has been the breeding ground of far-left ideals, and a student is far more likely to graduate with political ideologies drummed into them than employable skills. Employers are less likely to value the investment, unless they are in the political arena, and on the far-left. Liberal arts degrees are more about social, racial, socioeconomic, and political ideals than they are about competence and knowledgeability. Early adopters and sharp critical thinkers understand this, and are moving away from the college pathway to wealth and prosperity.

My own confidence in education has not been shaken in the least; only the value of expensive universities. This has led me to make some adjustments as my own son is now old enough to begin elementary schooling.

My decision has been to make an early investment in education. I’m opting to send my kids to a private school where the focus is more on learning basic knowledge and function in academic rigor. I believe that a leg up on learning is the more productive route. I’m sure universities are not going anywhere for the long term, but until the bubble bursts, I cannot advocate for my own children any path where student debt will be a part of the outcome.