Are too many people going to college? A look at IQ distributions tells us why this is the case
This post is not meant for politically correct egalitarians who believe that everyone can be an Aristotle, a Goethe or a Michael Jackson through hard work.
Our education is suffering heavily from many things, but there is one thing that has barely been discussed that I will address here. I believe that the educational world is living a lie. The lie is that every child can become who he wants to become. There is almost no one who believes this, but still we are too afraid to say out loud that children differ in mental capacities. The belief that everyone, through hard work and good educational assistance, can become what he wants to become is doing more harm than good. We demand too much of people with low mental capacity, demand the wrong things from people with average capacity, and demand too little of those with high mental capacity.
Charles Murray has laid out in his book, Real Education (2008), the following four simple truths about education:
- Capacities vary;
- Half of the children are below average;
- Too many people are going to college;
- The future of our country is dependent on how we teach the intellectually gifted.
The first two truths are self-evident. I will focus on the third truth, as that requires more explanation, and I will save the fourth truth for a future discussion.
Too many people are going to college
We have to ask ourselves what percentage of the population have the mental capacity required to understand college material. This percentage, I think, is significantly lower than the percentage of people that are pursuing a college degree.
The average IQ of the population is 100. It is very difficult to obtain a college degree with an IQ of 100. If you are mentally average, you can understand some simple algebra in maths, but you will have difficulties with differential calculus. This is no life-devastating deficit. You are still intelligent enough to perform well for hundreds of jobs, but you will likely be unable to succeed in gaining a college degree. It is possible for the student to attend Macro Economics 1 classes with an IQ of 100-110, to read the textbooks and to do the tests. However, the student will probably only take in a hodgepodge of ideas. It’s also very well possible that the student will have the illusion that he possesses reasonable knowledge of Macro Economics. One way these students can pass the test is by focusing strategically on how they can pass tests instead of truly understanding the material. I have seen many student peers passing tests through strategic learning. Instead of reading and understanding the material, they can for example, learn previous tests by heart.
There is no magic IQ number with which a person can go through a reasonably good college education, but an IQ of around 110 is quite problematic for most college degrees. College majors differ in difficulty level. I looked into the IQ distribution of different majors and have found that the majors that have the highest average IQ scores are:
- Physics & Astronomy (133)
- Mathematical Sciences (130)
- Philosophy (129)
Materials Engineering (129) - Economics (128)
Chemical Engineering (128)
Other Engineering (128) - Mechanical Engineering (126)
This would put the average college student in the above majors (almost) acceptable for Mensa – the high IQ organization that only accepts people within the highest 2 percentiles (IQ of around 132).
The majors with the lowest average IQ scores are:
- Administration (107)
- Home Economics (106)
Special (106) - Student Counseling (105)
- Early Childhood (104)
- Social Work (103)
For a full list of average IQ’s per major, look at this article.
Our education has degenerated
If we assume that a college degree requires an average IQ of 110-115, then it would be reasonable, looking at the IQ distribution of the population, to assume that around 15% of the population should pursue a college degree.
If you stretch it somewhat, maybe 25%. However, at the moment 45% of everyone above the age of 30 has a college degree.
I think that this is only possible when education has degenerated – that the level of education has decreased. The consequence is that more students have been able to get a college degree, and that a degree doesn’t represent a person’s mental capabilities well anymore. One way through which we can see that our education has degenerated is by looking at grade inflation, which is utterly shocking!
I think that Murray’s statement that too many people are going to college is very reasonable. If ‘Higher Education’ becomes more accessible for people with lower mental capabilities, then the term ‘Higher Education’ becomes more of an oxymoron.
I feel very sure that collage is one of the worst things one can do with their life surpassed only by joining the military and going to high school.
Every stat you mentioned in the meme above is enough proof of that yet there is much more reason why.
People are literally being indoctrinated (not as badly as in high school) to think certain ways and believe certain things. Med school is the BEST example of this as children are actually trained to prescribe pills and cut people open yet get NO training in nutrition or preventative medicine.
I can tell you for a fact I have always known school was an institution to indoctrinate good tax paying citizens.
I have not had a job or a boss in 15 years, I have traveled the world and I live a life that is even more awesome than most people can even dream of.
This would not be the case if I went to school.
Life is your oyster. Live it rather than live for others agenda~
Bless~*~
I agree with you that schooling has mostly become a means of mass indoctrination. I take this quote of H.L. Mencken toe heart:
I am wondering how you can live a decent life when you haven't had a job or a boss in 15 years. Would be great if you could your story, either in a blog post, here or in private chat. :)
Great idea!
I would love to do that. Honestly I am just overwhelmed with how many important facets I want to share here on Steemit!
Because of your request/suggestion I will begin composing a story about this. I will try and remember to let you know when it is done!
The question is where do I start...What do I cover....15 years is a LONG time plus the time before hand that helped lead me to that freedom realized....
That's another great article, Lin! Seems like IQ is very underrated and that we should address differences in students' mental capabilities better.
In addition to there being too many people in college, they also slow down the rate at which everyone else learns the material. If the professor had to spend 15 minutes explaining to the 7 people who didn't study/understand the material, those who belong are ready to move on become bored and inattentive in class.
I've seen grade inflation used mainly because most professors/instructors can lose classes each semester depending on the performance of the students. The fewer classes that are taught, the less the paycheck. Monetary incentive aside, those who do try to grade realistically and have high expectations of their students are often labeled a bad teacher (due to the fact that half the class never applied themselves or tried to understand so they never did well on exams).
This is all just in my personal experience, of course.
Those are very good points. I have the same experiences.
To add on your last comment: I've found this video of a professor at Harvard who gives two grades - one that counts toward their degree and one that he thinks the student deserves. You may be interested in watching it.
hi @chhaylin I just dropped back to let you know that you are among my favourite reads today. You can find my post that mentions you here
Hi @shadowspub, thank you for letting me know that this post has been one of your most favourites today and to mention my article in your own post. I find it very encouraging and it makes me very proud :D
I have two in college currently, one is studying materials and chemical engineering so I found the IQ data interesting and will forward both of them your post, thanks.
Haha, you're welcome. On average, their peers have very high IQs. :D
She just got back from 9 weeks at M.I.T.'s summer engineering program fully paid for by them. Let's just say I have to be on my A game whenever we have discussions. I don't want her to realize too quickly how much our IQ gap is.
Haha :D
lets face the truth. Nowadays, corporation are focus mostly in EQ. IQ is becoming obsolete.
I'm not sure that corporations focus less on IQ. I have made many IQ tests as part of the selection process for many jobs. EQ, I think, is quite difficult to measure. On the other hand, IQ has shown to be quite reliable as a predictor for someone's success at the work place. IQ is a better predictor than for example biographical data, reference checks, education, interview, college grades, interest, and age.
You can't do an IQ test to a web designer that is mostly going to use his right brain. Personally, I have gone through personality traits tests.
For many businessmen it has become clear that a person with high emotional intelligence is more effective in communication, self-motivation, self-discipline and many other aspects. The data you are showing above are from 80s. I am talking about new researches done in the last 10 years :)
Technical knowledge in a workplace can be learned fast through experience.
I think it depends what technical knowledge you are talking about. I don't think the average IQ person is able to become a decent coder, physician, philosopher, investment banker etc. even with much experience. Creative jobs require good mental capabilities as well, I think. Personality tests are testing personality traits, but these tests are not the same is emotional intelligence tests. If you have found emotional intelligence tests, I would like to see how they look like. :)
Really good article. I agree that there are too many people going to college. But society constrains young people to see it as a necessity, at least in Romania, where you can't have a leadership position without graduating from a faculty. Even if the position is teamleader at a call center or something like that. More than that, employers rarely consider young people who didn't graduate.
Yes, I agree with you that society constrains young people to see education as a necessity. 41% of graduates are saying that their jobs don't even require a college degree. Nonetheless, all high schoolers are encouraged by society to go to college. That is very telling.
the last thing any government needs is an over educated society. Not enough jobs for them. It's probably one of the reasons they reduce funding, not just to save money.
I agree with you that the last thing any government wants is an over educated society. I'm not sure though whether that's the reason why they are reducing funding. :)
Good article. Not everyone is meant to go to college just for the sake of going to college. Our world needs good plumbers, welders and many other occupations and many of these pay well .
Right, thank you! I think we as a society should also stop looking down on people who do these kind of jobs. I don't see why a plumber's job is less valuable than someone who reads Shakespeare.
I grew up in the United States but now live in Australia. It's given me a unique perspective on two very different economies and educational systems.
In the U.S., if you don't go to university, socially you are perceived as a second rate loser, at least where I grew up. College has become like a second round of high school. It delays growth in EQ and the development of character based traits like getting your ass out of bed in the morning and going to work. Instead, many uni students play xbox until 2am and roll out of bed at 11am.
In Australia, we have a very legitimate educational track for tradespeople. I've known many kids who leave high school at 16 to do an apprenticeship. They are at work by 7am and dog tired and in bed by 9pm. They are productive contributors to the economy and are also making good money now at 21. In fact, one of my good friends is 25 now, and after getting qualified as a carpenter he became a property developer and is now a self made millionaire.
Perhaps the over-emphasis on university is a result of becoming a service based economy. Whatever it is, unless the US reforms it's educational system and mindset toward blue collar work, its economy will continue to devolve.
Thanks for a great, thought provoking post.
This is interesting as Canada too has encouraged more students to go into trades due to the extremely high numbers of citizens and residents with advanced degrees. The government now offers training programs and apprenticeships at no cost to certain segments of the population including over-40s who have lost factory or labour positions. They're being retrained for employment in the Green industries. I don't believe there is any such thing as too much education but certainly, there is too much emphasis on getting advanced degrees depending on where you live. In Vancouver, for example, everyone has a bachelors's degree, many have a master's and just as many have doctoral degrees. I'm the only person in my family with both a bachelor's and master's degree but that's pretty much the norm here so in order to nab a great job you need to show other skills like volunteer experience, board membership, proven social media skills, coding and graphic design skills, etc.