Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

The Hacker News discussion revolves around the perceived state and value of higher education in the US, focusing on three primary themes:

1. Diminished Value and Inflation of College Degrees

There is a strong sentiment that the proliferation of college degrees has led to "degree inflation," significantly reducing the hiring advantage they once provided. This is often linked to concerns that obtaining a degree is no longer a guarantee of a middle-class lifestyle, especially when burdened by student debt.

Supporting Quotes: * On the degree's current utility: "If you give everybody the option of obtaining a degree then nobody is better off. In fact those at the bottom of the barrel end up in an even worse position." - "baiwl" * On inflation and expectations: "I like to call this degree inflation." - "echelon_musk" * On the misleading advice given to younger generations: "The problem is that many young Americans for the past 30+ years has been told that a bachelor’s degree is the prerequisite for a job that pays well enough to afford a middle class lifestyle..." - "linguae"

2. Alarm Over Declining Academic Standards (Especially in K-12 Foundations)

A significant thread of concern is directed toward the declining preparedness of incoming college students, suggesting that prerequisite K-12 education is failing. This failure, when combined with admitting unprepared students, leads to remedial coursework at the university level.

Supporting Quotes: * Highlighting basic skill failures at selective universities: "1 in 8 incoming freshmen at UCSD (a leading institution in the states) cant solve 'x + 5 = 3 + 7'... Why would I pay 30k a year or whatever it is to get a degree from somewhere like that?" - "throwaway21321" * Pointing to the downstream impact on colleges: "It must severely limit what they can learn in college." - "delichon" * On the role of K-12 vs. University: "Illiterate incoming freshman are the product of the public middle and high school systems, not the university system." - "lunar-whitey"

3. Grade Inflation and the Meaninglessness of University Metrics

Users express skepticism about inflated grades and GPA, suggesting that academic evaluation systems (even at elite schools) no longer function as reliable differentiators for employers, leading to situations where graduates lack fundamental skills despite high marks.

Supporting Quotes: * On the state of high-level grading: "Harvard was one of the leaders of the charge in terms of grade inflation back 20ish years ago" - "jghn" * On the hiring reality for top graduates: "I've interviewed Harvard CS grads for SWE roles at big tech who couldn't write a working program for fizzbuzz... in half an hour, with unlimited attempts, gentle coaching from me, and the ability to use the internet to search for anything that isn't a direct solution (e.g. syntax)." - "anonym29" * On the effect of high prices on grading pressure: "As prices for college go up, the student is more of a customer and therefore the pressure to raise grades goes up." - "hc12345"

🚀 Project Ideas

Credential Verification and Skills Mapping Service (The "Dean's Check")

Summary

A service that provides employers with immutable, verifiable proof of specific competency benchmarks beyond the standard diploma, addressing the discussion's skepticism about degree value and the lack of correlation between credentials and performance.
Core value proposition: Rebuilding trust in academic credentials by linking them to verifiable, granular skill proofs (both academic and aptitude-based) directly relevant to job performance, circumventing resume padding and superficial screening.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Hiring managers/HR at Fortune 500 companies and skilled trades looking for reliable non-traditional or traditional hires.
Core Feature	Allows educational institutions (or proctored testing centers) to log cryptographically secured attestations of specific skills (e.g., "Solves $x+5=3+7$," "Can perform basic modulo arithmetic," or "Demonstrates foundational supply chain logic") onto a distributed ledger, accessible via NFT or cryptographic key integrated into the applicant profile.
Tech Stack	Blockchain/DLT (e.g., Polygon, Solana, or similar enterprise-focused ledger), Smart Contracts (Solidity/Rust), Backend API (Go/Node.js), Decentralized Storage (IPFS).
Difficulty	High (Requires institutional buy-in for data input and robust security infrastructure).
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

This directly addresses the core concern raised by multiple users: "College degrees now have negative value for hiring" ($carlosjobim$) and the failure of basic skills among incoming students ($throwaway21321$, $delichon$).
It provides a mechanism to "let employers be hired based not on degree but on an apprenticeship or similar trial period" by digitizing the trial/assessment into a secure, portable skill summary ($edot$).

Apprenticeship/Trial Period Verification Platform (The "Skill Mortgage")

Summary

A platform designed to facilitate and standardize structured, paid on-the-job training periods, enabling employers to assess candidates based on demonstrated work rather than credentials, as suggested by commenters.
Core value proposition: Mitigating hiring risk for employers who want to bypass degrees by providing a standardized framework for short-term, paid, goal-oriented work assessments that result in a verified performance record.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Companies hesitant to hire based on credentials (Fortune 500 office roles, skilled trades) seeking pre-vetted candidates.
Core Feature	SaaS platform for setting up tiered, time-boxed "Trial Contracts" (e.g., 1-3 months). It integrates progress tracking, milestone sign-offs, automated feedback loops, and output verification (handling issues like IP/data security during the trial).
Tech Stack	Standard Web Framework (e.g., Django/Rails), Robust access control/permissions, Automated workflow engine (e.g., Temporal/Camunda), Stripe for automated remuneration dispersal.
Difficulty	Medium (Focus on workflow management, less on novel crypto tech).
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

This solves the employer fear: "Any sort of employer based assessment opens the company up to accusations of discrimination" ($anon291$). The platform standardizes the assessment criteria to reduce perceived discrimination risk while offering a performance history ($anon291$, $edot$).
It directly supports the idea of "employers letting people be hired based not on degree but on an apprenticeship or similar trial period."

De-Bundled Education Cost & Curriculum Explorer (The "ROI Sorter")

Summary

A transparency tool that allows prospective students to compare the functional educational component (teaching, material access) against the luxury/amenity/administrative overhead components of university costs, addressing the massive cost concerns and degree inflation.
Core value proposition: Providing clear trade-offs between high-cost, amenity-rich degrees and low-cost, content-focused education tracks (online accredited courses, community college alternatives) to improve student decision-making regarding ROI.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	High school students, frustrated early-career professionals, and parents worried about student loan debt ($linguae$, $OGEnthusiast$).
Core Feature	Aggregates public data (and crowdsourced input) to break down tuition into three buckets: 1) Core Instruction (Prof salaries for actual teaching time), 2) Amenities/Campus Life (Dorms, sports, admin bloat), and 3) Credentialing Fee. Allows comparison against free/low-cost online analogues ($paulorlando$, $pdonis$).
Tech Stack	Public data scraping (e.g., Python/BeautifulSoup), Advanced data visualization (React/D3.js), Crowdsourcing/Submission backend.
Difficulty	Medium (Data acquisition and normalization is the primary challenge).
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

This tackles the inflation issue: "The two biggest drivers of tuition increases are the growth of administration, and fancy amenities" ($btilly$).
It supports the idea that for non-elite, non-hard-science paths, the education itself is available elsewhere: "If you want to learn, there has never been as many resources as today for free with YouTube and other stuff. College remains only relevant for the piece of paper and networking" ($tgma$).