Men More Likely to Drop Out of College

The reason: it just makes financial sense - for a while

Men are more likely to drop out of college after enrolling, buying their books, and laboring to attend classes. But why?

A new study reported by the Wall Street Journal shows that male students stand to lose less financially by ditching college due to the higher wages they'd make, relative to women, in occupations not requiring a degree. Women, on the other hand, face a penalty in the form of lower compensation for opting to not finish their schooling.

"Young men who see high school friends with relatively well-paying jobs [in construction e.g.] may resist taking on debt to gain a degree with uncertain returns," write the study's authors, sociologists Rachel Dwyer, Randy Hodson and Laura McCloud. "At the same time, young women who see friends in low-paying female-dominated jobs, such as retail cashier, may be spurred to stay in school, even with debt."

But while the short-term gains for men are real, the long-term gains are not. "The wage gap between men with and without bachelor's degrees starts small but grows over time," writes the WSJ, "as better-educated men enjoy more opportunities for career advancement."

Via the Wall Street Journal.

Are you concerned that too many young men are dropping out of college?

[ZombieMedic]

In downward economic times men usually have to get jobs and work to support themselves, family, etc. as society expects them to be the main "bread earners". Sounds "sexist" right? haha Eating, rent, etc are usually more pressing than tuition. Most young women will be more cared for by their parents as they are usually more protected, whereas society expects boys to be more independent and make it on their own. Unfortunately probably another reason most young men drop out now is because they are usually lazy, spoiled, stoner types, who can mooch off their parents or girlfriends.

[dances-weebles]

you have raised some interesting points here... would you care to expound a bit?

[Thunderchicken]

@dances-weebles

If a guy skips collage and gets a decent trade type job, he'll be money ahead of many collage grads. Now if he can just start saving he'll be off to a great start. That's kinda what I did and my collagebound buddies were moving back in with parents when I was making house payments. I didn't go to collage till I was about thirty. I never did get a degree though.

[Thunderchicken]

@Thunderchicken

Why can't I spell college, I'll never know.:-/

[ZombieMedic]

Something else I'd add to the mix is that since college degrees are becoming commonplace now, they are worth less than they used to be. It used to be that a high school diploma was a big deal, but now they are expected and mean next to nothing when getting a job. It won't be long until a BS/BA degree is just as worthless, and one will need an advanced degree to get ahead. It's all a SCAM by the colleges, as they are big business and money making institutions, and have fooled people into wanting degrees. The Democrats push a college education because it's a liberal indoctrination place for securing future voters, and the Republicans push a college education as a way to shoe-in more illegal immigrants to fill lower paying positions in businesses. They both push college educations since it makes both parties more money in the long run through many various ways. Follow the money.

[dances-weebles]

@Thunderchicken then there's the other side of the coin... what if he ends up pumping gas at the local station, flipping burgers at the local diner or tinkering with motors for next to nothing for the rest of his life?

your scenario works for some, and i'm glad that you did fairly well... there's always the question, however,'what would have happened, what would have been different if i only had finished and gone on for my masters or even my phd?

i personally kept 'going on'. i first received my bachelors degree in education and choral music and then went on for my masters. i entered teaching, but soon found out that it wasn't really what i wanted and went back to school to receive yet another degree, my masters of divinity from a top level seminarial college. done that, i went on once again and received yet another masters degree in theology from the university of chicago. don't ask me why... i guess because i enjoyed it so darned much.

during all this time, however, i worked full time and i paid my own way. my wife was working as well, and was studying to be a teacher at the same time that i was. we adjusted our schedules so that we could take turns being with our daughter. then when i went to seminary she did also, and was ordained in the methodist church at the same time that i was. that's where she stopped, though.

btw... throughout my entire life, the idea of owning a house has never been at the top of my list.

[Russell797]

The cost of a college education has been progressively becoming more and more prohibitive to a growing number of young people and this trend will continue under our economic system which demands never ending, continuous growth. Anything dependent on ceaseless growth is doomed to failure.

[NormalFlora]

College isn't just about making money. It's also about learning the things you SHOULD have learned in High School, like how to compose a cogent, concise business letter, the intricasies of contract law, and when bonds are a better investment than stocks.

[bsking]

And how evil the United States is , how it was founded by a bunch of white supremists and illegal aliens from Britain. how to blame Republicans for every ill under the Sun and more recently how to turn your teenage son or daughter into a greasy haired lice infested occupiers. yep it sure is a bargain for the money

[ZombieMedic]

@bsking LMAO that description got me laughing! I remember all of that in college, fortunately my degree didn't require me to wander into the "Social Science" building more than a few classes, and when I did I sure gave those liberal American-hating professors a run for their money. They were not used to be debated and shown-up by someone who not only was a better orator, but could match wits with them as well as words. It would really fluster them. Especially when they had to give me A's and couldn't grade on a curve when I'd make 100s on their mickey mouse tests they gave so the dumber kids could pass the course.

[Dan_Tien]

...and how to spell intricacies. Now they encourage you to go to school to get an MBA so that you can work for someone else and spend the rest of your life paying off the student loans instead of starting your own business and paying yourself.

[Fishbone345]

@ZombieMedic I'm surprised they didn't just hand over the reigns to the entire college. You are clearly the superior to everyone whom ever attended.
Does it suck to mingle with the commoners here at Politix?

[NormalFlora]

@Fishbone345 Thank you for saying that. Yeah, a redneck know-it-all goes to college, takes Sociology 101, argues with the teacher and still gets an A. Alert the media!!

[Drake_Burrwood]

The problem is now there are more "collages" that are more then tech schools but not invested in turning out scholars.

[Denizen_Kate]

Define scholars. What sort of work do they do after they finish school?

[TheJimmy]

Generally speaking, a lot of young men today just aren't motivated. The females that I supervise right now are easily my best staff people. The males that I have had recently always seem to do just the bare minimum to get by. Young males with ambition and a work ethic are getting harder and harder to find these days.

[Real4WheelDrv]

And a few of us who have it can't find anyone willing to pay us. :)

[FollowTheMoney]

Other than the sciences and engineering, collage is nothing more than a social networking device.

[ZombieMedic]

Social engineering device as well, especially in the Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Journalism departments, and scary as it sounds, even the History Departments now!

[FollowTheMoney]

@ZombieMedic Moderation gives balance, and balance is healthy. There must be a left to have a right. However, an over promotion and valuation of academia has been a major contributor in countries imbalance. Men walking away from academia to join the work force may be a move towards righting the ship. I certainly hope so.

[kirbstomp1]

Being a college student, you're absolutely right, your degree is worth the paper and ink on it. The networking you get is worth what you make of it.

[FollowTheMoney]

@kirbstomp1 Let me expose my hypocrisy. I've put all four of my kids through college. I've done so because the reality is that they are likely to never have the opportunity to make a decent living without that piece of paper. After 40 years in construction, I'm now a superintendent. I'm building a hospital right now. My project manager is 6 years out of school and make 20 thousand more. He has the piece of paper. So stay in school.

[kirbstomp1]

@FollowTheMoney - im in school at the moment, I actually changed from a construction management degree to polsci. I don't plan on quitting, I love learning and I know ill have a good job one day

[Tralee]

This idea that everyone should have a college degree is just a fallacy. What good does it do for someone to spend 10's of thousands of dollars on a, say Accounting Degree, when one is a gifted mechanic or carpenter or interior designer? These are all things one can learn to perfect in a good Trade School for pennies on the dollar it costs for college, or in some cases as an apprentice for free. We NEED carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, landscapers and even car salesmen, no college degree needed. Pushing everyone into college, especially the colleges of today, is simply a waste of time and money, since way too many come out with hardly any more skills than they had when they graduated HS and a Designer Degree in something totally useless as far as getting a job goes.

[ZombieMedic]

Degrees are becoming more and more worthless as more people get them.

[Chromalord]

You still have to get a degree to pursues some professions. Most community colleges provide ample degree for other professions and trades. But I would be most interested to know the exact percentage of people and the exact amounts of money spent by students or parents who DO spend thousands, even multi-thousands of dollars to go to college when the knowledge they seek could be obtained on-line or in the library for free.

[Thunderchicken]

Unfortunately it's often about having a piece of paper that says you know X. Rather than actually knowing it. I know a couple of people who found that out the hard way.

[Meanie]

Not enough women and the others reject them. ; )

[Politic-n]

LMAO that was a funny response.

[NavinRJohnson]

I question how many women graduate with degrees and become housewives who never use them.

[AntiPorcheria]

Men seem to have the "self-made" gene more than women. I attended 1 1/2 years of college and dropped out. Paid my way with no loans and no money from relatives. Went into construction at the bottom making $8 an hour and now am a licensed General Contractor R&C in Topeka Kansas. I employ 5 full time. We live in a nice neighborhood. My wife got to be the stay at home mother that she wanted to be. My kids grew up strong and healthy with good goals and moved on to their careers.

I know many men in the trades that make great livings doing good work and never attended college.

[BelinKS]

Men do make more money that women! I graduated from college with a guy with the same degree,but I had a much better GPA than him) We started work at the hospital as student technologist at the same time. We started working in full time as Radiologic Technologist with the exact same jobs at the same time. When we got our first paychecks as professionals, he made $3 an hour above me. I had nothing but favorable forms. i had no disiplinary actions againt me. The only place i could think of was peer reviews. I was very pretty. Now that I am older, I realize I was beautiful. The people on my shift had only 2 men, so the reviews were done by all of them. I think jealously was the reason they filed petty reviews. He went and complained to deaf ears. That discrepancy made him uncomfortable working with me. I told him not to worry about it, it was the hospitals fault. They did that to every woman that worked with with a man doing the same job. I'm glad there are laws now to back a woman up when she is trying to get a fair wage, the same as men.

[BelinKS]

Forgot to put, we put in our month's resignation at the same time without knowing. Our last day of work was.the same day! Our coworkers bought a big good luck cake. Only neither of us got to eat it with them. Nobody wanted to relieve us to go.to lunch. At about 2pm he and I ended up in the break room alone. We each ate a piece of cake by ourselves. He was leaving to go to Nashville to start his music career now that he was divorced with no children. I had pushed him to go. He was much too talented to let it go to waste. I was going back to college to get a higher degree.

[whataGOVwehave]

We are need more personnel in manufacturing.

[JustTheFacts]

College is a waste of money for most ... and most degrees never pay the salary that the college bullshits you with when your deciding your major. Your better off getting a real job .... then later on after you've worked in the real world for several years ... if you feel the need ... then attended college ... you'd do much better than if you attend college right out of high school and you won't be drowning in debt after to get your degree either!

[BossTweed]

No way is it bad. You don't need college to become a Sloth in Big Brothers Bureaucracy. Mediocre is new norm and greed for other peoples hard earned money got POTUS elected.

[Bobolinsky]

Four-year degrees are overrated and overpriced.

Imagine for a moment that every American paid enough money and finally did enough busy work to get a college degree...

Who would stoop so low as to clean your carpets or change your oil? Who would build your buildings, or fix anything that breaks in those buildings? Who is going to take your order, ring up your sale, or trim your bangs?

Too many young men and women are indoctrinated from birth to think that they will be worthless disappointments if they don't go to college.

My advice to young people, regardless of their genitalia, is to go to a trade school or community college for the first two years.

[AlexMIA]

I have yet to see a retail cashier get paid differently because of their sex. Further more I've always seen the ratio of women in non-diploma professional settings to be hire then men. I.E. law firms, doctors offices, real estate and insurance agencies tend to have female secretaries (some, not all, dumb as hell). Lets also not forget that the ratio of strip clubs is significantly higher for women (just having fun with that one). But consider this, we live in a society where it is far more acceptable for a man to work and support the family in order for the wife to go to school, than the other way around, with the guys sometimes being able to take the same oppertunity after the wife gets started in her career. I think that might have something to do with it in some cases.

[JGaltAS]

The whole wage gap between college graduates and non graduates is extremely misleading. You can't look at all degree programs equally. You have high earners like doctors, engineers, and lawyers that legitimately need a college education that skew the wages higher for college graduates. Many would be better off learning a trade or opting for vocational training rather than pile up debt to obtain a non marketable degree.