Education Bubble?

Lately I have been seeing articles pop up asking whether we are headed for an Education Bubble.

For those unfamiliar with the term; a bubble is a situation where market for a certain asset is grossly inflated. An example is the housing bubble from a few years ago.

Money flooded the real estate market causing a higher demand on the same supply. This drove house prices up, sometimes doubling the price of one property in a short time. Investors flocked to real estate to get in on the action but when housing prices leveled off and started to adjust back to actual value many were left holding the proverbial bag.

The new question is whether or not the same thing is happening with education, and specifically business education.

I will admit that I am not an impartial observer on this one. I am headed back to school in the fall to resume work on a B.S. in Management and Organization; so I have a HUGE stake in the game. However, I see this impending "bubble" from a different perspective.

I have always thought that Education is a difficult asset to value. The reason being that so many people approach higher education in such different ways.

There are those who see college as nothing more than a four year house party with a few classes thrown in for god measure. There are those who see college as a guarantee of a high paying job, or at least a guarantee of being placed on track for a high paying job. But I am not like either of these groups.

I am 32 years old, married, and father of two young boys. The last thing I am interested in is a kegger or a frat party. As a matter of fact, I would be just fine if I manage to find a way to avoid that side of college life all together.

I also understand exactly what I am getting for my money.

When I graduate with my degree I will be handed a piece of paper. That piece of paper will be similar, maybe even nearly identical, to other pieces of paper handed out that day. But that piece of paper is not what I am paying thousands of dollars to receive.

I see every minute of every class as an opportunity to gain knowledge that can never be taken from me. I see every peer and professor as a potential networking opportunity. I see every assignment in every class as a chance to receive feed-back on how well I grasp the skills that I will need to succeed. In short, I see that the money I will be paying out over the next 2 years as payment for an opportunity, nothing more.

I believe that this is where the "bubble" WILL come in for many.

At the end of four years (perhaps more) at a college or university many will gripe about the job market or complain about the student loan debt they have to pay off despite the fact that they can't land a high paying job. They will talk about the Education Bubble and how they were duped into paying thousands of dollars for a worthless degree. And to them I will say, "You get what you pay for."

I won't mean that they should have gone to a school with a higher tuition rate or taken more classes. What I will mean is that when they had the opportunity to choose between a night out partying vs. a night in the library pouring over text books they should have chosen the books.

I will mean that when they were sitting in class using their phone to text or catch up on Facebook they should have been listening and taking notes.

I will mean that when the teacher covers 15 of 17 chapters of the text book they should have read and learned the other two chapters.

I will mean that instead of playing Angry Birds or Play Station during their down time they should have been informing themselves about the field they want to enter; reading articles, journal publications, anything they can get their hands on that will help them to live, eat, and breathe the career they want to have.

I will mean that instead of taking the "easy A" class they should have stretched themselves by taking the hard class and buckling down to learn the material like their life depended on it, because... well... it does.

I guess I see things differently this time around.

When I took classes before it was for show.

But this time I have a family counting on me to do give the best I have every day.

Is there an Education Bubble? Will I be borrowing money for a worthless piece of paper?

Not the way I see it.