As a university professor, you may find it odd that I am continually baffled by undergraduates (and their parents) who pay exorbitant college tuition bills with only limited knowledge of what exactly they are buying. It is crazier than buying an expensive house from a picture posted on the web. (At least with the house there is a picture of what you are buying.)

Ask a college student (or ask yourself if you are a college student). What are your tuition dollars buying? The answer tends to fall into one of three categories:

Group 1: The I Want to Be A… Group
For this first group, their answer is clear. They know that their degree is a first step in a chosen field. As educated consumers, the especially savvy ones in this group will have researched placement rates (and can probably recite how their university stacks up to others). Universities with highly-ranked degree programs in the student’s chosen field are always the best bet for those in this group as these universities will have the best relationships with prospective employers and top graduate schools or professional schools. If aggressive enough, these students can network with the best in their chosen field (alums and professors) from day 1 of their college experience.

Group 2: The I Want to Learn Group
They really don’t know what they want to be and are not bashful about using their college years to learn about and explore their options. As educated consumers, the savvy ones in this group are willing to attend every possible career night, meet with faculty members, network with alums, audit classes (just because they sound interesting), join clubs, take unpaid internships, and pursue just about everything to squeeze the most out of the experience. They may change their major a bunch of times but, ultimately, they will get their money’s worth and walk away from their college experience knowing what they enjoy, how they like to work, what comes naturally, and the career path to pursue which will be most fulfilling. Large research universities with oodles to offer are the best for students in this category.

Group 3: The I Dunno Group
This is the group I worry about. They tend to stumble into a major and graduate with a degree they can’t quite figure out how to use in a field that does not excite them very much. They may enjoy their college experience but don’t use it to explore their career options. After graduation, they take a job out of necessity when student loans start to become due and wonder, shortly after graduation, whether their degree was worth it. The exploration opportunities available in their college years slipped away unused.

The students in Group 3 are having an increasingly difficult time in today’s economy. A current poll by CollegeGrad.Com asked college seniors: “Do you think you will have an offer in hand by graduation?” 84% said “no”. The National Association of Colleges and Employers report that employers plan to hire 22 percent fewer college graduates from the class of 2009 than they did from the class of 2008. These stats are sobering. Kudos to the students in Groups 1 and 2, they tend to fare better in this tough economy because they have used college to create opportunities.

If you are one of the student in (or are paying the bills for someone who is in) Group 3, the I Dunno group, I would encourage you to adopt the behaviors of Group 2 – or wait a few years to go to college and use those pre-college years to explore some options so you can return to school with the certainty of Group 1. Times have changed: College is very expensive and the current job market cannot easily accommodate those who are not leveraging college to create their own professional opportunities.

Paula