October 9, 2025 • 11 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Not every college degree is worth the debt—and America’s finally waking up to it. In this episode:
Enrollment at low-quality colleges has dropped 47% since 2010
Students from top schools earn $20K more a year and are twice as likely to pay off loans
Kids are choosing smarter paths—engineering, nursing, and computer science degrees are skyrocketing
Why you shouldn’t pay six figures for a “library card degree” just for a bumper sticker
The truth parents need to hear: If you can’t pay cash, it’s not worth it
Don’t saddle your kid with lifelong debt for a worthless diploma. College is a business—treat it like one.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Not every college degree is worth the debt—and America’s finally waking up to it. In this episode:
Enrollment at low-quality colleges has dropped 47% since 2010
Students from top schools earn $20K more a year and are twice as likely to pay off loans
Kids are choosing smarter paths—engineering, nursing, and computer science degrees are skyrocketing
Why you shouldn’t pay six figures for a “library card degree” just for a bumper sticker
The truth parents need to hear: If you can’t pay cash, it’s not worth it
Don’t saddle your kid with lifelong debt for a worthless diploma. College is a business—treat it like one.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rethinking Hedge Fund University. You know it's great. I love
this when this happens. I have various different things that
I try to get across. I try to teach here
on the podcast, on our radio show. And you know what,
I don't have an army of college students, grad school kids.
I don't work for a foundation. I don't work for
(00:38):
the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, So I don't
do studies. I just tell you what I think and
what I know. And to me, it's kind of like, yes,
sky is blue as water is wet. But what's nice
is that you know, years after I've been teaching people things,
one of these institutions does a study, does a scientific
(01:02):
study proving Markowski right again and again. I'm not being
arrogant when I'm saying this, Okay, but it was a
piece today by Preston Cooper, and Preston works for the
American Enterprise Ines too, He did a big study, big
study about colleges and universities, and it looks like looks
(01:26):
like the kids are waking up a little bit, fewer
students going to college, leading many to worry that young Americans,
young Americans great song by David Bowie, are abandoning higher
education and risking their future. While college enrollment has dropped
(01:48):
by more than three millions since twenty ten, those missing students,
they're not losing out. They're not losing out because most
of the drop in college enrollment has occurred at institutions
(02:09):
with outcomes that are traditionally no bueno. At high quality colleges,
enrollment has actually increased. And again quick side note to
this as well. If we actually had a free market
(02:31):
when it came to financing, when it came to financing,
you know, we didn't have the government getting involved, no
student all that stuff. And let's say banks, banks had
to make loans to kids based upon their grades and
their merit. Do you think that banks would be making
loans to these low quality college to kids, especially if
these kids could discharge that loan in bankruptcy. No. No,
(02:55):
these not so great colleges and universities call what they
are are, they would be no longer, and they're going
by the wayside anyway. College, he says, is treated as
a monolith. But as more and more evidence shows there's
considerable variation in the equality of education in different institutions.
(03:19):
You don't say, while some colleges reliably set up their
graduates for success in life, others fail to even graduate
most of their students, and the students lucky enough to
earn degrees may find that those sheep skins don't help
them land a decent wage job or pay down their
student loans. In a new report, again that he put together,
(03:40):
the ai AEI Excuse me, they explore the divergence and
college enrollment trends between high and low quality institutions. They
divide colleges into five groups based on student outcomes, including
quantifiable metrics. How about that percentage of students who complete
their degrees, the share of borrowers paying down their student loans,
(04:04):
and median earnings after graduation. Again, student attending college in
the top one fifth of institutions is four times is
likely to graduate and two times is likely to pay
down his or her loans. As a student attending at
college in the bottom fifth after le leaving school, the
(04:27):
students at the top fifth colleges earned twenty thousand dollars
more annually than students from the bottom fifth colleges. Now
kids are picking up on this. Between twenty ten and
twenty twenty three, undergraduate enrollment at colleges in the bottom
fifth of institutions dropped by forty seven percent. They mentioned, Well,
(04:48):
it's the for profit school University of Phoenix, which is massive.
They enrolled three hundred and thirty thousand students, but just
a quarter of those students graduate. But again, that's or
profit univers Phoenix Online. Again, you gotta be committed to that.
But it's not just that, not just the for profit schools.
(05:09):
Low quality public and private nonprofit colleges also saw their
enrollments plummet over the same period. Almost all of the
aggregate dropping enrollment is attributed to colleges in the bottom
two fits of the student outcome distribution. These missing students,
how about maybe you shouldn't have gone to school if
that's where that's where you could get into Maybe you
(05:31):
shouldn't have gone to college. It's not a missed opportunity.
Maybe just maybe you dodged a bullet I'm just saying again,
these these places, they're called libraries too, and YouTube and
places where you can educate yourself and get yourself a degree. Again,
that's one of my favorite lines from Goodwill Hunting, when
(05:55):
Will is arguing with the hoity toity. You know, pony
Tail held a grad student there from Harvard, and he
just wasted in the argument and talked about how he
got his degree with a library card. Anyway. Meanwhile, all
these weaker schools full by the wayside higher quality institutions.
(06:19):
They've expanded. Institutions in the top fifth of student outcomes
grew by eight percent between ten and twenty twenty three.
He talked about Texas A and M. Texas A and
M in twenty ten had forty thousand undergraduates. They're now
at over sixty thousand graduates. Students starting to learn choosing
(06:45):
colleges that offer better prospects and sometimes just don't go
there's not a good option available. Also, kids are wisening up.
High wage majors are becoming more popular. In twenty twenty three,
colleges awarded three times as many Batchelor's degrees in computer
science as in twenty ten. Nursing degree controls rose ninety
(07:08):
one percent over the same period, engineering gained sixty three percent.
Interest in lower earning majors waned again. I saw this
firsthand my oldest son Providence. You know, they built a
brand new, massive nursing school. The numbers add up. Okay,
(07:31):
I think Langoing Health is paying starting nurses one hundred
and fifty grand a year and around the New York area. Okay,
starting sorry again, makes sense. You have to do a
whole return on investment analysis with your kids. I had
this conversation the other day and again came out of
(07:53):
retirement short term retirement short just a few years back,
coaching youth lacrosse. Again speaking parently, listen your kid, my kid, Oh,
you're gonna graduate. He wants to play college lacrosse. Okay, great,
(08:15):
I explained, I said, you use that advantage to get
you in the best possible school possible, the highest possible Grey.
What what does your kid want to study? Why do
they want to go to school and to better not
be just to play lacrosse. I want to get involved
in finance and business. Okay, what are they looking at? Well,
(08:36):
such and such d one school not a high level
academic school. But not a high level academic school. Well,
what you know, just state they want my kid and
it's D one. Other options well D three schools in
the nest CAC. Are you kid me? You go to
(08:58):
the D three school in the NESTCAC. You're talking you know,
Williams Amherst Connecticut College bo to win. Uh, these are
these are outstanding, tough, These are outstanding institutions, one of
the top academic conferences in the country. Your kid's gonna
go there, He's gonna be set, can be set. Those
(09:18):
are those they're recruiting there. Okay, tough to finance degrees
or not. You know, unless you're going to a top
tier school, I'm telling you no, you're gonna have a
very very difficult time finding a job. Again, you have
to see the train. You have to look a little
bit further down the line. Why are you going to school?
(09:38):
What am I going to spend? You know, what type
of degree? All of these things have to be factored in. Now. Again,
if the kids said, oh, okay, I wanted to be pre med, well,
you know, you you handle you do your pre med
requirements at any school and you do well. Let the
(10:00):
mcatch you're gonna go to med school. It's different. It
all depends on what you want to study, what you
want to do. There's a myriad of different things. But
the sooner people wisen up to the racket that it is,
the better off you are going to be. For crying
out loud, you now even you know in certain fields,
you've even got top tech companies that are looking to,
(10:22):
you know, almost educate kids in certain fields and train
them right out of high school. You got to kind
of stay in your lane to sumdery not not not
every not every kid, not every kid should go to college.
And the sooner you realize it, the better off your
(10:43):
day you're gonna be. Now listen, and I've said this before.
You know, you got the money as a parent. You
got the money as your parent, and your kid wants
to go to school, you want it. Basically pay okay,
just don't put your kid in the debt. Don't put
your kid into debt for a degree that wasn't worth it.
(11:06):
That they're not going to be able to pay for that.
They're going to leave school and not i mean not
know what to do with their lives. Oh my god,
I'm twenty one and I'm six figures in debt and
I'm having a difficult time finding a job. Yesh, don't
do that. I don't care what stick or they're gonna
put on the back of your car. Watch Dog on
(11:27):
Wall Street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rethinking Hedge Fund University. You know it's great. I love
this when this happens. I have various different things that
I try to get across. I try to teach here
on the podcast, on our radio show. And you know what,
I don't have an army of college students, grad school kids.
I don't work for a foundation. I don't work for
(00:38):
the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, So I don't
do studies. I just tell you what I think and
what I know. And to me, it's kind of like, yes,
sky is blue as water is wet. But what's nice
is that you know, years after I've been teaching people things,
one of these institutions does a study, does a scientific
(01:02):
study proving Markowski right again and again. I'm not being
arrogant when I'm saying this, Okay, but it was a
piece today by Preston Cooper, and Preston works for the
American Enterprise Ines too, He did a big study, big
study about colleges and universities, and it looks like looks
(01:26):
like the kids are waking up a little bit, fewer
students going to college, leading many to worry that young Americans,
young Americans great song by David Bowie, are abandoning higher
education and risking their future. While college enrollment has dropped
(01:48):
by more than three millions since twenty ten, those missing students,
they're not losing out. They're not losing out because most
of the drop in college enrollment has occurred at institutions
(02:09):
with outcomes that are traditionally no bueno. At high quality colleges,
enrollment has actually increased. And again quick side note to
this as well. If we actually had a free market
(02:31):
when it came to financing, when it came to financing,
you know, we didn't have the government getting involved, no
student all that stuff. And let's say banks, banks had
to make loans to kids based upon their grades and
their merit. Do you think that banks would be making
loans to these low quality college to kids, especially if
these kids could discharge that loan in bankruptcy. No. No,
(02:55):
these not so great colleges and universities call what they
are are, they would be no longer, and they're going
by the wayside anyway. College, he says, is treated as
a monolith. But as more and more evidence shows there's
considerable variation in the equality of education in different institutions.
(03:19):
You don't say, while some colleges reliably set up their
graduates for success in life, others fail to even graduate
most of their students, and the students lucky enough to
earn degrees may find that those sheep skins don't help
them land a decent wage job or pay down their
student loans. In a new report, again that he put together,
(03:40):
the ai AEI Excuse me, they explore the divergence and
college enrollment trends between high and low quality institutions. They
divide colleges into five groups based on student outcomes, including
quantifiable metrics. How about that percentage of students who complete
their degrees, the share of borrowers paying down their student loans,
(04:04):
and median earnings after graduation. Again, student attending college in
the top one fifth of institutions is four times is
likely to graduate and two times is likely to pay
down his or her loans. As a student attending at
college in the bottom fifth after le leaving school, the
(04:27):
students at the top fifth colleges earned twenty thousand dollars
more annually than students from the bottom fifth colleges. Now
kids are picking up on this. Between twenty ten and
twenty twenty three, undergraduate enrollment at colleges in the bottom
fifth of institutions dropped by forty seven percent. They mentioned, Well,
(04:48):
it's the for profit school University of Phoenix, which is massive.
They enrolled three hundred and thirty thousand students, but just
a quarter of those students graduate. But again, that's or
profit univers Phoenix Online. Again, you gotta be committed to that.
But it's not just that, not just the for profit schools.
(05:09):
Low quality public and private nonprofit colleges also saw their
enrollments plummet over the same period. Almost all of the
aggregate dropping enrollment is attributed to colleges in the bottom
two fits of the student outcome distribution. These missing students,
how about maybe you shouldn't have gone to school if
that's where that's where you could get into Maybe you
(05:31):
shouldn't have gone to college. It's not a missed opportunity.
Maybe just maybe you dodged a bullet I'm just saying again,
these these places, they're called libraries too, and YouTube and
places where you can educate yourself and get yourself a degree. Again,
that's one of my favorite lines from Goodwill Hunting, when
(05:55):
Will is arguing with the hoity toity. You know, pony
Tail held a grad student there from Harvard, and he
just wasted in the argument and talked about how he
got his degree with a library card. Anyway. Meanwhile, all
these weaker schools full by the wayside higher quality institutions.
(06:19):
They've expanded. Institutions in the top fifth of student outcomes
grew by eight percent between ten and twenty twenty three.
He talked about Texas A and M. Texas A and
M in twenty ten had forty thousand undergraduates. They're now
at over sixty thousand graduates. Students starting to learn choosing
(06:45):
colleges that offer better prospects and sometimes just don't go
there's not a good option available. Also, kids are wisening up.
High wage majors are becoming more popular. In twenty twenty three,
colleges awarded three times as many Batchelor's degrees in computer
science as in twenty ten. Nursing degree controls rose ninety
(07:08):
one percent over the same period, engineering gained sixty three percent.
Interest in lower earning majors waned again. I saw this
firsthand my oldest son Providence. You know, they built a
brand new, massive nursing school. The numbers add up. Okay,
(07:31):
I think Langoing Health is paying starting nurses one hundred
and fifty grand a year and around the New York area. Okay,
starting sorry again, makes sense. You have to do a
whole return on investment analysis with your kids. I had
this conversation the other day and again came out of
(07:53):
retirement short term retirement short just a few years back,
coaching youth lacrosse. Again speaking parently, listen your kid, my kid, Oh,
you're gonna graduate. He wants to play college lacrosse. Okay, great,
(08:15):
I explained, I said, you use that advantage to get
you in the best possible school possible, the highest possible Grey.
What what does your kid want to study? Why do
they want to go to school and to better not
be just to play lacrosse. I want to get involved
in finance and business. Okay, what are they looking at? Well,
(08:36):
such and such d one school not a high level
academic school. But not a high level academic school. Well,
what you know, just state they want my kid and
it's D one. Other options well D three schools in
the nest CAC. Are you kid me? You go to
(08:58):
the D three school in the NESTCAC. You're talking you know,
Williams Amherst Connecticut College bo to win. Uh, these are
these are outstanding, tough, These are outstanding institutions, one of
the top academic conferences in the country. Your kid's gonna
go there, He's gonna be set, can be set. Those
(09:18):
are those they're recruiting there. Okay, tough to finance degrees
or not. You know, unless you're going to a top
tier school, I'm telling you no, you're gonna have a
very very difficult time finding a job. Again, you have
to see the train. You have to look a little
bit further down the line. Why are you going to school?
(09:38):
What am I going to spend? You know, what type
of degree? All of these things have to be factored in. Now. Again,
if the kids said, oh, okay, I wanted to be pre med, well,
you know, you you handle you do your pre med
requirements at any school and you do well. Let the
(10:00):
mcatch you're gonna go to med school. It's different. It
all depends on what you want to study, what you
want to do. There's a myriad of different things. But
the sooner people wisen up to the racket that it is,
the better off you are going to be. For crying
out loud, you now even you know in certain fields,
you've even got top tech companies that are looking to,
(10:22):
you know, almost educate kids in certain fields and train
them right out of high school. You got to kind
of stay in your lane to sumdery not not not
every not every kid, not every kid should go to college.
And the sooner you realize it, the better off your
(10:43):
day you're gonna be. Now listen, and I've said this before.
You know, you got the money as a parent. You
got the money as your parent, and your kid wants
to go to school, you want it. Basically pay okay,
just don't put your kid in the debt. Don't put
your kid into debt for a degree that wasn't worth it.
(11:06):
That they're not going to be able to pay for that.
They're going to leave school and not i mean not
know what to do with their lives. Oh my god,
I'm twenty one and I'm six figures in debt and
I'm having a difficult time finding a job. Yesh, don't
do that. I don't care what stick or they're gonna
put on the back of your car. Watch Dog on
(11:27):
Wall Street dot Com
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