College as an Investment: Careful Thought Can Ensure a Fair Return

Investment advice is easy to come by in the Business section. There is, though, one investment that many of us are making, or will be making, that we hear little advice about on these pages. The investment is the college education of our children and it is too big to be ignored, a fact many of you are aware of as you work to 'restructure' your finances, to 'downsize' your discretionary budgets to make room for their tuition.

Unfortunately in many instances, we are getting far less than a reasonable rate of return on the investment. How many of us have seen first hand recent college graduates who find themselves underemployed, who have come to realize that their search for work will all too often take them through long bouts of meaningless part-time, dead-end employment.

College is an investment with no guarantees, but fortunately, as with any investment, there are ways to reduce the risk and raise the expected return on the investment.

The answer is to be found in the choices that your children will make and based on my contacts with a significant number of college students, there are some bad choices being made. For example on opening day this fall, when asked to identify the skills/ qualities essential for success in the 'real world', a group of college students identified computer skills near the top of their list. That was the good news. The bad news was that only one student acknowledged possessing good computer skills and no others could describe even the outlines of a plan to develop the skill.

To improve the odds of our children making some good choices, I suggest that you talk with them about the choices which they will have to make. A few of the ones that would be on my short list of important 'academic' choices confronting students would be:

Instructors: Professors are not all alike. It is a student's responsibility for seek out the 'best' that the university has to offer, to enroll in their courses, and to talk with at least some of these professors on a one-on-one basis. When they are choosing their instructors, suggest that they look for energy and enthusiasm, they can be contagious.

General Education Courses: Most colleges have certain requirements for all students: maybe its a language proficiency or possibly courses in the social sciences. Students often consider these to be a waste, but they could use them to 'craft' a personalized education 'plan' that will position them for entry into the 'real' world. Consider the differences between the choices made by the following two students. One student, after a class discussion on evolving patterns of world growth, decided on Japanese as the language that would give him the opening to the rapidly growing Pacific Rim. The second student, meanwhile, after having chosen to major in psychology as preparation for a future in social work, chose French without ever thinking about the basic demographic trends in the US which would suggest that Spanish would be a better complement to her work in psychology.

Skills: Traditionally it was the choice of a major, but now, with the exception of some of the technical fields, it is the skills that they acquire that matter most upon graduation. College is a time where your children develop a portfolio of skill, three of which I will mention briefly.

Communications skills: As we move into the information era we will find more and more employment in the information business which requires both verbal and non verbal communication skills. If you have any doubts, look at the increase in your monthly communication bills (phones, cable, and on-line computer services).

Computer skills: The computer has become an integral part of nearly every profession and, according to data published by the US government, there is a substantial difference in the earnings of individuals with computer skills and those without the skills. More importantly, students without these skills are simply not getting their foot in any doors at graduation time.

Problem solving/critical thinking skills: Talk with your kids when they are home about some of the issues they are working on at school and see how they do. Can they link two facts together to create a story? Do they know what information they need to ''prove' their point?

Experience: Students will often have the choice of allocating some of their time in the 'real world' with internships. Encourage it since experience is currently at the top of most recruiters lists when evaluating resumes.

Attitude: Have the technological advances in communication and transportation technology made the world larger, as it must look to those who are searching for markets for their ideas, or smaller, as it must look to those who are now competing for work with workers from low wage areas? This is just another variation on the 'half-empty, half-full theme', and those who take the more positive view have the advantage.

Flexibility: Change is one of the few constants in life and success will demand that your child develop flexibility. Encourage them to embrace the continuous improvement mode of thinking and to avoid the 'if its not broke don't fix it' mindset.

So now, as your children settle into their semester, try to find time to talk with them about the tough academic choices that they will need to make. College represents a trial run at the 'real world' where bad choices are punished and good ones are rewarded. If you take the time to encourage them and discusses some of their choices with them, then they are more likely to make better choices, the key to success in this investment, and you may feel as wonderful as I did at my daughter's graduation.