FARGO -- Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant, and it looks like a healthy dose of it finally is about to fall on higher education. When it does, it may prove to be a curative for one of higher ed's most noxious practices: the unseemly manner in which many colleges and universities go about recruiting students.
In an ideal world, students in every academic field would get honest counseling on the career prospects they are likely to face. But in our world, advistrs often shrink from passing along bad news, lest enrollments suffer.
This can cause unpleasant surprises because the job outlook in most fields is not good.
Take law, for instance. For years, bloggers have grumbled about misleading come-ons by the law schools, though little has been done about them. But now, the schools are being seriously challenged by some of their own graduates, who are joining class action suits against them.
As of Oct. 6, 17 law schools have been named, and that number is almost certain to rise. One of the lawyers in charge expects that "nearly every law school in the country will be sued before long."
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The grads are suing because they believe they've been knowingly conned. They committed much time and money (usually in the range of $100,000 to $250,000) in the belief that once a law degree was in hand, a high-paying career was virtually assured. But now they find themselves heavily in debt (on average, about $98,000) and jobless.
They blame their calamitous career decisions on data, published by the schools, which in some cases all but promised that graduates would get jobs as lawyers within months of graduation. In fact, almost all ABA-accredited law schools, including those in the lower tiers, report placement rates of at least 90 percent.
While such claims seem incredible, they have usually gone unchallenged, perhaps because the culture has long associated a law degree with financial success, but also because prospective students tend to take their schools' claims as authoritative.
But much of this "success" is due to creative accounting. Ninety percent of law grads no doubt do find work of some kind -- but often it's not the kind of work they bargained for.
Research by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos finds that more than half the jobs making up those 90 percent rates are in fact temporary or part-time jobs as paralegals, clerks, interns and other types of legal drones. Others are in blue-collar trades or other work unrelated to a law career.
Even those who have quit looking for work are counted as employed because, as a technical matter, they are not unemployed.
This hodge-podge is packaged by the law schools as if all of it represented full time, permanent careers in law. But when the smoke and mirrors are cleared away, Campos finds that the success rate among graduates of the top 50 law schools in securing real careers within nine months of graduation is only about 45 percent.
Since the late 1960s, higher education has been a bubble whose price keeps rising even as its economic value declines. (Sound familiar?) Its continuing expansion reflects not just real student demand, but also a see-no-evil marketing strategy which encourages virtually everyone to enroll, regardless of student ability or market conditions.
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Colleges and universities ensure their permanence by pushing growth -- limitless growth in enrollments, revenues and prestige. But this strategy only works so long as the public's faith in the economic power of education remains intact. Thus, the schools have no reason to be forthright about bad news.
So, let the buyer beware. Even if the pending lawsuits should eliminate outright deception, college will remain a high-stakes gamble. Those considering a career in law -- or any other field -- should carefully research the job market for themselves before committing their time and fortune to an endeavor that, alas, no longer guarantees success.
Calvert is a retired college teacher.
