BURSTING THE Higher Ed Bubble? “From an economic point of view, in other words, a college degree costs more and more and returns less and less. Kind of like a hot stock with a price-to-earnings ratio of 32, it’s a prelude to a crash. . . . As the number of job applicants with degrees rises, employers become more sophisticated in assessing the value of any particular degree. The degree itself matters less than the institution that granted it, the subject areas of concentration, and the grade point average earned. A 4.0 math degree from Cal Tech is a very different thing from a 2.8 communications degree from San Francisco State University. Now the next question is: Will consumers become more sophisticated too? Tuition, room and board at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill cost a little over half what they cost at nearby Duke. Is a Duke education really twice as valuable as one from UNC?”