We begin with three charts whose trends confirm the common belief that college is a financially valuable experience and endeavor. The first two bar charts by the Bureau of Labor Statistics use the effective benchmark line (which will be discussed chapter 4) in denoting the median weekly earnings and the unemployment rate for all workers. The third bar chart by USAFacts (but with data by the BLS) illustrates the same idea as the first bar chart albeit with older data and a lack of benchmark line, but I included it because I enjoyed how the title succeeds in emphasizing a single number (as discussed in chapter 2).
This chart still supports that idea but from a different perspective. Also, I wish that they would include the legend on the side rather than on the top, but the dashed line signifying the national average was decent.
With such conceptions about the worth of education, it is no wonder why the number of adults with college degrees is increasing; we can also note the decrease in adults without a high school diploma. I am interested, however, in the drop and jump around 2000 and 2015, respectively, for bachelor's degrees.
These four charts illustrate that the rising demand for higher education has been coupled with a rising price tag for it. However, it has come at a disproportional rate compared to the rise of wages or the rise of the prices of other goods. I offer no explanation to the phenomenon as it is far too vast and multifaceted for me to research at the moment. For example, one of the causes may be Baumol's cost disease which I learned in a macroeconomics class. It goes as such. Some sectors such as manufacturing are becoming more productive fast due to factors such as technology and so their wages can rise without increasing the prices of the products. Some sectors such as professoring(?) cannot become that much more productive, but since all wages typically scale with overall productivity, professor wages, a core component of tuition, must rise also to maintain competitiveness.
As such, student loans and consequentially debt has also risen at a major rate.
Stepping away, the topic is not appealing (although it is fascinating and worthy of exploration) but I just wanted to finish what I started in my other blog. Additionally, I wished to find a chart type for each that were discussed within the chapter, but it was extremely hard to find ones that related to this topic. For example, this is the only thing that resembled a dot plot at all, and even then, I hate how they organized the types of majors although it tells a good (although unfortunate) story. I could not find a population pyramid, but it would have been lovely to have found one that compared student loan (debt) for males versus females and the various age groups. It seems that bar/column charts and slope graphs are the two dominant ways to compare numbers.
I really liked how you pulled together charts from several sources to show both the benefits and drawbacks of higher education. The way you explained the connection between wage trends, tuition inflation, and student debt made the visuals more meaningful. Of all the charts you shared, which one do you think communicates the problem most effectively to a general audience? You could make your post even stronger by comparing how each visualization type changes the persuasive impact of the same data. That might reveal why certain visual formats are used more often for topics like college affordability.
ReplyDeleteTimothy, I think this was a fantastic idea for data visualizations. As college students, we all are familiar with the cost of college and how expensive it can truly be. I love how you used both bar graphs and line graphs to use as examples in your blog. Each chart is extremely effective in conveying the continuous rising costs of higher education. We have learned about a great deal of different charts for data visualization. Do you think there is a specific chart format that is most effective in conveying this information? I think you could enhance your blog by showing how different visualization types change perspectives on the data being presented. Overall, I think your blog was really insightful, especially for us college students!
ReplyDeleteWhile I admire your usage of various data visualizations to showcase the cost of college and the growing debt of students. Especially, the progression bar graph in the figure, "College majors and their average salaries | Wells Fargo", provides some valuable insight into how much each college major will be expected to make and how it compares to the salaries of other majors. As well as the line chart, "The price of college is rising faster than wages for people with degrees | USAFacts", which surprised me at how common it is in recent decades for Americans to achieve college degrees (Associates, Bachelors, and higher), aside from that brief drop in Americans with Bachelor's degrees in the early 2000s. I suggest reducing the number of charts for each section, adjusting the size of the graphics, and distinguishing the paragraphs by repositioning the paragraphs above their related charts, so it is easier to follow your examination of the data visualizations, the insight you gathered from your search, and the effectiveness of their chosen format.
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