RealClearScience reports recent research has found college students aren’t as smart as they once were.
The meta-analysis aggregated numerous studies measuring college students’ IQs conducted between 1939 and 2022. The results showed that undergraduates’ IQs have steadily fallen from roughly 119 to a mean of 102 today — just slightly above the population average of 100. In short, undergraduates are now no more intelligent on average than members of the general population.
Almost half of those matriculating do not graduate within 6 years, much less the theoretically possible four years. Full disclosure, it took me 4.5 years to complete my baccalaureate.
According to statistics from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, only 58% of students manage to attain their degrees within six years. What’s more, the rate of dropping out is negatively linked with IQ — the lower an undergraduate’s IQ, the more likely it is that they will leave college without a degree, potentially saddled with debt. One influential study showed that for white American undergraduates with an IQ only slightly above average, their chance of graduating is essentially 50-50.
We shouldn’t overlook that while college students aren’t smarter than average, college graduates likely are smarter. By how much isn’t clear.
My conclusion is that too many are being encouraged to attend, and the coursework has been dumbed down to permit more to pass. When everybody goes to college, it no longer gives those who do much advantage in the job market.
This is the labor force version of inflation, printing diplomas instead of printing money with the same end result. It decreases the purchasing power of that which is printed.
The underlying cause of this decline was the post-World War II GI Bill. It was created to take many “demobbed” GIs out of the labor market and thus prevent post-war mass unemployment.
