The Aporia · Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It?

Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It?

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Cowen, T. (2026, September 4). Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It? The Free Press. https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-college-still-worth-friendship-loneliness-family-happiness

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

Tyler Cowen questions whether college is still worth it due to rising costs. He cites an example of George Washington University's sticker price of $95,000 per year for tuition and room/board as a "ridiculous" starting point for negotiations. The article also touches on the issue of declining enrollments in universities, partly attributed to tightened immigration policies under the Trump administration, which are affecting foreign students' ability to attend college. According to Cowen, many professors are not adequately prepared to teach AI-related skills, with some even attempting to ban or restrict its use in their departments.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-05, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Tyler Cowen, an economist and author, questions whether college is still worth the cost. He notes that $95,000 a year is the sticker price for George Washington University, including room and board, which he considers ridiculous as a starting point for negotiations. Additionally, many universities are failing to keep up with the demand for AI skills in the workforce, despite more and more jobs requiring AI knowledge. In fact, some humanities departments and law schools have attempted to ban or restrict AI instruction, which Cowen believes is doomed to fail. Moreover, he suggests that students know more about AI than their professors do, which raises questions about what professors should be teaching.

Written for “College Value Debate Continues” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 16 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

Leans left

of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate

Publisher signals

96/100

The Free Press's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Education

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-05 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Free Press · 335 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected

No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Tyler Cowen

9 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 Instead of prison, I would put her under some form of house arrest and allow her to raise her children.

2026-10-20 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: Elizabeth Holmes Should Not Be in Prison

🔮 It seems to be a good time for a fuller accounting of what immigration from Africa will mean for America, at scale and over time.

2026-10-13 · assertive framing · America Needs African Immigrants

🔮 Coefficient Giving is only the largest of many young philanthropic groups animated by effective altruism, and this year it’s set to spend more than $2 billion of its $40 billion fund on the movement’s favorite causes, from AI safety research to uncaging farm-raised chickens.

2026-10-06 · assertive framing · In Defense of Effective Altruism

🔮 AI models have come under heavy criticism lately, with the charges ranging from an increased risk of ordinary hacks to the possibility that they will kill us all, but one abiding critique is that AI systems will make us stupid and turn us into docile pets.

2026-09-29 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: Don’t Let AI Make You Dumber

🔮 It took less than a month for that term, which represents the probability that AI will wipe out humanity, to grow from an airy debate topic among Bay Area insiders into the most urgent question in public life.

2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: A Doomsday Scenario for American AI

🔮 But the so-called “slowdown” is the most discussed, and it could benefit or harm AI progress depending on how it’s handled.

2026-09-14 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: The AI Slowdown Is Not What It Seems

🔮 It seems that more and more jobs will require AI skills of some kind, yet few major universities are embracing AI instruction as a general practice.

2026-09-04 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It?

🔮 Nate Soares, who works in the AI safety movement and is co-author of the doomsday AI bestseller If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, wrote that “This might be the last warning we get.”

2026-08-31 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: Should You Believe the Dire Warnings About ‘AI Takeover’?

🔮 For how much longer will the fate of American artificial intelligence be steered from Silicon Valley rather than Washington?

2026-08-25 · assertive framing · Tyler Cowen: The Least Bad Way to Regulate AI

Also by Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen: Elizabeth Holmes Should Not Be in Prison

2026-10-20 · The Free Press

America Needs African Immigrants

2026-10-13 · The Free Press

In Defense of Effective Altruism

2026-10-06 · The Free Press

Tyler Cowen: Don’t Let AI Make You Dumber

2026-09-29 · The Free Press

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 9 articles by Tyler Cowen →

Topics

George Washington University Stanford U.S. News & World Report

Subjects

Donald Trump PERSON · 1× George Washington University ORG · 1× Stanford ORG · 1× U.S. News & World Report ORG · 1×

Narrative

This problem cannot be fixed anytime soon, especially with the Donald Trump administration being much tougher on foreign students and their immigration and visa renewal prospects.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-05

🔮 It seems that more and more jobs will require AI skills of some kind, yet few major universities are embracing AI instruction as a general practice.

2026-09-05 · The Free Press

Tyler Cowen: Is College Still Worth It? · assertive framing

Claims (16 extracted, 0 hedged)

Should you still go to college? asserted

you → go → college

At this point you really have to start to wonder. asserted

you → have → point

The prices get higher and higher. asserted

prices → get → ?

Paying a fortune for Stanford is one thing, but $95,000 a year for George Washington University, room and board included, is another. asserted

room → pay → University

The school is ranked 59th by U.S. News & World Report. asserted

school → rank → News

I know that is only a sticker price, and not the final charge, but as a starting point for negotiations it is ridiculous. asserted

it → know → negotiations

It gets worse. asserted

It → get → ?

It seems that more and more jobs will require AI skills of some kind, yet few major universities are embracing AI instruction as a general practice. asserted

universities → seem → practice

The computer science departments have done plenty, but humanities departments, law schools, and many other parts of our universities are working to ban or restrict AI. asserted

departments → do → AI

That enterprise is doomed to fail; professors in every discipline should be teaching their students how to use AI to learn the subject matter. asserted

professors → doom → matter

The simple reality is that in many cases the students know more about AI than their professors do. asserted

professors → know → AI

So what exactly are the professors supposed to teach? asserted

professors → suppose → what

It is no wonder AI makes them nervous. asserted

them → make → ?

Another issue is declining enrollments. asserted

issue → decline → enrollments

Many schools are in financial trouble, if only because there are not enough young people turning 18 and looking to continue their education. asserted

schools → be → education

This problem cannot be fixed anytime soon, especially with the Donald Trump administration being much tougher on foreign students and their immigration and visa renewal prospects. asserted

administration → fix → students