The unemployment rate sits at around 4.3%, technically inside the band the Federal Reserve calls a healthy labor market. Yet anyone helping a teenager pick a college major right now feels something different: AI tools that write code, white-collar layoffs in fields that were supposed to be recession-proof, and tuition bills that have not gotten smaller. Computer science, the degree parents pushed kids toward for two decades, is suddenly part of the conversation about whether college is worth the debt.
That is the tension Ron Lieber, who writes the Your Money column for The New York Times, walked into on a recent episode of Paula Pant’s Afford Anything podcast titled Is a Computer Science Degree Still Worth the Debt? Lieber’s central argument focused on how parents should talk to their kids in the first place, rather than on majors or salaries.
The Idea Sparker Argument
Lieber’s framing for the parental role: “Part of your job, especially when they don’t want to take your advice, you know, when they become adolescents is to be somebody that’s just like the pop-ups that, you know, appear above people’s heads like a light bulb, you know, when an idea sparks. You want to be an idea sparker.”
On persistence: “Even if they reject 97, 98, 99 out of 100 things you send to them, something’s going to land and it can make a difference.”
Lieber is right about the method but incomplete on the math. The drip campaign of articles, podcasts, and profiles he describes is the correct way to influence a teenager who has stopped accepting direct advice. But sparking ideas without putting earnings data in front of them leaves families making six-figure financial decisions on vibes.
The Financial Concept Parents Actually Need
The mechanic underneath this conversation is education ROI: the lifetime earnings premium of a specific degree from a specific school, set against the all-in cost, including borrowed money and four years of forgone wages.
Pant points families to the right starting point. In her words, “The College Scorecard is the best quantitative data that we have. It is a federal website that tracks earnings outcomes, and you can sort both by school as well as by major.”
Run a realistic scenario. A student enrolls at a private university with a sticker price of roughly $70,000 per year. After scholarships and family contribution, they borrow $30,000 a year, graduating with $120,000 in federal and private loans. On a standard 10-year repayment schedule at around 7%, the monthly payment lands near $1,400. To service that comfortably, gross income needs to clear roughly $80,000 within a year or two of graduation, or the loan eats into rent, retirement contributions, and any cushion against a layoff.
Look up that exact school and major on the College Scorecard. If the median graduate from that program earns $58,000 two years out, the math does not work, regardless of how prestigious the diploma looks. If it shows $95,000, the debt is serviceable. The Scorecard turns “is this worth it” from a feeling into a calculation.
The limitation Pant emphasizes and parents should not skip: the Scorecard captures early-career earnings only. STEM and business majors typically outearn liberal arts graduates in the first few years, but by mid-career that gap often narrows. A philosophy major who lands in management or law school can catch and pass the computer science graduate whose skills get commoditized by AI.
Where the Advice Fits and Where It Misfires
Lieber’s idea-sparker approach works well for families with a 15 to 18 year old still forming opinions, parents willing to send links without lecturing, and enough financial flexibility that the final school choice is genuinely open.
It misfires for families staring down a deposit deadline in April with a student already committed emotionally to an expensive private school whose Scorecard data does not justify the borrowing. At that point, the conversation needs to be direct. Drip-feeding podcast episodes will not undo $120,000 in loans signed next month.
What To Actually Do This Month
- Pull the College Scorecard data for every school and major your child is seriously considering. Write down median earnings two years and ten years out, median federal debt, and the share of borrowers earning more than a high school graduate.
- Calculate the monthly loan payment on the realistic borrowing total at current federal student loan rates, then check it against the median earnings figure. If the payment exceeds roughly 10% of expected gross monthly income, the plan needs revising.
- Build the idea-sparker pipeline Lieber describes. Send one piece of content a week: a profile of someone in a field your kid mentioned, a podcast on a career path they have not considered, an article on apprenticeships or community college transfer routes. Do not comment on most of them.
- Reserve one direct conversation per semester for the financial reality, with the Scorecard numbers on the table. Sparking ideas is the year-round work. Pricing them is the annual checkpoint.
Lieber gets the parenting right and Pant supplies the data layer he leaves out. Send the articles, plant the seeds, and make every school on the final list defend itself with earnings numbers before anyone signs a promissory note.
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