371–380 of 441 posts
A big takeaway from this article (for me) is that people are surprised that 17 year old kids don't understand what they're doing when they take out that college loan. Shock and astonishment despite there being little to no preparation for this kind of financial understanding previously in their education. That surprise and shock shocks and surprises me. Honestly it kind of reminds me of the whole Yelp minimum wage th…
A big takeaway from this article (for me) is that people are surprised that 17 year old kids don't understand what they're doing when they take out that college loan. Shock and astonishment despite there being little to no preparation for this kind of financial understanding previously in their education. That surprise and shock shocks and surprises me. Honestly it kind of reminds me of the whole Yelp minimum wage th…
A big problem is that at age 17, all of the adults are saying go to college & take out these loans. Guidance councilors, teachers, parents. The most compliant high schoolers will just do what they are told without thinking about it further. I imagine this will start changing. When I was a kid, that group of adults had the benefit of cheap degrees. Today, now that group of adults is us and we did not go to school chea…
http://www.payscale.com/college-roi.
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I am afraid you are wrong there. It’s a myth that the reason we have public funding of higher education is to help people get nice jobs. We have public funding of higher education because a better educated populace is a better democracy and a better public. It's an intrinsic value. See also: http://www.salon.com/2014/06/08/colleges_are_full_of_it_behi...
If that were the case, why can't you get federal aid as a non-degree seeking student? Do I need credentials to contribute to a better democracy?
There's a simple solution, the Feds should cutoff loans for schools that don't get their students jobs. The government are the only ones that are able to accurately calculate which schools are completely worthless. In fact they should take it one step further and advertise to the whole world what percentage of students get jobs in their studied field and the average starting salary. That would finally put some market…
> Feds should cutoff loans for schools that don't get their students jobs They tried that with for-profit schools, who were quick to report very high levels of employment (omitting under-employment, with gigs such as barista or part-time retail) and setting up temp agencies that hired people to do busywork for six months or so. If their graduates are able to drive, they already pretty much have a job with Uber, for i…
So long as they're driving a vehicle that qualifies, in a city where Uber isn't disallowed and the market is a viable one.
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A big problem is that at age 17, all of the adults are saying go to college & take out these loans. Guidance councilors, teachers, parents. The most compliant high schoolers will just do what they are told without thinking about it further. I imagine this will start changing. When I was a kid, that group of adults had the benefit of cheap degrees. Today, now that group of adults is us and we did not go to school chea…
> A big problem is that at age 17, all of the adults are saying go to college & take out these loans. Guidance councilors, teachers, parents. The most compliant high schoolers will just do what they are told without thinking about it further. > I imagine this will start changing. When I was a kid, that group of adults had the benefit of cheap degrees. Today, now that group of adults is us and we did not go to school…
The value of a college degree is largely up to the student. Chart a course to it that takes the hard courses and masters them, takes advantage of the research and other opportunities there, and the resulting degree will be worth something.
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> A big problem is that at age 17, all of the adults are saying go to college & take out these loans. Guidance councilors, teachers, parents. The most compliant high schoolers will just do what they are told without thinking about it further. > I imagine this will start changing. When I was a kid, that group of adults had the benefit of cheap degrees. Today, now that group of adults is us and we did not go to school…
When people make this kind of assessment they seem to be implying that because a college education is less surefire than it used to be, that it's useless. This is demonstrably false, and a college education is still the best bet a person can make on his or her future. In the same breath people say "all our manufacturing jobs went to China" and "why not go to a vocational school and pick up welding?"
The options I considered were:
1.) Ivy League
2.) Smaller, 2nd tier private college, with incentives for in-state students.
3.) Private military academy, where my Dad went
4.) My main state university.
Since my parents were kind of lower-middle class, #1 was mostly covered by financial aid, so the real differences in cost between that and the state university were only a couple thousand a year. The doors that having that name on the top of my piece of paper opens are well worth it.
Options that would have been suicidal, financially:
A.) 2nd or 3rd tier, out-of-state non-Ivy private school - most are still in that 40-50k price tag range, without the endowments to offer the same financial aid packages.
B.) Out-of-state tuition at another state university - again, price tag in the 30-50k range, no subsidy, reduced prestige
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Non-college grad here (well, AA from a community college, but that doesn't really count). I get the impression that that some kids did really challenging programs or went to prestigious schools and that paid off really well, but a lot of kids bought into the "college = success" mantra. Every authority figure they knew was telling them that this was the only way to be successful and the schools were jacking up tuition…
> I get the impression that that some kids did really challenging programs or went to prestigious schools and that paid off really well, but a lot of kids bought into the "college = success" mantra. Challenging programs have relatively little to do with it. It's almost 100% about the prestigious schools and the networks that come along with them: the old "it's not what you know; it's who you know," deal. > All that s…
The degree is worthless. The wretched right-wing connections are even more worthless.
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Non-college grad here (well, AA from a community college, but that doesn't really count). I get the impression that that some kids did really challenging programs or went to prestigious schools and that paid off really well, but a lot of kids bought into the "college = success" mantra. Every authority figure they knew was telling them that this was the only way to be successful and the schools were jacking up tuition…
> I get the impression that that some kids did really challenging programs or went to prestigious schools and that paid off really well, but a lot of kids bought into the "college = success" mantra. Challenging programs have relatively little to do with it. It's almost 100% about the prestigious schools and the networks that come along with them: the old "it's not what you know; it's who you know," deal. > All that s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, you know, lots of kids can't find work that pays for shelter, food, clothes, transport, and interest on six figures. Despite being young and dumb, and told by most everyone that the only way they'd get such a job would be to, you know, take out those six figure loans. The post-2008 recovery has been a very poor recovery as far as jobs are concerned. Add in that wages for the less than six figure jobs have been st…
Really, according to government & the fed unemployment is pretty close to it's lowest in 10 years : https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/UNRATE Likewise, what are these people who can't find jobs doing ? They're not asking for unemployment benefits ... https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/IC4WSA
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non-college grad here (well, AA from a community college, but that doesn't really count). I get the impression that that some kids did really challenging programs or went to prestigious schools and that paid off really well, but a lot of kids bought into the "college = success" mantra. Every authority figure they knew was telling them that this was the only way to be successful and the schools were jacking up tuition…
> This is really a shocking dereliction of duty on the part of teachers and guidance counselors. Playing devil's advocate for a second, what if the teachers and guidance counselors still believe it to be true? They're likely from a previous generation or two, where simply having a college degree opened up most doors. Then again, what if having a college degree really is still better than not? You don't have to spend…
1. Work while you study: why work a part time job for $X and go to school part time, when you could finish school in half the time by going full time and spend the remaining time working for $2X? Work study is generally counterproductive.
2. $65K is still a lot of debt. Lots of my peers have that and $20K/yr jobs.
The truth is, there simply aren't many good options for today's young adults. There are a handful of fields that can pay well with a degree, but then you have the risk that you won't be able to finish. And there are fewer fields where you can work without a degree and get paid well. Even in CS, a field where you usually can get jobs without a degree, I've roughly capped out my pay without a degree at age 29.