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The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

nytimes.com

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Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#21
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Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

It's very difficult to start your career at leading companies such as Google, Facebook, etc without going to a reputable school.

FAANG is a tiny fraction of the job market.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#22
post #2

Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

I agreed for most of my career. As a Senior Eng in SF it seems that contiguous experience and prior credentials are king, to the point where my side projects haven’t come up in interviews in years.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#23
The problem of universities selling overpriced degrees that have little to no market value, while using students as a cash cow to gouge with the costs of books, classes that are not needed, parking fees, and everything else is far worse than anyone can imagine.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#24
I consider myself very lucky to of had the ability to live at home for my 3 years of college. Then after my first year, I was able to get a job as a web developer at the college through a special program they do. Thanks to that job, I was able to pay for year 2 and 3 myself and had very little debt to pay off.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#25
With PAYE and IBR, it seems like one could permanently take a couple of classes, receive all of the loan money for "living expenses," and then run up an unlimited amount of student loans... and they never have to pay back more than just a percentage of your income...

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#26

There really needs to be some “free market” ideology injected into the way loans are dispersed. First of all students need a way to declare bankruptcy. Second, we must take into consideration future earnings potential when deciding how much and at what rate.

Permitting bankruptcy would instantly add more risk to the lender and thus instantly boost the interest rate on the loan, potentially pricing it out of the range of the student.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#27
post #4
post #2

Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

It's very difficult to start your career at leading companies such as Google, Facebook, etc without going to a reputable school.

This so much. The only reason I'm going for a Master's degree is so I have an easier time getting my foot in a great company. And where I live we don't have any student debt (no, none at all). Life as a student is pretty bliss so why wouldn't I study? It's the best time of your life and you also get a degree out of it without getting in debt. Sign me... oh wait I'm already signed up.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#28
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's absurd, you're much better off going to a reputable school, working hard, grinding leetcode, completing internships, and then getting a $150k+/yr TC job to start. You'll come out far ahead by going to a good school. If you're able to start at Google while you're still in high school, that's a different story.

I have plenty of friends that dropped out of College with no degrees and now work for large tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. It's not really tough to come in as an E1 and work your way up, especially if you have a great GitHub/Gitlab and possibly experience as a dev at another smaller company. I see a lot of women coming in as E1's off of those 12 week software engineer bootcamps as well.

There's a difference between dropping out and not going at all. There are plenty of "elite" dropouts at FAANG.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#29
In a fit of irony I managed to graduate college because I was too poor to pay for college. FAFSA covered everything I needed, although I had to make large medical sacrifices along the way.

Needless to say student debt in America is out of control. We told kids endlessly that they should chase their dream and become who they want while pulling the rug out from under them and using predatory loaning practices.

It's another ticking timebomb that when it goes off it's going to cripple a large amount of Americans. We need to be funneling more money into our school system and actually make college free.

Re: The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined

#30
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you usually do not start there. Google might require a degree, but your local hairdresser does not ask for one as long as you can create his website. Then move your way up from there. After several years recruiters will be more interested in your experience, projects and contributions than your non existing degree. EDIT: other options include working at startups/smaller companies, contributing to open sour…

That's absurd, you're much better off going to a reputable school, working hard, grinding leetcode, completing internships, and then getting a $150k+/yr TC job to start. You'll come out far ahead by going to a good school. If you're able to start at Google while you're still in high school, that's a different story.

"$150k+/yr TC" ... is that considered an average/expected comp coming right out of college these days?
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