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Get back to the idea? Give me a break. Generations before this one did not "work their way through college". There were a number of generous programs that helped people pay for college (e.g., GI bill)
Let's also remember that 'way back when,' college was not pushed as 'for everyone.' It's become practically pointless now with all the bogus degrees in nothing useful and tons of people there who don't belong.
A couple of points for the "I don't have a choice" crowd...
You don't have a choice if you want to go into a particular field, however there are many fields that one can enter with just a two year degree. I have a few friends who went to either a community college or a vocational school for electrical engineering or computer related this or that. They took all of the same courses related to the major that anyone in a similar four-year program would take minus the majority of core curriculum/general ed courses. The only drawback is that with only a two-year degree they made $10,000 to $20,000 less a year than their four-year counterparts. Incidentally, though, since they had the same knowledge base and with the less pay they have/had higher levels of job security. Two of these friends went back to school a few years later to complete their B.S. degrees at a public university simply because they hit their ceiling as far as earning potential is concerned. One guy nearly tripled his salary when he graduated from the four-year because not only did he now have a new degree but he also had five years of solid job experience in the field.
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Originally Posted by hindsight2020
1) Wiki Maslow's hierachy of needs. It doesn't matter how much you think you love the field you're eternally endebting yourself for, if you end up taking home the same or less money than a high school graduate working at Taco Bell takes home after you drop that monthly student loan check in the mail, whatever non-economic valuation you get out of "doing what you love" gets eroded by the fact that you cannot acquire the material lifestyle you thought the job would allow you. You cannot fulfill your self-actualization needs when your basic and security needs are not met. "Starving artists" are seldom happy and in aggregate give up the full-time pursuit of their passion for what satisfies the hierarchy of needs in its proper order.
Some people just enjoy what they do for employment regardless of how much, or little, they bring home and from what I can see those who enjoy their particular line of work the most tend to be less materialistic than the rest. Your argument here is based on the assumption that people simply go to college so they will acquire the ability to earn more money in the future. Unfortunately, this is the with many, and a good amount of them will be disappointed when they do not actualize their material lifestyle, but this is not the case with all college students and like I said, not the desire of everyone.
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Originally Posted by hindsight2020
2) You don't have to accept the hard place between two non-choices. Lobby for the overhaul of the student loan racket. Call your congressperson and demand they make student loans dischargeable during bankruptcy. Challenge the status quo of overinflated college tuition by voting with your feet and finding ways of cutting the cost of your education (attending in-state and only doing 2 years at the 4-year institution).
The status-quo colleges will not go away if potential students applied elsewhere and I guaranty you one thing; the more people that apply to, and stay at, state colleges the more tuition will raise and the more competitive admissions will become. Not to that the less people who apply to the status-quo colleges will only increase these institutions prestige, privilege (and costs).
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Originally Posted by hindsight2020
3) Stop treating a college degree like it's the holy grail. It's a high school diploma. Treating it as such would reduce your impulses towards going in the red for the rest of your productive life before you even start. Stop being optimism-biased and make a conservative estimation of what kind of compensation you're likely to attain and in what timeline. Stop this "um, but I'm gonna make a really good salary when I get out" uninformed non-sense. Back engineer your career outlook. Look at the median compensation, not the top earners (statistical outliers) that colleges ask to come talk to you during freshman orientation. Approach debt with a defensive posture, not this willy nilly high school spiked fruit punch mantra of "just sign the promissory note and the rest will take care of itself".
I agree that too many people go to college who do not belong there simply because they believe that it is something that they have to do, are expected to do, or are entitled to do.
Using the median is a poor example of an average. The mean would be more accurate.
I think the median represents what most experience, opposed to the average, which is effected by outliers.
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Originally Posted by hindsight2020
Somebody else already called you out on it, but I would double check that statement....
It is a peeve of mine. The median is not what most experience, it is simply the number that is dead center in a numerically progressive sequence and only has real value as an average if the numbers are all fairly large and relatively close to each other so that if rounded up or down the differences between them could be over-looked.
It is possible that the top earners could be closer to the median salary than the bottom half.
Hernan Castillo is treading water, trying to survive under the weight of $5,200 in credit card debt and $30,000 in student loans. He’s making payments on time, but the Orange County, Calif., resident sees little hope for getting out of the warehouse job he holds and landing a job as an accountant, the field in which he earned his degree.
College grad: ‘I wish I’d gone to prison instead’ - The Red Tape Chronicles - MSNBC.com (http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/05/college-debt-so-crushing-grad-says-i-wish-id-gone-to-prison-instead.html#posts - broken link)
There are quite a few accounting/finance jobs on monster.com search 909 and 951 area code.
Get back to the idea? Give me a break. Generations before this one did not "work their way through college". There were a number of generous programs that helped people pay for college (e.g., GI bill)
Let's also remember that 'way back when,' college was not pushed as 'for everyone.' It's become practically pointless now with all the bogus degrees in nothing useful and tons of people there who don't belong.
I did.. got MBA too. No help. no loans. My education isn't bogus--I got it from well known state universities.
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