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[KtSlime]

Ton of folks these days entering college for throwaway degrees that are a waste of money. Smothered in $30K-100K of debt and with the best job prospects a $40K/yr position it's no wonder they're suffering. Add car payments, maybe a house mortgage, etc and you got a person that's literally smothered in debt.

Looking back, what's really scary is that we make life-changing decisions right when we're feeling reckless and invincible. In a way that's a way to get the truly talented to where they need to be, but that comes at the expense of screwing a bunch of folks over that might not be able to quite cut the mustard. I had the option during HS of going to a local state college close to full-ride (shitton of scholarships cobbled up together can make for a nice sum), or a slightly more "prestigious" school and rack up $60K in loans over 4 years. since I'm a cheapass bastard by nature I took the former approach, but there's a ton of folks that take the latter... and like the people in OP's article, it potentially ruins their lives. Learning's important, but holy shit people need to be given reality checks before moving on to college. If I had slightly larger aspirations I could very well have been in a shithole situation myself.

How do you make this assessment? How do you know what knowledge will be of use, or of interest in the future?

 

[PflargBlarg]

How do you make this assessment? How do you know what knowledge will be of use, or of interest in the future?

It's not hard to make at least a somewhat educated assessment of what's going to be useful for you in terms of providing a living. I'm a pretty big fan of ancient history and I think it would be interesting to school for that, but how many jobs are out there for a major in Ancient History? You're either a teacher or doing research/museum work, which are positions that are being fought over, and for low pay.

Instead, I went with another interest of mine, computer science. Every single industry in existence uses computer systems to some degree and there's only going to be more in the future.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the in demand jobs are and what's going to leave you fighting for scraps with hundreds of other candidates.

 

[muu]

How do you make this assessment? How do you know what knowledge will be of use, or of interest in the future?

Past performance may be no indication of future performance but it's also the best you got. Nothing will tell you what the next Big Thing is, but an informed decision will allow you to make the best educated guess. College enrollment's been in a steady increase, and unless there's been some radical shift in the educational system there's a ton of kids still making choices w/ a blindfold on.

 

[demon]

Ton of folks these days entering college for throwaway degrees that are a waste of money. Smothered in $30K-100K of debt and with the best job prospects a $40K/yr position it's no wonder they're suffering. Add car payments, maybe a house mortgage, etc and you got a person that's literally smothered in debt.

Looking back, what's really scary is that we make life-changing decisions right when we're feeling reckless and invincible. In a way that's a way to get the truly talented to where they need to be, but that comes at the expense of screwing a bunch of folks over that might not be able to quite cut the mustard. I had the option during HS of going to a local state college close to full-ride (shitton of scholarships cobbled up together can make for a nice sum), or a slightly more "prestigious" school and rack up $60K in loans over 4 years. since I'm a cheapass bastard by nature I took the former approach, but there's a ton of folks that take the latter... and like the people in OP's article, it potentially ruins their lives. Learning's important, but holy shit people need to be given reality checks before moving on to college. If I had slightly larger aspirations I could very well have been in a shithole situation myself.

The problem is 17 year old kids are stupid, and society essentially lies to them about what they should expect to get out of college. I went to college in 1999, and I remember practically everyone- including my parents- feeding me the line of crap that any ol' college degree from a good school (I went to UW Madison) will get your foot in the door right out of college. I think people are beginning to wisen up though.

Also, there's nothing wrong with a "throwaway" degree. People have forgotten what college was supposed to be for (hint: not job training). The problem is they're too goddamn expensive when they didn't used to be.

 

[Feroce2]

It's extremely hard to save in today's society when larger portions of each paycheck go to taxes, food, gas, insurance. There's no wiggle room.

 

[bdouble]

Yes the wave of short term wealth for the middle class of the worlds ponzi scheme known as central banking is coming to an end.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

The problem is 17 year old kids are stupid, and society essentially lies to them about what they should expect to get out of college. I went to college in 1999, and I remember practically everyone- including my parents- feeding me the line of crap that any ol' college degree from a good school (I went to UW Madison) will get your foot in the door right out of college. I think people are beginning to wisen up though.

Also, there's nothing wrong with a "throwaway" degree. People have forgotten what college was supposed to be for (hint: not job training). The problem is they're too goddamn expensive when they didn't used to be.

I wouldn't call your parents' advice about college a line of crap, just outdated. In their generation a college degree really was a door-opener. By the time our parents' realized this paradigm had changed we were already in college.