College education: Do we overemphasize and spend too much on it?

I got mine by bartending my way through, I got 20k in debt by going to grad school - which added 10k overall.

I paid all my loans off in 3 years, I bartended after work at Dave and Busters and all the tips went to paying off the student loans.....

But again, mine were only 20k......today - they are 120k....

I am 100% with forgiveness and free college, an educated society thinks for itself and is not led by stupidity.

DD

 

The difference in cost is staggering, and we're well aware of that difference, having paid for both our grown children's college education. The cost has not only saddled huge numbers of young Americans with debt, it has also had a damaging effect, in my opinion, on how many of those same people view a college education. For many it is reduced to a financial transaction, the sheer cost having changed the traditional experience of going to college, arguably out of necessity.

 

Not everyone can become or wants to be an engineer. In fact foreigners take a good percentage of those classes

Common misconception that leads us to where we are today. We need to understand what college is good for on the whole and what value it brings for the current costs rather than emphasize what college is great at then funnel and pigeonhole every dependant minor into that field.

 

The question becomes
1. What do you want to do for the rest of your life?
2. Is a College Degree a requirement.

College degrees are seen as safety nets
That they secure your floor.
The Idea that once you have it. . .you won't dip below the "poverty line" in income

So
High School may bottom out at 16K/yr
College Bottom out at 30K a yr

BUT
There is alot of High School only Jobs that make 30K
A lot of trade jobs that make "Engineer" Money
and they are not overly rare

I think I saw a number like 50+% of people never work in the industry their degree is in
If that is the case. . . why bother with the degree

Rocket River

 

We really need an equivalent to the GI bill for Civil service - where you can go build roads and bridges for a couple of years and get college paid for.

We don't need a massive military for the poor of this country as their only outlet for education.

Even 9-11 was not a military action it was a criminal action - there are no more armies to fight - at least not to the level we keep ours - it is ridiculous how much we spend on the military when our infrastructure is crumbling.

We really need to shrink it by at least half.

DD

 

I think when the Texas legislature took the cap off of tuition in the 80's, it had a horrible effect. When my brothers and sisters went to Texas, it was 4 dollars a credit hour and tuition was rough 200 dollars. My first semester tuition was around 600 dollars when I went in 1991. So you could pay for tuition on a minimum wage job working part time. Now, it's 5K semester and that's considered cheap compared to the rest of the country. College is stupid expensive these days.

 

This is the reason kids have to be better equipped in HS to make better financial decisions. Granted, as a teenager, the majority are going to have maturity issues, but I think if you can instill a good financial foundation, you may help kids make better decisions about their future. I guess one solution can be free tuition for all, but quite frankly, as a tax payer I rather my tax dollars go towards improving the HS system and possibly maybe pay for 2 years of community college and that's it. Most kids don't even know what the hell they want to do and they waste time and resources in college trying to figure that out. I had a friend that switched majors 3 times, the guy had no clue what he wanted to do and he did not come from a wealthy family. He ended up accumulating debt in his time there since he ended up staying an extra two years.

I think college is a great tool for networking and increasing your chances of landing a better paying job than not going to college, but we really don't do enough in HS to push kids to pursue other trades that can provide them a comfortable life (granted they will never get rich). Honestly, my former boss and I use to joke around about our jobs, thinking to ourselves why the hell didn't we just become plumbers rather than putting up with the constant day to day stresses of being a consultant engineer. I never was given that option in high school and I know several other of my classmates were not either.

 

Education is the great equalizer. You don't the cost of education be the gate keeper for opportunity. College only for rich kids, great jobs available only to the college educated, the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.

As an immigrant from poor family, having accessible education that we could afford on a minimum wage job was the key to the success my family has had in this country.

 

id like to see a system where free college is earned. You need to meet some criteria to get freshman year free. Some form of a GPA to show you’re not a lazy ass, because honestly, getting Bs and Cs in high school is purely effort. And not even that much effort. Just require a C+ or B- GPA and you get free college for a year. Then you must maintain a C+ or B- GPA in your freshman year to get a free sophomore year, and so on.

it keeps kids from wasting taxpayer dollars and wasting their own damn time. Basically if you want college, show you can take it seriously. Everybody wins.