Posted on 05/30/2016 9:19:41 AM PDT by Lorianne
We don’t send our young into the wilderness for a vision quest as a rite of passage. There are few things in modern society that signify a transition into adulthood. Going to college is one of them. And in debt addicted America, it is no surprise that for many, college debt is the first debt they will take on. Getting a college education is supposed to give someone a well rounded view of the world and a potential skill set. Some argue that college is not about vocational training. That to some degree is true but when students are going into $50,000 or $100,000 of student debt, then what is this modern day life quest really teaching and why is the price tag so incredibly high? As college graduation season comes into full bloom, many are left with the prospect of having no job lined up. It is also startling to see how many recent college graduates are working in jobs that really don’t require a college degree (so clearly the vocational piece doesn’t matter here).
The chronically underemployed college graduate
There are over 5,300 colleges and universities across this country from Harvard to beauty schools. The market is enormous and students now carry $1.3 trillion in debt, the biggest debt sector only behind mortgage debt.
Many recent college graduates are severely underemployed and this is for the lucky group that actually finds work:
Nearly 50 percent of recent college graduates are working in jobs where a college education isn’t typically required. So that life quest was indeed an expensive one, more so than taking drugs and roaming around in the forest. And the bills are coming due since student loans normally start being sent to graduates six months after graduation.
The underemployment rate is troubling because as the cost of a college education soars beyond the typical inflation rate, the yield in the marketplace isn’t very observable. College tuition is up 145% since 2000:
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>Cut the govt and send the crooks home.<
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An awesome idea that has been tried before, but the politicians that survive the purging will enlarge the size of government in no time and the stupid public will not even realize it.
My uncle was a nuclear engineer in nuclear weapons testing for LLNL 20 years ago. He told me that when hiring, he went exclusively to the upper Midwest, where candidates were known to have a strong work ethic. Made sense to me (being from the upper Midwest) :-)
I agree. See my post #40, we observed the same change driven by civil rights prosecution of businesses. Goldwater and Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act, maybe foreseeing its abuse in exactly this fashion.
Okla. State Univ., 1974, post-Civil War American History, a Gen.Ed. requirement for all degrees, taught by a Chinese graduate student whose language skills helps me yet today to understand the atrocious “Chinglish” instruction manuals that come with most electronic equipment. Thankfully, the course guide also stated the dates of the exams so that’s mostly when I showed up.
That is the smartest move on your part for your son. Enabling him hurts him far more than forcing him out to fend on his own. Good for you!!!
College was the 1st hurdle. All after that was someone who had confidence in your ability.
Learning process only begins in college. I don’t believe the Ivy League is any different, but more snobby.
At one time engineering, science and computer technology was different. It was what you could do. From what I’ve heard it is who you know now.
The dot com era set that expectation - and Americans still have yet to let go of it.
Yes.
Most jobs could be done with a relative short training period. I think most jobs could be adjusted to allow people to earn and learn.
After you graduate with $280,000 in debt you can get a job with UBER.......
California considers huge tuition hikes for out-of-state students
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_29954758/california-considers-huge-tuition-hikes-out-state-students
Excerpts: Tuition hikes that would push annual nonresident tuition from about $37,000 to $54,000 over six years.
Including housing, campus fees and other expenses, the annual cost of education for UC’s out-of-state students would approach $70,000 by 2019
** meanwhile short of engineering and medical field, you can go online and learn most of what you need to know for very little to no cost.
Where I work the engineering department is about 50/50 on whether they have diplomas. I don’t think that means the ones who have them have wasted the money or time, it’s just their path to here.
Do you have any statistics for your assertion or is this “anecdote” just plain old BS?
Fixed it.
De industrialization causes white collar jobs to go away too. Factory middle management jobs are gone, gone to China.
Blue collar trade jobs are great until you hit your 50’s and then things start to hurt....
Nowadays, probably. I'm an old fart who got his liberal arts bachelor's degree back when it actually meant something: we studied Latin, Mathematics, Science (Physics, Biology - e.g., hard sciences), Philosophy, History, Social Studies (real Social Studies, like Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology), and four years of a Foreign Language. Those were required BEFORE you even considered your major.
Our Liberal Arts degree (BA) taught us how to THINK, COMMUNICATE, and WRITE. Something sorely lacking in today's curriculum, I'd wager.
As far as I can remember, we didn't have things like majors in lesbian feminist poetry.
It seems to be absolutely who you know these days.
Why are the engineering graduates unemployable? What kind of science did these graduates learn?
mrs. a. Our little town is in dire need of the skilled trades people.
There is a shortage of wages not a shortage of tradesmen. You are being out bid.
This has always chaffed me. I’m ex-military with no college degree. My family was too poor to pay, and there weren’t all of the financing options available then that there are today. I’ve become a self-trained techy, and I’ve worked as a salesperson in such top tech companies as Rockwell and GE (highly successful, I might add). But with 20 years of experience and success, I’m still screened out when looking for a job. I see people with liberal arts degrees pass me by. One recruiter said she couldn’t hire me because I didn’t have a degree. When I looked her up on LinkedIn, I saw her degree was in communications. What the he’ll does that have to do with technical recruiting and HR???
Now, it’s even worse. Since basic four year degrees now are a dime a dozen, companies are now requiring an MBA. An MBA??? You’ve got to be kidding me! What the he’ll do you need a four year Electrical Engineering degree, followed by an MBA to be a freaking sales person for???
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