Student Loans are going to crush the generation after mine. There's no ROI in taking on 20K, 50K, 100K in debt for a degree that's increasingly worthless.
I saw the writing on the wall when, at a former job, we had MBA's working the phones for 25 grand a year. They'd sunk 100K (or more) AND 6-ish years of their lives into an education .... to work a job cold calling other businesses.
Now, a few were promoted up, another few went up and out ... but IMO these few would have been successful no matter what. The rest will likely bounce around at the bottom and wonder why their expensive "magic degree" isn't opening the doors that it should. And this is with a degree (MBA) with a perceived value, in a business with a well-defined career path. There's just too much competition for too few spots.
A B.A. in "Anthropomorphic Feminist Studies" or "Social Justice" or other nonsense ... jeez, people like that have struck out before they've even gotten out of the dugout. Must be tough to be told how special and brilliant you are for 20-odd years, invest a fortune in time and money into yourself ....only to find that you're not qualified to do much more than pull beers in a Ruby Tuesday's for three nights a week.
'Tis why a complete socialist idiot like Bernie Sanders has such a large audience. "It's not your fault, and we'll just steal money from rich people" is a strong message to the weak minded.
My current job is in workforce development. If you look at the current job market, the biggest demand is for skilled workers with 6-18 months of specialized training beyond high school: welders, electricians, positions in advanced manufacturing; machining. You don’t even need an associate’s degree.
A colleague runs a highly-regarded machining program at a community college on the other side of the state. Grads from that program (less than two years) typically have 4-6 job offers from companies across the country. There are about 600,000 advanced manufacturing jobs currently unfilled because firms can’t find people with the right skill set.
Sadly, most young people today would rather pursue a worthless college degree (like Gender Studies) instead of enrolling in a Mechatronics certificate program. With that credential (and passing the Siemens Level I certification), you start off at $45K a year, plus overtime and full benefits. Earn your Level II and get a couple of years of experience, and you’re looking at $80K annually (or more, including overtime). Better yet, these are jobs that can’t be out-sourced, since they require IT, robotics, mechanical and trouble-shooting skills that are beyond the ability of low-wage workers overseas, or if you find someone with those skills, the labor cost advantage rapidly erodes and by the time you factor in transportation expenses, it becomes more cost effective to produce the item here in the States.
Obviously, we’re talking about highly specialized manufacturing and very skilled workers. But those jobs are out there. Unfortunately, most younger workers have been brain-washed that manufacturing jobs are dull, dirty, repetitive and likely to be shipped to China. So, they rack up $100K in student loan debt for useless degree that qualifies them to work at Starbucks.