Posted on 08/30/2024 3:31:35 AM PDT by karpov
A recent Gallup survey found that confidence in America’s colleges and universities has plummeted in the past decade, with only 36 percent of today’s adults expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in our higher-education system—down from 57 percent in 2015. Respondents offered several reasons for their low opinions, including the cost of obtaining a degree, the difficulty in finding a high-paying job even with a degree, and the perception of college campuses as indoctrination centers.
I’d like to focus, in this essay, on the first of those reasons. The others are important, too, and may well provide fodder for future articles. Indeed, I addressed the third one here a few years ago. But I know many families with children in college or soon to be in college, and one of their chief concerns is how they’re going to pay for it. My audience for this particular piece is primarily high-school students who will be headed “off to college” in the next year or two, along with their parents, teachers, school counselors, and others who might influence them. In particular, I’m targeting kids whose families aren’t in a position to help them very much, if at all, with their college expenses—which, given the current state of the economy, is probably a lot of kids.
The trend these days, especially among conservatives, is to tell young people they don’t need to go to college to be successful. For some, that might very well be true. Plenty of relatively high-paying jobs—in the construction, maintenance, tech, and automotive industries, for example—don’t require a college degree. But for many young people, college is, for better or worse, indispensable.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Night and/or weekend classes.
Some schools offer extensive work/study such as College of the Ozarks.
It is actually tuition free. But you have to work.
All kinds of possibilities are out there. Hey, this is America.
I took most of his advice decades ago when I went:
Went to college locally so I could continue to live at home.
Applied for every scholarship I could.
Worked while I studied.
No debt.
My kid made it all the way to a Ph.D. with no debt.
I paid for the first two years, only.
Never un9why folks pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to become more stupid. A lobotomy is far cheaper.
Where is it written that you have to blast through 4 years and graduate with debt?
I don't understand, what's the rush to finish before you are 22 or so? I mean, if you work and take classes at the same time, (or, even stay out for a couple of semesters) you can finish with ZERO debt AND you will have 'work experience' on your resume!
Storefront higher education is a possibility.
Professors would sign students up online and rent former retail space for a couple of hours a week.
School district higher education is also a possibility. Affluent towns like Scarsdale might offer college level courses in K-12 school buildings after hours. Affluent families don’t get financial aid. In district students might have highest priority, associated district students would have secondary priority, and any spaces left after say two weeks would be open to all.
Here in Florida, my county school board runs a technical institute to teach the trades.
Sarah Palin once said that of all the things she was surprised about when running with John McCain (RINO), she never expected to get criticized for working her own way through college in 5 years. She didn’t have a legacy trust fund like the sons and daughters of the East Coast elite. Instead her parents were public school teachers.
I worked FT most of the time while going to university, went part time and full time. Took 6.5 years. I really HATED IT and I draggged it out. I still had debt, but nothing like I could have if I went full tilt. If I had to do it again I think I would have bit the bullet and plowed thru. To their credit two of my kids that went for a four year got it done in less than four years. One was brainwashed, the other has remained steadfast.
Get as many college credits in high school as possible .
But college needs to be reformed.
Strip all the glitz away to cut costs.
“Get as many college credits in high school as possible “
Daughter did that and basically went to university as a sophmore.
Mostly good advice:
— Go to community college for the first 2 years and transfer the credits. You lose a lot of the “college experience” this way, but you will avoid a lot of debt too.
— Go into the AD military first and get the GI bill. Join the National Guard and go to state college tuition free. Getting an ROTC scholarship is another alternative — and maybe the best one as you get a guaranteed 4 year job on graduation.
— Work for a company that offers tuition assistance (some still do) and go part time.
— Don’t major in a useless degree program
But, perhaps the best advice is to make sure you are ready for college first. Many 18 years olds are not. If you take the SATs are your scores are below 500, you are probably not ready for a 4 year university. So do CC first.
Strip all the glitz away to cut costs.
It was such a stupid, wasteful “perk” that I crossed that one off his list for him.
My friend took CLEP exams at $120 a pop and received 75 hours of college credit before he even enrolled in college. He went on to get his masters in business and is now gainfully employed.
My parents have 6 grandchildren. When the last one finishes college, the combined total out of pocket cost is less than $100K. That includes 6 bachelors degrees and 4 degrees.
The 4 who graduated are all employed in their fields and supporting themselves.
We stressed decent grades, above a 3.5 and high test scores. Three were National Merit Finalists and went to schools with automatic full rides. One got an almost full ride based on a competitive college scholarship. Two received full tuition scholarships. Those worked and used savings for the room and board. They all had some kind of job for their own spending money.
There are literally thousands of schools to choose from. There is no reason they pay $40-90k a year.
Anything ending in “Studies” is bound to be a useless degree. Stop scholarships for useless degrees, the ones that do not qualify the student to be a useful member of society. Let ‘em pay their own way.
Anything ending in “Studies” is bound to be a useless degree. Stop scholarships for useless degrees, the ones that do not qualify the student to be a useful member of society. Let ‘em pay their own way.
But for how much longer remains to be seen!
Parents these days are indoctrinated to believe that they are obliged to fund their children's college education.
As a result, they defer savings that would otherwise go into their IRAs or 501ks into 529 type accounts instead. In many cases, the parents find themselves well into their 40s and even 50s before they are allowed to focus on saving for their own retirement. Often by then, it is too late to properly fund a retirement.
As well, even with parents saving and scrimping, it is usually not enough, forcing the children to take out student loans to cover the rest, which puts them in a disadvantageous situation with regard to saving for their retirement as they first need to pay back those loans. Then if they have children of their own, the situation described earlier with the parents is compounded.
It's a tragedy because in order to build retirement savings to the $2-3 million you really need for a solid retirement, it is crucial to start saving when you are in your 20s and have decades of compounding returns to get yourself to that savings goal.
Meanwhile, the colleges get wealthier than ever, sitting on endowments worth billions, while raising tuitions annually way in excess of inflation rates, forcing their students to put themselves in debt for higher and higher amounts just to go their indoctrination centers.
If I was a young person today, I'd learn a trade and forget about college entirely.
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