Around here, there's a nice path to a relatively inexpensive and more than adequate four-year degree. They can take a commuter bus (included in student fees) to Cleveland State and live at home. There are plenty of jobs in restaurants and retail for part time work. You'd be amazed how few take advantage of that.
“You’d be amazed how few take advantage of that. “
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One of my grandsons decided to so just that,except he will have to drive every day———smart!
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And of course one can join the Army reserve or National Guard with all kinds of college benefits. One of my student has joined guard unit. He did so well on the entrance exam that he received a signing bonus. He will leave college with little or no debt.
I think the answer is to work part time moving into full time and go to school part time. Start with the community college and go to the local state college. Take 6-8 years but graduate with no debt and a better perspective on the working world.
Unfortunately, many employers don’t view this kind of student as an attractive one for hire. They STILL want high GPAs and a realtively cookie-cutter student (i.e. 4 year grad; 22 year old) to hire. They know (or should know) this student/hire will only be around 2 years — instead of 10 or more the company built their hiring program around — but they don’t seem to care.
Plus, even today, knowing how useless most undergradute education is, it is still not practical to promote anything but a college degree. If for no other reason than work advancement and graduate school. A non-degreed employee may get along fine in certain areas for their 20s and part of their 30s, but they’ll be regretting not finishing college in their mid-30s and later. That hasn’t changed and probably won’t for a long time.