I’ve been saying that for a long time, and often get accused of being elitist because of my opinion. But unless you are going to college for the life experience and for the sake of the education, the return on the investment these days is minimal without a technical degree or specialized MS degree. My niece is paying $30,000 per year at a private school so she can be a teacher, but also says she wants to stay at home after she has kids. How long will it take at a teacher’s salary to recoup that investment (or repay the loans?) compared to if she had just worked as a waitress making $15 per hour in tips. That’s like $30000 per year, and you can do that right out of high school. Even if she could make $60000 per year teaching, it’ll take 8 years to break even. She probably won’t even work that long.
Well, except she wants to be a teacher and not a waitress, at least in the brief time before she quits to have babies—although both teaching and waitressing are good jobs to return to when the kids are older! The real problem was picking the $30K private college when there are excellent public colleges in the U.S. that are much cheaper.
Women should not be poo-poo’d desiring a good education just because they do their family and this country a great service by staying home with children. Wise women raise wise members of the next generation.