Posted on 10/28/2013 4:45:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
The average college graduate holds at least $35,200 of debt and has spent four years out of the workforce, where he or she would be otherwise gaining experience. All this for a piece of paper that by no means guarantees a job. The question that potential and current college students need to ask is: Do the financial costs, opportunity costs, and other factors justify the cost of college? For a select few, the answer may be yes. For a surprising number of people, it will be no.
Does the financial cost justify going to college? It depends on what you want to do in life. If you want to go into medicine (average debt of $170,000, average salary $150,000-$200,000+), law (average debt of $100,433 , average salary $113,310), or engineering (average debt of $52,596 , average salary $91,810) the answer will be yes. This is for two reasons. First, today you cannot work in those fields without a college degree. Second, the average income of those professions quickly pays off debt (assuming you can get the job).
But what about individuals who want to go into art, business, music, humanities, languages, or other fields? The answer will most likely be no. There are alternative options that can prove to be far more useful and financially wiser.
Business students who want to start their own businesses would be far better off leaving the theory back in the classroom and diving in head-first into real-life experience. Most of what an entrepreneur needs to learn can be learned from reading books, taking advantage of free online educational resources like Khan Academy and TED talks, and joining college alternative programs like Praxis. I’ve opened two businesses and I learn more from the few months of work I put into them than all the “professional” education I’ve received from my business classes combined.
Real life is the best teacher there is. The average cost of a specialized music school (one most likely to get students a job) can be $81,000. The average salaries of their graduates is around $29,222. Instead getting of a music degree (and tons of debt along with it), students passionate in music should make their own music and post it on YouTube and sell their music on iTunes or other sites. People like Christina Grimmie and Lindsey Stirling have proven the model works, without college.
For learning music, a personal tutor or teaching yourself by using online tools can be just as effective as paying for a college degree. Instead of spending tens of thousands for a degree in philosophy, history or political science, go to Amazon.com and buy a dozen books for a hundred or so dollars and join an online book club to discuss what you read and learn. Or, write a blog or join a forum site to have conversations with other interested individuals. Go other sites like iTunes U if you want to hear lectures from experts for free!
There are cheap and free alternatives to learning the same things you would earn if you went to college and spent tens of thousands on and went into debt for. And this way you can pick exactly what you want to study, study at your own pace and not waste time on pointless projects.
What about the other benefits of going to college, the networking, the friends, the “college experience” and getting a degree to get a job? This may be the best justification for going to college, but it’s still not that strong. Most people who graduate from college get a job not because they have a degree, but because they met someone who was able to get them in the door at a company for an interview. But you can meet people at networking events that are held all over the country!
Go to trade shows or industry conferences and network with people there to get a job. Employers are dying for employees with real life experience (I know I am for my businesses). If you can prove that you can do the real life work, they will over look the absent piece of paper. Most people end up working in fields they don’t major in. This is because employers don’t care about your major, but care about what you can do.
If you feel “the college experience” is worth massive debt, go for it. If you want to save money, go further in your profession, and start your life early, then rethink going to college. There are so many alternatives that are offered thanks to the freedom of the internet it’s a shame not to take advantage of them. Degrees don’t make you standout anymore, experience does. Get out of the classroom and get started on your real life.
“...requirements that are merely there to support departments and faculty headcount. . .
You got that one right!
And most of the good government jobs go to veterans. A man who likes to do a little physical work should get into an apprenticeship right out of high school if he's not going into the military. And if going into the military, don't bend over to pick up the soap.
My advice for young people is always the same. Go to school and learn how to do something. Don’t go learn about something. Liberal Arts are by in large a waste of money. I believe they will become even less relevant as the socialism squeezes out capitalism. Less of other peoples money to spend and all...
If you are “book smart”, go learn Computer Science, Medicine, Engineering, etc.
If you are “hands on” gifted, go learn welding, fabrication, plumbing, HVAC, manufacturing technology, etc.
It takes the equivalent of as Associated Degree to run a manufacturing robot anymore. HVAC - all controlled by programmable electronics. Welding has advanced to the point you can weld two razor blades together. But you have to learn the machines and techniques.
When I finished college (1982) there was no such thing as Racial or Sexual counselors or the like and I am glad we weren't that de-evolved yet.
Energy? Most 14 year old kids I know sleep a lot.
“...requirements that are merely there to support departments and faculty headcount. . .
You got that one right!
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After taking four semesters of college courses in HS my homeschooled middle applied to the college and declared a major, nursing. Of course the college requires courses in other majors and one of the first courses she took was an English course. The English teacher told her that she was an excellent writer and needed to change her major to English. ``This child was a passable writer but no English major, I know, I taught her. She was being recruited.
Of course there were the required Women’s Studies courses and she was recruited there too. But we were ready for these programs trying to fatten their majors to continue funding at that point.
Be very careful if your child is thinking of changing majors. There is a lot of heavy recruitment going on out there by baby boomer profs who want to keep their jobs.
you can still find a classical education, you just have to look harder. my daughter graduated from the U of Dallas, it’s a small private Catholic university in Dallas, and it’s billed as the university for independent thinkers. They don’t use text books, they use original texts. she got a first rate education there. we live in the DC area and she has a job with a trade association. the school was by and large very conservative also, which was why she chose it.
A 2 year RN program at a community college is the best bang for the buck out there. Same pay as a 4 year grad, lower cost of a community college and jobs are available.
As a bonus, if your employer wants you to have a BSN, they will usually pay for it.
Excellent point
RN jobs are drying up though, at least here in the Philadelphia area. And the Bachelors is really becoming required. There’s almost no attrition and the per diem work is gone. The jobs available are mostly the undesirable ones. I would recommend that someone interested in a two year health program get a respiratory therapy or radiology (especially ultrasound) certification.
For some people it is..
College isnt for everyone, but the school system says otherwise...
Universities are all about tenure.
Liberal Arts was part of the Great Western Tradition but funding and enrollment is way down.
In the final analysis, these centers for higher education are businesses, they need to generate wealth for themselves to maintain themselves.
The Big 10 schools and similar all depend on football revenues as well. It’s great fun, college spirit and all that but it’s all about the bottom line - funding.
The idea of churning out a responsible and knowledgeable mass populations from the nation’s universities is a noble cause but one that has been sidelined by Liberals. It’s not what you know, it’s how you’re dealing with it or touchy-feely it.
Let’s face it, we are churing out millions of unprepared hamburger flippers.
What IS saving the nation are foreign students who are eager to learn, work in America and create their own American Dream.
There is also a core group of talented indivduals at every college - they enable us to stay on top of Nobel Prizes and research, the rest of us?
Then there’s always St. John’s in Maryland, where talented folks get a degree in Classics and Mathematics, reading Euclid in Greek, and other masters, in their own tongue.
I didn’t go to college...
When I metion that my daughters may not go to college I get the calf looking at a new gate look from anyone I say that to.
Is college the best for everyone I don’t think so.
If you wanna be a doctor, lawyer or indian chief I reckon so...
I agree that they are about tenure, but they are also about majors. Academic friends tell me that they have to have X amount of majors to get funding at public universities.
No majors no department.
true. The work day would have to start about 2 PM, but after that they’d be awesome.
I saved so that all three of my children could go to college without borrowing a cent.
Tuition at San Jose State is $7000. Someone can live at home and get a good engineering degree gor under $40,000.
If a person goes to community college for 2 years, then they can reduce the cost of college significantly.
Of course, my son is in college paying out of state fees, so we didn’t choose the cheap route.
Employers do like employees who have proven job skills needed by those employers. Perhaps for small, fledgling startups, no one is going to lose sleep over an employee's credentials, provided they can do the job.
However, in mid-to-large companies, having credentials in the form of a college degree is still very important. It's a deal-maker or breaker for some positions, particularly in management. At larger, specialized companies such as those with R&D, you can't be promoted to management without a degree. Why not? Because those scientists and engineers reporting to you won't work for a non-degreed person.
There are legal implications for some roles--think of a job in Quality, for example. You sign off on documents, you oversee your company's CAPA, but why are you qualified to do so? Because of your role? Because you've read books on "quality" processes? Because you've always been told you have a "good eye for detail" by your mother? A related degree is at a minimum, the cornerstone for establishing such proof.
In the end, it comes down to "proof" of what you have the potential to do. If you're a plumber or electrician with 15 years' of experience, being in "Angie's List" with good ratings might be all the proof you need. If you're in your early 20's and new to the job market, you need something more than just anecdotal evidence that you'd be a good worker if you expect to be employed by anything more than a small company.
That said, I don't advocate going grossly in debt for a college degree. Your expected college debt should be commensurate with your expected average salary, or less. I would be conservative in this approach. If I was an advisor and had students "falling into" degree programs like Philosophy, or any of the "Studies" programs, I'd advise them to get their degree cheaply, and get out. I'd also tell them to consider a double-major in something useful, or something that would complement their first degree. I'd definitely tell them NOT to double-down with a graduate degree in the same profession, not unless a company was paying for it, or they had a guaranteed promotion upon completion.
It is when it's free. My kids qualified for scholarships that made the whole thing most affordable. In fact, my younger daughter will make money going to college this year.
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