Posted on 08/17/2016 7:20:10 PM PDT by Lorianne
One of the most perplexing questions on the minds of young Americans today is whether college is worth the associated tuition cost. It is rather humbling to see that $1.4 trillion in student debt is outstanding today. That is more than auto debt and credit card debt. College tuition has outpaced virtually every category that is tracked in our inflation measures. It has out run housing prices. It has left healthcare in the dust. It has crushed wages which are stagnant for nearly a generation. The last item is probably the most important measure to examine. If college is worth it, why have wages gone stagnant all the while tuition prices continue to go up? Is it because of federal loans? Is it because of mega complexes being built? Or is there something else going on?
The $1.4 trillion question
College tuition wasn’t always so out of control. There seems to be a “price growth through debt” phenomenon going on here. We’ve seen it with housing and also automobile costs. The financing of the system via Wall Street and big banks has caused a runaway inflation in base prices. As wild as housing and auto prices have gone, they simply pale in comparison to college tuition.
(Excerpt) Read more at mybudget360.com ...
It used to be worthwhile, both financially and in terms of being truly educated.
Not anymore.
Every subject area has been politicized except for hard science and math.
Pencil pushers are overrated...
Trade schools, vocational schools, military occupational specialties that easily transition to the civilian sector offer many quick access to the services industry that have been hushed up by big education who is vying for dollars in an ever increasing competitive scheme to remain afloat no matter how large the fiscal casualty rate is on the students.
I’d say it’s not worth ii. Most colleges are nothing more than liberal indoctrination facilities and what’s coming out are overly sensitive pussies incapable of working.
Love it!
Until they move your engineering job offshore because you make too much. If a job can be offshored it will be.
Best post of the thread.
Its why I picked MIT. It could also be a fewother schools. But you are correct. Generic engineering tasks are already gone. What India cannot supply is cutting edge and creative solutions. They are mostly duplicators over there. Their creative talent all come here for entrepreneurship.
Sigma Zoo
The only time I ever used my degree was when I taught labor relations for one semester at FIU. The rest of the time I taught management. Then 30 years in the Mortgage Industry. No college degree required to be an underwriter or mortgage broker. Much less a Masters degree. But one thing it always did for me was get me into the interview ahead of everybody who didn’t have one.
Long past time this question was asked; as well as:
* What do credentials have to do w/creativity and innovation?
* How did Aristotle, Sophocles Euclid, Julius Caesar, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Mozart among thousands of original minds, manage to thrive w/o degrees?
That’s easy. Until one can speak the language and know the issues, creativity means exactly nada. Today, one does not need innovation at the drill down level of gravity or two dimensional rendering of three dimensional objects. That ship has sailed.
One needs innovation and creativity at a drill down level on topics that one does not even know exist until a few courses in things like condensed matter physics, high energy plasmas, biomolecular kinetics, etc. are under one’s belt.
hey... hell yeah
especially if mom and dad are paying
or
just take as much student loan and then default.....
what are they going to do ... kick you out of mom and dad’s or grannpop’s basement...???
look.... its a 4-6 year vacation that stunts maturity and gives you lots of hangovers and std’s...
Depends. I have a computer science and engineering undergraduate degree and an MBA. My college education worked out just fine. My focus was on getting the most useful skills I could and they have served me well all these years.
Anton, what in tarnation are you talking about?
The greatest minds of Greece and Rome created Western Civilization and w/o degrees. We are mere dwarves who only see as far as we do; because we stand on the massive shoulders of the giants of antiquity. They were self taught geniuses of the first rank. Credentials, such as degrees, are a modernist fad having everything to do w/self esteem and little to do w/knowledge and more critically, wisdom.
If you are suited to science, great. People with talent in many of those fields can get good jobs, but as we all know, you have to get the timing right. It does no good to pick a really good and interesting field if the job market is completely glutted with that field.
Hoping Trump will address this!
Buy American.
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Agreed, but that is a lot easier said than done! :(
Unfortunately, few states require STEM prerequisites in high school, or even teach enough basic math to ensure success in higher courses. This creates an almost unbridgeable knowledge gap.
Remedial courses are offered, but by then most students have learned to prefer regurgitating social justice memes to the rigors of math and science.
Unfortunately, few states require STEM prerequisites in high school, or even teach enough basic math to ensure success in higher courses. This creates an almost unbridgeable knowledge gap.
Remedial courses are offered, but by then most students have learned to prefer regurgitating social justice memes to the rigors of math and science.
I hear this, and it may be true for rural and less affluent school districts...However, I don’t see it where I live...I have 2 (who are now ages 30 and 31) who graduated from a top school system (always making lists/receiving awards for top schools in country, etc.). Both kids had plenty of AP coursework in Chemistry, BC Calculus, etc...One even graduated in 3 years because really nothing of interest for him to take...
Neither would have been able to get into U of I Engineering. Needless to say, they were not poor students—just not the very top students at their extremely competitive high school...There are a number of very competitive schools in the “collar counties” around Chicago, and I know this is common for affluent suburbs outside of major US Cities...
At any rate, Over 26% of seats at UofI were going to foreign students for Engineering classes... The University actually goes to China to recruit...This is a change from decades in the past wheb good students could attend the flagship school of their state.
How’d my sons turn out? Oh, one has MS in Elec. Engr. and is out in San Jose working for top tech co. Other has PhD in Chem. Engineering and heads Operations for a Chem plant. They were not underprepared—just shut out of certain programs...and they have found employment to be extremely competitive as well thanks to the influx of foreign H-1B Visa candidates.
IMHO we have a serious problem if we cannot fill college seats with US students because they are not prepared. ..However, we have a problem when competent students are squeezed out of competitive schools by unlimited!! numbers of foreign students. Those students then obtain various training/intern visas and H-1B Visas after graduating from college making them more attractive to tech companies (thru reduced wages) than US Citizen college grads, and thereby squeezing US citizens out of the STEM jobs or lowering the salary base for US Stem careers.
Do a search on H-1B Visa threads, there are many chronicling the problem.
I am hoping that Trump’s plan to bring school administration back to local communities and a reduction in the granting of H-1B Visas will allow many more US students to obtain a top notch education and quality STEM careers.
Good job with your children!
I believe both lack of preparation and the preference for foreign students are true. Colleges make a lot of money on foreign students. I know we had a large number at my engineering college, and they paid somewhere upwards of 4x tuition. I think money drove all of it, though I must admit they probably supplemented my scholarship.
Good job with your children!
I believe both lack of preparation and the preference for foreign students are true. Colleges make a lot of money on foreign students. I know we had a large number at my engineering college, and they paid somewhere upwards of 4x tuition. I think money drove all of it, though I must admit they probably supplemented my scholarship.
And I am VERY worried for all of their futures...Saw some of your previous posts, and I think we are in same chapter if not on same page on some of these issues...
As you say...FOLLOW THE MONEY...Cronyism, regulation, and taxation have gutted out so much of the upward mobility and prosperity that was available to middle class in decades past. Yes, some of my kids’ scholarship money may have come from foreign students...4x tuition for foreign students tuition is huge...and if the economy was better, etc. I probably would not be so frustrated with the system...Then again I consider that the Universities have spent bundles of $$ on lavish building projects to make their schools seem more like resorts than institutions of higher learning thereby raising tuition for everybody...Kids getting loans really seem oblivious to all the costs going up...until they have to start paying back the loans...
Oh and my kids all graduated with zero debt—not easy with tuition and books skyrocketing, but they are still impacted if/when they marry students with huge loan balances like some have!
I know it won’t be easy, but I hope Trump gets in and can address some of these vexing problems by cleaning house in DC!!
Best to you and yours!
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