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Is College Worth It?
My Budget 360 ^ | august 2016

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
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To: Yaelle
Industries that insist on the piece of paper are misguided and are hurting the country. Insist on some aptitude and hard work and quick learning.

They used to give aptitude tests before the USSC declared the tests discriminatory (Griggs vs Duke Power). So the alternative was to require something that would show ability. Voila! Require a college degree in the area of work.

21 posted on 08/17/2016 7:50:32 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: anton

Physicians
Pharmacists
Engineers
Chemical engineers
Certain areas of mathematics
Molecular Biology
Artificial Intelligence
Geology when the price of oil is high, today not good
etc.

Yes it does pay, the other degrees, not so much. The chemistry, math, physics and sciences of the above do not suffer fools lightly. If you take the above courses you will not be partying every night or you will flunk out as I did. A few years on the drilling rigs “adjusted my attitude”. I went back and did very well.


22 posted on 08/17/2016 7:55:10 PM PDT by cpdiii (DECKHAND ROUGHNECK MUDMAN GEOLOGIST PILOT PHARMACIST LIBERTARIAN , CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

I had to take the Federal Government Entrance Exam after I graduated. I scored 98.8. My wife who had graduated at the same time had been given an automatic grade of 100 because of her 3.97 GPA.

She took the FGEE just to see how she would do. She scored 89. I was tickled because my GPA was a lowly 2.2. I think it did surprise her that I beat her so bad. She was named outstanding business student at Oklahoma State and on the Deans list every semester.


23 posted on 08/17/2016 7:58:51 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: yarddog

I just remembered it was the Federal Service Entrance Exam not Government.

They no longer give it as too many minorities failed it.


24 posted on 08/17/2016 8:02:02 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: Lorianne
Is college worth it? That question is a mixed bag of uncertainty. It is worth it if one is willing to do the hard work of studying and excelling at the studies. Unfortunately, a lot of kids are unwilling. And then are saddled with huge loan debt. It is also worth it if one studies the curriculum that more or less guarantees success in acquiring a well-paid job. Unfortunately, a lot of kids make the wrong choices in a major. And then can't find work, or meaningful work. The good news is that many companies are only interested in a scap of paper that says you have a college degree, regardless of your experience or major. The bad news, is that your lack of experience will not guarantee you success in keeping the job.

In my opinion (not worth much), college isn't worth it for half the kids who go to college. You're better off going to a community college on the cheap, and hitting the work force. For half the kids who go, they try to learn something and as a result become successful, so they don't need to ask the question nor wait for an answer.

25 posted on 08/17/2016 8:02:08 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: Lorianne

It depends on which recent decade you got the degree.


26 posted on 08/17/2016 8:03:56 PM PDT by PROCON ("Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!")
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To: Lorianne

Student loans are not washed away by bankruptcy, the college KNOWS that lib art degrees provide little of value unless a kid goes to law or biz school, but even that is not the ticket it once was:

The risk the kids face with such degrees is infinite but the schools face ZERO risk —the debt will be paid or will NEVER go away. In fact with interest the schools WANT them paid off late and often have instititional relationships with the collection agencies:

Far from making sure kids AVOID becoming slaves to companies, the schools THEMSELVES are performing the enslavement.

“Broaden your horizons..” blah, blah, blah.

The Left is deliberately misleading credulous young people, playing the evil role they always SAID would be played by Evil Corporationsssssss...


27 posted on 08/17/2016 8:06:01 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: gaijin

The degrees are valuable?

Fine —let the colleges SHARE the risk by making student debt dischargeable via bankruptcy.

Let them ACT the way they TALK.

Or:

No Federal Loans for the increasing number of useless liberal arts degrees.


28 posted on 08/17/2016 8:07:55 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Georgia Girl 2

LOL!!!


29 posted on 08/17/2016 8:10:19 PM PDT by Osage Orange (You hurt my family...you better watch your six.)
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To: Lorianne
Is College Worth It?

Depends on which college, which major, and whether "it" is a student loan.
30 posted on 08/17/2016 8:29:01 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: rlmorel
"College isn’t the end all-be all. Liberals have this idea that a college education is the key to success, and it can be. But liberals want to send EVERYONE to college, and not everyone is suited to college, and not all college educations are worth it."


31 posted on 08/17/2016 8:44:53 PM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: Lorianne

A liberal education and a liberal professor are different things.
A good liberal arts education helps a diligent student learn how to think for himself or herself through an understanding of logic, grammar, rhetoric.
A college education is what you make of it.

Anyone interested in reading about what they may have missed: “The Trivium” by Sister Miriam Joseph. Believe it was taught in a good Catholic high school. (Writer Mark Steyn had a good secondary education w/ no need for college.)

You can save yourself four years and thousands of dollars.


32 posted on 08/17/2016 8:50:50 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: Lorianne

Trade school is worth it.


33 posted on 08/17/2016 8:52:23 PM PDT by SisterK (its a spiritual war)
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To: sparklite2

My best instructors were practicing accountants, not academics.”

My college accounting teacher was a CPA, guy who taught my business law class was a practicing attorney, economics teacher also ran his own business during the day. None of them had teaching degrees and I learned a lot. IMO there is no reason why accountants, engineers, people with math and science degrees can’t teach junior high, high school and college classes in their degreed field. Teacher’s union would never, never allow this to happen but kids would get a much better technical based education instead of so much garbage.


34 posted on 08/17/2016 8:57:50 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Lorianne

Bump for later!


35 posted on 08/17/2016 9:08:40 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: Lorianne

Say what you will about the value of a college degree, but it still is the price of admission if you want an interview with a Fortune 500 company.


36 posted on 08/17/2016 9:12:16 PM PDT by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: Lorianne
Community college vocational certification and trade schools get people jobs.

Four year liberal arts degrees get people used to working drive through microphones.

37 posted on 08/17/2016 9:36:33 PM PDT by pfflier
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Got my Bachelors in Engineering, specifically Fluid Physics and Dynamics.
Never really used it except to be a better plumber.
Being a smart plumber bought my wife a new car every 2 years and paid for our house 10 years early.
Was a plumber 8 years before I went back to school, only went back because I wanted to be better at my trade.
Retired now with 2 homes bought and paid for; property in Washington state, Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona.
Don’t know what I will do with the out of state properties, but they are nice to have.
Going back to school as soon as my wife is retired (1 more year), want to learn more geology now.


38 posted on 08/17/2016 9:47:13 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: cpdiii

ABSOF#CKINGLUTELY.


39 posted on 08/17/2016 9:49:57 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Lorianne

It’s worth it if you go there to learn. If you go there to party and protest, you’re wasting everyone’s time and money. Unfortunately, a lot go to college for the latter.


40 posted on 08/17/2016 10:19:04 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Let's Make Our Government and Founding Documents Great Again!)
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