Is going to college beneficial or is that a lie?

[Unkotare]

"Retire for a bit." A comforting way to put it, I suppose.

 

[candycorn]

Exactly. If someone cannot figure out that a degree in Lesbian Albino Interpretive Dance History isn't going to allow you to pay back that 60k very quickly, then maybe you just proved you're unqualified for college. If you decide you want that degree anyway, then the choice is yours. Who knows, you may end up a billionaire owing in part to the experiences and connections you made while getting that degree. The degree may open completely unrelated doors, as is often the case. No guarantees except the promise you make when you take out that loan.

Well, thats the thing and one of the reasons that the number one criteria was would I enjoy it.

No one ever worked a day doing something they enjoyed or loved. If basket weaving is your passion, then pursue it and I'll wish you the very best.

Just don't expect that the return on the investment will be measured in a short amount of time.

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

A much better system is one by where Uncle Sam fronts you the money for some of the college/trade school training and then deducts it from your paycheck with interest during your productive years. We waste a lot of potential by having these barriers to education

 

[Asclepias]

Well, thats the thing and one of the reasons that the number one criteria was would I enjoy it.

No one ever worked a day doing something they enjoyed or loved. If basket weaving is your passion, then pursue it and I'll wish you the very best.

Just don't expect that the return on the investment will be measured in a short amount of time.

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

A much better system is one by where Uncle Sam fronts you the money for some of the college/trade school training and then deducts it from your paycheck with interest during your productive years. We waste a lot of potential by having these barriers to education

Whats the difference in that and getting school loans?

 

[AmazonTania]

Exactly. If someone cannot figure out that a degree in Lesbian Albino Interpretive Dance History isn't going to allow you to pay back that 60k very quickly, then maybe you just proved you're unqualified for college. If you decide you want that degree anyway, then the choice is yours. Who knows, you may end up a billionaire owing in part to the experiences and connections you made while getting that degree. The degree may open completely unrelated doors, as is often the case. No guarantees except the promise you make when you take out that loan.

Well, thats the thing and one of the reasons that the number one criteria was would I enjoy it.

No one ever worked a day doing something they enjoyed or loved. If basket weaving is your passion, then pursue it and I'll wish you the very best.

Just don't expect that the return on the investment will be measured in a short amount of time.

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

 

[Asclepias]

Well, thats the thing and one of the reasons that the number one criteria was would I enjoy it.

No one ever worked a day doing something they enjoyed or loved. If basket weaving is your passion, then pursue it and I'll wish you the very best.

Just don't expect that the return on the investment will be measured in a short amount of time.

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

 

[AmazonTania]

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

 

[The Rabbi]

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

Which will be bailed out by us truly, the taxpayer. Irresponsibility once again triumphs responsibility.

 

[Asclepias]

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

 

[KevinWestern]

I haven't insulted you.

You simply don't seem to be able to see how childish your position is.

YOU WANT to have this job, but you don't want to have to pay for it. This is an attitude that I have seen often. You think that your desires and wants should be met, without cost to you. That isn't an insult. That is an objective analysis of what you are saying.

If you want a well paying job, YOU are going to have to PAY for it. That is called a fact of life. To Me, you are just whining because they didn't have to pay for in the past, but I have to now.

The world is more complex and requires more intellectual training than it did 30, 40, 50 years ago.

I get tired of the "I want" attitude of the world today.

"Want" in one hand, and shit in the other and tell Me what you end up with.

Dark wind, the world is more complex, but modern conveniences has made many tasks much more simpler. Excel has reduced hours of bookwork down to a ten minute task.

I'm just a tad upset that my entire generation is required to pay tens of thousands of dollars to enter into the fields that your generation got into for much less. We feel scammed in that respect.

You should get off your high horse there, bud.

Well, look at it this way.

Back in the day, they made 15k a year for their job that didn't require a degree. Today, that same job, with much better tools and easier ways of doing things, will now net you 100k a year.

The point being, only YOU can make the determination if the trade off is worth it to you.

I'm not on a high horse. Like I said. I hear a lot of "I want". I get a lot of that from My grandson who will be turning 3 in October.

Do you know what I want?

I want to hear from you, and those of your generation, the words, "I can...."

• I can make this degree work for me.
• I can make the sacrifice to pay off this massive loan in half the time.
• I can start a business on the side, and take any and all profits not needed to be reinvested to pay off that loan even faster.
• I can promote private investments in my chosen career to provide for methods to ease financial burdens on people who will need this degree and more in the future.

I have had coworkers and even friends and family who spend more time whining and expending more energy in how they can't get what they want, than the energy and time it would have taken them to actually do the things that would give them what they wanted.


Maybe you think I'm on a high horse, but I started out dirt poor. I made the sacrifices and choices that moved Me ahead in life. Sure, I whined and felt sorry for Myself.



For a small amount of time.



I never, ever, thought that My every desire and want should be instantly fulfilled or met without a personal cost.


That is the end of My participation in this thread.

That's fine, Darkwind; you bring up great points.

But mind you the OP was "is college beneficial" and I responded to that.

If I say it's sort of inefficient that kids need to pay 60k for a degree these days when they could learn most of the skills on the job, I don't think it's fair to be called "childish" for that observation.

I was responding to the OP, and shouldn't have to be called a whiner because I don't think there's much intrinsic value in many of the purchased degrees today.

You and Unkotare sort of went on an unwarranted witchhunt.

We have a problem with the price of college; it's soaring. I'd like to be able to address that without getting insulted.

That's all. Moving on too.

 

[The Rabbi]

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

Because they did so having been told numerous times that "a college degree is necessary to get a high paying job" and other rubbish you've repeated here many times.

 

[AmazonTania]

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

 

[Asclepias]

Yes. Yes, you should, hence the anomaly you have known has the Student Loan Bubble.

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

OK I see we do agree. No a college education is not required to be successful. It is something you may want to invest in if you want a job that pays something that will put you in the middle class.

 

[Skull Pilot]

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

OK I see we do agree. No a college education is not required to be successful. It is something you may want to invest in if you want a job that pays something that will put you in the middle class.

It depends on your course of study.

There are an awful lot of waiters with liberal arts degrees that didn't get them squat but a boat load of debt.

 

[AmazonTania]

If its true that it should have been researched beforehand how is that anyone elses fault but the person that took out the loan?

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

OK I see we do agree. No a college education is not required to be successful. It is required if you want a job that pays something that will put you in the middle class.

Not necessarily. The middle class is merely a middle statistical category. You can obtain a professional that will get you there with or without a college degree. If a college degree were merely a means to an end, then you wouldn't have so many high paying jobs screening for the quality of the certificate, such as Yahoo and Google.

The under-employment rate is 17.5%. What exactly does this tell you? It tells you that the labour market has far too many people with college degrees. The college degree has simply because the new high school diploma.

 

[Asclepias]

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

OK I see we do agree. No a college education is not required to be successful. It is something you may want to invest in if you want a job that pays something that will put you in the middle class.

It depends on your course of study.

There are an awful lot of waiters with liberal arts degrees that didn't get them squat but a boat load of debt.

I dont feel sorry for someone that would major in Liberal Arts and then expect to be paid a high wage. Thats the fault of the parents and ultimately the person who did not research what a degree in Liberal Arts would command.

 

[boedicca]

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

If an investment is bad then you should have researched it beforehand correct?

And the Federal Government shouldn't collude with Big Education to push loans on gullible students without proper disclosures, especially ones that are not dischargable in bankruptcy.

 

[Beachboy]

I am on the circuit to interview college grads for intern positions. I find their attitude unacceptable, "I have done everything it takes to be successful, here is my salary minimum, where is my office!"

I blame parents, high school counselors, and college advisers. They are putting square pegs in round holes. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a ridiculous question. The question should be, "What talents do you have that an employer can use?" "Are you willing to sacrifice to enhance your skills?"

I can tell you I took two years of Accounting, and hated every minute of it. I just could not get my mind around it. With a tutor, I passed it, and today it is the language I must speak, and I am in marketing! You come to interview with my company two years of Accounting is a minimum. We do not care that you took earth science and could design an ecologically effective sewer system!

There is an old adage among commercial sales people. "First sell yourself, then your company, and finally your product." Most young people do not know how to sell themselves. I don't care how much education a person has being a solid sales person is a must in today's business climate.

If you have an interview with me, you should know a lot about my company. I mean library research. You need to know how we fit into the market place, and what makes us different from our competitors. You should know where we have succeeded, where we have failed, and be able to suggest 'next steps.' If we hire you, we expect to make five times as much as we pay you for your efforts.

Basically, you either have the skills an employer wants, and you polish them up in college, or you lose. In college I started, ran, and sold a small door-to-door business. When it came down to the final interviews, I beat two Yale grads and a Princeton because I had actually run a business, not just studied about it.

When your child is in high school that is the time to test them to find out what they can do. The private sector has no need for Art History majors or experts on 19th century poetry. Those are the people who 'played' in college. Those are the grads that wait on me in my favorite restaurant.

​

 

[ScienceRocks]

Increasing your knowledge is beneficial unless of course you're a Taliban.

Thank god a majority of this country isn't a Taliban.

 

[ScienceRocks]

It's not. I don't see where this line of questioning is going, however, you do have the rhetoric spouted by many political leaders that college graduates earn a million dollars more on average than non-graduates.

If you propagate the idea that a lack of a college degree equals failure, then it's really no wonder why people will try to pursue it. Couple that in with market distortions and the cost of a student loan will rise faster than inflation.

OK I see we do agree. No a college education is not required to be successful. It is something you may want to invest in if you want a job that pays something that will put you in the middle class.

It depends on your course of study.

There are an awful lot of waiters with liberal arts degrees that didn't get them squat but a boat load of debt.

I see your point from a employment side of things but history does have its points.

Real degree's
Economics
Science
Engineering
Chemistry
Physics
business
medical
are important

College is generally a good thing for this nation. A degree in African studies, woman studies or something that doesn't have many job opunities I agree with you on.

 

[Unkotare]

Well, thats the thing and one of the reasons that the number one criteria was would I enjoy it.

No one ever worked a day doing something they enjoyed or loved. If basket weaving is your passion, then pursue it and I'll wish you the very best.

Just don't expect that the return on the investment will be measured in a short amount of time.

I agree. Paying for college is an investment just like any other thing you do in life. If you dont have the skills or knowledge to do something you pay or invest in the opportunity to acquire those skills, knowledge, and proof from an accredited source saying this is true..

Some investments are very bad investments, especially if you are overpaying for said investment.

A student loan is obviously one of these investments.

That depends on who is making the investment and why. Most importantly, it depends on what return you actually get on the investment, which obviously will not be the same for everyone.