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Yes but I have to wonder about how those statistics are calculated. Out of my peers there may be a very small handful who will find large salaries in comparison to their debt load. Some of these, especially the less scrupulous folks who enjoy the business field, will be making very large sums of money. This would skew the data if we look at averages. I'd rather see a break down of groups by salary range and highest degree held.
For example if we polled a million college graduates at various stages, how many with associates degrees make -20K, 21-40K, ect ect. Then the same for bachelors and masters and doctoral degrees. I think that would be more interesting than the data currently avaliable.
Most of my friends with BAs make 15-30K a year and have massive student loan debt. I would say I'd rather work a minimum wage job and not have the student loan overhead.
15K is considered federal poverty level---I doubt they are making that little--30K in many areas is a very good wage for someone just out of college, single. If they have massive loan debt, that is just being stupid about which college they attended.....
I'm a Boomer (born 1960) and a college grad (1982). At 30, the hubs and I had 1 car, 2 kids and a 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment. We both worked full time, but we had no retirement savings whatsoever since neither of our companies offered pensions and 401Ks were not widely available. We also had 1 TV, no VCR, no cable, no cell phones, no computers, no trips to anywhere and no meals at nice restaurants.
i bet you walked 40 miles to work every day , butt naked in the snow
As a parent of a child that is about to leave off, I often ask myself this question. Its too expensive, and if you dont get some type of scholarship or grant your basically screwed. I rather have my child not go to college at all then drown in student debt all their life. A lot of kids these days have the Bill Gates fantasy stuck in there head, the "I dont need college, just look at Bill Gates".
if you're like me, college still makes sense.
that is: middle class, attended an in-state public school, and majored in something technical where the job market is strong.
deviate from this path of technical majors at in-state schools, and things become much more risky.
IMO where kids go wrong is:
A) Attending a private school or an out-of-state school, without scholarships, and borrowing lots of money to do so
B) Picking a career goal (or a major) that is unrealistic. For example, it's insane how many women want to do fashion merchandising, and how many men want to be sports agents. They might be fun but they aren't practical.
that is: middle class, attended an in-state public school, and majored in something technical where the job market is strong.
deviate from this path of technical majors at in-state schools, and things become much more risky.
Oh, BS----first, my kids can't afford state schools--they are 10,000/year + more than the private schools they are attending. Our son plans to go into a field with 0% unemployment and our D plans to go to medial school--again, a field crying for more people.
College was well worth it me, my associate degree got me out of factory work and into an office position (IT) and my two Bachelors (IT & Psychology) have greatly increased my salary. I acquired no loans and earned all of my degrees after I already had started a family. At the age of 34 I'm now considering a Masters degree or MBA since my employer covers around 3/4 of the cost.
She lets her personal experience of private costing less for her kids and thinks that is the norm in general which it is not.
It is the norm for B students and better with test scores to match. We have had this conversation before. Go to any college net price calculator and put in a 3.7 GPA with a 28 or above for any LAC that offers merit aid, especially in the midwest and see what merit aid you get. Then do the math since public colleges give little to no merit aid.....
Between all of our kids they have applied to over 30 schools and across the board this was TRUE for all of them. I can list 200 kids from our high school that have had similar results and if you go to any college search website you will see the exact same results. YOUR kid couldn't find this for some reason, but every other kid with these stats can.
It is the norm for B students and better with test scores to match. We have had this conversation before. Go to any college net price calculator and put in a 3.7 GPA with a 28 or above for any LAC that offers merit aid, especially in the midwest and see what merit aid you get. Then do the math since public colleges give little to no merit aid.....
Between all of our kids they have applied to over 30 schools and across the board this was TRUE for all of them. I can list 200 kids from our high school that have had similar results and if you go to any college search website you will see the exact same results. YOUR kid couldn't find this for some reason, but every other kid with these stats can.
So like I said YOUR kids. National data doesn't agree with you.
So like I said YOUR kids. National data doesn't agree with you.
I think that B students CAN find colleges that cost the same as the higher priced State U's when they get substantial merit aid, but it's not a given. My youngest applied to about a dozen colleges and the bottom line price varied widely.
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