Do you think all of the complaints kids have today about college expense are legitimate or just whiners? (private school, financial)
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I hire a lot of people right out of college. Nearly everyone one I have hired in my industry (Mechanical Design software) are not using their degree. I have hired history majors, art majors, physics majors, social workers and many with no degree. Out of the last 30 people I have hired, only 3 have had a degree that lined up with the actual job. 5 had no degree whatsoever but interviewed well. Oddly those without degrees seem to have been promoted faster. They just have an "it" factor that the degreed kids didn't. Hard to explain. I have always found it interesting how many companies are ripping themselves off with their degree requirements for open positions. Their auto-bots are trashcanning them before they even find those diamonds. It is dumb.
I know someone that applied to the largest company in their industry (4 billion in sales). They had 23+ yrs experience in the same position. They were forced to take a personality test and didn't pass, no job offer.
Fast forward 2 years, got hired by that same company (no personality test this time). They are in the top 50 of 500+ sales people before the end of year 1. They mentioned to management that they had failed the test the first time around: Management says, yeah we hate that test and you are a perfect example of how it fails! Job is going to pay over $750,000 this year so its not exactly chump change.
Many college degrees are approaching the point where they're not worth the paper they're printed on. Yet colleges continue to tout their worth when it's only their schools of engineering that are carrying the load for the whole lot.
For a generation now the number of college administrators has exceeded the number of faculty, adding to the cost burden only the schools of engineering carry.
It's much like college football paying the freight for all the other sports.
If you adjust for inflation, college profs make the same money now as they did 50 years ago. 50 years ago, there wasn’t an assistant Vice President of student affairs making $200k. The administrative bloat and frills that didn’t exist 50 years ago have driven the cost up.
I think they have valid points in some respects, college is way more expensive than it could be. But nobody forces these kids to take out these loans, they get them with the promise of paying them back. Going to a community college is a great way of saving money, and then you an transfer your credits to the university and graduate for far less money.
Unfortunately, many kids don’t do that. They take out loans at four year institutions and incur a boat load of debt just so they can have the full “college experience”. Many of them get degrees in fields that aren’t in demand or that they will never use. I like philosophy, history, art and sociology just as much as anyone but unless you’re going to become a professor or get a teacher certification and teach children… maybe it’s not worth incurring a lot of debt for. Now if you can afford it or pay the loans off that’s fine, but to incur debt and then complain about expenses?
If you adjust for inflation, college profs make the same money now as they did 50 years ago. 50 years ago, there wasn’t an assistant Vice President of student affairs making $200k. The administrative bloat and frills that didn’t exist 50 years ago have driven the cost up.
However, there are many more professors because there are many more programs.
Look up an old college catalog and count the majors. Probably about 60 at most of them. Compare that to today, many universities offer about 200 majors.
And it's not gender studies, art history, et al. Contrary to popular belief, that stuff, including most traditional academic majors, peaked in (per capita) popularity circa 1980.
It's all the vocational stuff. Health careers is one example of a massive growth area that 50 years ago, universities wouldn't even have taught.
I think they have valid points in some respects, college is way more expensive than it could be. But nobody forces these kids to take out these loans, they get them with the promise of paying them back. Going to a community college is a great way of saving money, and then you an transfer your credits to the university and graduate for far less money.
Unfortunately, many kids don’t do that. They take out loans at four year institutions and incur a boat load of debt just so they can have the full “college experience”. Many of them get degrees in fields that aren’t in demand or that they will never use. I like philosophy, history, art and sociology just as much as anyone but unless you’re going to become a professor or get a teacher certification and teach children… maybe it’s not worth incurring a lot of debt for. Now if you can afford it or pay the loans off that’s fine, but to incur debt and then complain about expenses?
If students can't get funding, the colleges will close the programs. So what you are really saying is that colleges should not teach sociology, philopshy, history, art, etc... because it will be economically unviable to run programs which have no students.
I thought universities had a mission to reasearch and teach the broad spectrum of human knowledge. If they willfully refuse that mission, I want them closed down. I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing bs "education" of know-nothing drones. Let employers use their own resources to train their own workers if that's all we want.
By the way, here is the average debt load by degree type:
However, there are many more professors because there are many more programs.
Look up an old college catalog and count the majors. Probably about 60 at most of them. Compare that to today, many universities offer about 200 majors.
And it's not gender studies, art history, et al. Contrary to popular belief, that stuff, including most traditional academic majors, peaked in (per capita) popularity circa 1980.
It's all the vocational stuff. Health careers is one example of a massive growth area that 50 years ago, universities wouldn't even have taught.
For undergrad? The top-10 undergrad majors haven’t changed. Pre-med is still pre-med. BSN is still BSN. The engineering and computer science majors haven’t changed.
I think they have valid points in some respects, college is way more expensive than it could be. But nobody forces these kids to take out these loans, they get them with the promise of paying them back. Going to a community college is a great way of saving money, and then you an transfer your credits to the university and graduate for far less money.
Unfortunately, many kids don’t do that. They take out loans at four year institutions and incur a boat load of debt just so they can have the full “college experience”. Many of them get degrees in fields that aren’t in demand or that they will never use. I like philosophy, history, art and sociology just as much as anyone but unless you’re going to become a professor or get a teacher certification and teach children… maybe it’s not worth incurring a lot of debt for. Now if you can afford it or pay the loans off that’s fine, but to incur debt and then complain about expenses?
They do have the government and the education industry (from elementary school upward) pounding consistently and incessantly into their heads that they must get a college degree, any college degree, no matter what the cost. Florida has passed, or at least considered, a law to require kids as early as middle school to declare college majors. There is at least one state, Louisiana, that requires high school graduates to accept student loans. There is immense government and education industry pressure on them to go to college.
Contrarily, students are left totally on their own to investigate non-college options. High school counselors don't have a clue and aren't responsive to those questions. Relatively few high schools have programs to prepare students for non-college options (the situation should be exactly the opposite).
When you consider the one-sided barrage of propaganda kids have received their entire lives...no, it's not all their fault.
For undergrad? The top-10 undergrad majors haven’t changed. Pre-med is still pre-med. BSN is still BSN. The engineering and computer science majors haven’t changed.
You're wrong.
This is as of 10 years ago. Since then even fewer are majoring in traditional academic subjects.
So what you are really saying is that colleges should not teach sociology, philopshy, history, art, etc... because it will be economically unviable to run programs which have no students.
In a time when ethics seem to be seriously lacking, I think we need more philosophy instruction, not less.
No, what I’m saying is what I said. If you can afford it and can pay back the loan you took out and can find a job where you’re utilizing what you’ve learned, then great.
If you got a degree at a university you couldn’t afford, and can’t find a job good enough to pay back your loan without it severely affecting your standard of living, these are things which should be taken into account before borrowing a dime.
They also teach liberal arts at community college, and they have some very good professors. Why not get at least 2 years worth of credits there first? Get an associates in Philosophy, History or STEM and transfer to a university for your final 2 to 2 1/2 years. Then you’ll have that degree for half the price! This I say, if you can’t afford it and don’t want to be in a lot of debt.
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