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Congrats. However, for the average person, you need at least a bachelor's degree. Sorry if many of you don't believe this but it is indeed true. If you've been in the field of job placement, you know this.
Actually, I need to smirk at your "good old fashioned hard work" comment. Have you ever been to college? It's a nightmare of endless studying, exams, papers, internships....you know, hard work.
I spent 8 years in college (engineering, economics and business). I've also built multiple companies in different sectors of the economy. I've hired thousands of people over a 30 year period of time. And yes, in my industry, engineering, a degree was typically (but not always) required. There are many other industries where this is not the case.
Who said that Data Science and Geography were "not marketable in 2006" ?
Data Science was still seen as a squishy social science major in 2006. If you knew what jobs to apply for, the right classes to take, and find the right internships it was marketable (but that is true of every major). But if you walked into a job fair in 2006 with a fresh Data Science BA degree, you received blank stares and your resume was circular filed. Of course, then you went for your grad degree and rocked the job market just a few years later.
Like Architecture, Geography was a field less than 2 years away from a massive transition in 2006. Google Earth Universe was a year old, with the game breaking Google Earth 4 series less than a year away. ArcGIS 9.2 was out with geospatial developers spring up in server architecture and python, but the 9.3 release that would introduce the world to server based modeling and javascript map APIs was still over a year away. (Architecture, meanwhile, was riding high until the housing bust leveled the whole discipline almost overnight).
I spent 8 years in college (engineering, economics and business). I've also built multiple companies in different sectors of the economy. I've hired thousands of people over a 30 year period of time. And yes, in my industry, engineering, a degree was typically (but not always) required. There are many other industries where this is not the case.
I realize not every job needs a degree. However, a majority of them do & a majority of promotional positions require a degree.
Even employment experts have no idea what degree is going to be marketable in 5 years, and you expect college students to guess this?
Highly marketable in 2006
Architecture
Biology
Business
Chemistry
Journalism
Law
Math
Statistics
Not marketable in 2006
Biometrics
Data Science
Education
Geography
Psychometrics
Sustainability
Highly marketable in 2016
Biometrics
Data Science
Education
Geography
Psychometrics
Sustainability
Not marketable in 2016
Architecture
Biology
Business
Chemistry
Journalism
Law
Math
Statistics
I'll chime in on the chemistry part as that's what all my degrees are in. I will periodically look at job postings for chemists and these days, unless you have a PhD plus postdoc, plus 10-15yrs of experience, there isn't a whole lot out beyond lower paying ($15-$18/hr) contract jobs without benefits. I consider myself lucky to have lucked into the job I have now (which has nothing to do with my graduate area of study)
I earned my tuition for my engineering degree via 4 years in the Marines with the GI Bill, however the backlash against the government using tax money to make higher education cheaper for everyone is baffling considering the relative non-issue people take with a trillion dollars of taxes being wasted on mistakes like Iraq 2003 in comparison, or even "defense" spending waste in general. I know which one would go further in making America better overall.
Either way the current system needs to be reformed. Maybe some system to where students would be required to achieve a certain GPA in order to be eligible for paid classes or just lower interest rates on the loans in general. I realize that not everyone is capable of earning a college degree and don't think tax dollars should be wasted on those who are unable to perform in terms of the grades. That way would make it more earned than given.
As America sold out its manufacturing might to become a service based society, being college educated has become more important than ever. Of course no degree is a guarantee of success but the numbers show that the chances of it are significantly higher for those with a 4-year degree or above.
Masters degree, 8 years military including management, 2 internships, 110 job applications and 6 months later = $33k job that doesn't require a degree. That's $5.48/hr in 1980. My professors graduated with my same degree, no military experience, and took jobs 2 levels up with about 60% greater pay.
Cousin worked unpaid internships for 3 years to get a job in his field. Made due working at Best Buy at nights to pay the bills.
Brother worked an internship and graduated 3 years ago, still doesn't have a job in his field. He worked his way up to warehouse manager in the warehouse he's been working in since highschool.
Friend 1 graduated 4 years ago, multiple unpaid internships, and only has a part time job in his field.
Friend 2 graduated with a masters from Johns Hopkins with multiple internships and makes the same amount as me in a low position.
Friend 3 graduated with an EMT degree, starting pay is only $27k, but he doesn't have enough ride along hours to get a job so he has to work night shift at wal-mart. That's $4.28/hr in 1980.
Cousin 2 is a CNA. Pay in Mississippi is $8 an hour. That's $2.59/hr in 1980.
I could go on...
Quote:
Originally Posted by 253valerie
I don't believe that anyone is entitled to "free college", but there is a huge double standard that's come about for millennials that makes it a valid proposal.
This, and then some.
The point is that we did everything our parents told us to do to be successful and then some and we are working unpaid, working for free, with degrees, even in STEM, and that's not enough.
I don't want free college, but I want my parents generation to recognize that things are in fact, not better for us, things are worse. And if you can't get that graduating from Johns ****ing hopkins with a Masters degree and 2 internships only to job hunt for months for an entry level position is not what you had to go through then maybe we should be shipping you away to a psychiatric nursing home somewhere far away where you can live isolated with a bunch of other deranged people.
It's not just oversaturation of the market with college degrees, CEO pay has skyrocketed, administrative costs are up, competition is down, corporate welfare is up. What once was capitalism is in many fields become oligopoly as business sectors now have more barriers to entry and less competition than back in decades past. I'm not saying that the sky is falling, but the extreme selfishness and lack of empathy shown is disconcerting.
We are all in this together. You will need our salaries to rise to support your medicaid and your social security. You will need us when your health fails and we begin taking care of you. You will need us to come to your defense politically when your job gets cut for a green college graduate they can pay 1/4th of your salary for. If you don't get that we are in this together then you are truly deranged.
Because Bernie said I am! And all the other countries are doing it! And I'm too afraid to force you to pay for my tuition myself so I'll send the government to do it for me!
some people dont like being enslaved to the state either through taxes.
What do you think of people who EARN free college through the GI bill?
GI Bill was great for WW2 guys who were forcibly drafted or volunteered for the duration to fight the AXIS. No longer the case. GI Bill now just another inducement to have non-career types soldier for a bit. Some employers offer tuitition reimbursement as well.
My cousin worked unpaid internshisp for 3 years while working a retail job to pay the bills. I worked unpaid internships, got my masters degree, and then took an entry level job. This is after paying over 6x as much, inflation and time adjusted, than you ever did. We are working just as much as your generation did. The difference is that we aren't getting *** for it, and you're too daft realize it or too selfish to admit it.
I'd be ok with free or very low cost Community College where you can pick up some skills and/or the things you should have learned in high school but didn't like writing skills, math and whatnot. That's basically how it was when I was college aged and getting an AA Degree would be under $1,000. Get certified in something, prepare for a licensing exam, learn some software, or just save money on the lower division classes before transferring. The key to keeping the costs low, and lowering all 4 year costs as well, is eliminating the criminal text book racket.
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