Thoughts on College and Rising Tuition?

[Usige]

I do hear that it can be a bummer transferring in as a junior. It’s easier to fit in socially when starting as a freshman when so many other people at your academic level are new, too.

That assumes that most people are going to transfer straight from an associate degree to a bachelors program. I and two of my siblings earned our associate degrees and then went to work for 3 to 6 years. The only one that started a bachelors program from the beginning dropped out during his junior year. Two of us then went back to get bachelors degrees paid for by our employers. This was done at university that has a large adult program. I went back to school at 26 and I was one of the younger ones there.

 

[Xantippe]

That assumes that most people are going to transfer straight from an associate degree to a bachelors program. I and two of my siblings earned our associate degrees and then went to work for 3 to 6 years. The only one that started a bachelors program from the beginning dropped out during his junior year. Two of us then went back to get bachelors degrees paid for by our employers. This was done at university that has a large adult program. I went back to school at 26 and I was one of the younger ones there.

That’s great it worked for you.

A lot of people would really struggle doing it that way, what with little kids and jobs.

Although college is often wasted on the young, there’s something to be said for doing it from 18-22, when one has few other responsibilities.

 

[Usige]

To the original question; yes, I do believe we need to revamp higher education. Many of the professional jobs in today’s market do not strictly require a degree. I actually only use information from perhaps a half dozen classes I took in college. In many way’s my certifications after I got my AAS have been more valuable then my BS.

Personally I would love to see things like computer programming, nursing, etc. have a chance with a vocational training basis. For instance, 40 year ago my mom became a nurse through a program at a local hospital. She took classes for 16 months and ended as a LPN (licensed practical nurse). She then added additional qualifications over the years with certifications. In the end she was qualified to do about 85-90% of what an RN with a BSN could do. Despite having been a nurse longer than many of the 24 year old RNs had been alive they treated her like garbage because she was “just an LPN”.

In of itself I have no problem with degrees, but I think there is an over emphasis that a degree is required. As it stands in computer programming, we have to take people with BS degrees and essentially put them through OJT/apprenticeships for 6 months to a year just to get them productive. They are coming out of college with little more then theoretical knowledge and almost nothing in the way of ability to apply it in the real world. I’d rather not have to untrain you from the clean academic fantasy land. I have had better luck hiring 19 year olds that volunteered to do open source development in high school then people with an MS in CompSci.

Personally, I think that kids would be better off with vocational training, working a bit in the field and then going back to get a degree if they want to enhance their education for personal reasons.

 

[Cat]

To the original question; yes, I do believe we need to revamp higher education. Many of the professional jobs in today’s market do not strictly require a degree. I actually only use information from perhaps a half dozen classes I took in college. In many way’s my certifications after I got my AAS have been more valuable then my BS.

Personally I would love to see things like computer programming, nursing, etc. have a chance with a vocational training basis. For instance, 40 year ago my mom became a nurse through a program at a local hospital. She took classes for 16 months and ended as a LPN (licensed practical nurse). She then added additional qualifications over the years with certifications. In the end she was qualified to do about 85-90% of what an RN with a BSN could do. Despite having been a nurse longer than many of the 24 year old RNs had been alive they treated her like garbage because she was “just an LPN”.

In of itself I have no problem with degrees, but I think there is an over emphasis that a degree is required. As it stands in computer programming, we have to take people with BS degrees and essentially put them through OJT/apprenticeships for 6 months to a year just to get them productive. They are coming out of college with little more then theoretical knowledge and almost nothing in the way of ability to apply it in the real world. I’d rather not have to untrain you from the clean academic fantasy land. I have had better luck hiring 19 year olds that volunteered to do open source development in high school then people with an MS in CompSci.

Personally, I think that kids would be better off with vocational training, working a bit in the field and then going back to get a degree if they want to enhance their education for personal reasons.

I think you’re right about many careers not strictly needing a 4-year degree. I’m in one of those careers–medical technology (now known as clinical laboratory science), and I don’t think a four-year degree is needed to do the bench work.

However, it’s not up to us and it’s not up to a mom and dad. We can’t make something happen just because it makes sense to us. We have to work with reality, and at this time, reality says, “You need a 4-year degree to be a nurse, a med tech, a computer programmer, etc.”

My fear with some parents is that they will insist that their child doesn’t need a stinkin’ college degree, and the child will end up with some kind of training that would have worked just fine 50 years ago, but will be useless for nowadays when it comes to getting a job.

One of my friends has a husband (second husband) who thinks this way. He is part of a railroad family for several generations, and all of the men in that family have landed high-paying jobs with the railroad straight out of high school. So he thinks that college is a waste of time and money. My friend told him that this simply wasn’t true anymore, especially when it comes to women.

My personal feeling is that any of the minimal education high-paying manual labor jobs are probably going to disappear in the future. There are a LOT of people in Northern Illinois who assumed that they would get a job in the high-paying union factory in their town after they graduated (or dropped out) of high school, just like their dad and granddad did–and then the factory closed down and/or moved to China, and the town is now a ghost town, and the person with no education is still living with Mom and Dad and subsisting off of Dad’s big union pension. So sad.

My brother is a welder, and he spent two years in trade school to earn his certificate. These types of skilled labor jobs are in demand, but sadly, many people think they can land those jobs with just a high school diploma or less. My brother tells me no way. They have to have that certificate. It doesn’t matter that “Dad taught me how to weld better than any trade school.” It does not matter.

 

[Cat]

I want to make a few comments about those who say that the first few years of college are all gen ed anyway, so just go to the local community or junior college.

This can actually end up costing a family more, depending on the major.

Some majors have a schedule that is specially designed for the majors and puts the student on a specific timeline.

The example that I am most familiar with is physical therapy, one of the most in-demand and lucrative health care careers today.

My daughter is a PT, and she was in one of these “scheduled programs.” Physical therapy is a career that requires a doctoral degree, and the colleges that offer it have their PT students on a schedule program of courses from the very first semester because they want their students to finish the degree in 6-7 years and be working, but a LOT of classes and clinical rotations have to be squeezed into that 6-7 years.

Some students choose to attend a community college, transfer to a four-year college, and then apply to physical therapy schools (like the one at my daughter’s college). Usually this works out, but not always. The advantage of a 6-year program like the one my daughter was enrolled in is that she was GUARANTEED a spot in her college’s physical therapy school as long as she pulled out a 3.5 gradepoint average. (She did.)

Students from other 4-year colleges are NOT guaranteed that they will have a spot in any physical therapy school. The spots are given to the students who are already enrolled in the 6-year program, and the only spots available to applicants from outside are spots vacated when students opt for another career (e.g., med school), or move to another location in the country, or simply drop out of PT for various reasons.

The other big (actually humongoidal!) problem with doing the community college/transfer to four-year college approach is that sometimes, the pre-requisite courses required by the PT schools have NOT been met, and the student ends up taking a 7th year (or more!) of college classes to even be able to apply for the PT School! $$$$$ So much for saving money by attending a community college!

From the very first semester, my daughter’s class schedule was dictated by her college’s physical therapy department so that she would have all the ducks lined up to enter PT School. Certainly she took extra classes that she was interested in (she actually earned a minor in music, too, and was part of the college’s travelling choir). But she HAD to take certain courses in certain semesters.

My daughter had her first summer off of college and was able to come home, but all of the rest of her summers were spent in classes or doing various clinical rotations in hospitals in the Midwest.

She did finish all the requirements in the time allotted by the college, passed her boards with no trouble, and is now working in a hospital and earning more than me or her father!

I know that there are other careers that have this kind of college requirements. I advise parents and their kids to be very careful and not just assume that a few years in a community college will be fine. Sometimes it ends up costing you more if you end up taking the courses that are required for your major, but weren’t available in your community college.

 

[Kal2012]

My personal feeling is that any of the minimal education high-paying manual labor jobs are probably going to disappear in the future. There are a LOT of people in Northern Illinois who assumed that they would get a job in the high-paying union factory in their town after they graduated (or dropped out) of high school, just like their dad and granddad did–and then the factory closed down and/or moved to China, and the town is now a ghost town, and the person with no education is still living with Mom and Dad and subsisting off of Dad’s big union pension. So sad.

Yep - that’s the way it is in Metro Detroit. A lot of people were hurt badly when the autos went through bankruptcy. New hires earn a lot less than they did in the past.

I agree with most of what’s been said, but the inherent problem is that there are parents who are willing to pay “what it takes” for a “good” college education.

For every parent who tries to be cost-conscious, there are parents who aren’t - and it’s the latter parents that most colleges cater to because it’s just more money in their pockets if they aren’t paying out scholarship money to the kids who may need it. The priorities are way out of whack. Some schools don’t offer many scholarships because most of the kids who apply have parents who are willing to pay top dollar.

Also, the student loan industry keeps lending out money like it’s water. Regardless of the income potential of someone’s chosen major.

Personally, I don’t give money to my alma mater because it just comes off as greedy when a school that charges 47K/year begs for money every 6-8 weeks. It wasn’t that expensive when I went either which is another reason why I’m just disgusted. (Stop sending me the slick glossy form letters and newsletters and acting like you’re broke!)

 

[Starrsmother]

Yeah, lots of credits don’t transfer, and don’t even trust the college you want to transfer to about which credits will pass or not. One friend of mine checked each and every one of his classes with KU before taking them concerning credit transfer, and KU told him to go ahead and take each class he selected, saying the credits would transfer. He went there for a year, went to transfer to KU, and not one credit would transfer. That’s why it’s better to just get an associates degree at a community college and then go to the university of your choice, because they’ll accept your degree.

I’ll share a short story: our oldest girl is very beautiful, took gymnastics and was a cheerleader in junior high and at a big 6A public high school in Clear Lake,Texas (means it had over 6000 kids in it–a big school in other words), When she went to college, we had her start in a good sized junior college–sort of to be sure she was serious about college and again because we have 5 kids and didn’t have money to throw away. Anyway, she started college there, tried out and made college cheerleader and guess what most colleges give their cheerleaders–the same as most other athletic programs? A FULL SCHOLARSHIP! So, she basically did her college free plus she got to travel all over the country with the various teams. At that time Sam Cassell went to college there and they had a fabulous basketball team with him on it and if you’re old enough to remember him, he ultimately went pro! So, the bottom line is that she had an absolutely wonderful time in college and it didn’t cost us a cent! That daughter is now in her 40’s, married with 2 kids and in the end, what she chose to do for a living was to open what she calls a “Christian Gym”. What that means is she doesn’t turn any child away because the parents can’t afford tuition. Shea (my daughter) says she remembers all the overtime I worked to be able to allow her to take gymnastics—without which she’d have never even made cheerleader in high school, and now she pays it ahead! She goes to local businesses etc and often gets them to sponsor a needy child–but if they flat out can’t pay and nobody will adopt the kid, she just eats it. My point is that if you’re child has a particular interest or talent, there just may be a scholarship out there that would really help them–they just have to take some initiative and look!

 

[signit]

I’ve known her since she was little, and so I chatted with her about her college and career plans. She just completed a B.A. in Classics (Greek, Latin, ancient history, etc.), and is planning to go to grad school in England to pursue her Master’s Degree in Classics.

Classics. Wow, it’s like something out of Downton Abbey! Just think of all the job openings! (Not!).

Of course, it helps to know that the girl is the only daughter of a doctor who makes a comfortable (actually, more than comfortable) income, and has no trouble paying the bills for his daughter’s college and grad school.

But here’s the thing, everyone. When I was talking with my husband later (we were back home, not where anyone would overhear us), I realized that for us Catholics, SOMEONE had better be studying “classics.”

If the only people who study “classics” are rich kids who really aren’t interested in religion at all, especially Catholicism, then surely liberalism and godlessness will begin to “creep into” the “classics,” and this will eventually filter into Catholicism and erode it. We have God’s promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, but we all know from experience that Hell’s citizens can do a lot of damage while they’re battling to prevail. Not pleasant for our children and children’s children.

Think about it. All the current Catholic experts on “classics” (Greek, Latin, etc.) are experts in a “Catholics” mindset. They approach the ancient languages, cultures, histories, etc. with a Catholic point of view, and when they write about “classical studies,” they take the Catholic church into account.

But those who are not Catholic will not do this. They’ll find all kinds of “proofs” that various sinful practices are superior to Christianity. Or they’ll write historical novels featuring sinful people as the heroes.

So as I said, SOMEONE has to study this stuff if we want the Church to continue to have accurate teachings.

And perhaps that “someone” will be YOUR son or daughter! And of course, you will have a cow wondering what on earth your child will do with a degree in “classics!” But think about the Church without a solid grounding in “classics”.

Maybe we all need to trust the Lord a little more. I can certainly see a parent requiring a child majoring in “classics” to first earn a certificate in some very practical skilled field (like welding) so they can support themselves and a family. But I hope that Catholic parents will realize that God needs scholars and philosophers as well as plumbers and welders.

This is great.

However, you’re more than right about the job openings, and I would emphasize that “Not!”

I ought to know. I did the Catholic college/liberal arts thing myself. That’s why today I’m thinking about getting a master’s degree in something else so I’ll have a secure job.

I think this works if: (1) you’re somebody like the student above who comes from a family with a stable financial situation and/or (2) you’re somebody well-connected who has family or other connections that can connect the dots for you. Otherwise you’d practically have to be a junior St. Francis to devote the time and money to something like that knowing you’re doing it for some greater good, knowing also that you might not get any financial return (as I certainly didn’t).

 

[Cricket2]

I agree with you. In Canada students do have the option of heading toward the University or College setting, as well as what we would call trade school. It depends on personal interests and ability.

We have become a nation where every job now states a college degree is required. This is nonsense. Most jobs out there can be done with nothing more than a high school diploma. Those that do require more education can be done with specific training related to that particular discipline.

Automobile repair is a good example. This is now done via Associate Degrees in Auto Mechanics. Consequently students are stuck with studying excess curriculum like Music Appreciation, US History, Psychology…to cover core curriculum. Sorry but that has nothing to do with Auto Mechanics, which could be covered in a good trade school situation. They need algebra, they need to know how to use and repair computer equipment related to the vehicle being repaired, but art, music, history all of that should be covered in high school in the first place.

Other trades that come to mind include carpentry, airline mechanics, culinary, construction and so on. I have a degree in Biology (Genetics). At least half of the courses I had to take for the degree had nothing to do with science or biology. They were not needed, they just cost money and a lot of wasted time.

We need to re-evaluate ALL of our educational practices in this country. I think would should have K-10, not K-12. By 16 years of age one should have covered all of the music appreciations, art appreciation, composition, algebra courses, geometry, general sciences, history they need for basic job skills and employment. Anyone wanted to expand studies after that should be able to attend a trade school or head to the University if they want. And since almost every job out there is now “requiring” a degree…it should be free. (Yep I said that and I mean it.)

The current increase in tuition and fees is not going to teachers now. It is going to the upper ducks who don’t need it in the first place. Pay the teachers more, decrease the number of administrators and open the doors to people for free so all have a chance to learn. Education should be about learning, not making huge amounts of money by a few on top. And companies that want to require degrees should start covering the cost like they use to, or start training on the job and eliminate the requirements.

 

[Xantippe]

However, it’s not up to us and it’s not up to a mom and dad. We can’t make something happen just because it makes sense to us. We have to work with reality, and at this time, reality says, “You need a 4-year degree to be a nurse, a med tech, a computer programmer, etc.”

My fear with some parents is that they will insist that their child doesn’t need a stinkin’ college degree, and the child will end up with some kind of training that would have worked just fine 50 years ago, but will be useless for nowadays when it comes to getting a job.

One of my friends has a husband (second husband) who thinks this way. He is part of a railroad family for several generations, and all of the men in that family have landed high-paying jobs with the railroad straight out of high school. So he thinks that college is a waste of time and money. My friend told him that this simply wasn’t true anymore, especially when it comes to women.

My personal feeling is that any of the minimal education high-paying manual labor jobs are probably going to disappear in the future. There are a LOT of people in Northern Illinois who assumed that they would get a job in the high-paying union factory in their town after they graduated (or dropped out) of high school, just like their dad and granddad did–and then the factory closed down and/or moved to China, and the town is now a ghost town, and the person with no education is still living with Mom and Dad and subsisting off of Dad’s big union pension. So sad.

My brother is a welder, and he spent two years in trade school to earn his certificate. These types of skilled labor jobs are in demand, but sadly, many people think they can land those jobs with just a high school diploma or less. My brother tells me no way. They have to have that certificate. It doesn’t matter that “Dad taught me how to weld better than any trade school.” It does not matter.

Yes to all of that.

I have a profound dislike for comfortably well-off people who don’t make an effort to get their children an educational proportional to family means (assuming the child is reasonably academic, not partying too hard, etc). I have a special lifetime achievement award available to people who refuse to fill out FAFSAs. Way to go, moms and dads! Way to ensure that your kid will never be able to afford a family without heavy government subsidy!

While I’m also not an enthusiast for college debt, I think there is a middle ground between winding up with $100k of debt for an NYU liberal arts undergraduate degree (the equivalent of a mortgage in middle America) and just turning the kids out of the house at 18. If a family can only afford to provide room and board to a college student child, fine. If they can only afford to provide room and board and community college tuition to a college student child, fine. If they can only afford a 4-year public in-state college, fine. If they can only afford a private college with good scholarships, fine. Etc.

The first question is, what can we actually afford? The next question is–where can we get the most for our money?

 

[signit]

Yes to all of that.

I have a profound dislike for comfortably well-off people who don’t make an effort to get their children an educational proportional to family means (assuming the child is reasonably academic, not partying too hard, etc). I have a special lifetime achievement award available to people who refuse to fill out FAFSAs. Way to go, moms and dads! Way to ensure that your kid will never be able to afford a family without heavy government subsidy!

I knew a young man from a family just like that.

His family was reasonably well off, but the family was a blue-collar family that did not support education. If he wanted to follw the family’s blue-collar trade his father would help him, but if he wanted to go to college he’d get nothing. So he couldn’t get any need-based financial aid because his family was too well off, but he couldn’t get any help from his family, either. Sometimes he’d have no cash and he’d be eating macaroni and cheese.

And don’t get me started on the ones who kick their kids out at age 18. If that had happened to me I would have been living in a cardboard box.

 

[Xantippe]

My daughter had her first summer off of college and was able to come home, but all of the rest of her summers were spent in classes or doing various clinical rotations in hospitals in the Midwest.

She did finish all the requirements in the time allotted by the college, passed her boards with no trouble, and is now working in a hospital and earning more than me or her father!

Yay!

By the way, regarding a previous post about STEM degrees, there’s a long history of mass layoffs for engineers in particular fields: oil, aerospace, automotive, computer science, structural, etc. Just this year alone, for instance, Microsoft is laying off some 18,000 people.

A STEM degree should not be treated as some sort of fool-proof meal ticket.

We should not encourage kids to go “all in” with debt for particular fields, as there’s always the possibility that they will want to stay home with kids later or retrain for something different because of either changing interests or changes in their industry or perhaps a disability.

Oh, and there’s a popular website called “College Confidential” that may be helpful to parents and teenage kids who aren’t plugged into the college scene. I haven’t hung out their myself, but people I respect online get a lot out of the forums there.

 

[Xantippe]

For long term, think carefully before doing a career track where 100% of your income comes from employers.

For better or worse, 40 year employment with a single employer is no longer something that one can take for granted and a lot of people find themselves 50 and unemployed and with no clue what to do with themselves for the next 10-15 years.

Because of this unfortunate fact, it’s worth thinking hard about making sure that your future family has multiple income streams from independent sources. (There’s a funny curse from a Soviet comedy that I like to quote in this context–one movie character says to another, “May you live on just your salary!” Even in Soviet Russia, living on just your salary was seen as a misfortune.) My family is very entrepreneurial and does a lot of this. As long as I can remember, my parents have always had 3+ sources of income. My sister’s husband has a full-time corporate consulting gig (which is somewhat liable to layoffs), but they also have 3+ side businesses. Likewise, with my in-laws, there’s a full-time college teaching job plus a bunch of private practice plus other stuff. And in my family, my husband has a full-time college job, plus writing income, plus speaking engagement income, plus programming income, etc. And the great virtue of these side gigs is that nobody’s going to ask you if you have the correct credentials if you are your own boss. One of my relatives (who happens to have gone to an inexpensive business school) owns a burger place. Nobody ever asked her, “Hey, do you have a BA in burgers and fries management?” She just bought the place, did the appropriate health department stuff, hired people, and started frying burgers. Nobody can fire her, because she’s the boss.

 

[Sunbreak]

It’s true that college costs rose more than they had in the past starting around 1975. I don’t think today that a person can afford to fool around and go to college to party or just look and see, like some did in the 60s and earlier. You need to have a definite plan.
I think it’s still possible to take classes at a community college but check ahead of time whether the credits will transfer.
It’s not a bad idea to get into a trade - after all, we still need plumbers and folks in other areas that don’t require a college degree.
If I had to do it today and couldn’t get a substantial grant or scholarship (not a loan), I probably would work for a few years before going to college to save money to pay for it so I didn’t have to take out a loan or at least not have to borrow as much. Then I would probably go to school part time while working.

 

[Xantippe]

It’s true that college costs rose more than they had in the past starting around 1975. I don’t think today that a person can afford to fool around and go to college to party or just look and see, like some did in the 60s and earlier. You need to have a definite plan.

Yes!
**If one doesn’t know what one is doing, it’s probably best to test the waters at a community college before hitting the big time. **

 

[Et_Cetera]

When it’s all said and done, my education will have cost about 350K from kindergarten onwards. My parents have helped with it a lot, but something has got to be done. I’ve put in a lot of work in school, but so many talented and very smart people will never even get the opportunity to do this work. Granted, there were times when I could have cut costs a little more–like not doing undergrad at a private East Coast university–but still it’s problematic. I should have a six figure job at the end of it all, but it’s still absurd.

 

[cjd]

I am of the mindset that the tuition structure, as it stands now, will be **drastically different **within 15 years. There is simply no way that this can continue, especially when the benefits keep dwindling. Years and years of double digit increases for tuition have achieved nothing for students or their parents. As another poster said, the living conditions for these kids are now beyond the means that my wife and I had five years out of school, well into our careers. All of this is fed by cheap $$ from the federal government, improperly distorting the education market.

Moreover, the technology to disburse information **cheaply and effectively **is there. Who needs to pay several THOUSAND dollars to hear one professor deliver 30 lectures over the course of one semester when you-tube, Kahn academy, etc. has similar content available for free? Or could be offered as a MOOC for less than a few hundred dollars. Simply put, the cost of information and its transmission is **one-hundredth **of what it was just ten years ago and yet the tuition is double.

With that said, I am sure the current educational system will hold on tight to the loose money policies of the government and fight any change. I simply don’t see how it can continue, however. ***Something has to give. *** There are simply not enough jobs that can pay back 100-200k in student loans in any reasonable period that makes any sense.

 

[Cat]

I am of the mindset that the tuition structure, as it stands now, will be **drastically different **within 15 years. There is simply no way that this can continue, especially when the benefits keep dwindling. Years and years of double digit increases for tuition have achieved nothing for students or their parents. As another poster said, the living conditions for these kids are now beyond the means that my wife and I had five years out of school, well into our careers. All of this is fed by cheap $$ from the federal government, improperly distorting the education market.

Moreover, the technology to disburse information **cheaply and effectively **is there. Who needs to pay several THOUSAND dollars to hear one professor deliver 30 lectures over the course of one semester when you-tube, Kahn academy, etc. has similar content available for free? Or could be offered as a MOOC for less than a few hundred dollars. Simply put, the cost of information and its transmission is **one-hundredth **of what it was just ten years ago and yet the tuition is double.

With that said, I am sure the current educational system will hold on tight to the loose money policies of the government and fight any change. I simply don’t see how it can continue, however. ***Something has to give. *** There are simply not enough jobs that can pay back 100-200k in student loans in any reasonable period that makes any sense.

I absolutely agree.

The economy is being hurt by the number of young people (20s and 30s) who are in such deep debt for college expenses that they can’t afford to buy a house, a good car, material possessions once considered necessities (e.g., the big appliances, furniture, lawn care equipment, etc.). I know 30-somethings who have been married for years who are on the same kind of austere budget plan that my husband and I were using during our lean newlywed years (never eat out, never buy anything new, no vacations, etc.). These people are delaying starting a family until their late 30s. This is just craziness, and it has to end!

One hopeful sign is the growth of home-schooling for college. I know a family with eight children who is doing this. The program they’re using is at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Platteville. It’s much cheaper than even attending a community college. And it’s all done at home, so the expense of moving out is avoided. I think this will catch on.

 

[Starrsmother]

I absolutely agree.

The economy is being hurt by the number of young people (20s and 30s) who are in such deep debt for college expenses that they can’t afford to buy a house, a good car, material possessions once considered necessities (e.g., the big appliances, furniture, lawn care equipment, etc.). I know 30-somethings who have been married for years who are on the same kind of austere budget plan that my husband and I were using during our lean newlywed years (never eat out, never buy anything new, no vacations, etc.). These people are delaying starting a family until their late 30s. This is just craziness, and it has to end!

One hopeful sign is the growth of home-schooling for college. I know a family with eight children who is doing this. The program they’re using is at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Platteville. It’s much cheaper than even attending a community college. And it’s all done at home, so the expense of moving out is avoided. I think this will catch on.

I absolutely agree–and not to get off topic, but my son works in the computer industry. Recently, the small town I live in spent something like 5 million dollars of our property tax money to build a bigger, fancier library—but the same 5 computers that were in the old library are now in the new one. My son said (in disgust) that this needs to change. Currently, people have to book time to use the computers (an hour at a time is all you can book BTW)–yet Kindle and computers are how 99% of everyone read books now. I don’t want to get into a fight with someone who thinks that nothing can replace the feel of a real book. I simply point out that it’s becoming out dated and that for probably half what my town spent on that new library, they could have built a building and put 75 computers in it. We need to think of what century we live in before we waste money these days!

 

[on_the_hill]

What are your thoughts on it? My personal thoughts are that the cost of college is already so high ($30,000+ and rising) that it’s getting to where it is no longer practical or economically smart to get most degrees colleges offer. I’m of the opinion that trade schools should be recommended much more than they are now. Even though they are economically a much more sound investment, most people view trade schools as places stupid people go, whereas 4-year colleges are seen as prestigious places of real learning.

Yes!

My opinion of college: Go there so you can get a job when you graduate. Do it with academics, activities, and network your way into a job.

The idea that college is for anything but job training is not realistic anymore. You have four years, to focus on that one goal: employment.