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A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College

College is far too expensive. It had to go $25,000 in debt to get my bachelors. When I graduate I will probably have somewhere between 150-200,000 in debt. Nearly all grad students have this level of debt (or more). It has become insane. The cost of education is very high, and once you start a grad program the government literally drops you from everything and offers no aid outside of unsubsidized loans that begin at a 6.8% interest rate that begins accruing immediately.

The other problem though is students who spend tons of money to major in something that is not economically feasable. Everyone wants to "follow their heart" or "chase their dreams" and decide to get a degree and wind up going into debt and not being able to use their degree to earn a living befitting of someone with a bachelors.
 
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teamosil said:
IMO the main reasons other countries are beating us on education are that they pay for college across the board and that for K-12 they have longer school years. But, regardless, what to do to improve the quality of K-12 is another topic.
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Yeah, it is another topic. I wish I had some answers. Actually, I wish someone, anyone, had some answers.

My generation has really screwed things up for these kids. A bunch of fat, dumb and happy baby boomers.
 
teamosil said:
The median person makes 37% more for their entire career if they finish the 4 year degree instead of stopping at 2. Why would you encourage somebody to do that? The extra 2 years pay for themselves in no time and then the whole rest of their lives they'll make that much more.
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and the hard part hasn't been addressed yet, how do you get these kids to WANT more education?
 
UtahBill said:
and the hard part hasn't been addressed yet, how do you get these kids to WANT more education?
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Well one thing is for sure, you don't go around bashing education. You raise your kids to understand that education is the key to everything. To their future, to their ability to make a difference in the world, to the future of the country, everything. And you do everything you can both as a voter and as a parent to make that path as attractive as possible for kids to follow.
 
teamosil said:
Well one thing is for sure, you don't go around bashing education. You raise your kids to understand that education is the key to everything. To their future, to their ability to make a difference in the world, to the future of the country, everything. And you do everything you can both as a voter and as a parent to make that path as attractive as possible for kids to follow.
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already doing that, for MY kids.....and you should be doing it for YOUR kids....and taxpayers should not be paying for advanced education unless the student is a bona fide genius in the making...
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
Only Switzerland spends more per pupil than America. The public school system can't be reformed. There are too many people whose livelihoods depend on maintenance of the status quo. Nothing is going to change.
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So, we're doomed then?
 
Dittohead not! said:
So, we're doomed then?
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Doom and gloom aside, the USA has plenty of well trained engineers and scientists in most fields.
If there are shortages, the universities would be gearing up to educate people in those fields.
 
The price of exclusion...always been that way. Higher learning was always a caste system and it still is....why should it cost what it does to go to haaaaarvaaaard over columbia.... because if you make it into haaaavaaard you are now in the top tier of the caste system and you get to be a bandit that doesnt have to wear a mask.
 
lpast said:
The price of exclusion...always been that way. Higher learning was always a caste system and it still is....why should it cost what it does to go to haaaaarvaaaard over columbia.... because if you make it into haaaavaaard you are now in the top tier of the caste system and you get to be a bandit that doesnt have to wear a mask.
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Actually Columbia costs more than Harvard. Tuition is about $7k more and the cost of living is way higher in NYC. The are both in the same neighborhood as most colleges for tuition costs though. The hierarchy comes more from admissions standards than from cost.
 
mac said:
Well...we have a higher percentage of educated people than ever before....and we're slipping in every catagory, including "inventing things". How does that fit your vision?
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The ignorant and dysfunctional English of college graduates is at about a 6th Grade level. This does not prove that we need fewer graduates, but that we need more talented graduates. To get that, we have to pay them. Economics 101. That also includes those with PhD talent who can only stomach working without pay in college until they finish undergraduate work. The common fallacy of the discussion here is called (by the only people who deserve to be educated, whether they submitted to formal education or learned on their own) Begging the Question, which of course college graduates don't know the meaning of because most of them shouldn't have been allowed into college in the first place. You are assuming that education is unproductive, but it is only this indentured-servitude system that is unproductive. Don't reform, instead discredit and replace with paid professional training. Grade school and high school should also be changed to provide quick and natural incentives. Think of the way we treat superior athletes. That produces a maximum development of the available talent.
 
teamosil said:
Well one thing is for sure, you don't go around bashing education. You raise your kids to understand that education is the key to everything. To their future, to their ability to make a difference in the world, to the future of the country, everything. And you do everything you can both as a voter and as a parent to make that path as attractive as possible for kids to follow.
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In these suffocating times, Daddy's Money is the key to everything. The statistic about college graduates making more money is misleading. The significant statistic is that those whose parents made more money also make more money.
 
teamosil said:
Actually Columbia costs more than Harvard. Tuition is about $7k more and the cost of living is way higher in NYC. The are both in the same neighborhood as most colleges for tuition costs though. The hierarchy comes more from admissions standards than from cost.
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Ok...I bow to your knowledge, I have no current knowledge of cost...I do know my uncle had a masters from columbia and telling me he couldnt afford harvard....but that was many many years ago..
 
mac said:
The reality is that college could be completely free and a very large segment of the population would still not attain even an Associates.
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Truth is spoken.....both my brothers could have used the GI Education Bill, and did not......wonder what the stats are on unused GI Bill for education?
 
PrometheusBound said:
The ignorant and dysfunctional English of college graduates is at about a 6th Grade level. This does not prove that we need fewer graduates, but that we need more talented graduates. To get that, we have to pay them. Economics 101. That also includes those with PhD talent who can only stomach working without pay in college until they finish undergraduate work. The common fallacy of the discussion here is called (by the only people who deserve to be educated, whether they submitted to formal education or learned on their own) Begging the Question, which of course college graduates don't know the meaning of because most of them shouldn't have been allowed into college in the first place. You are assuming that education is unproductive, but it is only this indentured-servitude system that is unproductive. Don't reform, instead discredit and replace with paid professional training. Grade school and high school should also be changed to provide quick and natural incentives. Think of the way we treat superior athletes. That produces a maximum development of the available talent.
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I didn't, and don't assume that education is unproductive. Like you, though, I know that not everyone is capable of any more production simply due to the paper they managed to earn in college.

I support public colleges....for those with a proven aptitude and need.
 
mac said:
I didn't, and don't assume that education is unproductive. Like you, though, I know that not everyone is capable of any more production simply due to the paper they managed to earn in college.

I support public colleges....for those with a proven aptitude and need.
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Like many other things, we only get out of it what we put into it....
for some of them, mommy and daddy pays them to go and all they do is party, so what good will it do to pay all of them?
 
UtahBill said:
Like many other things, we only get out of it what we put into it....
for some of them, mommy and daddy pays them to go and all they do is party, so what good will it do to pay all of them?
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Don't get me wrong. I said with proven aptitude...at a high standard.
 
mac said:
Don't get me wrong. I said with proven aptitude...at a high standard.
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wasn't disagreeing with you, the "what we put into it" needs to be high quality, people smart enough to learn and willing to do the work...
 
I dunno guys. Honestly I get the sense that even all the posters on the right on this thread actually do appreciate the value of education and actually do agree that having an educated work force is going to be more and more important going forward. I suspect the conservatives on here are just taking up the "evil" side of the debate out of habit, not because they actually believe it.
 
teamosil said:
I dunno guys. Honestly I get the sense that even all the posters on the right on this thread actually do appreciate the value of education and actually do agree that having an educated work force is going to be more and more important going forward. I suspect the conservatives on here are just taking up the "evil" side of the debate out of habit, not because they actually believe it.
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if any part of this is evil, it is the idea that citizens should expect something for nothing....
The only people who deserve a "free" education are those who earned it, by serving in the military and then going to college on the G.I. Bill......
 
UtahBill said:
if any part of this is evil, it is the idea that citizens should expect something for nothing....
The only people who deserve a "free" education are those who earned it, by serving in the military and then going to college on the G.I. Bill......
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Oh come on. We've been over that enough times that you clearly are aware that isn't a real issue, right? If something is a good investment for society, it is a good investment for society. It has nothing to do with somebody expecting something or whatever, that's just empty rhetoric... I've pointed that you to you previously, no?
 
teamosil said:
Oh come on. We've been over that enough times that you clearly are aware that isn't a real issue, right? If something is a good investment for society, it is a good investment for society. It has nothing to do with somebody expecting something or whatever, that's just empty rhetoric... I've pointed that you to you previously, no?
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no.....you have made some stupid statements supporting a salary for students, based on what is good for "society", but it isn't good for anybody to have people sucking yet another govt teat for 4 or more years only to end up in a low paying job anyway.
Mom and Dad can pay for college, or the kid goes to local 2 year college....the govt should not be making loans and then forgiving them. you borrow the money and you pay it back....
 
teamosil said:
I dunno guys. Honestly I get the sense that even all the posters on the right on this thread actually do appreciate the value of education and actually do agree that having an educated work force is going to be more and more important going forward. I suspect the conservatives on here are just taking up the "evil" side of the debate out of habit, not because they actually believe it.
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Did this post have a purpose?
 
UtahBill said:
no.....you have made some stupid statements supporting a salary for students, based on what is good for "society", but it isn't good for anybody to have people sucking yet another govt teat for 4 or more years only to end up in a low paying job anyway.
Mom and Dad can pay for college, or the kid goes to local 2 year college....the govt should not be making loans and then forgiving them. you borrow the money and you pay it back....
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Try to state your position without any empty rhetoric at all. List off what you see as the disadvantages- like real world impacts- of government paying for school, then list off what you see as the advantages, like the ones we've discussed, and make your argument for why one is bigger than the other. If you won't even do that, you aren't really presenting a position at all, you're just repeating slogans.
 
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