DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Education

It insures you take on a huge amount of dept which makes it much harder and take much longer for young people to be able to afford buying a house and starting a family. In the long haul if you choose the right career path it will certainly pay off. But it's a heavy burden to take on at the beginning of your adult life.

College has constantly grown in cost, because the government is willing to finance almost anyone. I went to YSU back in 2004 and 2005. Annual tuition was somewhere around $6000, and has almost doubled since. Just crazy.

I'd rather take on an apprenticeship and learn a trade.

Unless you are getting a very in demand degree, college is a poor, and costly, choice for many.

Agreed. College/University is not in the education business. They are in the business of education. There's a difference.

Some jobs you NEED that degree, some, you don't.

2 examples: RN degree from a state college. Right around $100,000 (depends on where you go. You can also get a 2 year RN degree at a community college for much less, I know, but that degree, while good, is not as good as the 4 year.)

In year 2, you're making $70-80 thousand.

Second example: Go to a career center your last 2 years of high school. Nephew - grew up working on engines, etc. Can fix anything. Graduated (instructor even said "I just let him do his thing. He needs no instruction.")

Got a job for a large road construction company. Mechanic. Last year? $110,000.00. Yes, he works a lot of overtime - but he's young, single, and wants to. Great retirement after 35 years or so, IF he wants.

It is going to take primary schools getting their act together. I have been a big proponent for Voc Tech programs which have been decimated over the last 25 years. By the time a student is in the 8th grade you have a good idea if the person is a serious student or not. Kids are going to go from have 1.8-2.8 GPA's and all of a sudden start getting 3.7 GPAs? They are already behind. Get the actual students in to the college prep courses and the others in Voc-Tech. Every person in high school needs to come out with the skills to get an actual college degree or have the skills to be productive in the workforce.

As has been stated, a degree is valuable if it is the right degree. The problem is colleges offer meaningless degrees and admit nearly anybody, knowing they are just going to pass them through with a basket weaving degree or end up flunking them out after 2 years, with no meaningful skill and a mountain of debt.

j/c

I find it odd and somewhat humorous how posters who themselves went to college and got their degree at a they didn't have to take on a huge amount of debt to get a degree now seem to suggest that people of this generation somehow shouldn't have that same opportunity to get a degree.

Rather than address the high cost of a college degree they advocate this generation should settle for trade school instead.

My point is more about the first part of your post. There's no excuse a college degree should put you in debt for 100k or more. While I certainly agree that in some cases people could make better choices in what fields they choose to major in I don't see how that really changes the high cost of higher education. I also can't understand how former generations in a lot of cases think they deserved a much more affordable education while the current generation should have to settle for less.

Nobody in our generation or even the generation after us could have ever imagined graduating college 100k or more in debt as we were starting our adult life. Could you even imagine the financial hole that would put you in in your early 20's?

And an important part in all of this is how it impacts the economy overall. These young people have so much debt when they come out of college they can't afford to buy a home and start a family. This is a situation that never existed before. But it seems for some they believe the solution is "Just learn a trade".

I'm certainly not against the idea of learning a trade. We certainly need people to continue entering the trades. But it's something you really have to like doing or it would be a miserable life. Just as everyone isn't cut out to go to college so it's true for being in the trades.

And that in no way addresses the ridiculous cost of higher education.