Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on college recruiting trips in the past. One day, a student came up to me with sad eyes and said, "I know you don't have anything for me because I am in liberal arts". If you KNEW your degree is not marketable and will not provide you with a stable financial footing, why waste time, effort and money?

Because they value education? Because a liberal arts degree can get you into a great masters degree program? Because our society desperately needs thinkers?

The problem is too many people have liberal arts degrees. That makes it harder for a person to stand out, especially with so many people getting degrees these days.

I think the other problem is that college got oversold. I'm not sure where we got this idea that everybody should go to college, but it's a really, really bad idea and isn't working. What we are ending up with are a ton of people with either partial degrees or useless degrees that come out owing thousands (usually to the "University" of Phoenix) and they are no more marketable than when they went in. At the same time the ridiculously inflated demand for college educations has driven the price up to astronomical levels. Not everybody is college material and there is nothing wrong with that. The trades can be very lucrative and rewarding for both tradesman and entrepreneurs alike with the added benefit that they can't be offshored. I agree with a lot of the PP's in that the days of going to college to "take a few electives and find myself and decide what I want to major in" are long gone. The PP with the successful mom drives home the point. Back then a bachelor's degree was a ticket "in". Now they are a dime a dozen and a lot of advanced degrees are becoming that way too. I can't count on one hand the number of people I know who went to law school because they came out of undergrad with a useless degree in poly sci, international studies, etc., worked for a year or two making mid 30s and decided law school was the ticket. Then they borrowed a bunch of money to go to a good law school (GW, Georgetown, American, etc.) and lo and behold never got picked up for a Biglaw job so now they are making barely more than they were before law school in a job that doesn't require a JD. This whole ready, shoot, aim thing has got to stop somewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on college recruiting trips in the past. One day, a student came up to me with sad eyes and said, "I know you don't have anything for me because I am in liberal arts". If you KNEW your degree is not marketable and will not provide you with a stable financial footing, why waste time, effort and money?

Because they value education? Because a liberal arts degree can get you into a great masters degree program? Because our society desperately needs thinkers?

I agree with you, but sadly, we have to face reality. You need a marketable skill, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy money, easy access, easy to get into debt. If you're smart enough to go to college you should be smart enough to handle finances. Ignorance is no excuse. Most of that money went to living large. That I can safely say is true.

College isn't for everyone. And if you want it, you can work your way through without debt or have manageable debt.

That being said, boo hoo. The internet makes it easy for you to claim victim status. Even beg for money. I'm sure some rich DC Mom or Dad will help these poor children pay off their debt.

When I ran up medical debt, I was expected to pay it. No one gave me money or forgave my debts.

Want to see my scars ?

I worked my way through too, but in-state tuition has gone up from $500 to $7,000 a semester and out-of-state is now $40,000 a year. What job can a 19 year old get to "work their way through" ? Times have changed.

+1...it's not apples to apples by any stretch.

My mom got an English degree from a small regional school, graduated in the 80's from a law school ranked 5-6 in just the DC market (75-100 nationally) where she paid 7K a year, worked in Biglaw evenutally making partner, and bought a house in 1988 in close-in Bethesda for less than ~150K now worth around $1MM.

This path isn't even close to viable these days.

Honestly, it's extremely difficult to explain to 18 year olds that some degrees don't pay anything. 18 year olds are idealistic (want to pursue passions, dreams) and don't understand the real world.

I was REALLY good at math and English and I had no idea what to do with math. So I became an English major. I didn't know anything about engineering and daily I wish I was an engineer. There weren't engineering classes in high school so I had no clue I would love it as much as I do. I currently work at an engineering agency managing programs. I wish someone had sat me down and told me about career options. There should be a computer program that walks you through majors and career paths.

Most of these people have made bad choice in education. What did they think would happen when they went $80K in debt for a useless degree?

The premise to me is odd. the Flemish painting is of the wealthy, not the debtors.

Anonymous wrote:I went on college recruiting trips in the past. One day, a student came up to me with sad eyes and said, "I know you don't have anything for me because I am in liberal arts". If you KNEW your degree is not marketable and will not provide you with a stable financial footing, why waste time, effort and money?

Because they value education? Because a liberal arts degree can get you into a great masters degree program? Because our society desperately needs thinkers?

Anonymous wrote:Easy money, easy access, easy to get into debt. If you're smart enough to go to college you should be smart enough to handle finances. Ignorance is no excuse. Most of that money went to living large. That I can safely say is true.

College isn't for everyone. And if you want it, you can work your way through without debt or have manageable debt.

That being said, boo hoo. The internet makes it easy for you to claim victim status. Even beg for money. I'm sure some rich DC Mom or Dad will help these poor children pay off their debt.

When I ran up medical debt, I was expected to pay it. No one gave me money or forgave my debts.

Want to see my scars ?

I worked my way through too, but in-state tuition has gone up from $500 to $7,000 a semester and out-of-state is now $40,000 a year. What job can a 19 year old get to "work their way through" ? Times have changed.

I went on college recruiting trips in the past. One day, a student came up to me with sad eyes and said, "I know you don't have anything for me because I am in liberal arts". If you KNEW your degree is not marketable and will not provide you with a stable financial footing, why waste time, effort and money?

Parents used to teach kids to avoid dead end career paths or degrees, now it's find yourself BS. No wonder the asian based citizens or immigrants are plowing over the white and black americans. Furthermore the Hispanics are working harder than ever for reasonable wages and displacing the service and blue collar fields.

I know a person with a CS degree (oh yea, unless you are really good, most CS tasks can be outsourced to India) that drove a food truck, then now settled for a cashier job at auto parts store.

OP - Thank you for posting the article. I'll make sure that my college-bound kid read it and think about it.

At all? Ever? This person must interview terribly.

It has been years. The person basically gave up and is a truck driver.

Anonymous wrote:

I know someone with a chemical engineering degree who was not able to get a job.

At all? Ever? This person must interview terribly.

Anonymous wrote:
Why should you be allowed to take out loans on useless majors?


And who is going to decide what those "useless majors" are? Would a foreign language major be considered useless (Spanish major here)? English major? History major?



By not being able to repay the debt the free market has determined which majors are worthless

I know someone with a chemical engineering degree who was not able to get a job.