Is a college degree worth it?

[toobfreak]

You’ll be blown away to learn who’s asking the question!
A college professor for 25 years.
He talks about how much it costs to get a degree. Between $60 and $200k. I think that’s an underestimate and doesn’t count all the professional students who spend decades getting their doctorates.
A graduate can make good money in STEM, particularly in engineering. But fewer students major in science than other areas.
If someone took the cost of four years of college–and that assumes students finish in that time–and invested the money into the stock market or a house, the estimated $20,000-a-year gap between the salary of a high school grad and a college grad shrinks considerably.
Moreover, there are a lot of jobs where high school grads can make a lot of money.
It’s something I’ve frequently posted about and it surprises me to see it coming from a professor.
More @ Is a college degree worth it?

College has become a trap. In Europe, many countries, you can get a college degree for a FRACTION of what they charge in America or even FREE.

WHY CAN'T AMERICA DO THAT?

Education is BIG BUSINESS, like Pharma.

I have science/engineering degrees. Got them on a scholarship in the 70s. There's a dirty little secret being kept from the public now:

• Used to be that a high school education prepared you for the world. For life. College was reserved for that fraction of people needing more education for that extra something special to get into special, highly advanced fields. But over the years they have dumbed down high school and shifted it more towards social indoctrination and more now as a prep for college. Whereas before, college was something "extra," optional, now it is expected you will be going. Almost required.
  
• The high school education of many years ago demanded as much of you and gave you as much of what you needed as what you need a Bachelors for now. Graduating high school was TOUGH! Demanding. Not anymore. So when they talk of a young kid today having a college degree (Bachelors), he is really no better off or educated than a student of a good high school of 40-50 years ago. Yet they treat you very differently.
• Years ago they taught you HOW to think. Critical analytical thinking. Today, they focus mainly on WHAT to think. Wrong thinking can easily close doors shut on you now. Used to be you stood up and argued with your professor and defended your POV. Now arguing / disagreeing with your professor (even politically) will likely get your grades reduced from passing to failure. That is how they control you.
  
• Hiring practices used to be based on skills gleaned during interviews. Some years back, with the internet, they dumbed the process down now to where everything is web-based now, conformity is the rule, the interviewer has been replaced with some idiot that doesn't even know the job as an HR person, and they have quantified required skills by requiring "degrees." You are nothing more than a checklist now. Go. Don't go. Pass. Don't pass. You either meet the list of requirements or you don't. They are not looking for the best candidate, they are looking for the best FIT. So they are more interested in how you look on paper now than your actual skills and work experience. They have closed the doors on self-taught people regardless of skills, background, accomplishments and experience. Without meeting the checklist, you are a liability to the company, hiring you could cause them to lose their job. It often takes 2-4 levels of consideration before you even get to meet an actual person now. It you actually meet a live person now, you must be in the top consideration for the job.
• The internet has ruined the hiring process because whereas before a company ran an ad in the paper or went through an agency and got local respondents, now a job listing is seen state-wide, nationally, even world-wide. They call it MONSTER dot com. Employers are so deluged with applicants, they are looking for any means or way of weeding through the volume. THEY DON'T HAVE TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOU. It is a mess of their own creation, obsession and paranoia. Further, they want to invade your privacy and run a DNA scan of your life! If you say the wrong thing even kidding around on social media in your off hours, they're likely to find out, get squealed on and fire you. TOTAL CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE or you just don't work.

So is the degree worth it? It is NECESSARY. But you are getting ripped off. Subtract out the high cost, paying it back over half your life, plus the loss of healthcare and other benefits which used to come fully included in most jobs, most college grads today spend half their life struggling just to get out of debt, buy a home, and have a small family. They are well into their 50s before they start to see any breathing room. And that is with their wife likely working as well. Years ago, you'd rather be dead than your wife work. It was shameful that you couldn't provide for the family! Now it is such a necessity that kids are no longer raised by parents. They grow up raised in day care centers by strangers. Another hidden expense. Welcome to the disintegration of the family structure. When you see your kids, they aren't talking to you anyway; they are on their cellphones or computer now, you are only responsible to the cost of raising them, not what goes into their head. You have lost control.

The system is shaking you down for all its worth, but young kids are too stupid to realize it. You are now groomed to meet an international requirement diluted in with a 3rd world workforce standard. Someone else is willing to do your job for less money and no benefits! Or maybe they do realize the scam they are under and that is why many are depressed, commit suicide or shoot others.

MEANTIME: I'm pretty issued these days. This spring I had a guy come to look at cutting my grass. It's a small yard. He was an adult. He wanted $40 for an hour's work. I used to cut it in 40 minutes no sweat. I turned him away on principle. I'll cut it myself if it kills me, thank you. Grass cutting is menial labor. This guy wants to make a good living at it and live well and pay all his benefits! Grass cutters used to be kids off for the summer looking to make some extra dough. $40/hr is equivalent to about what an neuroscientist makes with a doctorate. Think about that.

Grass cutters are making that just pushing a mower (I suppose they shovel snow in the winter) with a high school education. An instructor years ago told me, you will never make as much working for others as you can working for yourself. The key to successful autonomy today really is entrepreneurship. Go AROUND the system.

NOW-- -- -- what do you think your college education is really worth today as a kid entering the workforce??

 

[initforme]

My neighbor gets his lawn cut every week. 2 guys on riders. Takes them about a half hour. $60 bucks per time. And they are so busy they turn down new clients. It's the free market.

 

[rightwinger]

My neighbor gets his lawn cut every week. 2 guys on riders. Takes them about a half hour. $60 bucks per time. And they are so busy they turn down new clients. It's the free market.

Mexicans will do it for $40 and do a better job

 

[candycorn]

Is a college degree worth it?

yes