lets discuss
the return on investment for a bachelor's degree. and reasonable expectations thereof.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html
now, this article is suggesting that financial aid offices are primarily to blame for students graduating with massive debts which they have little likelihood of paying. why are financial aid offices to blame, you ask? they best understand the terms and payback conditions of various loan types. i won't even go into the blame game, and instead i ask, is 100k in debt worth a bachelor's degree??
i'd argue that 100k is worth a degree at an ivy or a top tier state school like cal or virginia or mit, certainly, but in no way would i consider, say, a degree from berry college or college of charleston or mercer or yes, even nyu worth it. but here's the bigger question for me: money aside, WTF was this woman thinking amassing 100k in debt...for an "interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies??" what kind of job did she THINK she was going to have with this? and did she bother discussing her career possibilities with an academic advisor, in light of how much debt she would graduate with?
look, i don't think college should have to cost this much. but i also don't think that you can realistically see the world and your place in it, and expect that someone is going to pay you sixty grand a year so that you can live in san francisco and pay your loan debts based on your broad knowledge of andrea dworkin and bell hooks. jesus, lady. what JOB, what CAREER do you leverage from a BACHELOR'S degree in women's studies that's gonna pay for your huge loans?? dudes, and don't think i'm being too hard, because that is EXACTLY what happened to me. i majored in english and minored in women's studies-- and i ended up selling auto insurance. so. but i was lucky (smart?) enough to go to a state school that didn't cost 50k a year. and i DID get over my fantasy that someone was going to pay me to sit around and discuss the oppressive nature of the patriarchy.
and i think it's one thing to get an advanced degree in a specific area that leads to a specific job, and then all of a sudden, that market dries up (i'm looking at you, ginamariewade and your masters of social work). like, can you really predict that 10 years after grad school, social workers will suddenly be laid off en masse because state and local governments decide they're unnecessary? same thing with, i don't know, nuclear engineering. suddenly there's not a call for that anymore. but most of those people can parlay those skills into another, similar field. but a generic degree in religion or women's studies? come on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html
now, this article is suggesting that financial aid offices are primarily to blame for students graduating with massive debts which they have little likelihood of paying. why are financial aid offices to blame, you ask? they best understand the terms and payback conditions of various loan types. i won't even go into the blame game, and instead i ask, is 100k in debt worth a bachelor's degree??
i'd argue that 100k is worth a degree at an ivy or a top tier state school like cal or virginia or mit, certainly, but in no way would i consider, say, a degree from berry college or college of charleston or mercer or yes, even nyu worth it. but here's the bigger question for me: money aside, WTF was this woman thinking amassing 100k in debt...for an "interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies??" what kind of job did she THINK she was going to have with this? and did she bother discussing her career possibilities with an academic advisor, in light of how much debt she would graduate with?
look, i don't think college should have to cost this much. but i also don't think that you can realistically see the world and your place in it, and expect that someone is going to pay you sixty grand a year so that you can live in san francisco and pay your loan debts based on your broad knowledge of andrea dworkin and bell hooks. jesus, lady. what JOB, what CAREER do you leverage from a BACHELOR'S degree in women's studies that's gonna pay for your huge loans?? dudes, and don't think i'm being too hard, because that is EXACTLY what happened to me. i majored in english and minored in women's studies-- and i ended up selling auto insurance. so. but i was lucky (smart?) enough to go to a state school that didn't cost 50k a year. and i DID get over my fantasy that someone was going to pay me to sit around and discuss the oppressive nature of the patriarchy.
and i think it's one thing to get an advanced degree in a specific area that leads to a specific job, and then all of a sudden, that market dries up (i'm looking at you, ginamariewade and your masters of social work). like, can you really predict that 10 years after grad school, social workers will suddenly be laid off en masse because state and local governments decide they're unnecessary? same thing with, i don't know, nuclear engineering. suddenly there's not a call for that anymore. but most of those people can parlay those skills into another, similar field. but a generic degree in religion or women's studies? come on.