College Conspiracy

Unfortunately, I speak from a lifetime of experience. Currently considering moving across the country to get a better job.

 

It's been a proven statistic that the average college graduate make $900,000 more through the course of their lifetime than the average person without a college degree.

College graduates are also more insulated from economic ebbs and flows than non-graduates, and are more likely to get a job faster after a period of unemployment.

But college isn't for everyone. Some people have the aptitude to forgo it. Some people work careers where they aren't necessary. And some people are not intelligent enough. Here's some good readin' on the matter.

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/18/137257390/making-headlines-since-the-70s-is-college-worth-it

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/06/22/137340857/the-value-of-college-in-2-graphs

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/06/136023482/without-a-college-degree-hard-pressed-for-jobs

 

an in-state's kids parents probably paid taxes in that state for 10+ years to subsidise the public school system. Thats why schools have in state and out of state prices.

I paid $100k for my education but I went to school out of state. I financed 40k of it and owe about 25 left. College is what you make of it and by in large, people take out loans to finance trips to Spring break in Mexico, designer clothes and beer money for those pitcher beer specials on Friday afternoons.

There's an anecdote in Dave Ramey's book the Total Money Makeover about a girl who was going to college and spent 6 weeks of her summer writing scholarship letters. This was while other kids were working at the ice cream stand or laying out on the beach. She wrote almost 1,000 of them and got rejected by 962 of them. The 38 that accepted her? Over $38k in free money. How many kids did she know that made $38k that summer?

 

Yes they give you financial aid for any level of schooling. Doctorate, Master's, even cosmetology... I had my undergrad paid for by the hope scholarship, but took out loans for my masters and law school.

 

I watched it all. Some of it I agree with it but there are some flaws in it as well. Here's my take:



Agree:

• Students shouldn't be able to get loans for anything other than the cost of tuition. All loan money left over after tuition and books should be refunded to the loan, not the student.
• Easy tuition creates high demand which leads to higher college prices. Take away the demand and prices come down.
• Many degrees are worthless. Paying high tuition for a degree in social, psychology or history rarely pays off at the bachelor's level. Jobs in those fields usually require a doctorates before they start paying back unless they're paired with some kind of science degree (e.g. a bachelor's in psychology with a masters in computer science). Those types of degrees are better done at low cost colleges (e.g. community colleges).
• Printing money devalues the dollar.
• Going to college isn't necessary to make good money. Trades can generate good income (e.g. plumbing, electrical, etc).
• Colleges that report high job % attainment after students graduate let the potential student prospect assume their graduates are working in the field they chose. If the student is working at a hamburger joint, they're considered employed and a success. In fact, they only way they know if a student is employed is if the student stops asking for job placement. They could very well be sitting at home unemployed and have just given up on the job placement program at the college. I've only heard this statistic sited as a gauge of the school's value at a technical college I was looking into.

Disagree:

• The guy who burned his degree in Computer Science probably never did any work in it. I've tripled my income since graduating. Many of my 4.0 classmates were getting offers of $60K to start.
• Opportunity costs of working vs. going to college is overstated. Anyone just graduating from high school is not likely to make $35K per year right out of high school (about $17/hour). It would take the average 18-year-old person a long time to get to that income (median US income for a family of four is $46,000). The median income for a high school graduate who is 25 years old (been in the workforce for 7 years) is about $27,000.
• They don't site much in the way of high tuition alternatives other than internet colleges. The high costs for a 4 year degree can be offset by attending community colleges for the first two years, dramatically cutting the cost. In California, the cost of going to a community college is $36/unit. Attending for two years full time will cost $1,728 vs $52,000. State universities are usually much less than private universities.
• Backing a currency with Gold (or any commodity) doesn't make sense. All major economies' currencies are fiat. There isn't enough gold to cover the US economic output. The problem with backing with a commodity is that your economy can only expand or contract based on the availability of the commodity. Plus, once Gold reaches $5K/ounce, it becomes economically feasible to create gold in the laboratory, making it no different that printing fiat currency. The value of all gold that has EVER been mined is about $2 trillion dollars. The US GDP is currently about $200 Billion per day. So if you had all of the gold that has ever existed, you still couldn't run the economy at our current output for more than 10 days. The company that made the video hawks investments in gold and silver so take that for what it's worth. Remember that Gold and silver are not investments. They don't create wealth. They only holds value.
• Backing a currency with gold can make you subject to manipulation by a foreign entity. A gold backed security must be exchangeable for an equal amount of gold. So suppose China, who sells a lot of products to us, holds a ton of dollars. They then decide that they want to exchange those dollars for your gold. Now you have less of it so your economy must contract even though there is no fundamental difference in your economic capability.

 

You can look at median income census data as well. They break it down by education level. The difference in median income between a HS grad and a college grad with a bachelor's degree is about $30K per year.

 

I just paid off my student loan with a check for $21k last week. Feels good to be out of college debt, and I feel proud it only took me 6 years to pay off a total of $32k. I have friends that took way to much money in loans and left school with a degree and $60k+ in loan debt. One friend went to law school and never graduated, but has $50k in school debt that never even bloomed into a degree.

 

Got me EE degree and came out about 75K in the hole. Was it worth it? Short term it sucks because Sallie Mae eats up a decent part of my paycheck. When its paid off in a few years .. it will 1000% be worth it

 

To add to this^:

Other alternatives not mentioned are that those "private college-prep high schools" generally offer college-level coursework as a part of their curriculum, and it is often covered in that $25,000 tuition.

I went to a plain-old public high school and I came out with enough credits to be a college sophomore. I was able to trim an entire year off of tuition and graduated with 2 degrees in 3 years. Granted, I went to school for free on athletic and academic scholarships, but the point is that kids have ways of mitigating their collegiate expenses.

Also, most private universities are more expensive, but they also have the ability to hand out more financial aid than state schools. Students at private universities often times pay less than students at State thanks to a plethora of grants and scholarships available.

I will agree with the video in that No Child Left Behind sucks, though.

 

I think it's pretty funny how all the "For profit Universities" are in the lime light now. Yet, every college out there is "for-profit". Some are just more up front about their intentions than others.

 

Totally agree

*In NYC at my law firm internship that I wouldn't have gotten if I wasn't in college

 

I'm in the same boat. Where did you grow up at/live now?

 

grew up near white cottage, now living in the avondale vicinity.

 

So basically if you wanna buy a ferrari, you gotta work for a textbook publisher when you get done with college. I get it!

 

Did you go to Maysville then?

 

It would be a conspiracy if they were trying to hide it.

College costs have increased at about 4x the rate of inflation over the past two decades.

Hmmm...better pay for those employed?

College is very good for getting worldly experience and broadening your education. It will make you a better person overall. That said, it WON'T necessarily help you get employed. For that, go to trade school.

 

Panther pride!

 

Good deal, I went to John Glenn, I substitute at Maysville a lot though.

 

i think this guy may be an extremist. im sure they are all facts he gave us but im also sure that he was hiding some stuff. i bet i could find a video an hour long that claims all his arguments are BS. Entertaining though.