Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Priceless: Angry response from Alum when school asks for money...

Ever consider that hiring is something entirely different than looking for a job?

I do the hiring here too, still doesn't give me a perspective of what it is like on the other side of the fence, where people are looking for work with no experience in the field, except a piece of paper that they have been told their entire life is their ticket to success. It takes some longer than others to figure out that it isn't the case.

Agreed. I may have misunderstood your previous position because you are spot on about kids believing that getting a degree automatically entitles them to a life of leisure and shocked when they have to hustle and sweat and be creative. That life is just not automatically waiting for them.

Three degrees here that paid off well and never borrowed a dime to get through. The GI Bill, summer and school year work took care of funding the BS. Graduate student stipends and an extended GI Bill took care of the MS and PhD.

Extremely frugal living, like going without phones, TV's, cars, health/life insurance, movies, dinning out, coffee, beer, and spring break in Majorca all helped out.

My son did one term and elected to pass on college. That let me retire 2 years earlier than planned. When he was enrolling we were required to visit the financial aid office even though there was no need. Our discussions went more toward the entitlement mindset of today's students and the lady running the office fully agreed. Seems kids keep coming to ask for more $$$$, all the while tending their smart phones and recalling what a grand time they had in Cabo over spring break.

I am never sorry for those that mindlessly borrow money, and that includes those that caused the housing crash.

Economics 101 should be a required course the first term.

I don't mind schools soliciting funds, but I really wish they had waited long enough for me to collect my first paycheck before calling. If they do collect though, it will be a product of my will.

I really liked this one: Link to can't find work!

I am kind of split on the issue, I think that kids are told you must get this or you will not be successful. So they go get it and then wonder why the world has lied to them all this time. I feel for them because I grew up in that generation that was told I had to get a degree or I wouldn't be successful. I seen many of my friends take that advise to heart and go to school only to find out the harsh reality later once it was too late. How is an 18 year old kid supposed to know different?

My first comment was kind of TIC, I mean, the comments are commonly stated as, I got a degree in 1970 and had a job before I graduated, never been without work since....

Things are different now, instead of 10% of the population having a degree 50% now have one, with no experience that is a tough hill to climb. That was my smart assed way of saying that the job hunt experience for college graduates today is not what it was 40 years ago.

Hopefully those in charge of hiring are closer to retirement than they are college graduation. That could be part of the problem as well.

I would think anyone 43 or older is closer to retirement than college graduation.

Student loan debt exceeds a trillion dollars, it has surpassed,car loans and credit card debt.
Can you say bubble?
As we know now these bubbles eventually pop and the results are disastrous.

Obamas answer to the floundering economy, is more education,has anyone considered where the jobs for these new college graduates will come from, kinda putting the cart before the horse, dontcha think?

These foolish kids are mortgaging their future for a liberal indoctrination, that's touted as higher education.
What a scam.

The ones I like are the ones you read about who have $250k+ in debt and even if they got a GOOD job in their field it would take them as long to pay off as their house, assuming they could buy a house and pay off the student loan.

I mean it's one thing to say the economy went down the crapper, but to have no clue what you could make in a good economy at your dream job is another.

I guess I was out of the ordinay. I worked thru college and came out debt free and that included buying a new truck half way thru.

When the university that I attended asked for money my simple written response was
" If you had given me and education I would be glad to give you money "

There is a big disconnect with students choice in degree fields and the job market. There is always demand for science and engineering majors, history and english majors not so much. Why would someone take on 100k worth of debt for a degree in history unless you want to be a HS teacher? The student loan system lacks checks and balances and allows too much high risk debt.

A friends step daughter just flunked out of her sophomore year with 70k in debt in parents co-signed for, and not many options to pay it back. I worked and paid for school, never borrowed a penny. Nothing wrong with living small and paying cash.

I think colleges would do well to have some courses that required practical application of what you're learning for your degree, much like a trade school does.

A mechanic doesn't sit around for months or years merely STUDYING about engines. They WORK on them. Same with an electrician or plumber, they apply what they learn WHILE learning it. They don't get turned loose never having touched the stuff they're working on.

Most kids spend 4 years in college, never really applying what they're learning, then go out and get a job that they may or may not be good at.

As for tuition costs, the same thing that drove up home prices has driven up tuition. "Easy-to-get" federal dollars (loans) have created a situation where colleges have no incentive to cut costs. The Feds are as much at fault for LOANING money for these stupid degrees as the colleges are for CHARGING that much money.

There are now, effectively, no significant manufacturing of hard goods left in the country to provide jobs for the non-college grads & also significant reduction of the support people (the college grads) that would/used to support the manufacturing business...........also gone are most of the sub-suppliers to all the direct manufacturing businesses.

Most service business have far fewer needs for skilled or grads & in reality, service businesses just trade money......no real wealth is created.

Situation is not going to change anytime soon.

Less total well paying jobs for all.

MM

Even in some of the higher paying fields, the amount of debt no longer makes sense. Like medicine, for example.

It took the loans to get thru school and had them payed back within 10 years.

It required living frugally and doing without, something which most kids these days aren't willing to do.

Another GIANT pitfall is Credit Cards.

Credit card companies set up shop in the Student Union during enrollment and entice the kids with free T-shirts and beer coozies. They give lines of credit to kids who they know are probably not employed or employed part time.

You'd be surprised at how many kids get their first credit card the first year in College. A pizza here, some books there. Before you know it they're in debt up to their ears...

Not all, but some...

Many programs do encourage Co-Op work. Study one semester then work one Semester, especially the final two years. Wish more companies would take the co-op students.

The college were I obtained my degree in biology would call and hit me up for money every so often.

I said, "Look, the school & I had an agreement. I gave them money & they provided teachers. I got what I paid for, so I'm done giving them money"

Eventually they left me alone.

First thing schools should do is shut down all ethnic studies programs, all gay programs so students can focus on degrees that have some value.

I have never figured out WTF universities/colleges are spending all their money on. They get money from the state, the feds, they have a [bleep] fundraiser every month. And then you meet people that graduated or are about to graduate, and they tell you what they paid a semester.

I think about 75% need to fall into a sinkhole. And the rest need to work on making higher education, higher education.


Travis

Happy birthday, Kend.

Oh, and I enjoyed reading the comments below the article almost as much as the article.

salaries and retirement benefits.

Colleges have dramatically increased their staff beyond professors in the classrooms, just like public k-12 schools. That and the administrators salaries are well into the six figures.