<p>James, I agree wholeheartedly with the first part of your post, but I disagree with your point that people only go to college for the education. The education is good, yes, but people go for the credential. Let’s say you want to become a CPA; you can probably study all of the information at a library, but good luck trying to take the exam with the required hours at an accredited college. Most employers aren’t going to take your word for that you know what you’re doing, especially when they can get a sure thing by demanding the Bachelor’s degree up front. </p>
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<p>Don’t forget State-Tech, City College, Town Community College, Village Community College, Parish Junior College, State A & M (whatever the Hell that means), and Harvard.</p>
<p>“There’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with getting an associates degree or going to trade school. For many, many people college is not the right answer. Because our society regards higher education as the end all solution to all problems, people who go to a trade school are looked down on. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. Have you seen the job openings for plumbers and the like? There’s TONS. And some people are smart enough not to spend thousands of dollars on an education you can receive at the local library!”</p>
<p>I wasn’t implying there’s something wrong with getting an Associates or going to trade school, but people looking at one of those aren’t generally worried about accruing more debt than they’ll make in their first year. People worried about the cost of college are people who WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE (yeah, I can do all caps too). I figured it wasn’t necessary to include “wants to go to college” in the criteria of people who should go to college, but if you’re going to attack someone on something so nit-picky as that, go ahead and insert that criterion in your mind as well.</p>
<p>Agreed. Some professions require credentials that can only be acquired from universities. Engineers, doctors, architects, accountants, lawyers, etc. Obviously college is the correct (and only) choice for people who want to pursue these professions. But for everyone else (the vast majority) not graduating with pre-professional majors, college may not be the best idea. </p>
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<p>What are you talking about?</p>
<p>People looking at getting an Associates or going to trade school may be doing so precisely because they’re worried about accruing tons of debt in college. These people may want to go to college, but they realize that getting an Associates or going to trade school would serve their needs better.</p>
<p>Here are some hard figures to chew on:
200K at 6.8%
to pay this off in 10 years : $2,300/month = 27,600/year
to pay this off in 20 years: $1,500/month = 18,000/year
to pay this off in 30 years: $1,300/month = 15,600/year
If you have 200,000 in debt and imagine you are going to pay it off from a $35K salary, you are dreaming.</p>