Does attending college help or hurt the economy?

<p>Attending colleges usually equals debt.....wouldn't that hurt the current financial situation of the country? If yes, what can we do about it? College is mandatory in this society.... but it also costs students so much....and students don't usually have money!!</p>

<p>College is not mandatory, and there are ways of getting an education without debt (or with little debt). The concern is whether students are getting jobs that enable them to pay back the debt and still have money to put into other things. The only thing we can do about it is choose the affordable options and not pay $30k+ a year for an education. If consumers aren’t buying, the prices will eventually drop.</p>

<p>No, you wouldn’t do temp jobs and McDonalds forever unless that’s what you want to do. Most managers worked their way up - there are many, many young (mid-twenties) assistant store managers in my company making good salaries, and they started out as sales people with no college education (and no debt). </p>

<p>The people who stay in entry-level jobs are those who don’t want to move up, or who wouldn’t likely do well in college anyway because they don’t have the skills or attitude. Yes, some advancement may require training or a degree, but in many cases the company will pay all or some of the costs for the associate. </p>

<p>A college degree does not guarantee employment or high wages. The best middle ground is to get a cheap education so you have some skills, certification, or degree, but little or no debt. Most students are unwilling to do this; they’d rather take the risk with high tuition and debt.</p>

<p>I am one of the few who went to college in my family, and most of my cousins have better paying jobs than I do now. I plan to apply to graduate school, and if all goes well I will earn far more than them, but my point is that you can make a living without college degrees if you are bright and motivated. Companies prefer to promote from within and train their own associates to take on new responsibilities.</p>

<p>^ interesting comments…keep it up!! :)</p>

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<p>Not an unreasonable amount of debt if you’re not dumb about it. </p>

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<p>Don’t go to unaffordable schools.</p>

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<p>No it’s not. That’s a myth. You can still be successful without a college degree, just not in jobs most people want. Tradesmen/women can make very good money. </p>

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<p>Then you go to where the merit scholarships are. Or you go to school part time and work full time. Yes, it’ll take longer but it’s manageable. </p>

<p>IMO, far too many students want to take the easy way out and go massively into debt. I really have NO sympathy for students drowning in debt. Absolutely none.</p>

<p>I agree with what everyone is saying. I had to transfer from my last school because I would have been in close to 200, 000 dollars in debt !!! Transferring to a state school was a good decision even if I’m considered to be an OOS student. Unless you could afford it or get good merit aid, YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEND A COLLEGE LIKE THIS !!! NO MATTER WHAT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL COUNCILORS SAY. The best thing I would say for a smart person who doesn’t want to go into so much debt is to go to one of the top state schools, Penn State, University of Michigan, the University of California schools, SUNY Binghamton, etc.</p>

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One of the better points made so far.</p>

<p>I graduated HS in 2006 and was the ONLY one from my class to go into the military. Most went on to college. Not sure how it was paid for since I never asked anyone, but I can imagine there was an array of either parents covering all, or a portion, scholarships, Fed and State aid, school grants, and of course loans.</p>

<p>I was in the infantry in the militray - easily considered the easiest job to *get into<a href=“but%20it’s%20certainly%20not%20the%20easiest%20to%20%5Bi%5Dperform%5B/i%5D”>/i</a> - but I was lucky enough to have a lot of other things to do within my branch to directly translate those skills to a civilian Federal Gov’t job once I ended my enlistment. It pays enough for me to live, but there certainly isn’t too much room for advancement without a degree. If I stayed without a degree, then I could only move up one or two rings in seniority with slightly higher pay accordingly. Most any other job in this agency though required an accredited 4 years degree.</p>

<p>Realizing I have more ambition than staying in a single, but decently paying, job type for the rest of my life I decided to apply to schools. I was accepted, much to my suprise, to some well known schools in my area (and indeed some were even schools that my old HS classmates had gone to). Even with my 9-11 GI Bill I ended up not being able to afford them though. I would have to take out the max amount of Federal loans for an independent student: $43,000 over the course of 4 years. </p>

<p>Being a little older now, I can actually grasp the effect of that figure more than I could when I was in HS. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to take out 43k plus interest for an undergraduate degree. Yes it will open doors for me, including a higher salary, but those benefits would be stifled for 10-15 years (at least) while I paid it all back and still tried to cover rent/mortgage, car, utility bills, food, etc, etc. Most HS students cannot fathom how those loans will take a part in their lives at the moment they are agreeing to take them. I’m saying it’s their fault though. Indeed, IMO, I think it is in part their fault as much as it is their parents or even the schools in which they apply/attend. If some of these schools spent as much effort in Financial Aid and student loans understanding as they do promoting their study abroad opportunities, their students would me better off for it. I went on an admitted students day event to one of the schools and noticed they had different schedules for the students than the parents. On the parents schedule was the tour (among a couple other things) and a Financial Aid brief. No FA briefing on the student agenda. Just a tour and some fun filled games and class viewing. I understand students and their families should be asking the questions and looking online or to other sources to navigate what all the FA mumbo jumbo means, but if the schools aren’t at least trying to inform properly, then they are no help. Students should not go into debt for their (basic) higher education.</p>

<p>Which brings me 'round to the quote at the beginning: I will instead be going to a CC this Fall and transfer to a much cheaper, much more affordable, school where I KNOW I won’t need to take out more than a couple thousand in loans - if any at all. I plan to work part-time where I am now, but if I’m not making enough money, then I will have to switch school to part-time and work back to full-time. As stated above, it takes longer, but it doable and is what has to be done to not be in debt.</p>

<p>And I’ll offer this for kicks and giggles: My wife on the other hand went straight to a well known private college from HS and didn’t even know how much she was taking out in loans until she graduated. She’s yet to get a decent enough job to where she can make substantial dents to her student loans outside of the minimum payments. Luckily I have always worked and so we’ve had a second income to make expenses, but if we weren’t then surely she’d be back living with her parents not spending a dime on anything except her loans, trying to scrounge up the monthly payements not really giving anything back to the economy as a consumer. of course many many cases are different and encompass different variables (for example, my wife has type-1 diabetes so she also has to spend almost just as much a month in medical supplies and medication as she does in student loans), but most cases can be summed up in this way, I think.</p>

<p>All thorughout American society it is thrust upon our youth to succeed at the highest level and they’re told that is the only way to succeed. So every year a hefty fraction of them plunge into a financial unknown to attend that expensive (for some, or most) prestegious school. Does it work out? Sometimes. Of course education can’t be free, but students and families can try to be smarter about the cons the expenses may have over the course of a lifetime, not just the benefits.</p>

<p>In the long run a college education SHOULD make you more productive. While you’re not out being productive while your in college you should be more productive when you finish and over the span of your lifetime that education should be worth it.</p>

<p>Turns out that my local State uni would be more expensive than the college I’m going to…UMich would be about the same…</p>

<p>my anthro prof said that a college education was mandatory in this country…just going by what he said…</p>

<p>Are you aware that the majority of people in the United States do not have a college degree?</p>

<p>And that isn’t changing? Just wait until all of the baby boomers retire haha…</p>

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<p>You didn’t get merit aid anywhere? Could you commute to said state U? Could you go to a cc for a few years? There are options.</p>

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<p>He’s misinformed. </p>

<p>And no, it’s going to remain that the majority of people in this country are not going to have bachelor’s degrees.</p>

<p>Experience trumps a degree, usually. If you work your way up into a management role and have 5+ years of demonstrated success, that kid fresh out of college with zero or very little management experience is not likely to get the job over you. They have to start at the bottom of the barrel (usually) and work their way up, too. </p>

<p>Degrees are not necessary for many fields. For instance, if you are an incredible artist and have some business sense, there is no reason for you to get a bachelors degree in fine arts or design unless you plan to progress to graduate school. The portfolio matters more than the degree. You don’t need a degree to start your own business; do a lot of reading, study other businesses, maybe take a class or two to learn about accounting and business software, and you could be successful. Remember that a lot of college time is spent learning about subjects not directly related to your major, and not everyone values a liberal education. I very much support having a well-rounded education, but some people would rather learn it on their own than sit in a class and pay thousands for the course.</p>

<p>Going to college increases human capital which increases labor productivity which is the most important part of expanding GDP.</p>

<p>So yes, as long as a college student does not plan on becoming a janitor or a different occupation that does not require a college degree, he or she is indeed helping the economy.</p>

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Meh, I think you’re using the generic simplistic presumption. See examples above. You should add the word may in your post a few times and it would be more pronounced.</p>

<p>There are many instances where individuals would end up in the same place economically after they attended college as they were before they did.</p>

<p>I think I would die if I had to live at home for school haha…:)</p>

<p>I believe I got merit aid and financial aid at all of my schools…</p>

<p>I should have mentioned this before, though I was intending this question to represent all fields of study. Anthropologists can’t just “move up.” They need Ph.d’s to do most work. Yes, I agree with the assumption that many higher positions are taken by “moving up” and by gaining seniority, but I must say this - if a person with no degree is competing for a person with a degree, I think the one with the degree has a huge advantage.</p>

<p>Take nursing, a very common career-track field - my aunt is a nurse, she’s in her mid-50s. Got an associates degree back in the day. She went back to school a few years ago to get her bachelor’s because her hospital was letting go all of those without higher degrees. Same thing happened with my friend’s parents.</p>

<p>The hot jobs now are nursing, engineering, and business, at least where I live. EVERYONE wants to be a nurse or an engineer, especially. They are professional fields and I would think that most if not all job requirements include degrees.</p>

<p>Otherwise, why would people go to school if they knew the would get a degree fresh out of high school?</p>

<p>Neither of my parents have degrees, but they’re 50+ years old…they didn’t need them.</p>

<p>I don’t understand why they’d let go of those without a BS. An RN is an RN, whether you have an associates or a bachelor’s. You can choose not to hire anyone without an bachelors, but you can’t really let go of those without one who are still qualified and experienced in the position. Most good companies would pay for some to go back and finish a BS if they really wanted them to have it.</p>

<p>Business is popular as a college major choice, I but I see many business majors unable to find decent work after graduating unless they were in the accounting/financial aspect. Management, marketing, and some other areas of business just don’t offer the same kind of security when it comes to looking for work, and most of it could be self-taught.</p>

<p>I would never want to be a nurse or engineer. It may just be your area that you are familiar with. Most students in my area only go into nursing because of the guaranteed jobs - not because they are good at it, or like to help people, which is terrible. There are so many bad nurses out there who just made it by the program and now treat patients like garbage because they hate their jobs. </p>

<p>The point is, yes, some jobs requite degrees. Others don’t. Therefore, we will never be mandated to go to college because we will still need the trade jobs, and have exceptional people who become wealthy in other creative ways, who just don’t need college. And that’s good - what do we do if everyone had a degree and there weren’t enough degree-seeking employers to give us an income? Many would have to lower their standards anyway.</p>

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<p>Taking on debt for undergrad if you want to be an anthropologist is very… well, not smart. </p>

<p>Advanced anthropology degrees are often not funded. You will take on debt in graduate school. You will not make a lot of money as an anthropologist to pay off these large loans.</p>

<p>^ Well, none of the schools that I applied to met full need, so I didn’t really have a choice. I would still have to borrow the “need,” though, because Idk how much my parents will pay.</p>

<p>^ Yes you did (do) have a choice. I already outlined ways to reduce your debt in post 6. There is a HUGE difference between not wanting to do something and not having a choice. Don’t let the two confuse you.</p>