<p>I believe this is one of the greatest shortcomings of our nation's high schools. I know a lot about how to manage my money, but only because of what I have read online. Neither my parents nor my school has taught me a lick. No wonder so many college students have crazy credit card debt and very few people know anything about investing. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I absolutely agree, particularly related to loans. It might cut down on the horror stories related to school loans.</p>
<p>Personal Finance is taught at my school as a part of the EPI class, but if a student decides to take AP Macro/Microeconomics instead, he is out of luck and never learns this at school. </p>
<p>Personal finance is also taught in the special education classes in conjunction with assigned jobs at local stores.</p>
<p>My D’s school offers a class called money matters and it uses the Dave Ramsey video materials.</p>
<p>New Jersey enacted a law a few years ago that every student must have a 6 month personal finance class to get a high school diploma.</p>
<p>That’s not a bad idea, really. </p>
<p>Of course, schools should also teach more physical education and give better arts instruction. They should spend more time teaching students how to write better. They should do a better job challenging the top math students, and ensuring that the bottom math students develop at least basic consumer-math skills. </p>
<p>And they should still dismiss by 2:30, so that outdoor-sports teams can practice while there’s still daylight, and so that small businesses such as Subway franchises and dry cleaners can continue to operate profitably by using cheap, after-school teen labor. And we should keep the school year at 180 days, because a lot of families like it that way. And it shouldn’t cost any money, because our property taxes are already too high, dammit!</p>
<p>I don’t really mean to be harsh. Personal finance is an important life skill, and it really isn’t good that people can emerge from high school, theoretically ready for the world of work, without any idea how a bank account works, or how much it actually costs to buy a $20,000 car if you put $1000 down and finance the rest at 5.25% interest for 72 months, or what happens if month after month you pay only the minimum amount on your MasterCard bill. But this is one of many, many things that high schools should teach, or teach better. There are really a lot of demands on high schools already. I’ll be among the first to say there’s a lot that American high schools could do many things better, but I frankly don’t see how they can possibly do all the things that we think they should do.</p>
<p>And, finally, I’m really curious to know: how did you decide to post this thread in the “College Admissions” forum?</p>
<p>My high school makes us take personal finance one year of all the four years…The county just came up with this requirement for the upcoming school year.</p>
<p>Personal finance is offered at an elective at my hs and an economics credit is required to graduate (but microeconomics won’t always teach you how to manage money). </p>
<p>I think it’s an important life skill … But while we’re on the topic of utopian high schools I wish nap time was an offered class.</p>
<p>My freshman year I had to take a semester long class called Life Skills (along with PE in the other semester) Life Skills focused on financial management and other basic skills like letter-writing and job searching. I think it’s a great class to have.</p>
<p>My school literally began offering Personal Finance this year. There’s a catch, though: the teacher is like 28 and still lives with his mom haha. Which, of you think about it, is about as fiscally responsible as you can get.</p>
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<p>That’s pretty funny. Did he tell a class of high schoolers that he still lives with his mom?</p>
<p>No, but it’s common knowledge as he is the head wrestling coach and all of the wrestlers have been to his house. I don’t take the course I just know a lot of wrestlers haha.</p>
<p>It is an EXTREMELY useless class that brings down kids gpas. I k ppl with 5’s on ap exams and Strght a’s In ap classes tht work their butts off in personal fin but still have a B!!!</p>
<p>So, who gives a crap about GPA if your 88,000 dollars in debt with a terrible loan and a Harvard Degree in Art History!</p>
<p>I would rather get a 3.5 and go to my state school and understand investmnets, Taxes, and loans etc then go to Vanderbilt or Tulane with a 4.0 and not realize the importance of personal finance.</p>
<p>Some of the smartest people make the stupidiest money decisions.
I dont want to make stupid money decisions</p>
<p>My school has a required financial lit class for juniors.
I’ve been in there for about three weeks and we’ve talked about credit cards and buying a car. I think we also learn about insurance, college financial aid, and investments, among other things. I don’t think most people pay attention, but it’s definitely a good idea in theory.
We picked a career and made a budget based on the average salary. We looked up houses/apartments on the Internet that would be affordable with that salary.</p>
<p>My school made it mandatory for class of 2015 and all those after us to take it in order to graduate. While I don<code>t have a problem with that, what I did have a problem with was the fact I took it in 8th grade and didn</code>t think it was fair they wouldn<code>t give me credit for it. I didn</code>t want to take that in school when I had other classes I<code>d rather take, so I took it online over the summer, so it really doesn</code>t matter now anyhow.</p>
<p>As of the class of 2015, all students are required to complete a personal finance course before graduation. So my class and the junior class are exempt. I wish I coulda taken it though.</p>
<p>Yeah I know, you lucky juniors and seniors. Imagine if I was born a year earlier.</p>
<p>I’m surprised and bummed that it isn’t more common…a lot of people opted to dump their math tracks for Personal Finance in 12th grade.</p>
<p>The problem in this case is that most colleges don’t consider it to be a math course, so I know people who stopped taking math after Algebra II and they’re going to be SOL in college.</p>
<p>But yes, everyone should know basic finances, such as balancing a budget. I always thought it was fun to balance budgets and checkbooks in my PF class.</p>
<p>@CE527M I’m pretty sure it was state mandate that it started with Class of 2015. I’m just lucky to be 2013 and not have to place it in around magnet school which already makes me lose a potential class.</p>
<p>@aomame That would suck. I guess it depends on the school you’re applying to…</p>
<p>Side note: I cannot use the initialism SOL without thinking of state testing (Virginia)…</p>