Post-College Life...

<p>...I bet it's gonna suck. I recently had to reconsider my major and plans after college due to a dismal grade that puts pre-med in danger for me. Reality has now hit me hard and I realized that no matter what happens to me after college it's gonna suck.</p>

<p>Grad school or Med school will both be like taking seriously hard college courses, with none of the fun or social development that comes with college.</p>

<p>And getting a job immeditately sucks too since you gotta worry about getting ur own place and making rent and other crap like that. </p>

<p>Man, unless you're doing something you love as a profession, post college sounds awful.</p>

<p>Sorry about the rant, but I think this is a topic that a lot of seniors deal with (Im a sophomore and even Im freaking out).</p>

<p>"Man, unless you're doing something you love as a profession"</p>

<p>Kinda the key to life there haha.</p>

<p>If you get a nice, high paying job out of college. Something like $40,000 a year right out of college, it doesn't seem that bad.</p>

<p>Get yourself a nice apartment, you can get a car with that money, live a decent quality of life, get some nice stuff. Then keep working your way up the income scale, and get more money, and you won't decimate yourself monetarily until you get married.</p>

<p>You only work something like 9-5, and then have the entire evenings free, no homework to worry about. Completely free weekends, again, no homework to worry about. </p>

<p>Doesn't sound too terrible.</p>

<p>Problem: Your average musician makes 15,000 USD/year and the average chemist is in school until they r 28 and need to pay off serious student loans with a salary around 50,000/yr</p>

<p>I hate to say it, sometime u need to make sacrifices.</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you get a nice, high paying job out of college. Something like $40,000 a year right out of college, it doesn't seem that bad.</p>

<p>Get yourself a nice apartment, you can get a car with that money, live a decent quality of life, get some nice stuff. Then keep working your way up the income scale, and get more money, and you won't decimate yourself monetarily until you get married.</p>

<p>You only work something like 9-5, and then have the entire evenings free, no homework to worry about. Completely free weekends, again, no homework to worry about.</p>

<p>Doesn't sound too terrible.

[/quote]

What world do you live in? Since when is $40,000 a "high paying job?" After taxes, $40,000 doesn't get you far at all esp. with college loans to pay off. I realize people raise whole families on that salary, but it is extremely difficult. When you begin living in the "real world," you incur expenses that you don't even think of. Evenings/weekends are rarely free. Work does in fact trickle into your non-work life. If it doesn't, you're working on other things like getting your car repaired, fighting with the credit card company about an unsolicited charge, buying a new washing machine because yours broke, etc. I'd rather worry about homework, which is predictable, rather than meeting with my accountant. And you don't work 9-5. Expect to work much longer hours when you're starting out.</p>

<p>40k could mean two very different things as far as location goes. In the south, 40k probably isn't a bad living. In CT, it almost doesn't get you over the state poverty line after taxes.</p>

<p>yep... so chill, and enjoy your time in college =)</p>

<p>and $40,000 is not "high paying" IMO... but it is a very respectable starting salary (higher than the average income among working people, for instance)</p>

<p>I came out of college in 2006 making over 50k and have been getting increases since then. A biweekly gross pay with 40k is less than my net pay. My school loans take a big chunk out of my pay. The worst major "investment" I made was buying a brand new car. I will never do that again. Other poor financial investments was getting married and having a baby. I love my family but having a family can eat up your money if you aren't careful. </p>

<p>Finding a job you like is key. My wife hates her job and it makes her miserable. I, on the other hand, love my job. But it requires lots of hours and unpredictable call-outs. And when I get home I am too tired and don't want to deal with cooking dinner, changing diapers, etc.</p>

<p>Hate to say this but the reality is life IS tough post-college.
While everyone I know who graduated w/ me is doing fine, that doesn't mean life is easy.
$30-50k/yr is a fairly typical salary range for a college grad (across fields, with some at the bottom and others at the top of that range), and, truthfully, it's not enough to live on and pay your student loans. For many students, the minimum student loan repayment is around $500/mo (which basically just covers your interest; you definitely want to do better than that if you hope to ever get out of debt). Add onto that living expenses (mine the last couple of months were about $1700/mo for everything) and taxes, etc. eat up another 40% of your income (if making ~40k/yr in CA -- ~25% for federal + ~15% for state + other withholdings)... if you make $42k/yr, that's $3500/mo - 40% ($1400) = 2100. As you can see, $2100-1700=$400, $100 less than your minimum payment, which means you need to get another job or find a job that pays better than $21/hr full-time!</p>

<p>You CAN make this all work, but it takes careful management of your money and may require you to return home post-college for a year or so to get up on your feet. Still, the post-college experience is actually really amazing and exciting -- definitely not something to dread but it is something to begin preparing for before your senior year of college. "The end" will be there before you know it and the more networking and such you've done both on and off campus the better you'll do once you're graduated.</p>

<p>My school loans are $510/month, a mix of private and federal loans. I have the payments automatically deducted from my account. Earlier this year the interest rates dropped significantly. </p>

<p>What I found out is that you really have to be careful about spending money on things you don't really need, like going to the movies and out to restaurants. That is tough because I even though I can cook, I am a big restaurant buff. But at some point paying $10 for a plate of spaghetti at the Olive Garden when I can make several pots of it at home for the same price gets to be ridiculous.</p>

<p>Brand new cars is another thing. I bought a 2006 Hyundai Sonata LX in 2006. Even with no interest a 5 year loan would be over $400/month. That is a good chunk of change. After I got married in 2007 and had a baby in 2008 I realized paying that kind of money for something like a car was a stupid idea.</p>

<p>Post College Life really does SUCK...alot. Sorry If alot of people might disagree with me, but I graduated in May and I am still unemployed. Ive gone on like 5-7 interviews with no hope in sight. No one in NYC wants to hire a paralegal looking to go to law school. On top of that I moved back home with my parents. They routinely drive me crazy. I get no privacy and no independence. They always feel that I have to call them anywhere I go which has prompted me to turn my phone off everytime I leave my house. I don't have much of a social life anymore, which I wasnt really expecting after graduating from school. </p>

<p>The only positives are I graduated with no debt so atleast im not paying off loans and I get the feeling that its much easier to have a long term relationship after college (I wasn't into hooking up at school).</p>

<p>Otherwise I sometimes agree with some of my friends who are in school for a 5th year. Atleast they are enjoying themselves right now. </p>

<p>If anyone is looking to hire a paralegal Ill forward you my resume :). It would be very appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>wow, tough times. i figured it'd be tough, so i went to a state school, making sure i'd have no debt, and lived at home, and cooked, etc. it wasn't too fun, but everybody warned me about having to pay off stuff after college and that it sucked, and i tried to avoid loans as much as i could. too bad i didn't major in something practical though. oh well.</p>

<p>what are your majors? im going to a cc for 2 years so that will cut down on costs but im doing an engineering major so ill probably still take at least 3 years to graduate when i finally do go off to college, and im thinking of going out of state. so ill probably still have to take on debt, or do ROTC or something</p>

<p>Graduating college was the saddest day of my life...</p>

<p>Seriously. And I've had the benefit of going to med school and being able to prolong the student experience another 4 years...The fourth year of med school is absolutely an awesome time, but definitely doesn't compare to the fun I had in college.</p>

<p>in general, you can cut a lot of things out of your spending. But, as is shown by the current economic situation, lots of people don't do this.</p>

<p>Another thing, location is important. I see some of my friends who graduated before me who went straight to NYC/LA and the like, and they're ALWAYS broke. You have to really consider location if you really want to have that financial stability that we all crave for. The cost of living in some cities is unreasonable for most college graduates with student loan debt. </p>

<p>Of course, I'd love to live in NYC, but call me greedy. I like to have money to spend on things other than bills.</p>

<p>Being a student is nice and all, but I'm really looking forward to having my free time really be free. When I was working this past summer, I loved being able to apply all my intellectual energy to whatever I wanted to pursue once I got home, instead of constantly having something I should be doing instead. My job was emotionally exhausting, but I still had the time and energy to share a leisurely dinner with roommates, go for a walk, read some interesting books from the library, watch TV, go out with my girlfriend, whatever--and all without having to constantly think about what I should be doing beyond "I have to show up to work tomorrow." I could have a long conversation with a friend about whatever it was we were interested in for the moment, without having to think about the reading I should be doing, the problem set I should be working on, the paper I should be writing, etc.. It was amazing. And since for me (and many others) college isn't a bubble free of concerns about rent, bills, and car repairs, that aspect of things won't be a huge change.</p>

<p>I think this is an interesting post. You guys are all saying life after college sucks and whatnot but when I go out downtown SF/San Jose (once every few months), the bars and clubs are always packed with young people easily dropping a few hundred dollars a night. When I talk to these people, they say it's common to drop 100-200 a night 2 nights a week to the tune of $10k a year. I don't know about you guys but I don't think these guys think life sucks after college. The funny thing is they still are paying loans and bills and stuff....but I guess these are the people who are going to end up with no savings and get screwed when social security runs out haha.</p>

<p>^^It's all about balance though. There are some people who live by the mantra that they're young and can blow their money on things other than savings. $100-$200 a night, twice a week is stupid if you don't have triple that amount saved up. </p>

<p>Like I said, alot of my friends who've graduated and come back often, go on trips, don't have alot of money and are buying things on credit. There's a dude, I know, that blew his signing bonus on rims LMAO. "Fake it til' you make it", I guess. It's a weird way to live. What if there is a layoff? I don't want to regret taking a $2000 vacation when I should've been saving for a just-in-case with this economy we're having.</p>

<p>Financial stability > Living beyond my means</p>

<p>You only get to live once, make the most out of it while you are here.</p>

<p>Plus, Barack Hussein will save us all!</p>