College... Not worth it anymore?

Asked By: rexsblues 26-30, M 3 months ago

...I had 2 years under my belt and ducked out because it got too expensive, luckily I got back home and found a decent job before they all disappeared. That was 8 years ago I finally saved enough and bought a home, however I feel like I'm extremely fortunate in that sense and am equally thankful, but nearly everyone I know around my age is either still living with their folks, crashing on couches or paying rent that's double my mortgage. That's including 10 college grads, 4 of which have their masters degree and only 2 of the 10 have jobs in their certified fields. I keep thinking they'll take off with their careers and convince me to finish my education but spending another 25k just to come back and do the same job is asinine.

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Posted by englishsteve 1 Mar 4th, 2013 at 6:01AM

Difficult question. I reckon people with a clear-cut idea of what they want to do - say in law, medicine, engineering or whatever - can make that investment with more assurance than those who are still clarifying their ambitions. Over here, the former notion of a liberal academia is being tightly redefined in strictly business terms presented as Conservative 'austerity' cuts in government spending. It must be said many people are being 'sold' such virtually useless disciplines such as 'media studies' only to find there are few relevant jobs at the end of what's become a very expensive course. The market ethic is making a travesty of higher education. I recently met an early-20s graphic designer, just out of college, with £48,000 pounds-worth of debt to settle. I tried to imagine how I would feel, and how my 18 year-old boy might feel, confronted with such a private debt-mountain at a time of high unemployment: frightened, I think, and deeply deterred. I'm no longer sure university is worth it for everybody.

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Reply by rexsblues Mar 4th, 2013 at 6:15AM

Well said, these modern business practices are in total opposition to sustaining any stable workforce outside the corporate office. "Hope to hell" entrapanurship and get rich quick seems to be the only avenues to take anymore. The digital/online sectors hold the only untapped potential left, but change has to come sooner or later... But it's hard to imagine it'll be for the better.
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Reply by englishsteve Mar 4th, 2013 at 6:40AM

We got into this predicament almost inadvertently. The last Labour government had a 'university for everybody' policy and that's commendable. We all want a literate population. But to pay for it relatively modest tuition-fees were introduced for the first time. The current Conservative-led govt allowed unis to up tuition-costs to a maximum of £9000 pa and of course most of them went for that figure. The long-term concern is that our lurking social class-divisions will resurface with low-income families too scared to take on those kinds of debts. That would echo pre-war stratification with an enormous loss of potential talent. The digital sector does look good - in some ways. I was talking to a young games-designer a couple of days ago who suggests his field has some latitude for those with the right skills and a bit of financial backing to cover development costs. But generally, while I went the 'hope to hell' route not everybody's talents are best served that way. I do wonder what the future holds for a lot of people.
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3 Answers to "College... Not worth it anymore?"

Posted by DominanceMaster Mar 4th, 2013 at 4:25AM

I've done twice as good as most of my peers who went to college. It's all about how much coal do you have in the stove. Most college grads are lazy as shlt.

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Posted by linklock Mar 4th, 2013 at 4:25AM

Collage and school are the answer to all the problems of the world so stay in school your entire life and safe the world. Obama 101.

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