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luciazephyrHonestly, what the fuck am I supposed to do? What the hell is the alternative?
In the future, ignore anything I post before noon.
luciazephyrHonestly, what the fuck am I supposed to do? What the hell is the alternative?
In the future, ignore anything I post before noon.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-23 04:10 pm (UTC)There's also the simple problem of expansion; the more people go to college, the less different their outcomes will seem from the general population. Many of the people who go to college and thereby succeed would have done so with or without college; rich people riding on privilege, etc - but the more people go to college, the less that group get to skew the statistics. There's also basic oversupply of some types of graduates, which leads to constantly moving goalposts; too many people chasing too few jobs, so therefore some of us end up working as janitors or waitresses or retail grunts instead.
Although, while unemployment among under-25s is a giant crater of suck, unemployment for college-educated over-25s is pretty damn low compared to the general population. But hey, a lot of America's economic problems are to do with this willingness to discard the entire younger generation en masse.
But, uncapped federal loans are a huge moral hazard. It basically means colleges can charge as much as they feel like on the 'supply' end because there are no brakes at all on the demand end; the government will hand over however much money they want and then charge the students later. The value/ROI of the degree becomes irrelevant, and there is no concept of efficiency or cost control. The people who are paying are too young to even know what we want & need from education, let alone to be in a fair negotiating position with these institutions. (Personally I had no idea what I needed to be doing for a living until a chance job opportunity several years after finishing college - one which had nothing to do with my degree - and life is like that for a lot of people. My sister took the first random job she should find after college, and it wasn't a job that required a degree, but she's been with the same company ever since & climbing up the ranks because she's really good at what she does and it's good for her too. I was very much shoved into college before I was ready, but it didn't do me too much damage; it just probably didn't further my life at all in any practical way although it definitely did make me a better writer and a better thinker, and it's where I learned how to be happy. But moneywise it was flat-out the wrong thing for me to have done, and it wasn't even my choice per se.)
What are you supposed to do? Make sure that your degree is going to be valuable, either personally to you due to its intellectual value, or in terms of ROI. Look at job postings in fields you're interested in working in and see what they're after in terms of qualifications & experience. Winning at college relies on having more power to predict the future than anyone really has, but if there's something you want to do, chase it for all it's worth. The more specialised, useful skills you learn, the less likely you are to get thrown away after you graduate.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-23 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-23 04:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-23 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-24 02:37 pm (UTC)