“A college degree is nothing more than a license to hunt,” I told a friend recently, adding, “and in today’s economy, the hunting isn’t all that great. He agreed but added that not only was hunting season short on targets but that many college graduates are starting off with a $30 thousand or greater ball and chain attached to their ankles. “Between student loans and the ease of getting credit cards while you’re still an undergraduate, you can be saddled with a hell of a lot of debt before you even find a job,” he said.
According to several sources the cost of student loans has become the largest contributor to US debt and will surpass $1 trillion in 2011. I wonder how many graduates will default. I wonder what their total interest payments will be by the time they eliminate their debt. I wonder how many were suckered in to getting credit cards as undergraduates, only to max them out before graduation. “No payments until you graduate,” the ad may have said, but you can bet your ass that on the Monday following graduation, that first dunning letter or that first telephone call came, demanding immediate payment.
Obviously, the amount of debt that one amasses will depend on the college or university that one attends. If you, as a highly qualified secondary school graduate, choose a prestigious private institution, you can be pretty well guaranteed that tuition, room and board, and fees will run about $50,000 per year. In other words, you’re looking at around 200K for a four-year private institution of higher learning. Books, by the way, are not a thing of the past, so you’d better plan on another thousand or so for those each year. In other words, higher education is more expensive than ever before. Jobs are harder to find, and the chances that you’ll get a position in the field for which you prepared are not all that great. It’s estimated that before he or she retires, the average college graduate will have as many as a dozen career changes. That’s not job changes; those are changes in the career…engineers becoming teachers, or as radical as it might sound, doctors quitting the practice of medicine for something less stressful.
“I don’t want to fall behind my classmates,” is a cry that I’ve heard from a number of high schoolers. What the hell does that mean, “fall behind?” Why should you worry about what your classmates are doing? Chances are fair to middling that you may never see those people again…in your entire life. As strange as that may seem, that is exactly what happens. Therefore, why do you care about what your classmates may think or do? Are you in direct competition with these people? Do they govern your life? Do you have to impress them or “do better” than they do in whatever it is that you choose? You have your own life to live; your own goals to meet; your own career to think about. As harsh as it may seem, once you graduate from your secondary school, that chapter of your life is behind you. Now is the time to look ahead. There will be new friends as well as new challenges. There will be new profits and new losses; a new balance sheet on which you must begin working. I may be atypical, but it wasn’t until 50 years after graduation that I saw many of my high school classmates. My life took me in new directions. It wasn’t that I moved to Madagascar or some other country. I was too busy doing a job, helping to raise a family, and trying to find ways to put some of the monthly paycheck away to buy a house.
Today’s wise high school graduate is doing a couple of things differently. First, he or she is taking a couple of years to work. This does a couple of things for them: First, Mom and Dad will allow them to remain at home, either rent free or at a nominal charge; Next, this sweat equity that they’re building gives them a better understanding of what they want to study when and if they do go on to higher education. Third, it provides them an opportunity to begin saving for the expense of college, thus reducing their dependence on student loans. Finally, and this is highly job dependent, they get a look at some careers they never, ever, not in a million years, want to do for the rest of their lives. Working retail can be a wonderful career…for some people. I did it for eight years (I used to say “six,” but then I did the real math). During that time I learned to hate people. Well, that may be a bit strong, but many of them were unrepentant bastards who treated us like slaves.
Another smart move by a number of today’s high school students is to begin their career by attending a community college. They are far less expensive than a four-year private or even state institution. You get a feel for what college could be like. Some community colleges are no more than an extension of high school…the thirteenth grade, if that’s how you choose to look at it. However, the type of pressure is a bit different. You had to pass course ‘X’ if you were going to graduate from high school. Your parents and your teachers were all over you to get with the program and do better. There’s no more of that when you attend college. First, it’s your money that’s paying the bill. If you wish to piss it down the toilet, that’s your loss; Mom and Dad have nothing to do with it. Wasting your time and money here have much greater consequences, therefore, you have to decide that you wish to waste your hard earned bucks or get something out of them. Chances are pretty good that now that you’ve had to earn your tuition, you’re going to make darned certain that you get your money’s worth. It’s amazing how our attitude changes when we’re the one’s forking over the cash.
If community college “feels” like the route you wish to travel, you can always get basic classes out of the way. One of the most difficult transitions I’ve been told by students – I’m too damned old to remember my own transitional problems – is learning how to study on your own. Again, I return to Mom, Dad, and your high school teachers; they were always on your back about studying and homework. Now you’re on your own. The only one who’s going to push you to do your work is you. If you put pressure on yourself to do the things that need to be done, fine, you get a passing grade; if you don’t, you fail. It’s as simple as that. Taking a couple of years off before beginning college, whether it’s a community college or a four-year institution, gives you a better understanding of this. Why? Because you quickly learn that if you don’t do a job when you are working, you are out the door; there are plenty more where you came from. Yes, life is a bitch; get used to it!
Will a college degree help you amass more money in your lifetime? That’s what they tell me. However, once more it’s merely a case of “figures don’t lie, but liars know how to figure.” You can’t be an engineer without the credentials. The same is true in medicine, law, accounting, and any number of professions. However, you can be a damned good plumber, electrician, mason, carpenter, even landscape designer, or some other tradesperson, and make a more than comfortable living. The University of Maryland is one institution that did offer a program in landscape design. Apprenticeship with a designer can probably bring you many of the same benefits at a much lower fee. The value of a college degree isn’t as great as it once was. College grads are a dime a dozen and unless you have something else to bring to the job table, you’re just another bachelor’s degree graduate hunting for a job. In all too many cases, the same can be said for those with master’s degrees; you are just another competitor and to get ahead you need more than letters behind your name. Getting back to the debt thing, potential employers will also be looking at how much you saddled yourself with before getting out of school. It gives them an idea of how well you can manage finances…hmmm…hadn’t thought about that one, had ya?
Whatever you decide to do; whatever you feel is in your best interest, your decision is much more complex than it initially appears. If you’re about to begin a new chapter…LAHS or life after high school, don’t think of it as anything but the beginning of life’s struggles; that’s right, struggles. Most of you will learn that life is tough and you have to be even tougher to succeed in it, no matter your definition of success. Finally, remember the words of American humorist, Henry Wheeler Shaw, “Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.”
Dick Bishop
Dick Bishop's Blog 