50K degree in underwater basket weaving, stuck in low pay job.

[Anonemous]

I don't see her problem. She got a 45K job to pay off her 50K loans.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I don't see her problem. She got a 45K job to pay off her 50K loans.

She could've had that same job without 50K in loans. I think that's the problem but she was stupid if she thought that "degree" would make her serious money.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Before you declare a major you should be forced to do a research project on the job prospects, pay, and overall education costs required to complete that degree.

Compare the cost to the realistic salary/job opportunities you could expect and send a copy of that to your parents, the government (if you are student loans) and any other entity that is financing your ass.

Then let them decide if you can proceed down that path.

In any other loan you take the underwriters require some proof that you'll actually be able to repay that amount.

Great idea. We kind of did something like this from materials passed around by career services, but nobody paid it any mind.
Everyone scoffed it off, but I can see the point they were trying to make.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

I also think parents who have the money but refuse to pay for their kids' college tuition are dicks.

Just as terrible, junkie parents spending all their money on dope, instead of putting towards their childs' future.

Why did my parents have to be junkies?

 

[Strk]

They need to differentiate between graduate degrees in stuff like "Interdisciplinary In Humanities and Social Thought" and degrees in things like Engineering if they want to write a serious article.

A Ph.D. in robotics is going to leave you in a nice job in almost any economy. "Interdisciplinary In Humanities and Social Thought" is going to leave you in a shitty job even in a great economy. You can't write a serious article that talks about "graduate degrees" as a blanket thing.

While there wasn't any depth to it, they did differentiate for a tiny bit:

Men with master’s degrees make an average of $14,500 more a year than those without the degrees, and for women it’s about $10,000, according to Rose’s analysis of Census data. Advanced degrees in computers, engineering, business and nursing lead to the highest salaries. Master’s degrees in education, fine arts, teaching and liberal arts fare the worst.

 

[bfdd]

The real kicker is that the system isn't designed to teach students how to employ their skills in the real world. It's just about generating revenue. There are tons of idiots out there that cannot be helped (look @ my example above), but those on the cusp aren't really encouraged to make intelligent choices. Whenever I've been to the fucking COUNSELOR, they were never helpful. You have to drill them for info. Frankly, you've got to be really aggressive to get the answers you need.

educators need to get paid duh. they're the ones perpetuating this system, but any time you want to hold them accountable people flip their shit. it needs to start at the lowest of levels before it'll be an effective measure against bullshit at the higher levels.

 

[Doppel]

LMFAO because I GUARANTEE at least some people when she said she'd do this questioned it but she went headlong into this piece of sh*t degree anyway.

 

[Doppel]

Before you declare a major you should be forced to do a research project on the job prospects, pay, and overall education costs required to complete that degree.

Compare the cost to the realistic salary/job opportunities you could expect and send a copy of that to your parents, the government (if you are student loans) and any other entity that is financing your ass.

Then let them decide if you can proceed down that path.

In any other loan you take the underwriters require some proof that you'll actually be able to repay that amount.

Agree in principle. As long as the government backs toilet paper degress like this they will continue to exist. Our taxes essentially back this kind of rubbish and it's not helping anybody except the tits on a bull useless professor who's actually being paid to teach it.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

I hear being a prostitute pulls a decent buck. Why did I go to college?

 

[xanis]

I've got a high school degree and am in the top 10% of earners. College as a training program is overrated. Return college to what it should be, a place of learning not a job placement office.

We have a winner. Tougher academics and more focus on "learning by doing" through internships and apprenticeships. Lower tuition to make it more widely attainable, pay the students a few bucks so they can get books and food. Employers get eager and young labor for very little money and students learn more and learn better. Everyone wins... except for maybe the college, but it should not be about them anyway.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

This is a serious problem...kids are going to college for far too long and for the wrong reasons. They aren't going to college to receive training for a career path anymore, they're going to college because that's what all their friends are doing. And they stay in college because when they graduate, they realize that their 4-year degree in philosophy didn't prepare them to be able to get a job or raise a family or be self-sufficient. So they get a masters...or a second degree. And when that doesn't magically get them a job, they get a PHD or a second masters. Seriously, two of my wife's siblings are in this condition, and one of her best friends.

No job prospects, no real-life experience, no training for any kind of career skills...no use to society at all.

We need to stop with the "everyone goes to college" shit. It doesn't work and it devalues the education one could have received in college. There need to be two secondary education paths in the US: one path which leads to college and one path that leads to vocational training. In 8th grade, you take an aptitude test. Based on that, you either go to a traditional high school with all like-minded people, or you go to a vocational highschool where you learn to weld, to repair cars, to be an apprentice electrician, to frame houses, to be an RDA, etc, etc. There is no shame in any of those jobs, and none of them require a college degree. Shoe-horning all of these people into the umbrella of "liberal arts" college degrees is just plain stupid.

I disagree with part of that. Great ability in a field is not necessarily manifested early on. Performance as a child does not necessarily determine what will happen when that child is an adult. Some children being more ahead than others does not necessarily determine anything either. For all anyone knows, the child failing his classes in 8th grade could end up as an MD or leading researcher in his or her field, while the kid that was ahead could end up flipping burgers or with some ordinary, unremarkable profession.

More here:
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2026

I failed pre-calc in high school, and otherwise did poorly in classes, but now I'm gonna be an engineer and I have a fun job lined up for when I graduate. :awe:
And it didn't really take anything special. I simply matured, decided what I wanted to do, and did it. Or maybe that is special, maybe that is what makes all the difference.

A lot of former high school classmates with inflated 5.0 GPAs now work at Starbucks.

But I agree that college is not for anyone. A job doesn't need to require a degree to be respectable.

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah I was a serious introvert all the way up to 11th grade. Then I had a speaking class and now I am the best public speaker I've ever known both in the Navy and in college (not including my professors, of course).

I also liked electronics at a young age but found I was not good at making a career of it.

 

[marincounty]

Don't be so quick to judge. I know a guy that got a degree in recreation-now he owns a multi-million dollar business.
I also used to laugh at those commercials for those for-profit colleges you see on tv, like ITT tech and DeVry. Well, I found out that an old family friend went to DeVry and later worked at Sun. Guess who cashed out of Sun during the dot-com era and is now a millionaire?

 

[halik]

http://webfarm.bloomberg.com/news/2...e-in-low-paying-job-is-increasing-lament.html

Laura Sayer, unsure of what she wanted to do after graduating from college in 2006, figured a master’s degree was “a safe bet.”

So she figured get an easy degree and somehow your set for life in a high paying job with a degree in "Interdisciplinary In Humanities and Social Thought"

Opps FAIL.

Spending $50K on a master's that will make you no more qualified at anything than a highschool graduate is a great demonstration of your intelligence. She needs to find something to OCCUPY her cranial cavity.

 

[PingSpike]

She could've had that same job without 50K in loans. I think that's the problem but she was stupid if she thought that "degree" would make her serious money.

Well, she might not need to degree to do that job...but can she really say she would have gotten it without it?

At my work they hired some one to do phone support with a PhD.

 

[Rage187]

i have a brilliant idea. stop subsidizing loans for non-science majors.

I support this idea.

 

[bfdd]

I support this idea.

It wouldn't work. To much passes for science now a days.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Well, she might not need to degree to do that job...but can she really say she would have gotten it without it?

At my work they hired some one to do phone support with a PhD.

You might have a point. Many jobs nowadays require college degrees, even though most of us know that many of these same jobs don't really make use of anything you gain by getting a degree.

 

[Cattlegod]

They need to start educating people in hs with a class on every college degree and its payback

 

[Slammy1]

I know, my niece is at Yale working on her humanities PhD, hope she can get a job. I'm sure she'll do well, humanities at State U are different than humanities at Ivy League U. There are just a limited number of jobs and an excess of applicants.

 

[pontifex]

Is the topic title a joke? I really thought someone majored in underwater basketweaving. I understand the point of the article but I found the topic title really misleading.

you must have a degree in Interdisciplinary In Humanities and Social Thought

 

[SparkyJJO]

There literally are billions of dollars up for grabs every year in free college money, but people are lazy and would rather take out loans then actually WORK for something and apply for the FREE MONEY. They can't be bothered with that because it takes EFFORT and would cut into party time, Facebook time and general dicking around.

So I hear but I guess everyone already got to it when I went looking. And I looked, a lot. I didn't want any loans (Thankfully I owed less than most people pay for a car).

This "billions of dollars for free" is a load of crap.

 

[OverVolt]

So I hear but I guess everyone already got to it when I went looking. And I looked, a lot. I didn't want any loans (Thankfully I owed less than most people pay for a car).

This "billions of dollars for free" is a load of crap.

Your talking to a moron who graduated in like 2006 or something.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I got my Bachelors with 0 debt. My Masters will cost me about 5000 out of pocket. I did it by working 30 hours a week, doing a course overload every semester, and going to a Community College to get my core classes and saving the university only for the absolutely necessary major classes. Got my BS in 3 years by doing summer semesters every year along with the course overloads. Due to the great grades I got offered a Masters opportunity for about $1,200 a semester.

 

[Malak]

i have a brilliant idea. stop subsidizing loans for non-science majors.

I have a better idea. Stop defining professionals by a piece of paper on a wall. Education is a horribly overvalued. You can learn more reading wikipedia in one week than you'll learn in a semester in college, and it will cost you nothing. I haven't felt like I've learned anything from school since elementary...