Today, America's best and brightest are graduating from college full of hopes and dreams, but cold, hard economic reality is rapidly crushing many of them. Record numbers of college graduates cannot find jobs. Hordes of others have been forced to take very low paying service jobs. At the same time, student loan debt loads have become more crushing than ever. The truth is that it is a really, really bad time to be a fresh college graduate. After spending tens of thousands of dollars and investing four (or more) years of their lives in an education, millions of recent college graduates find themselves waiting tables, tending bar, delivering pizzas and working next to (or subordinate to) people who never even went to college. At one time, a college degree was an automatic ticket to the middle class, but now for many Americans all a college degree means is crushing loan payments, sleepless nights and mind-numbing frustration.
We were always told that a college degree was supposed to prepare us for life in the real world. But today, the vast majority of college graduates end up moving back in with their parents.
In fact, a recent survey of last year's college graduates found that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation. That was up substantially from 63 percent in 2006.
So why are 80 percent of our college graduates moving back in with their parents?
Well, because they can't get jobs.
Two million recent college graduates are unemployed, and millions of others are working in fast food joints, at big box stores and in other very low paying service positions.
The stories that some recent college grads tell are so bizarre that they border on the unbelievable.
The Huffington Post recently featured the story of Kyle Daley - a highly qualified UCLA graduate who has been unemployed for 19 months....
I spent my time at UCLA preparing for the outside world. I had internships in congressional offices, political action committees, non-profits and even as a personal intern to a successful venture capitalist. These weren't the run-of-the-mill office internships; I worked in marketing, press relations, research and analysis. Additionally, the mayor and city council of my hometown appointed me to serve on two citywide governing bodies, the planning commission and the open government commission. I used to think that given my experience, finding work after graduation would be easy.
At this point, however, looking for a job is my job. I recently counted the number of job applications I have sent out over the past year -- it amounts to several hundred. I have tried to find part-time work at local stores or restaurants, only to be turned away. Apparently, having a college degree implies that I might bail out quickly when a better opportunity comes along.
The sad thing is that so many of these recent college graduates can't even get hired for retail jobs. A reader of my column on The American Dream blog named Kate is a recent college graduate who is experiencing the kind of extreme frustration that so many new graduates are going through right now....
I just graduated college in May… Moved to a new state and am now living with my boyfriend who should not and cannot continue to have to pay everything because i just plain can’t get a job.
I’m over qualified for retail survivor jobs… so I lie on my application. But then retail stores just plain don’t hire full time. So even if I could get a job as a cashier someplace… I’d only work enough hours to maybe pay for my car payment/ car insurance/ gas…. and my half of rent/electric and such is out of the question… not to mention charged to the limit credit cards from being unemployed and student loans that will hit in just a matter of months.
Any other jobs either don’t exist or they just ALL want 5 years professional experience…. which is impossible for someone who just graduated and has been working part time retail jobs since high school.
But it just isn't college graduates that are suffering. The truth is that this economic downturn has been hurting everyone....
*According to a recent Pew Research poll, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.
*A different Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of American workers have experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.
*According to another survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one member that is currently looking for a full-time job.
For many U.S. households, the person looking for a job is a recent college graduate.
As you read this, hordes of highly qualified college grads are out applying for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, grocery checkout clerks and hamburger flippers.
Even those who are able to get decent jobs are finding themselves disappointed. Starting salaries for college graduates across the United States are down in 2010.
But why shouldn't starting salaries be down? It is the employers that hold all the leverage - not the new graduates.
Meanwhile, many of these college graduates are graduating with crushing student debt loads. Today, many students borrow 10, 20 or even 30 thousands dollars per year while they are in school.
Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor's degree within four years.
That is a very sad statistic.
The truth is that college courses have become so "dumbed down" in 2010 that even the family dog should be able to graduate from most U.S. colleges in four years.
Even after 6 years, that same group's graduation rate was still only 57 percent.
Very sad.
But getting back to the point, every single one of those years most college students are racking up huge amounts of debt.
Today, approximately two-thirds of all U.S. college students graduate with student loans.
Student loan balances of over $50,000 are becoming quite common among our college grads. In fact, some students end up with over $100,000 in student loan debt by the time they are done.
Unfortunately, student loan debt is some of the cruelest debt out there.
Federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts, and many recent grads end up with loan payments that absolutely devastate them financially at a time when they are struggling to get on their feet and make something of themselves.
So what do you think? Can you identify with this article? Are you a recent college graduate or do you have a recent college graduate living back at home? If so, please feel free to share your story in the comments section below....
It’s about time our society dumped the college system anyway. All that time taking classes that don’t pertain to the job field you want to enter, wasting lots of money creating jobs for professors. You must be “well-rounded” they say, therefore take these courses that you’ll never need when performing the job you’re being trained for. People can well-round themselves at their local library. Get rid of the 50-75% of unnecessary courses and it becomes a lot more affordable, and there wouldn’t be this huge time lag until graduation, so people would be better able to gauge the future economic landscape AND allow people to go back once they’ve been working and need to change job fields. How long would it take someone to get a bachelor’s degree while they have to work full time? 8 years? These days, you’re best off learning a trade. The training is generally cheaper, way shorter, and most of the jobs are not part of the “global market” because they have to physically be performed on-site. And, with most trade jobs, you can start your own business if you wish.
You guys (but i’m generally speaking for everybody in the Western World) gotta go back to basics: learn to do something with your hands, wood work, making shoes, clothes, etc… when this services economy will go south, this stuff will keep you afloat.
I sympathize with the new college grads. I really hope they find jobs soon.
But I also have to be a bit skeptical. 19 months looking for a job? Has it occurred to any of these kids to create a job, by starting a company? They may have loans, but they are relatively unencumbered compared to the rest of us: no mortgage, no kids, and so on.
I think the real economy is also pricing college graduates’ majors more accurately than may be pleasant. A degree in journalism… history… sociology… and so on: great – for a booming economy with capital to invest in soft occupations. Right now, who needs it? And, while there are certainly exceptions, we all know what four or five years at a typical American college looks like now, especially in a soft major: graduation, still being unable to write, speak, and spell very well, with no experience in a field where you can’t just sit down and start producing something. Maybe the economy is telling kids that it’s time to go back to the “hard” subjects like math, engineering, physics, biochemistry, and so on – subjects where America is falling behind and that actually require students to work hard, not party hard?
Last, the dizzying inflation in college costs is because we all assume college is just the next step after high school no matter what. I think we need to rethink that: why is a degree in journalism, sociology, etc. worth half a million dollars? Is it because our high school degrees have become so worthless (thanks, teachers unions and political correctness)? European high school degrees are better than most American college degrees, and they have kept alive a very good post-secondary vocational education system. Maybe some of these journalism and sociology majors should consider apprenticing as a plumber, electrician, or alternative energy systems technician?
In the end, I think a lot of this article, and the students’ stubbornness in pursuing an approach that’s not working points to an entitlement mentality. “We deserve a college degree”, “I deserve a good job in whatever field I chose”, and so on. I think if you’ve been searching for a job for a year and a half with no success, it’s time for a change. I can’t tell anyone what that is, they have to figure it out for themselves, but don’t wait around for the government or “someone else” to do it. Shameful that all these kids are moving back in with mommy and daddy, who may well have taken out a second mortgage to pay for the beer bashes and women’s studies seminars.
Hmmm… Long, Long ago when I was turned down from a job by the local McDonalds where I lived, I concentrated on building a Landscaping Maintenance company and eventually making FAR MORE then whoever was hired over me.
Interestingly in my neck of the woods of Las Vegas… I know 19 year old savvy kids making far more money with their own businesses then kids straight out of good colleges…
Yeah… I got my degree from a big time school and paid a fortune for it. It was probably a waste of money because everything I learned…. came from owning.. and running that landscape business.
Very true, unless of course your father is a banker (like a friend of ours is). His son just graduated with low honors, but somehow landed a great banking job in downtown Manhatten. I guess he was just lucky! Folks, the more things change, the more they stay the same. LOL
Student loans are just one more true example of a PREDATORY loan, no matter one says to defend this FACT. Just another way to rob the next generation and parents, with the lure of the security of a good and well paying job after graduation. Student loans should be treated just like any kind of loan, period!
Back in the 1950s and 1960s–before the USA became a Third World horror movie called The Banana Republic of America–there were different paths to financial success. There were high-paying unionized blue-collar jobs, and there were high-paying white collar jobs. But times have changed for the worse. Blue-collar workers are screwed, and white-collar workers are screwed. A college degree is no longer worth the paper it is printed on, and so many blue-collar jobs have disappeared. Unemployed construction workers and unemployed college graduates are competing for minimum-wage jobs at the dollar store. The BRA’s race to the bottom continues to accelerate.
I was recently having a conversation with a friend about how Gen-X has been screwed economically and how Gen-X has every right to be bitter, but I quickly added, “Gen-Y, however, is much worse off than Gen-X. At least a lot of Gen-Xers prospered during the 1990s. Many X-ers are struggling now, but at least many of them were able to put some money away during the Bill Clinton years. Gen-Y isn’t so lucky. Gen-X got screwed, but Gen-Y got REALLY screwed.”
Oh, and just wait until Gen-Z gets older–Generation Z won’t even be able to remember a time when The Banana Republic of America wasn’t a pathetic, broken, dysfunctional Third World basketcase. Gen-Z won’t remember the USA, only the BRA.
Bienvenido a La República Banana de América, maldita pesadilla del tercer mundo. Que Dios nos ayude.
Poor babies working for people who never even went to college….what a snobby sentence…kind of says it all about American values doesn’t it. It will do these kids good to do some honest work and see how real people live. The next big bubble that is due to burst is probably going to be student loans.
The truth is College these days is a joke. It used to be that students studied things like Science, math, chemical enginering ect. Now they study theatre, the arts, history. To understand college in todays world you have to open your mind a bit and grasp that people go to college to “learn” things that should be learned outside of college or simply for knowledge sake. If you want to learn about film appriciation thats great. However don’t expect a 6 figure a year job from it. We have litterally millions of students going to college to learn things that society used to teach collectivly. College was originally where you went to learn highly specialized skills such as chemistry, physics, ect. Things like History, english lit, drama used to be taught by you parents your piers and your general thirst for knowledge…..now we pay $60k a year to get drunk and learn about the cultural history of the lute and wonder why we are delivering Pizzas.
College is a complete waste of time anyways. Just 4 more years of “indoctrination”. Cheap student loans have driven the cost of college UP the same way easy money drove up the cost of housing.
Kyle prepared for the “real world” by”
“I spent my time at UCLA preparing for the outside world. I had internships in congressional offices, political action committees, non-profits and even as a personal intern to a successful venture capitalist.”
…HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG Kyle, Thank you for the best laugh I’ve had allllll day!
I am about to start college (no loans, though) and I am wondering what am I supposed to do after I graduate.
The future is very uncertain; I may not even be able to remain in college if my scholarships no longer exist what with the economy in the shitter.
That UCLA kid with all that experience, if he can’t succeed, who can?
When I graduated high school (about 10 years ago) I had life planned out, much like these people from your articles and blogs. I was a political science major, worked for non-profit agencies, volunteered with different political organizations and thought I was on the fast track….but then I woke up one morning and realized….what kind of a market is there for me? Political science majors are a dime a dozen (and you can substitute political science with anything you want honestly, whether it be english, anthropology, history, etc)
So I dropped college and learned a trade. Now I have been cooking for close to 8 years and I have more job offers than I even know what to do with. As much as these people claim to have trouble finding jobs…I don’t think they are looking hard enough. 19 months unemployed? That is absurd and to be honest, the kid is clearly doing something wrong. There *ARE* jobs to be had. He just needs to expand his horizons and starting trying something different. Look for something that requires a skill and try to find an apprenticeship. Start your own business. Something. Anything.
Life is about your ability to adapt. If you can’t adapt then…well..I’m pretty sure Darwin had something to say about that but without a college degree….what do I know?
Thank you Barack Hussein Obama!
The first thing he did in office was to drive the unemployment rate into double-digits, where it has remained ever since. http://bit.ly/7hsZBy
When 2011 arrives with the crushing new Obama taxes, that should drive unemployment even higher. So all you kiddies who emotionally voted for Obama, the unqualified candidate who thinks the US has 57 states…this is your reward.
Congratulations! You got the government you deserve. Next time, think before you make a decision.
My son is in last year of Law school, and told me that 70% of last years Law grads have not found work.
They are all sitting around, hoping to get hired by a corporation or government, instead of actually Lawyering. My son tells me most of his current classmates think the same way.
Instead of actually applying themselves, they are like so many unemployed, wanting someone to just hand them a job.
Other posters here, have said: “Did you ever think of starting your own business?”
I thought a lawyer was a business!
My son fully intends to be a Lawyer, and open up office somewhere, and will be working.
Patrick is right on, who’s going to hire somebody with a degree in Sociology in this economy? Journalism, please I work with a guy who has a Journalism degree we’re doing the same job I have a little college. He told me Journalism is a dying field, but that doesn’t stop wide-eyed kids from wanting to “Change the World” Small business people have it tough your looking a taxes, more mandates, but your business is looking ok, you have an opening starting at $10.00 an hour. Who would you hire some 19 year old who wants to work, or some 24 YO with a History Degree who will bolt at the first smell better paying gig.
Something is to be said for vocational training, your much more employable as a Plumber, or a certified Auto Mechanic than some dim wit with a four year degree in History, and five figures in student loan debt. Who’s the smarter and who’s more likely to do better in the long run?
I’ve been trying to tell people that college was a good idea twenty years ago but times have changed. I hear people on tv who are talking about getting their “life” on track say, I’m going to college. Its an idiotic idea. You don’t learn anything useful and your better off going to vocational school. Of course the colleges lie about statistics like “ninety percent” of our graduates get jobs. Those jobs are probably mcdonalds and crap like that. I wish there was more outrage at colleges who lie about the statistics they use and how much they charge. I have a community college degree and all its good for is thinking I have a college degree. I also have my cdl which has been way more useful.
Patrick,
Starting a business is extremely expensive. I’ve done it and it is nearly impossible – and is impossible unless there is access to capital. A lot of capital.
It requires tens of thousands of dollars just for a bare bones freelance attempt; marketing costs alone in the first six months are crushing.
We are in a depression so even if you identify an industry with reasonable entrance and regulatory costs, it is like climbing a straight up granite slope.
Sadly, many Americans prefer the phoney gloss offered by businesses piped into the Federal Reserve or unsustainability of Walmart-esque offers ($1.99 for a FULL WEBSITE and SHOPPING CART!!!)
Unless you have a 2 year history of increasing profits, no bank will lend you for a business. Period.
@JayDee,
You are missing the point. TECB author is pointing out that recent college graduates are stuck in a black hole: they were promised access to positions of a certain level and now they find their degrees are almost worthless.
It is not a matter of snootiness. In fact, I am detecting a bit of smugness in your own comment, perhaps an enjoyment of the struggle of college graduates.
People did not go to college in order to be subordinates to low-level managers who are barely able to mop up a floor let alone make intelligent project decisions.
TECB has once again hit a homerun and demonstrated the freshest information on the real state of the economy.
“But I also have to be a bit skeptical. 19 months looking for a job? Has it occurred to any of these kids to create a job, by starting a company? They may have loans, but they are relatively unencumbered compared to the rest of us: no mortgage, no kids, and so on.” What a naïve statement. Like some of the students profiled in the linked article, I’m also one of many, many recent graduates who spend their days and nights networking like crazy for a scarce amount of jobs. Predatory “resume drafting” companies, fee based job boards and networking coaches fill our e-mail inboxes with solicitations. It’s horrible out here. So as some have mentioned, I tried to start a business – aside from the slim chance of my company getting the attention of a generous angel investors, FORGET about getting a loan with ivy league student loan debt. Gone are the days where lenders invest in your brains and overlook that 100 K of student loan debt.
I think the point was that the job probably shouldn’t have required a college degree in the first place. I was renting a car a while back and struck up a conversation with the people behind the counter. All of them were recent college graduates. A four year degree was required to work there. That’s really screwed up.
As for the comment about how the economy is telling kids they should be pursuing math, science and engineering degrees because the country needs them? How do you explain the near total lack of job listings for positions in those fields, the skyrocketing number of H1-B visas that are being issued, and the migration of many company’s design and engineering centers overseas? If they’re hearing the economy tell them to go into those fields, they should get their hearing checked. The economy surely isn’t telling them to start their own businesses either. Banks aren’t loaning to anyone whether it’s for expansion and certainly not to finance a startup.
i have always been suspicious of the idea of going to college to get a good job. i think it’s more of a weeding out process, to make it easier for job recruiters. for all the mathematics, physics, computer science i studied while in college, years ago i accepted a job at ibm, they started me at ground zero, as if i hadn’t learned anything. i was basically an apprentice. in my opinion college as a learning experience is way overrated. if you take all that i have learned on my own, i would be working on phd number seven or eight by now.
There are so many college graduates now a days, if your just counting on college & the typical degree to find you a good job then chances are not high that you will land a good paying job because you are completing with ever other young adult out there.
Best thing to do is start working in college so you can secure a job once you graduate. Don’t wait till you graduate!
Make the right connections, connections will really help.
For those of you who think you can start your own business, i say try it out as long as it doesn’t take too much capital & overhead. It might not work for everyone but if you start young, there is not much to lose but do keep in mind that there are more business failure then successes. However, keep on trying, its a numbers game.
I just graduated from college with two degrees in finance and business admin (hope those aren’t too soft for you) and can’t find a job in investments or banking like I’d prefer. Granted I don’t have the experience in these fields, but how many college students know what they want to do from freshman, sophmore, junior year? Hell I didn’t realize until senior year for crying out loud. I work 3 service jobs because I want to make more than enough money than to just “get by”. I am planning on starting a business and don’t complain about the economic landscape. But I raise one important question to those lambasting recent college grads…how are we supposed to start businesses when BANKS AREN’T LENDING MONEY!!!!
To respond to “lostinmissouri”, please review the blogs such as “But I did everything right” or “Shilling me Softly”. Your statement “I thought a lawyer was a business!” is very naive. The model has changed, to open up a legal business takes substantial malpractice experience, as well as actual practice experience to avoid committing malpractice. Law school simply does not teach lawyers how to practice law. Also, you must remember that solo/small firm lawyers have to compete now with outsourcing and companies such as Legal Zoom. Also, why would a client come to your son with no skills, when they can have their pick of attorneys with large advertising budgets and experience – all willing to work for cheap. Your son is screwed.
In my opinion the cream always floats to the top. Yes we are in a recession which increases competition for jobs. If you’re graduating in a “soft” subject and expect to walk into a job just because you have a degree then I have little sympathy.
I work in the engineering sector and we are crying out for new talent but have to hire from Cina, India, Europe.
You get what you put in so if you go to university to take an “easy” subject such as media or social science expect to be disappointed.
I love when baby boomers conclusively state that there are jobs to be had, but you just have to look harder. Give me a damn break. I have more hard working, networking savvy, smart friends unemployed than those that are employed. All of us frequently here that are qualifications and personalities are excellent…but, there’s no money to hire. Why? There’s a reduced demand due to the lack of credit. And for my own company, a very high tech energy company, when I post for a job opening, I always have 50 resumes before lunch. Most, if not, have stellar resumes, some with IVY credentials, MBAs, etc. The talent is out there, but we’re not hiring…
Systemic collapse in action. Remember, you saw it here first.
And yes, the system is rigged. You have no hope of escape. 30 years ago a guy (or gal) could work a summer job and a part-time student job, pay tuition, books and get a room with a meal per day on that summer/school job. As time passed, college expenses creeped up, student loans became the “easy way” to fill in. If they had not existed schools would have had to cut costs to stay affordable to keep their class rooms full. Instead the very predatory lending system stepped in to get the next group of suckers tied into the collective so they could never escape and do interesting things with their lives. Yes, I hate to say it, but the college system is a scam and you would be better off not going if you can’t pay cash.
To those of you who are screwed? May I suggest leaving the country unless it will screw your parents as well. Really, that is about the only course of action left where you can get away with defaulting on all those loans.
If you are a college student right now, or have just graduated, and you have taken out a student loan for 50,000 dollars, I have a surprise for you! You are up ****s creek without a paddle, unless you can afford $600 a month for the next 10 years.
The student loan business is a racket. They make it easy for the 18 year old green horn to sign the dotted line for a loan, knowing full well a 50,000 dollar loan will probably return 125,000 in the end. The average student loan sucker will ask the loan company for an extention or a delay program which adds fee’s and makes the interest rate skyrocket. Also, you can “NEVER” get out of a student loan. You can’t declare bankruptcy, you can’t gaft it off, they will hound you till your dying days until you pay up.
US college/ university system will collapse soon.
The Federal Reserve Banking system will also collapse soon.
Just a matter of time.
“True American”
Or shall I call you Glenn Beck?
Your nonsense spewing isn’t as effective without the visualizations of arms flailing and tears flowing. Please go back to Fox news.
I’ve been looking for awhile for any data on how many graduates there were in science, engineering, and other professions in the 21st. century. People like Bill Gates keep saying they can’t find any American engineers, hence the need for more guest workers. I found some interesting data on the National Science Foundation’s website.
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf08321/content.cfm?pub_id=3785&id=2
In the last 9.5 years, the US has graduated roughly 5.8 million scientists and engineers (BA, MA, PHD). Also, 700,000 Computer Scientists were given BA, MA, and PHDs.
The data only goes to 2006. I took the average of the first 6 years and added it to ’07, ’08, ’09, and ’10.
-But BLS data says that only 11,500 net new jobs were added in the last 9.5 years in the category “Architecture and Engineering”. The BLS has no category for science.
-The category “Computer Systems Design and Related” added only 130,000 net new jobs.
-Information lost a net 995,000 jobs.
-The only hi-tech category to gain a decent amount of jobs was “Technical Consulting”, adding 283,000 net jobs. But these are mostly short term contracts, lasting a few months, that don’t offer benfits.
-Accounting and Bookkeeping gained only 11,000 jobs.
-Legal Services gained only 29,000 jobs.
-Financial Activities lost 159,000 jobs.
Since the beginning of ’01, America’s “superpower” economy lost 2 million jobs
The data proves beyond any doubt that there is no shortage. No wonder people like me and my late father have been unemployed or underemployed for years. No wonder we’re making less now than at the turn of the century.
It’s not just recent grads who are suffering.
Krista and True American – you’re both wrong. You need to watch the Obama Deception and/or the Fall of the Replublic. Krista, the Obama Deception is not about the left vs. right, the right vs left, the Democrats vs Republicans, the Republicans vs Democrats, the liberals vs conseratives, and the conservatives vs the liberals. No, you both have it all wrong. You need to learn about the myth of the left – right punch and judy show. Read about the real parallel government in the book Tragedy and Hope by Carrol Quigley. Better yet, watch either the Obama Deception or the Fall of the Republic on YouTube for FREE! Learn about what is really going on!
In most other civilized countries, higher education was paid for by the state.
In the US, as the cost of education rose due to shortages in already educated people with PhDs, we developed the student loan program. The student loan program is a way for students to invest in themselves by acquiring debt.
Now, what kind of idiot entrusts $10,000 or more to an 18-year-old fund manager, who states that he or she will “invest that money in myself” because the returns will be really, really good?
American Idiots.
Instead of doing the “socialist” thing and keeping public college affordable, and figuring out how to find the talented people and (basically) pressure them into getting PhDs to build more educational capacity to meet the demand… we did the “capitalist” thing and figured out how to profit on the shortage.
So, who gets rich off student loans? Wall Street. They provide the loans. The debt causes the graduates to seek out the best paying work… which often happens to be in the finance field. Which is profiting from student loans.
Since so many smart students applied for jobs, financial companies were able to skim the talent from our top universities (globally).
That deprived us of engineers, doctors, scientists, and other workers who do useful work. These smart young people were working hard to analyze money.
In Time magazine, there is an article called “WHY COLLEGES COST TOO MUCH”, explains well why students have to go into so much debt.
Quote:
Why don’t you read about Robert Kiyosaki’s ideas? Try visiting Richdad.com. Their mission is to provide financial education.
His advice is very important, especially to those of us who cannot find a job. You can be a financially-free-person without having a job.
Try it. Visit Richdad.com. Try viewing his “Shooting the Sacred Cows of Money” for free. You’ll learn a very great, essential lessons there.
I have no plans to pay back my student loan ever. If the Federal Government can lose billions of unaccountable dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan then they can afford to lose my student loan money. I will pay back some but only 10 to 20%. I would rather pick-up beer cans for deposit than pay back the criminals who control the Federal Government.
College is a scam. Don’t waste your money. It just another capitalist trap to entrap you and your family for life into paying through the nose. Wise up people.
I too talked to the front office people at a car rental company, and they all had to have college degrees to apply for the job. This is a job that any 1960s high-school graduate could do OJT, and did. Now, these companies demand the sheep skin, as if this is some kind of proof that the person actually learned to think while in college. Obviously, this learning to think (which used to be the purpose of educating a student) process is not occurring in our colleges. Anyone who lines up to get a debt load of 100,000 bucks, and the likelihood of paying it off until they retire, is clearly someone who has not learned to “think”.
And, the car company employees also had to go to school for several months to learn how to do their jobs. What they learned in college was useless in helping them do this job. And, the young people I talked to know they have been taken to the cleaners and that college education was time wasted and pretty much worthless in doing their job. I asked them, “Wouldn’t OJT, on the job training, be more appropriate that 4 hears of college?” They said, “Yes, absolutely.” So, why are all they companies demanding college degrees when several months of OJT is more appropriate? Because the “education” system in this country is nothing more, now, than a way to scam the brain-washed, propagandized masses out of their money. It has nothing to do with teaching the skill of thinking. This country does not want people who think; they are trouble-makers, rebellious, won’t put up with crap people. They want the American people dumbed-down, complacent, and compliant. And, that’s what they’ve got!
Graduated with a degree in biology. I have 1 year experience. Applying to jobs that ask for 1 year of my exact experience or less is useless. No calls for interviews. Just “thanks but no thanks” e-mails. I started applying to retail and leaving out the fact that I have a degree. No calls from retail either..
Oh and loan payments start in November. Maybe I will just shOOt myself now.
I’m a recent college grad, and I have a job, but it’s part time. In addition, I’m physically limited, for quite a while I couldn’t walk long without a cane, and would sometimes use a wheel chair. I’m now able to walk on my own, though not really without difficulty and only thanks to hard work improving my health, and of course lots of drugs. However though I can function at work, it’s not without a good deal of physical discomfort or out right pain. I can’t find anything less physically strenuous. I have no student loans to pay off, but the “health care” industry owns my soul.
I suggest a book called “Scratch Beginnings” by Adam Shepard for all of these grads. My own son is a recent grad currently delivering pizzas and driving a $900 BMW with no health insurance. He has about $20,000 in loans from his undergraduate degree and wants to pursue grad school in Sociology….
He lived at home for a year after graduation but was just too picky, so I finally gave him 60 days and he is working at the best job he can get right now with his political science degree. The most important thing is that he is doing it ON HIS OWN. Yes, he lives in a room that he rents for $100 a month, yes, he hates delivering pizzas and spends every extra cent to keep his car on the road so he can continue to do that. Yes, I’m scared to death he’ll be knifed or something terrible will happen but he is a 23 year old young man and I will not cripple him by coddling him into believing he’s entitled to have a lovely apartment and make $50,000 and still lounge around in women’s studies sociology classes.
He’s a very bright, articulate guy….I’m sure he’ll get it soon. Hopefully, before he goes into debt for grad school in an equally useless area
Read “Scratch Beginnings” If you are willing to do any work you will be just fine.
Well then, now would be a great time to become self sufficient and self employed.
Why do work for “the man” when you can do it yourself?
To those touting the hard core science/engineering programs, forget about it. Those are being offshored in droves.
In reality, a person needs to apply for a professional school … pharmacy, dentistry, nurse anesthesiology, etc, where the work is licensed and done stateside.
Then, if one can’t get into those programs, then yes, go for a trade school, find work, and do a college degree, at a cheaper online state program, very very part-time until it’s done in 7-10 years. Then, if need be, you can be ‘seen’ in an office in the future, without being an HR outcast.
I would trade my college degree for the money back in a heartbeat. I cant even find a job at mcdonalds. One day when i have children they will drop out of high school and get GED’s and CERTIANLY NOT GO TO COLLEGE.
i think its funny that my non college educated parrents were doing better than i am at this age.
I have just taken a job (Engineering Job) making 15% less than the average starting salary of a mechanical engineer. Makes me pissed off how much luck comes into to play. A kid that went to school with me got worse grades and cheated his way through, is now fortunate enough to get a job with his co-op employer and is now making more than most engineering new grads. I’m glad he has a job but man does the big man act in weird ways. So now I am constituently regretting accepting the job since I feel like a cheap whore, however at other times I feel it will just make me push harder to achieve what it is that I want.
I’m currently a senior studying computer graphics. I was told going in that the 3d Animation and Video game fields are doing well even in the recession. This year I saved the money from my summer internship working on a medical study game game to head out a professional conference to make contacts. Yes there are jobs in my field, but very few, if any starting positions.
I am terrified. I met many recent grads, desperately trying to find ANYTHING in the animation field. But there isn’t anything. These are incredibly talented individuals. Their work is beautiful, and they are driven. They are actively seeking employment, working on their own projects, trying to find a job any job. I know what it looks like fore me when I graduate next fall, and it’s scary.
I have two older brothers, they both graduated at the same time. On got a Software Engineering degree the other Mechanical Engineering. One of them got a great job at Microsoft, and the other, well he’s working at a factory and sub shop, getting to know the machines, hoping to get into an Engineering job at the plant, and applying everywhere. He went for the practical degree, one of the Hard degrees. I visited him while he studied. He partied, but studied too. There is just so little work out there, and he isn’t in a position to start his own buisiness. As it is he pulls 12 hour shifts and he’s always tired. And it’s crushing his spirit.
I’m glad I have my older brothers’ examples to go on. I’ve been doing as much work in my field as I can, I even got a position created for myself for summer work, which I then tlked my boss in to hiring me for another 3 months part time (let’s see whats happens at the end of this). Bit it still doesn’t change the fact that there has only been one entry level job posting for the area of my field that I have a talent for all summer.
I’m scared. I can only talk professors into creating work for me for so long, 6 months after I graduate I don’t qualify for co-ops anymore. I’m studying a very specialized kind of computer graphics(3D) which is growing, but not nearly fast enough.
Final point I’d like to add. It’s really easy to judge us college kids saying we where foolish to go. I was a high achieving highschool student. Then we where told that if you don’t go to college, you will pretty much fail at life. If you where a smart kid who didn’t go, you’d have wasted your brains.
There was so little time to question between swim practice, music lessons, volunteering, and whatever else our generation was encouraged to exhaust ourselves with to keep us on track. If we’d been identified as smart from a young age we where put on the track, and groomed to be able to fulfill the roles set to us by our parents. Going into college we we’re just kids, by the time we leave, we’re adults, and it isn’t until you’re right at the finish line that you realize the track ends in an empty but well meaning promise.
Keep in mind we didn’t create this economy, we inherited it. I just hope my generation can do something to fix this mess.
I graduated with an M.B.A. from a well known school, and let me tell you there are plenty of jobs out there… if you are willing to work as a sales agent on commission. However in the realm of real jobs it comes down to good old fashioned networking. 80 years ago only the children of rich parents went to college, why? Well there was an expectation that they would take over the family business one day, in other words there was little in the way of applying for jobs after college rather people were given jobs. Turn the clock back 50 years ago and federal grants and policies opened up college to more and more kids, (not to mention the G.I. Bill). During the booming economy all you had to do is graduate and job offers were there, but now you would often have to apply for them. For the first time social mobility depended upon an education, without one you would work in a factory or service job, which at that time wasn’t at all that bad. Now turn the clock back 20 years, the economy was booming (there was a recession in 91) and jobs were abundant, yet problems began to creep up in the system. Generation X was the first generation to be worse off than their parents, this despite the prosperous Clinton years. Now a generation later in 2010 we see that college has become the old high school, which is a very good thing for our society as colleges arent only meant to produce educated workers but intelligent citizens who understand the world around them. The problem is that the costs of an education have placed a burden on those who can least afford it. This would not be as big of a problem 50 years ago when a college degree could get you a job but but today its absolutely crippling. What does this mean in societal terms? Well society as a whole in the short term will be better off as we become one of the best educated countries in the world. This advantage will be short lived as the current generation educated population will not reproduce due to their financial hardships. Who will reproduce? Those who aren’t educated who can afford the extra time and expense of child rearing (especially the time). What does that mean 30 years from now? It means that baby boomers will be retired and the number of educated persons to support them will cripple the generation into negative growth rate, and only the uneducated birthrate will make up for the decline. This means in 80 years our nation will have few educated individuals and a huge underclass. This is the same as Latin America the real impact of the current problem will not be felt for 2 generations. Now about current jobs, hiring will pick up in 3 to 4 years from now and the baby boomers will retire making a huge need for managers with college degrees to take their place. In fact there will be more positions than qualified individuals, hard to believe looking at today but its the demographic reality. This means that businesses which hire today will take the cream of the crop and will end up leading their industries in the next generation. Those who didnt take the risk will die off (business is risk and people and if you dont believe in taking either you die). So in the end students will get jobs after a long struggle and eventually live good lives, but wont have children. Children who are born into a family where parents go to college are 5 to 6 times more likely of going to college themselves so that means colleges in the future will remain the same size just as population grows. So in simple terms all college graduates are screwed until the baby boomers retire, after which they will be o.k. just too old to reproduce creating a demographic chasm where we become more like the global average.
The college degree glut has been present for some time. There are plenty of newspaper articles from 2000 and 2001. However, employment was initially becoming scarce for college grads in the early 1990′s. Many people were well aware of this. But politicians continued to destroy US jobs with their foreign and domestic economic policies and mandates, such as NAFTA, GATT, accelerated immigration, out sourcing, whole sale dissemination of technical information, sale of US companies to foreign interests, etc. These same politicians and educators were perching that employment and wages were strictly in their own hands, that salary was a function of education alone. Now known to be not true. The US is looking at least a 10 year period where jobs and salaries will be in decline. Recovery will occur if and only our politicians are willing to put the interests of the American people first and foreign policy on a back burner. Otherwise US jobs may never recover for the majority of the
American population.
The university system is a Ponzi scheme designed to keep egghead professors and administrative drones with no real world skills employed. It’s an elaborate welfare scheme funded by the state and by persuading millions of young people to go deeply in debt.
Pushing kids into college is also an artificial way to lower the unemployment rate, as it removes potential job seekers from the labor market.
I graduated in May 2009 with an economics degree. I am one of the lucky ones. My parents paid for college. I have no student loan debt and I was lucky enough to be offered a $12/hour part time job for a non-profit in a fabulous city 700 miles away from home 10 months after graduation. After six months of working part time for an hourly wage and struggling to make ends meet, I was hired for a full time position at the same organization. Fifteen months after graduating, I have a decent salary plus benefits (including health care). I consider myself extremely lucky and blessed to be where I am today. My salary classifies me as lower middle class–and is far less than I expected with my economics degree–but I am so thankful for it. The recession has taught me to be frugal, to live simply and to work hard. I was pretty spoiled as a child. I grew up on the 1990′s and knew nothing about hardship and certainly no and the daughter of a successful stock broker. No one mentioned the word ‘recession’ to me when I was growing up–I only knew success and prosperity. I am now beginning to realize that I may never be as successful as my parents were–and that’s ok. I have learned to live simply, to not borrow more than I make. I have learned to be resilient and self-reliant and content with what little I have.
I don’t think I’m the exception when I say that I am one of the many laid off and being an adult going back to school, my funding for that all important business degree has been yanked. Now, there is no way for me to finish school. What is that going to do to my employment opportunities?
Start your own business? With what credit? Did banks just do a secret 180 and start handing out loans again? Did all those toxic assets just disappear or become solvent?
Stop blaming Obama. There have been too many administrations of missed opportunity. Blame everyone including yourselves. Everyone wanted the biggest and best, you all fell into the cap-trap and now you’re pist that the world can’t sustain itself on Twinkies and Paris Hilton. The world is what each person makes it.
College should be about self-betterment. Yes, you should know how to work with your hands, and you should also know the science behind it. Education is a matter of pride. Instead, it is now the newest defunct product of capitalism.
Yay America.