• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

"Want to know why America is losing its edge? Look around campus." By Bodnar

Collage is a waist of money most of the time. It's an over priced scheme between the collage system and banks. However, I'm a hypocrite because I love collage football. ;)
 
This is an interesting take. While I agree 100% with what he said, there is a glaring omission: public college rates have exploded as well. The student debt crisis isn’t simply being driven by the Vanderbilts or Norte Dames of the world, but rather the state schools where the majority of students attend. The financial struggle that many face for decades after attending due to the crushing student loan payments is increasingly acting as a cautionary tale and had entered into the calculus of attendance. Many don’t want to take on that risk.
 
PDXGrizzly said:
This is an interesting take. While I agree 100% with what he said, there is a glaring omission: public college rates have exploded as well. The student debt crisis isn’t simply being driven by the Vanderbilts or Norte Dames of the world, but rather the state schools where the majority of students attend. The financial struggle that many face for decades after attending due to the crushing student loan payments is increasingly acting as a cautionary tale and had entered into the calculus of attendance. Many don’t want to take on that risk.

The stark reality of your comment is the reinforcement of the fact that the Vanderbilt's and Norte Dame's of the world are having no issue with enrollment or applications further exacerbating the issue at public institutions which continue to struggle with enrollment as well as the costs they charge the students. The gap seems to be widening as the middle class continues to reevaluate whether or not college is a viable opportunity...
 
Yukon said:
Collage is a waist of money most of the time. It's an over priced scheme between the collage system and banks. However, I'm a hypocrite because I love collage football. ;)

I wonder how many who've attended college know how to spell college. :| :| :|
 
AZGrizFan said:
Yukon said:
Collage is a waist of money most of the time. It's an over priced scheme between the collage system and banks. However, I'm a hypocrite because I love collage football. ;)

I wonder how many who've attended college know how to spell college. :| :| :|

I thought that was the joke.
 
I really enjoyed the one person who commented on that story with, "Well I have two kids at Penn, and one in Cornell, and I'm really worried about the $240K in student debt we've accumulated"..... uhh bud, yeah, this article wasn't meant for folks like you. Go touch grass.
 
Two of my three sons attended college. The youngest is an electrician and is making more money than his older brothers. I'm not sure the price is worth it.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Yukon said:
Collage is a waist of money most of the time. It's an over priced scheme between the collage system and banks. However, I'm a hypocrite because I love collage football. ;)

I wonder how many who've attended college know how to spell college. :| :| :|

Collage is a waist of time and money.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Yukon said:
Collage is a waist of money most of the time. It's an over priced scheme between the collage system and banks. However, I'm a hypocrite because I love collage football. ;)

I wonder how many who've attended college know how to spell college. :| :| :|

You don't have to visit the campus, just look at eGriz.
 
Da Boyz Mom said:
Two of my three sons attended college. The youngest is an electrician and is making more money than his older brothers. I'm not sure the price is worth it.

Congratulations on the success of your children, DBM.

And it is certainly true that this can happen, particularly with great career choices like an electrician. And it's often the case early in careers; non-college students have a 4-5 year head start on earnings.

But over the long term, a college education is still one of the best investments one can make. Over a lifetime, the average college graduate will earn $1.2 million more than a high school graduate.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/10/11/new-study-college-degree-carries-big-earnings-premium-but-other-factors-matter-too/?sh=3a65832b35cd#:~:text=Here%20are%20the%20median%20lifetime%20earnings%20of%20full-time,million%2C%20equal%20to%20%24100%2C000%20per%20year%20More%20items
 
The landscape of what makes a college degree worthwhile is drastically changing. Just getting the degree isn't good enough. Students need to intentionally explore the resources a University can provide beyond classroom work and leverage internships, experiences, and connections.

One of the biggest complaints of a college degree is the lack of functional application and how students can apply in-class learning towards the job market. Bodnar touched on that in the article, and I hope UM is really working to build a connection between theory / classwork and real work skills.

If a student finds an internship or a part-time job their junior & senior year they graduate & go into the job market with 2 years of job experience and are hopefully able to skip a couple steps and apply for higher paying jobs.
 
I once knew a guy who was a great golfer. Could've gone pro. All he needed was a little time and some practice. He decided to go to college instead. He went for four years. Did pretty well. At the end of his four years, his last semester, he was kicked out. You know what for? Night putting. Just putting at night . . . I forget who was with him.
 
In all seriousness, I agree with Bodnar to a degree. I think it's kind of dumb when billionaire entrepreneurs say college isn't important. It's like when your dumbass buddies used to say stuff like, "Einstein got Ds in math" or "Bill Gates dropped out of college". OK, pal, call me when you have Einstein's brain or create Windows. The very fact that we know that drop-out Zuckerberg's name should evidence how rare it is for someone to "make it big" without college.

With the trades, I get it. But I view that as higher education because it is. I think we went through a long period of a lot of kids being forced into college when they might have been better served elsewhere. How many of our older relatives have said they weren't "college material"? A lot of mine have. For the past 25+ years, almost everyone was expected to be. I think this caused the proliferation of for-profit schools, higher enrollments, etc. Hoops can probably attest that there weren't nearly as many law schools back in the day. Now, if you want to go, you can probably find some dumpy school to cash your check.

I guess my point is that the pendulum seems to be swinging back. The top kids are still going to go to college. We're still going to have night-vision goggles. I can see why more kids deciding against it can be viewed as a bad thing by the colleges that have built out the infrastructure for students who might not be coming. Perhaps, hence the article. If trends continue, the ones who do choose to go will be rarer on average, and the people doing the hiring will be the ones who "had to do it". So, maybe better job prospects for grads for a while until it swings back, and around we go?

All just my opinion. Sorry, this was probably longer than Bodnar's article. I commend anyone who reads the whole post, haha.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
I once knew a guy who was a great golfer. Could've gone pro. All he needed was a little time and some practice. He decided to go to college instead. He went for four years. Did pretty well. At the end of his four years, his last semester, he was kicked out. You know what for? Night putting. Just putting at night . . . I forget who was with him.

Ah....Mitch Cumstein...I remember him well.
 
I passed on college. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so why waist the money. I joined the Air Force for 9 years and learned a trade. Worked out great.
 
Back
Top