Posted on 04/01/2014 7:22:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A lot of Internet ink has been spilled over how lazy and entitled Millennials are, but when it comes to paying for a college education, work ethic isn't the limiting factor. The economic cards are stacked such that today’s average college student, without support from financial aid and family resources, would need to complete 48 hours of minimum-wage work a week to pay for his courses—a feat that would require superhuman endurance, or maybe a time machine.
To take a close look at the tuition history of almost any institution of higher education in America is to confront an unfair reality: Each year’s crop of college seniors paid a little bit more than the class that graduated before. The tuition crunch never fails to provide new fodder for ongoing analysis of the myths and realities of The American Dream. Last week, a graduate student named Randy Olson listened to his grandfather extol the virtues of putting oneself through college without family support. But paying for college without family support is a totally different proposition these days, Olson thought. It may have been feasible 30 years ago, or even 15 years ago, but it's much harder now.
He later found some validation for these sentiments on Reddit, where one user had started a thread about the increasing cost per course at Michigan State University.
MSU calculates tuition by the "credit hour," the term for the number of hours spent in a classroom per week. By this metric, which is used at many U.S. colleges and universities, a course that's worth three credit hours is a course that meets for three hours each week during the semester. If the semester is 15 weeks long, that adds up to 45 total hours of a student's time.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Here are a couple of solutions:
First, start your higher education at a community college—tutition is often one-third that of state-run, four-year schools and a fraction of private institutions. Believe it or not, you can actually work your way through a community college, as long as you don’t also need a luxury apartment, new car and designer wardrobe.
Option #2: ROTC scholarship. Tuition and books are covered by Uncle Sam, in return for your service as a military officer after college. Most schools also throw in a room and board scholarship for students enrolled on a ROTC scholarship and there’s a modest living stipend, too.
Option #3. Enlist in the military after high school. You get a place to live, a food allowance, and a full-time salary along with tuition assistance (up to $4500 a year). Start your college with TA, then finish up after your enlistment on the GI Bill.
I waited tables during college.
Sometimes I’d go class, work a lunch shift, go to class, work the dinner shift. Got free food out of the deal, as well.
Please read the article.
Funny I’m a hiring manager in Chicago also. The job market here is rotten. We offered a traning session for 12 people for a 14 dollar an hour job. They told there family and friends. ..over a 100 poor unemployed folks showed up.
FWIW-
You are assuming I didn’t?
Another tidbit. I used to own a frame shop on Lincoln and Montana during the Reagan years...you may have seen it. I had a help wanted sign out as did the bar,the coffee shop and the restaurant across the street. I used to marvel that I could throw a rock and hit a help wanted sign. Now you can walk the whole 20 miles of Lincoln Ave and the only help wanted sign.
you’ll see is the minimum wage night shift at Dunkin Donuts.
The sick little secret of it all is that jobs on campus go to ‘certain’ kids first. It’s all rigged, so thankful my kids are done with the zoo.
I pity the kids heading there now. The amount of money paid to administrators is obscene. The waste the goes into assorted crap, is obscene.
That's the advice I give the many young people I know, as well. If they're after a four-year degree, they can go to the community college for two years, live at home with Mom and Dad, and then transfer to State U. It's where you go to graduate school that makes the real difference.
As far as the rest of your advice: it's good for some people, but not everybody has the ability to serve in the military. Some young women can deal with it, but many are not physically suited to boot camp.
NO kidding? I'll be darned. Yep, the job market here is absolutely pathetic.
Can't say who I work for (you'd know the company name if I said it) but even though I'm relatively secure in my current position, I've been looking for something else for over a year. Positions such as mine don't come along very often, but when they do there's well over 200-300 people applying for it. Hard to compete with those odds.
I'm not terribly familiar with that part of the city. Been up that way maybe a handful of times the last 20 years or so. I live out in Will County and commute into the City Mon-Fri for work. I don't get outside the immediate "loop" area very much. Boundaries for me are Jackson on the south and Wacker on the North, Canal on the West and Michigan ave. on the East. Don't get outside that box much.
I actually believe that it began with the free government PELL grants. That led the charge by allowing the universities to jack up their rates. The middle class kids then took out the student loans because they could no longer afford it and didn’t qualify for the trough.
Had the student loans not been so readily available, that would’ve helped put the brakes on the whole mess a long time ago as students simply refused to feed the pig. As it is, the loans added gasoline to the raging fire.
“As it is, the loans added gasoline to the raging fire.”
LOANS? I thought it was free!!?? Like obamacare is!? (I know people that STILL think that.)
The laws of “supply and demand” get really screwed up when the gov’t. gets involved.
I studied for six hours a day when I was going to college. Most of the kids who actually succeed and graduate do. That should probably be factored into your calculations. (And, if you live off campus, you can probably take out another five hours a week with a commute.)
I think your mind may be back a few years. I wouldn’t be off base in saying that Tulane is 60K a year now. You would need a degree to get a job that pays you enough to get a degree. Kind of like that painting of the never ending stairs.
I must have missed the law that stated that college students were forced to work for minimum wage. One would think that an energetic, smart person could do better than the absolute minimum.One would think, but not anymore. My company will not hire non-college degreed people for anything more than minimum wage. The only exception to that is if you have certifications AND a minimum 3-5 years experience, which mainly applies only to our field technicians. If you want an office job, we offer unpaid internships to college students.
There is also that whole, working before you go to college thing.True, but then there is the problem of trying to explain away the "age gap" or explaining that you needed to earn money for college and didn't want to get a loan. That usually results in an "I see." and a File 13 for the resume.
Another factor is that employers do NOT want to accommodate any kind of school schedule. The employer wants you to work WHENEVER they determine they need you, and they do NOT want to hear about this time off or that day off. You try that with employers and you’re fired and they get someone else!That's the truth. The last time I knew of any employer accommodating me or any of my friends that way was at a startup back in the late 90s.
For everybody who has a kid in HS right now, look into universities in Canada. My daughter attends McGill in Montreal, and tuition, room and board runs 20K a year. Another terrific school is the U of Toronto.
You’re probably right. I never did graduate and looked into going back as an adult. They do not offer adult education. Just out of curiosity. .due to fracking and such I figured a geology degree from Tulane would probably be worthwhile. ..oil country and all. Average starting salary 94k. Not bad for a kid. Those evil oil companies.
I had a manufacturing job for 2 years and worked from 11-7, went to school from 9-12ish and then did homework, slept, and whatever until time to go to work again.
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