Posted on 06/06/2010 10:11:16 AM PDT by STONEWALLS
"For years, Pat Bearce had a message for his daughter Andrea: After her college graduation, she would be on her own financially.
It has been three years, and she isn't quite there yet.
After studying broadcast journalism at Texas Christian University, Andrea decided to pursue a career as a chef, choosing a pricey culinary school in New York City. The restaurant jobs she landed didn't come with health coverage, so, in addition to guaranteeing her apartment lease in Manhattan, her parents covered her health-care costs for a couple of years. They paid her monthly cellphone bill, too. And she still has a jointly held credit card with her mother, Catherine.
"It's pretty hard to get them launched," says Mr. Bearce, a pilot at Boeing Co. in Seattle, who now says he never actually intended to enforce the deadline. "The real bottom line is that when they're done with school, they're not really done."
The latest class of college graduates is entering the real world at a time when parents are finding it more difficult than ever to get their adult children off the family dole—and may be growing increasingly stretched themselves. For decades, the gap between the student years and adulthood has been widening, and the sour economy has only accelerated that trend.
The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds stands at about 15%, compared with 9.7% for the whole work force. Then there is the worsening indebtedness problem: About two-thirds of 2008 graduates had student debt, and that debt averaged $23,200—up from $18,650 in 2004—according to the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit group.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Another sub-prime disaster. Defaulting on all those student loans to support Ivy League phony degrees.
Tell you what... if you study “Broadcast Journalism” in college, I can tell you youre not going to get too far in the first place.
Anyhoo, I had a friend in college, she studied English Literature. Bang! Come graduation day, and after, no job!
So, plucky thing that she is (And saddled with private school tuition debt that we all were), she enlisted in the USAF. Fast forward a couple of years, and shes now a 2nd Lt, in AF broadcast and making pretty decent money (likely much more than most in her English lit cohort).
Me, I double majored in economics and accounting, with a minor in physics, and later got my MBA. Its still tough out there, but with the grace of god, Im pretty alright for now. Kids, choose your major carefully. BS majors like philosophy and Sociology, and Liberal Studies, and Art History will get you NOWHERE in life, except still in your parents home when youre 35.
Take my advice... spend four years studying hard when youre in college, instead of partying it up while stoned. It will serve you well later in life, and you wont spend your waking hours whining on DU.
Your friends are enablers. Their kids are spoiled.
My daughter graduated from UVM a year ago. She lives with us but she got a retail job with health benefits. It’s not her dream job, but for now provides a basis for the future, if we have a future.
She pays her college and car loans and car insurance. We don’t ask her to pay any rent or such.
I think she likes the middle class standard of living we provide: cable, DVR, high speed internet, washer/dryer, full frig and she comes and goes as she pleases.
We like having her around.
Yep. I can relate. I just did “tough love” on my stepson. Amazingly, he has found a job. Not a great job, but a job.
Another sub-prime disaster. Defaulting on all those student loans to support Ivy League phony degrees.>>>>>>>
Not just the Ivies. All kinds of universities giving out fake phony degrees in ethnic studies, wymon’s studies, communications, psychology, art history etc etc. Some are worth studying but not by taking out $70,000 in student loans you can’t pay back with your dipstick degree
It's self-imposed.
I tell my kids they’d better be able to support me when they grow up. ;)
Actually my plan is to go ahead and put money in their account, once the graduate.
The trick is they cannot touch the money until they retire.
You see, the difference between saving money in your 20s, and only starting to save in your 30s, is staggering, having that extra ten years of compounding, makes a big difference.
Nothing wrong with that!
We have a friend with two daughters. One is a lawyer in San Francisco and the other is a doctor in Provo. And our friends still have to contribute about half of their support. Either the kids are too damn expensive or the parents are to damn lenient or probably both.
Again, at least if she can take advantage and sock some money away now from the savings of living at home, that’s not a bad thing at all.
This isn’t all together negative...if the help is reciprocated when the parents need help and the kids are not lounging around the house killing time. It is what families should do. Much better for society if young people are not swamped in debt and if the elderly are taken care of by their children as long as possible.
I would suggest farming.
“Not just the Ivies...”
....yep...there’s a huge student loan debt pool out there in the for-profit school area...you know the ones who advertise on TV that they can teach you to be a Harley Davidson mechanic ect?...those types of students racked up Title IV government backed debt...just like student loans at universities.
We need a change in government ~ really soon too.
Communications is not really a fake degree. However, you have to be an outgoing person to use it and a lot of the people who get it aren’t.
Of course the real problem is that far too many people in this country have gone to college because all the middle class jobs that you used to could get with a hs diploma are gone.
I graduated Alabama when Perkins was coach and Shula was the QB. I actually knew Shula. I then ended up getting an MBA. I chose an industry that I liked and was able to do well and pulled in six figure checks before I turned 30.
It’s not that easy today. Back then we still had an economy that could support my ability to do something like that and then the combination of the bachelor’s and the MBA guaranteed you great things if you even had half a work ethic.
There are a lot of unemployed MBAs today and the college diploma has become like the old HS degree and the old HS degree is like having an 8th grade education except you can enlist.
If we can’t find a way to get middle class jobs in this country or at least wipe out the debt of all the college students who’ll never be middle class because of the economy this country is headed down a dark, dark road.
...sometimes it extends to the next generation...my 73 yo mother in law is still working to put grand children thru college.
“savings of living at home, that’s not a bad thing at all.”
Savings is a bridge too far..=) But I did giver her that talk.
meanwhile, i can get a new grad with the same level of experience (none) for $200-500 PER MONTH...using offshore labor.
if i must bring them here, then i buy a big house and stuff 5-10 people into each house. i might pay them $1,000/mon each... but that’s still much cheaper than $30,000-50,000 expected by American new grads
and you can thank BJClinton and the H1-b bill for this.
and if you think it’s my fault for saving the money instead of using Americans, i’ve tried arguing the point, twice, as CTO... and you just can’t justify it.
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