Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Tax-chick
I have a 21-year-old in the military and an 18-year-old in community college/working. I’m sorry that so many potentially productive young people believed that any degree was a ticket to easy wealth. Now they’re stuck.

It's not hard to see what happened and who they might have been taking advice from. When I was college age, the advice I heard from my father was to get a degree. My dad didn't have one, but the guy in charge at his job did- in Physical Education. They worked in a manufacturing plant.

While I was in school, what I heard most often is that most people do not end up working in the field of their degree. So, for a long time the only point was to get the diploma itself. The training behind it was really immaterial, and that was true- for that time.

The problem isn't that everyone turned stupid, it's that the world changed and they didn't quite notice.

124 posted on 07/01/2012 8:17:39 AM PDT by Dianna
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies ]


To: Dianna
The problem isn't that everyone turned stupid, it's that the world changed and they didn't quite notice.

I agree, and things are still changing. The "check in the box" for a degree is still worth something, although it may not be worth what was paid. My friend up the street has a daughter in college; her grades aren't that good, and she's taking psychology or sociology or something like that.

Should she continue, my friend asked. My advice was that, with a year to go, she should stick it out if her grades are good enough to graduate. It's only a little more debt than if she dropped out after 3 years, and she'll have that credential. My friend left college after 3 years to get married, and still doesn't have a degree 20 years later. She wishes she did.

The daughter is very smart, just not very mature or motivated, at 21.

129 posted on 07/01/2012 8:29:36 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and bring me safe to His heavenly kingdom.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson