As I've blogged previously on how education keeps getting more & more expensive to the point that a kid from a middle class or lower (depends how you define "middle class") has to take out large loans to have any chance of completing his/her education, I won't say much in this one. Rich kids don't have any problems in gaining education, assuming that they are actually studying in colleges / universities & not spending time in multimillion $$$ gyms, spas, & dorms, real estate developers are building for them.
Education & its related industries (e.g. financial services, real estate developers, admission services etc.) have become a very profitable businesses on their own. Education is peddled as a must to the kids today, if they want a better job & life in general. Even though, that's not the case, since, it's the age of networking. The stronger & influential your network, you are going to climb the corporate ladder much more easily & quickly. Merit still has a place but not as much as it used to be, say, even a decade ago.
Governments & other organizations will always point to surveys saying how unemployment & salary levels are different among high-school & post-secondary graduates, but what they fail to show is that how those graduates got those jobs in the first place. Most graduates are heavily encouraged to use their own networks to secure jobs & the better your network, the better the job (better = influential).
As the market insiders are constantly claiming now that the next wave of insolvencies are not going to be in housing loans, but in student loans, since good-paying jobs are becoming scarce but education keeps getting more expensive. So students are graduating with bigger & bigger loans without the comparable salaries to pay these loans as quickly as they can, so they can continue on with their lives.
I am definitely not suggesting that children / people should not get more education. No, education is definitely important. But, the society should not be fed the lie that more education will get you a better paying job, since that's not the case. That would be the case, if jobs were based on merit, & not on networks. But, that's not how jobs are secured, nowadays. Expectations should be straightened out in the first place that "people, you should not expect better paying jobs & a secure life with more education."
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The class of 2015 is reaching new heights, though perhaps not the way it had hoped.
College graduates this year are leaving school as the most indebted class ever, a title they’ll hold exclusively for all of about 12 months if current trends hold.
The average class of 2015 graduate with student-loan debt will have to pay back a little more than $35,000, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at Edvisors, a group of websites about planning & paying for college. Even adjusted for inflation, that’s still more than twice the amount borrowers had to pay back two decades earlier.
Not only is average debt rising, but more students are taking out loans to finance secondary education. Almost 71% of bachelor’s degree recipients will graduate with a student loan, compared with less than half two decades ago & about 64% 10 years ago.
“It’s unfortunate that college costs are going up & the student aid, the grants, are not going up at the same rate on a per student basis,” Mr. Kantrowitz said. “College is becoming less & less affordable, though it’s still just as necessary.”
Indeed, separate government data show much brighter job & earnings prospects for people with college degrees. Labor Department figures show median weekly earnings at $668 last year for full-time wage & salary workers with only a high-school degree. For those with at least a bachelor’s degree, the figure was $1,193. The unemployment rate also is significantly lower for college grads.
To be sure, the value of a college education varies widely depending the institution & the degree a student acquires. But for now, the investment appears worthwhile.
Parents also are kicking in a big share of college costs. Mr. Kantrowitz’s analysis shows that among parents taking out loans to pay for a child’s education, average debt crept up to $30,867 this year from $29,684 in 2014. About 17% of graduates have parents with loans out on their behalf.
All together, total education debt–including federal & private education loans–will tally nearly $68 billion this year for graduates with a bachelor’s degree & their parents, Mr. Kantrowitz estimates, a more than 10-fold increase since 1994.
Education & its related industries (e.g. financial services, real estate developers, admission services etc.) have become a very profitable businesses on their own. Education is peddled as a must to the kids today, if they want a better job & life in general. Even though, that's not the case, since, it's the age of networking. The stronger & influential your network, you are going to climb the corporate ladder much more easily & quickly. Merit still has a place but not as much as it used to be, say, even a decade ago.
Governments & other organizations will always point to surveys saying how unemployment & salary levels are different among high-school & post-secondary graduates, but what they fail to show is that how those graduates got those jobs in the first place. Most graduates are heavily encouraged to use their own networks to secure jobs & the better your network, the better the job (better = influential).
As the market insiders are constantly claiming now that the next wave of insolvencies are not going to be in housing loans, but in student loans, since good-paying jobs are becoming scarce but education keeps getting more expensive. So students are graduating with bigger & bigger loans without the comparable salaries to pay these loans as quickly as they can, so they can continue on with their lives.
I am definitely not suggesting that children / people should not get more education. No, education is definitely important. But, the society should not be fed the lie that more education will get you a better paying job, since that's not the case. That would be the case, if jobs were based on merit, & not on networks. But, that's not how jobs are secured, nowadays. Expectations should be straightened out in the first place that "people, you should not expect better paying jobs & a secure life with more education."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The class of 2015 is reaching new heights, though perhaps not the way it had hoped.
College graduates this year are leaving school as the most indebted class ever, a title they’ll hold exclusively for all of about 12 months if current trends hold.
The average class of 2015 graduate with student-loan debt will have to pay back a little more than $35,000, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at Edvisors, a group of websites about planning & paying for college. Even adjusted for inflation, that’s still more than twice the amount borrowers had to pay back two decades earlier.
Not only is average debt rising, but more students are taking out loans to finance secondary education. Almost 71% of bachelor’s degree recipients will graduate with a student loan, compared with less than half two decades ago & about 64% 10 years ago.
“It’s unfortunate that college costs are going up & the student aid, the grants, are not going up at the same rate on a per student basis,” Mr. Kantrowitz said. “College is becoming less & less affordable, though it’s still just as necessary.”
Indeed, separate government data show much brighter job & earnings prospects for people with college degrees. Labor Department figures show median weekly earnings at $668 last year for full-time wage & salary workers with only a high-school degree. For those with at least a bachelor’s degree, the figure was $1,193. The unemployment rate also is significantly lower for college grads.
To be sure, the value of a college education varies widely depending the institution & the degree a student acquires. But for now, the investment appears worthwhile.
Parents also are kicking in a big share of college costs. Mr. Kantrowitz’s analysis shows that among parents taking out loans to pay for a child’s education, average debt crept up to $30,867 this year from $29,684 in 2014. About 17% of graduates have parents with loans out on their behalf.
All together, total education debt–including federal & private education loans–will tally nearly $68 billion this year for graduates with a bachelor’s degree & their parents, Mr. Kantrowitz estimates, a more than 10-fold increase since 1994.
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