ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where

Re:ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where by cableshaft on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @10:18AM (#11628509)

Naivete and idealism is how we have a whole generation saddled with student loans they can barely afford to pay, forcing them to stay in jobs they'd rather not have, delay buying a home or getting married for decades.

I know some people on the other end of six figure student loans (I'm not, thankfully, but I'm still going to be paying mine off for four or five years still). These people are not doing what they'd like to do, what they studied to do (because they can't find a job in it) and are praying for a windfall. In some cases, hoping their family members die and leave an inheritance just so they can pay off a chunk of the loans.

This is going to have profound effects on the economy and society for a long time.

So yes, idealists should know what they're volunteering themselves for and how one simple decisions can make life really difficult for them for the next 20-30 years.

This isn't the era where you could pay for a year of college with a part-time summer job anymore, like the baby boomers had.

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Re:ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where by tehabe on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @08:07PM (#11632986)

I remember the long fight against tuition fees in my country and how we argued that tuitions wouldn't improve anything except leaving students with a lot of debt and problems. It would disadvantage so called "orchid subjects" and other subjects which didn't promise a great career. Utilisation of education would become more important than education. Even the switch to the Bachelor/Master system was/is seen as part of this development. Especially since it lead to a much more school like university. Which is the opposite of Humboldt's idea of research and studies being one.

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