Hey Everyone,
I was talking with a friend who is contemplating going back to school to earn a degree in the hopes of finding a higher-paying job.
This led to a conversation about whether or not the high cost of a a college degree actually pays off in real dollars and cents, and whether it's actually worth the sacrifices and high cost or not. I have known many people who didn't get the chance to use their degrees and it just wound up being a very expensive certificate on their wall (which they are still paying off.) But of course, every person's experience is unique, especially since there are some fields (medicine, etc.) in which a degree is absolutely necessary.
When I was growing up, it was almost a given at the time that in order to get a "good" job here in the USA, you had to obtain a 4-year college degree. I'm not sure how it works in other countries, so please feel free to share what the expectations are where you live and what people do in your own country and culture.
I have worked in retail my entire life and often met people who wound up there too because they couldn't find jobs in the profession they had studied. For example, one of my managers had a degree in engineering. When someone asked what he was doing working in a store, he said he and his wife had moved to the area to take care of his mother-in-law, and he couldn't find work in his field. He explained that the area was filled with retired engineers who were fine just working part-time, so no one was offering full-time. Instead, he took a full-time job in retail management because at least it provided health insurance for him and his wife.
The most extreme story I've heard so far was of a co-worker's son and his fiancee. They had both studied to be pilots, but graduated at a time when airlines were cutting back, and so now were looking at getting married with over a quarter of a million dollar's worth of educational debt -- and couldn't find jobs in their field. This was many years ago and I'm not sure what happened, but I know at the time, my co-worker said they were taking any kind of job they could find.
I have heard many stories like this and am wondering what you all have seen and experienced. I have heard people speak of apprenticeships as an alternative, but are they very common anymore? It seemed, in my area at least, that such opportunities were non-existent, or at least very rare.
I would like to know:
* Did you get an advanced education, and do you believe it was worth the cost? Did you make up for the price of your education with a better-paying job?
* Have you been able to pay back your student loans, if you had any? (Here in the USA, you can apply for loans from the government to pay for your schooling, but there are strict rules about paying them back.)
* If you could go back in time, would you have still earned and paid for your degree, or do you feel you would have been better without one? Would you have chosen to study another field (which one?)
* Do you have children or grandchildren (or other friends or relatives) who earned college degrees? Was it worth it to them or do they wish they'd taken another path?
* What would you advise other to do? Should they "go back to school," or what other means would you suggest in order to get better jobs and higher pay?
I'm dropping this thread in the Singles forum because my conversation was with a guy who is doing just fine for himself as a single, but is concerned he wouldn't earn enough to support a wife and family if God allows, and he wants to be prepared.
And please note that I am most definitely NOT trying to downplay or criticize the important of higher education -- I've had people in my own life who have told me I "wasted my degree," but I know my life turned out the way it did for a reason.
I'm just interested in what other people have done as far as college goes, and how their own story has turned out because of it.
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