college degree Archives - SavingAdvice.com Blog

It’s no secret that college costs are rising to ridiculous levels. Kids are graduating with huge debt loads. Even if their parents have saved for their schooling since birth, costs are rising so fast they’re still likely to have to take on debt or work during school. In the last twenty years or so we’ve come to believe that college is a non-negotiable necessity. We’ve started thinking that college is the end-all-be-all of education and a guarantee of success. But is it really?

Obviously some fields require college. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, scientist, engineer, teacher, or architect, for example, college is the only way to go. Other fields value skills that can be taught in college, but not exclusively. Many tech jobs are more about programming skills, for example, that can be mastered in your garage just as well as in a college classroom. The same holds true for many trades, design fields, communication fields, or even sales and marketing. College can teach these things, but they can also be learned in many other ways.

Our world is changing and in a lot of ways it’s going in reverse. In days gone by, it was your skills that mattered. If you could turn out a product, grow a crop, or repair something, you would never have trouble finding work. Then things changed and we began to value the cerebral. When you went job hunting, the hunt was less about concrete skills and more about whether you could be taught and molded to fit what a company needed. The company could teach you the skills; what they wanted to know was could you be taught and could you apply yourself to a goal. Getting a college degree became a barometer of your ability to be educated, rather than a path toward acquiring a specific skill set. The field of your degree didn’t even have to be in the field you were working in. A degree in philosophy could land you a sales job at a tech company. All the company needed to know was: Can we educate this person in our ways?

Now things are changing. Many employers value the skill set more than the demonstrated ability to be taught. They want to know: Can you make this product? Can you create this design? Can you program this application? Can you write this copy? Employers no longer have the time or the money to invest in taking an intelligent kid and teaching them the specific skills they need. Employers want people who can come in, hit the ground running, and start churning out products from the first day on the job. College degrees may carry a certain cachet, but beyond a few specific fields, they don’t teach the concrete skills needed by employers.

Related Articles:

Is LuLaRoe a scam?
What is the LuLaRoe Business Model?
What Does it Take to be a Successful LuLaRoe Consultant?
Commonly Asked Questions About Being a LuLaRoe Consultant
Is LuLaRoe Worth The Price?
Is LuLaRoe a Mormon Company?
LuLaRoe Startup Costs
Is LuLaRoe a Pyramid Scheme

To that end, higher education is changing. No longer is a two year degree considered “settling.” A two year degree in web programming may be more valuable than a four year degree in liberal arts – and cost a lot less. An online degree that results in a useful skill may be more valuable than classroom learning. Higher education may not even be necessary, beyond rounding out some skill sets or just gaining a different perspective on the world. The kid who can create a video game in his garage at sixteen may be more valuable than the kid with a four year degree in “Communication.” There are places in today’s work force for the self taught and highly motivated kids. Some employers are even taking on skilled kids in directly out of high school and putting them into paid positions and giving them a mentor to flesh out the necessary skills.

College will always have a place, but before you plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars, ask yourself whether it’s really necessary. Maybe your kid already has a marketable skill that he enjoys and is only in need of a two year degree to learn the finer points of that skill. Maybe your kid can develop a business idea into a full fledged venture without college. Maybe your kid can get hired on at a company as a highly paid intern. Maybe a combination of work experience and an online degree will get them further than four years in a classroom. And don’t pop for a private school unless you know the degree will earn more than you will pay. Chances are a private school won’t grant a better skill set than a state university and the state school will cost a lot less.

There are a lot more options today in education than ever before. College is no longer the ultimate prize. The ultimate prize is to develop a skill set that employers drool over and want to have in their organizations. That doesn’t automatically mean a college degree. It may mean a two-year degree, an online degree, practical work experience, self-teaching, or a combination of all of the above. These may end up costing a lot less than college and yet grant a better entrance to the work force. There’s no need to take on crushing debt loads for college if it isn’t necessary for the field you want to work in. Think before assuming that college is necessary.

Photo: The Odyssey Online

It seems like every personal finance magazine I read reinforces the idea that our children are entitled to a college education. Beyond that – it’s the parent’s sole financial responsibility to provide a college education free and clear for their children. Don’t get me wrong, every parent would like their child to have a college education, but at what cost?

Where was it written that we as parents need to gift a college education to our children?

Those with a college degree still fair better financially than those without, but consider this: The average college graduate leaves school with $20,000 in debt. Is that really putting your child on the road to financial success?

Maybe, maybe not.

If your child is going to change the world and earn enough money to pay off that debt within 5 years, it’s probably worth it. But if your child is looking at a profession with a starting salary of $35,000, it’s going to take a long time to dig out from that degree.

Any responsible parent would feel at least a little like a failure if they saddled their child with $20,000 of debt before they even joined the workforce. So it’s not surprising that many parents are paying the bill themselves. But this is putting in place an even riskier situation down the road. Parents who tap into their retirement savings, or skip saving for retirement altogether for the purpose of paying for their children’s college costs are going to end up much worse than the student with $20,000 in debt.

Remember this: they have student loans for college costs, there’s no such thing as a retirement loan.

With social security on the fast track to bankruptcy, and their retirement savings flushed down the university drain, the wreckage caused by a generation of retirees who spent their savings on their children’s education might make the recent credit crisis, resulting bailout and deficit increase look like a bank overdraft fee.

A better choice for those in this situation is to start at a 2 year school, subsidized loans, grants, scholarships, and a part time job.

I got a Bachelor’s Degree, but I did the first 2 years of classes at a community college where the tuition was a fraction of a state University. I paid for the whole thing with minimal cash from my parents, and a part time job. I got the basic classes out of the way and did it without going into debt.

After that, I went to a state University for the final 2 years to focus on core classes that related to my degree. I still graduated with student loan debt, but far less than I would have had I gone straight to a 4 year school out of high school. And my various part time jobs taught me the value of money and having to work to afford the things I wanted. A win-win for me and my parents.

Is College Really Necessary?

Are Children Entitled to a College Degree?