student loans

I agree.

I've been teetering back and forth with the decision to return to school.

Then I think to myself, why? So that I can graduate and NOT have a job but have thousands in loans to pay off?

I'm watching too many of my friends (all who graduated within the last 3 years) look for jobs STILL after 2-3 YEARS and not find anything or only find part time/temporary.

Not worth it to me one bit.

 

what did your friends get degrees in? probably something people go for that are too stupid to get real degrees. i know i can get a well paying job as soon as i finish school. hell, i already have a relatively well paying job thats relates to my degree. i work with people who have degrees and see what a difference it makes. those who are in the same position and do not have degrees don't get paid as much, and are not nearly as marketable for a job somewhere else if they were to ever leave. you can talk about your own experience, but please, don't bring mine down with it.

 

Remember, the economy prevents a lot of people from getting GOOD paying jobs no matter the degree these days. I pity college grads that are blind when they graduate and have to start from scratch.

One friend went for marketing (granted, not recession proof, but she is making money freelancing) and my other friend is a dental hygienist and can't find anything...

Not to mention, my cousin who recently became a cardiology surgeon who can't get a job in a hospital, so he had to join the Navy to actually get paid since he's defaulted on a few loans.

To each his own in my opinion...I'm just feeling bitter toward college right now...probably because there are NO jobs in my area, not even for graduate degrees. I went from being a manager last year to taking a minimum wage job last week...

EDIT: I think another reason I'm probably bitter is that the things I'm actually GOOD AT don't have good degree programs. I can go in and pay $200K in loans and never get a job with an English degree...unless I want to settle for $30K a year teaching ungrateful high school kids.

EDIT X2: haha I just keep going. Sorry...

I really envy people who can attend college and have clear-cut paths. And I know they exist. I wish anyone in that position the best of luck. I really think I'm just too retarded to go back to school. And in Massachusetts, the job market isn't worth spending the money.

 

Whopty fuggin' doo.

(directed at the thread above the one above.)

 

sue somebody.

 

cool, malia

why are you even here? we already know you stopped college and work security at a nursing home. whopty fuggin doo to you too! do you ever do anything constructive?

can't believe i just said "whopty fuggin doo"

 

To each their own. I never criticized YOU, though. I criticized the notion of getting into debt to go to college. You in turn attacked me and made fun of my job. Not that I care, just saying.

 

I'm at university at the moment and I'm going to fight with everything I've got to get a good job afterwards. I figured if I'm not in it I can't win it, and there's a whole world to try for that career in, yet if I don't even have a single degree I'm far more likely to be stuck here in a dead end job or even without one.

I'm working while I'm studying, on a job that will go towards my career in the long run, which is bound to help even though after 3 years I'm going to be totally exhausted and will need a few months holiday.

I just really love studying, anyway.

 

Me too.

I'm a kind of mathematician. I like to study the probability of curves on the female anatomy.

Me, I never finished college. I dropped out before getting a degree, joined a commune, married, and entered the workforce. Eventually, I landed a job with the State of California, and then with the City of Huntington Beach, working on street and ballfield lighting and traffic signal intersections. It paid well enough to stay, earn a pension, and then get the boot when the City of HB ran into a fiscal shortfall.

Through the years my salary as a civil electrician capped off around 50,000.00, upwards of that with overtime. Not bad for primarily changing lightbulbs.

But I always regretted not having completed a degree program. Plus, the electrical field, though fairly well-paying, was not that fulfilling, and the stress of not making enough income to do certain things also weighed in.

It's unfortunate that people end up in jobs that pay too well to quit, but slowly kill the hopes and dreams of those so employed. Also, the false sense of security a civil service job affords can come to an unexpected end. I think the real security is in being unique, distinct, and expert at something. That way you stand out from the crowd.

But I never put that theory to the test. I stayed where I was "comfortable",,not necessarily fulfilled, but comfortable, and sometimes not even that.

It's difficult to say what the pathway to real success is today. I'm sure it differs with each individual.

 

my bad dude// no hard feelings

 

I took out loans too. had my reasons. pay back $50 per month starting six months after graduation? totally doable.

 

50k a year sounds nice...maybe not in cali though...

personally, i'm stuck. i'm in college. lots of debt. in a field that makes very little money with a lot of people in it - art is hard. and stupid

i'm considering double majoring in physics - but i really really really get stressed at the idea of taking out MORE loans.

if you can be so sure, machinist, do it. it's a good idea. but the thing about ideas is that they don't always work out.


going to school at 18 is the dumbest thing i've ever done, to be honest. i should have waited before i was more stable and interested in working hard now, to have an easier future.

if i ever have a child, i won't want them to go to school until they KNOW for SURE what they want to do and how they want to do it. if they have any desire for fame/rockstar/weird bullshit at a young age i'm totally going to support that too. unless they suck.

 

that would take 50 years, and that's without interest. i will probably make a bigger monthly payment on my loan than on rent.

 

$50 a month is very very VERY lowballing...they want more like $500 a month. and you're pushing it at $150

 

talking like $1000. a month or more..

 

thats what they WANT, what they get is much lower because you can't morally take more than what people make/need to survive


good thing loan companies have no soul and they can't charge interest on morals

 

a loaner probably wants somewhere in between because if its payed back very quickly they dont make much money on interest

 

right

which is why they are very interested in encouraging a lot of students that CAN'T afford school into going to school so they will be getting a bunch of checks each month for life

 

what field are you interested in going into?

as I recall, it's aerospace engineering

working hard and getting a degree in a field that has traditionally paid well is not a guarantee that you will get a job in the field when you graduate

that seems to me to be the main problem in the way you are thinking about this. you say that you will get a job and will pay off your loans, but the economy has already half shit the bed, and the economy could easily completely shit the bed. your field could also be hard hit regardless of how the general economy is performing. you certainly wouldn't be the world's first unemployed guy with an engineering degree

over all, it sounds like you are going about this in a good way. just remember that there are no guarantees in life. if you don't take on more debt than you have to and have a good sense of your job prospects after you graduate, you should be ok

 

just for the record, I can't recall a thread where you haven't come across as anything other than a really cool guy

you were being a really smug, snobby, proto-yuppie pecker though to both pressed rat and malia here

seems to me like they were just trying to help

you did apologize to pressed rat though.