The Class of ’06

What is spring without the torment of folding chairs and long-winded platitudes involving the future and all the glories it holds? I’ve been to two college commencements in the last few weeks – one where my nephew received his degree in computer networking, and one at which I was given an honorary degree in “humane letters” – and I’ve seen the happy, uplifted young faces as well as those slightly blurred by drink. At UConn-Storrs, where I was honored, graduates enlivened the proceedings by bouncing large blow-up balls around the bleachers, to the consternation of college president, who whispered to me, “This is the problem with having the commencement in the afternoon. Some of these people have been partying for hours.”

There are reasons, whether the graduates know them or not, to want to greet one’s entrance into the work world with an excess of Bud. At one point, back when I got my own real, non-honorary, BA in the sixties, a college degree was a more or less guaranteed ticket to the middle or upper middle class. With that diploma in hand, I could kiss my waitressing days goodbye. Today, no one even thinks of a college grad as being overqualified for tray-carrying. In some urban restaurants, a degree almost seems to be required, if only so you can pronounce the day’s specials.

According to my economics guru, Jared Bernstein at the Economic Policy Institute, there are about 7 million college graduates working in jobs that do not require college degrees (this is a very preliminary figure, more data coming soon), and you can bet that most of them are not in high-end non-degree-requiring occupations like rap star or NFL quarterback. Furthermore, Bernstein says, the wage gap between the college-educated and non-college-educated is beginning to narrow, and this not because the wages of the latter are rising.

Take my nephew, for example, who maintained a nearly 4.0 GPA and graduated with “highest distinction.” He’s seen a lot of job possibilities in the weeks since his graduation, but they all pay in the $8-9/hour range, which is far less than he used to earn as a delivery truck driver. His brother-in-law, who is single and also college-educated, has a weekday computer-related job which he supplements by working at a gas station on weekends. Similarly, my son followed up his Ivy League education with years of phone-answering and fact-checking before joining me as one of the tiny number of self-supporting freelance writers who do not have the advantage of a trust fund.

It’s too soon to call college a scam, and as long as they teach a few truly enlightening things, like history and number theory, I won’t. But with tuition up between $10,000 and $40,000, the “return on investment” isn’t looking that good. In fact, a BA may be worth about as much as my new “honorary doctorate:” With these degrees and about $2, you can get a ride on a bus.

Looking at the thousands of happy – and in many cases, soon to be disappointed – young faces at the UConn graduation, I couldn’t help wondering whether the real economic function of higher education isn’t to keep the unemployment figures low. About 30 percent of young people in the 18-23 year old age group are in college; imagine what the unemployment rate would look like if they were all dumped into the workforce overnight. Maybe students are beginning to notice that college is becoming less of a stepping stone and more of a holding pen, and maybe that accounts for the rise of binge drinking and the alleged decline of intellectual curiosity. I don’t know, but party on, class of ’06 – this may be your last opportunity!

Comments

[nicole]

Yes. I graduated undergrad in 2004 with highest honors and a near-perfect GPA and all of that. My small group of friends had done the same thing; and between the six or seven of us we all spoke multiple languages, had written novels and concertos and plays, had worked on teams to discover new enzymes, had performed research in various countries on national scholarships, etc. etc. etc.

Within a year we were all waitresses or telemarketers or retail clerks. We knew we shouldn't feel entitled to "better" jobs, because we knew there was nothing out there for the college graduate. Yet at the same time we felt betrayed. There was nothing for us to do -- nothing which felt like something on which to build a life. We knew that "entry-level" meant entry-level, and yet looking up the hierarchy it didn't seem much better. Telemarketing manager? Bartender? Beyond service jobs there seemed to be two choices: unpaid internships and graduate school.

So within two years we were all back in graduate school -- this time a little more jaded, a little more cynical, a little more careerist.

Perhaps the new thing to say isn't "when I was your age..." but "when my parents were my age..." That's what we say, when we talk. When my parents were my age (24) they had a home, they had two children, and my father had just been hired as an assistant professor at a small college.

Now we can hardly believe it.

[Meredith]

I've been working a dead-end job at a movie theater since graduating with honors last December. Three weeks on the job and I recognized so much out of Nickel & Dimed (which I read as part of my undergraduate ethics curriculum). My parents paid for an education that ironically included learning all the reasons to despise what I'm doing now!

[janinsanfran]

I've recently had a brush with the other end of this: the high school kids who hope, desparately in many cases, that college will be a way out of poverty. A friend of mine ran a contest in which 6000 young people sought to explain to California legislators why they should "save a spot for me in college." I helped by reading some of the essays. It was very interesting. See write up here:
http://snipurl.com/qdlh

It appalls me that we are going to disappoint so many that try so hard to do what they are told is the right thing.

[John]

My graduating class was in '76, and I wasn't among them, I had left two years early. Why? I simply could not see where completing a degree would make me any more attractive an employee for the types of positions I would likely seek. And the cost at the time, for me, was prohibitive. Not simply in tuition, but in life time opportunity cost. I simply could not spend 3 years in the prime of my life not earning while learning. Yes, I missed my friends and I didn't party as much, but that was small price to pay.
The difference 30 years ago was there were jobs to be had, and good ones. And there was less competition for those jobs. A degree, though preferred, was not necessary.
Times have changed. Now students get to pile up student loan debt only to find that few decent paying jobs await them when they graduate. This is a cruel twist of fate where the student, who is supposed to be the benefactor and pays for it, becomes the loser. The educator gets paid, Sallie Mae gets the interest on the loan, and almost everyone else benefits (from politicians to the current workforce) from having the students out of the employment picture.

[TC]

I hate that today college is pushed on everyone regardless of whether or not they have a real chance of graduating. Currently I have a relative who still hasn't recovered from brain surgery she had 2 years ago, moves super slow, talks super slow and unclearly, and whose pre-surgery grades suck. Yet she talks about how she wants to go to a prestigous school over 2,000 miles away that she has a snowball's chance of getting into, and her mother's all for it, too. When I pointed out she would be better off doing physical and speech therapy in the summer, then attending the $26 per unit community college less than a mile from their house, they got mad at me for "crushing her dream." We also have a neighbor talking about how little Ashley is going to college---Ashley is mentally handicapped and never went to a normal day of school in her life. Everyday I see kids who might have a chance at a decent life if someone offered them vocational training, such as cosmetology, that they could complete at the same time as high school. Or they would have a chance if they got a certificate after high school or an AA. Instead they will waste time and money chasing after a college degree. Some of them will get it and be saddled with bills up the ying-yang. But it's worst to think of the ones who will spend their time and money for nothing, then be forced to pay back loans they took out for degrees they never got.

[superdestroyer]

According to the Princeton Review, the top three degrees awarded by UConn are: Nursing - Registered Nurse Training; Political Science and Government; and General, Psychology.

Now why should students in a bachelors in psychology or government expect to immediately to move into management. The disappointed students were set up for disappointment by their parents, their high school, and their college.

I wonder how many nurses are waiting tables or working in retail?

Maybe the problem is that too many students are training themselves for jobs that do not exist in the locations where students want to work.

[Fitz]

Barbara, I could not agree with you more! I graduated in June, 2004 with high honors, a high GPA and 2 graduation awards. Unfortunately because I followed my passion and majored in art history and French, I was considered unqualified to do pretty much anything; I am now back in grad school hoping that things will be different after this round.
I feel like a BA is the new high school diploma - the minimum requirement for functioning in today's society - and since everyone has one it is pretty worthless. Even a master's is not as valuable as it used to be - I have friends with MAs who are doing clerical temp work.
I do not regret getting a BA - I loved every one of my classes and I genuinely learned a lot - but if to find a stable, well-paying job I think people today would be better served by going to trade school.

[JP Merzetti]

Irony of ironies - when I finally returned to university to finish a degree after a 25-year interval, the job I landed had very little to do with that completion. Instead, the part-time job I had while attending school turned into a full-time job once I finished. That had far more to do with luck than merit.
Many people feel that today's undergraduate degree is the equivalent of a high-school diploma (circa 1970's).
I contend that it isn't even that. In the early 1970's, I remember jobs held by people who had not much more than perhaps grade 10 - they were the famous dropouts of that era.
The reason for their success? They were functionally literate, well-read, and blessed with basic life-skills (having fled the coop at an average age of 16.)
Compare this with today: Have educational standards eroded? Yes they have. Basic functional knowledge of history, geography, maths, sciences, etc...have all honed in on "specialism" which in my opinion has become a kind of cross-bred morphed sort of Darwinism/(take your pick of any of the popular economic "isms" of the day.)

All that being said - of course educational value has eroded, deflated...just like everything else.

Many university students live at home while completing a degree. This means that upon graduation, they have not necessarily acquired certain basic life skills which pave the way toward adulthood. They are adult age, sure enough, but have become rather infantalized during the process. They resemble many of the high school students I recall from 30 years ago.
Their choices, options and opportunities in life have made it so. Is this their fault? Hardly.
At the age of 16, I held down a job that today would require a degree. By the age of 17, I was promoted to a position that would now probably require an MA.

These are cold hard facts in today's job market.

Something that seems to rarely be discussed at all anywhere is a simple yet alarming fact: There is not enough to go around. Period.
The markets are skewered.
All that education, and a tiny fraction of it is ever utilized on a national scale.
It's ridiculous to think that an attractive bartender making pretty good tips needed 4 to 7 years of higher education to do her job well. That is just wasted debt - yet has become all too common now. (and this is an example of success, measured in current reality!)
I'm all for higher education - literate, well-read, informed people make good citizens and have much to offer.
However, it's become a crapshoot, a lottery. I still believe that a healthy society's youth is its best hope for a better future, and we are busy squandering that resource.

To put it bluntly:
We have become a nation of "elders" whose aging population has aquired the lion's share of the wealth (from back in the days when the getting was good) and who resent the burgeoning population of younger people all clamoring for their share of the pie.
What I remember as a "generation" gap (whose attributes were entirely social/political/cultural) has turned into an economic gap.
Many "elders" refuse to admit this. They blather on about hard work and discipline...valued attributes certainly, but hardly the path to economic security anymore. The guarantees they enjoyed as young adults have disappeared.

I remember during a particularly bad economic downturn during the early 1990's, strolling my neighborhood and observing all the closed storefronts - businesses that had existed for many decades. These were the people who had done everything right.
Their efforts didn't matter a hoot.
Back in the 1980's I counselled high school students to acquire hard skills (college tech certificates) along with degrees...diversity was the key.
I'm not sure even this would work now. Where are the jobs? Automation, outsourcing and offshoring, the loss of our manufacturing/industrial base...all of it narrows the scope.

There are only so many CEO jobs to go around. They seem to be the only good bet anymore.

[Hattie]

Aside from teaching and nursing degrees, what other qualifications are a guarantee of finding work? I can't think of any.
Teaching and nursing are branches of the service industry, which is the only growth area in our economy.
Literally everyone I know who has a higher degree short of a doctorate and is working at a "professional" level is either a teacher or a nurse! And some of the PhDs, in the humanities especially, can't get other work.
When I retired a PhD from Cornell was glad to get the teaching job I vacated!

[Jacqueline]

Those of us who graduated high school in the mid 1980's were often told when we were faced with few job prospects, having to double up to afford a place to live, etc that we Gen-Xer's were nothing but a bunch of whiners. Now I am almost 40. I STILL never got a chance to have things, have a nice life, security, health & dental care (you know, the basics), especially after becoming disabled 16 years ago, which I described on another thread. Due to age discrimination, as a now-middle-aged Gen-Xer, I will have even less chances than what were available for my generation back in the 1980's - simply because I am no longer young and healthy. And now I have health and dental problems that could become life threatening unless I get a full set of dentures - because of YEARS of having to do without dental care since my youth as a 20-something year old who struggled and got told by society's "haves" to "quit whining". 16 years later after paying my proverbial dues, life didn't get better for me. I didn't get the American Dream - I got the American Nightmare: I am STILL poor, disenfranchised, laden with student loan debt I will never be able to repay, and due to my age as someone pushing 40, I have even LESS of a chance for a job than I did when I was young and healthy. So not all of the "elders" are greedy welchers who have all the money. My generation for the most part, was the first since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 - to have a lower standard of living than my Baby Boomer parents (who are now poorer than I, due to age discrimination in the job market, no health insurance and a recent diagnoses of cancer).

Every year, 18,500 Americans die for lack of access to health and dental care because the abscessed tooth that sends toxins into your heart and kidneys (causing renal failure, disability and death)that started out as a manageable cavity was not treated - for lack of money, and for lack of insurance. Most of these casualties are those between the ages of 18 and 64, with a significant concentration among those aged 40 and older. This is because those who end up unemployed or trying to re-enter the job market in their mid to late 30's have found all the doors of job opportunities slamming shut on them - by age discrimination.

Many Boomers have also been shoved out of their jobs due to age discrimination. Their 401(k)'s have been eviscerated by 9/11 and Enron-like debacles. With depleted retirement savings, coupled with age discrimination in the job market, older people not yet old enough for social security and Medicare must now also worry about social security being eviscerated as well - leaving them NOTHING to live on at all, forcing many pre-65 yr olds back into the job market - where they are only getting the crappiest of jobs anyway - IF they can even get those since a healthy 18 year old will get hired at McDonalds before a poor, destitute 60 year old.

The plain truth is that the middle-aged are the ones most disadvantaged, due to being jobless for much longer periods than the younger ones, being without healthcare with more health problems than younger people, and being poorer because of getting cheated out of our share of the pie since we were 20 back in the days of MTV, Motley Crue and Simple Minds.

The crux of the matter is this: It is not a nation of elders with all the money cheating the 20-somethings today, it is a nation of greed and of compassionless "haves" and "have-mores" who have succeeded in impoverishing the majority of the rest of us - of ALL ages - for the last 20 years. People of ALL ages need and deserve good jobs, a safety net for basic economic security and healthcare. What is it that our constitution and bill of rights says? "...and the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness shall be guarranteed to ALL citizens..." If you are deprived of getting what you need to be able to live (like healthcare), you are being denied and abridged of your right to life. These rights are not for the privileged few....they are for ALL - Now what part of "ALL" doesn't anyone understand?

[Hattie]

Jacqueline: What is happening to you times millions of citizens is what is driving down the life expectancy in this country. It's a disgrace.

[Aneil Mishra]

I haven't read all of the comments to your post, but let me add my own perspective.

Regardless of what degree college students earn these days, how many of them are actually literate and numerate? Most students today in my opinion receive much less practice in writing and using mathematics in their regular coursework. They are also less likely to be expected to conduct independent research and thought than when I went to college. The Internet has made students less likely to be critical thinkers and evaluators. Is it no wonder then that they have more difficulty obtaining decent-paying jobs upon graduation?

I didn't have a personal computer in college, Ipod, cellphone or satellite radio (graduated in 1980), but somehow managed to learn anyway.

I also endured some of the most trying economic times in recent history (recession of 1981-82), but hustled and got good summer jobs and a very good job upon graduation. I attribute my success to the constant writing I had to since middle school, and the independent research I had to do while being an undergrad at Princeton. I was taught how to think and express that thinking coherently. Unfortunately, many college students are expected to do neither.

Aneil Mishra, Ph.D.
www.totaltrust.wordpress.com

[Ryan]

I think it is just fine to call college a scam, at least in certain circumstances. I quit school with just over one semester left before my graduation, and I haven't looked back because the UNLV College of Education, in conjunction with the Clark County School District, was changing me in a bad way. It's not education; it's training. What's more, it's bad training.

For me to have finished college, I would have had to compromise my integrity, going through more damaging motions, ultimately conditioning myself to be someone I never wanted to be. And even though I wanted nothing more than to be a teacher and make a positive impact on every kid who would ever enter my classroom, I realized I'd never receive the chance because the leaders of this nation's educational systems have a different agenda.

A college degree is a piece of paper that only means what people want it to mean. The fact that I don't have one does not bother me because I know I am a brilliant, eccentric person. (I'm also a total idiot sometimes, too, but I'm OK with that. I learn from being wrong.) And maybe I can't get a good job because I don't have that degree, but the real losers are the employers who really believe that worthless piece of paper means something extraordinary.

The proof is in the doctor's appointment: I don't know about everyone else, but I leave nearly all of my doctor's office visits without answers for my ailments.

[Jacqueline]

To Aneil Mishra:

You cited as possible reasons for college grads of today being unable to get good jobs by asserting that it is because they are academically deficient. You cite by personal example of how you were able to be successful (got lucky is really more like it)in securing employment during the recession of the early 1980's. There were alot more jobs in America back then! Nowadays, middle-aged college educated professionals (many with credentials on the doctorate level) who have experience AND educations with higher literacy rates that are not getting jobs. How does your logic explain that? It can't - it is merely another blame-the-victim excuse in disguise.

The simple fact is that there is a maybe only 1.3 jobs for each 100 job applicant. I believe this is due to insourcing and off-shoring in a "free global market" rat race to the bottom. Prove me wrong.
By the way, I was 35 yrs old when I graduated college in 2001, overcoming dyslexia to earn high marks in mathematics and computer science. Now, the mechanics of calculus, algebraic topology and number theory has not changed for quite a long time. Nor can comprehension of and mastery of this material and coursework in such advanced classes all be hashed out on computers (when I graduated, computers didn't spit out math proofs in analysis of the real variable!)

[Hattie]

Ryan says:I don't have that degree, but the real losers are the employers who really believe that worthless piece of paper means something extraordinary.

I don't think that's what a degree means. It means that you have completed certain requirements that are the minimum necessary for employment.

[Ryan]

Hattie,

Great! Certain requirements, like you did what you were told. Like you crammed a bunch of information--not knowledge--into your head, then forgot it immediately following the exam. Stuff like that.

You know what most employers are really looking for? They're looking for people who don't think for themselves--drones with a documented history of being obedient. They're not looking for people who might actually know something more than they know themselves because their egos can't handle that.

Our culture tells us a college degree means everything, so those of us with adequate resources shell out tens of thousands of dollars to get that piece of paper. Then we get a job that pays a little bit more than Taco Bell, hating it for years, doing a crappy job, and killing our spirit in the process.

Public schools teach kids about the US Constitution, then subsequently violate the kids' Constitutional rights every day by forcing them to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (aka "The Pledge"). The American people are still trying to figure out whether our public schools should teach reality (evolution) or unconstitutional fantasy (intelligent design). American History textbooks "teach" our kids that Christopher Columbus was a great American hero, even though he could not possibly have been American and his own logs describe how he raped and murdered countless natives of the lands he visited, essentially wiping out their population. American History textbooks contain more lies than truth, yet we consider them sources of education.

Nothing works in this country anymore, largely because the people who do the hiring are egotistical idiots (with college degrees). It's perpetuated by the man-made notion that one can only gain knowledge by finishing certain levels of school. It's BS, and it's about time people started realizing it's BS, because our society is on the verge of collapse and revolution.

When I get the chance, I'm going to hire a bunch of high school dropouts to help me operate a pizzeria. I'm going to make expectations clear from Day 1: If you want to bust ass, you're going to love your job and receive fair compensation. But if you want to screw off, you can work for someone else. I will lead by example, working 60-80 hours a week, paying myself nearly minimum wage with no time-and-a-half for as long as I have to. I will treat my employees as peers, not subordinates, except in the rare case that I need to show my authority. And when this day comes, I'm going to live comfortably and my employees will live comfortably. You only get what you give.

Knowledge is not remembering what you've been told; it's understanding what you've explored.

I have a lot more to say about this stuff, and maybe I will say it sometime later.

[Ryan]

I forgot to mention that I will treat all my employees with respect, as opposed to just paying them well. And I will listen to their suggestions because I realize I don't know everything.

Whenever I finally receive this opportunity, I'm going to change the world. Or at least I'm going to change a handful of people's worlds. Of course, that is how you go about changing the world.

[adam]

An odd thought: have any of these highly qualified table-wipers considered emigrating? Europe needs hard-working educated people and one of the largest expatriate communities in the UK is American.

Reasonable wages, healthcare, rock solid education for the kids and I personally have no intention whatsoever of doing a 60 hour week. Whats not to like?

Go East young man / woman!

[Anne Hart]

Barbara, I'm the author of 68 paperback books, listed at http://www.newswriting.net. Interestingly, we were born only weeks apart in the same year, and graduated college within months of each other. Is there anything to astrology, or is it a mere coincidence that those born between August and November of 1941 with Jupiter in Gemini have almost all become prolific book authors and freelance journalists? I've been writing full-time freelance as my primary profession since 1963. Is it in the stars, or just the era both of us were growing up in? I write how-to books, personal history,novels, plays, ethnography, social history, life story writing, current issues,and about DNA. My graduate degree was in writing. AS a child I read avidly in physics and now in evolutionary genetics, am a Mensa member, and majored in English/creative writing. I'm also an avid reader of your books and thoroughly enjoy them....They make my day. I also have two grown children (and nine grandchildren). I liked your book titled, Nickel and Dimed the best so far and also enjoyed and related so much to Bait and Switch. Write on. Cheers and Joy.

Anne Hart
http://www.newswriting.net

[joe]

1. What you study

2. Not where you study.

It the STEM classes.

science
technology
engineering
math

this will always have value . our whole 21st. century depends on science and technology.

Humanities degree is a future at burger-king, taco-bell & wal-mart.

It's What you study, Not where you study.

[MrPiskie]

Frankly, Joe, that's not true. I'm 24, so in the past couple years I've had the chance to see how my friends from high school have fared once they've graduated from college. One graduated with a degree in computer science; he eventually found a decent job in his field, but it took him around a year of searching to find it. One earned a math degree, and he's working as a bank teller now, which seems like underemployment to me, as I'm not sure that job requires more skills than addition and subtraction. I know a guy who went into teaching high school mathematics, and I hear he's going through around a job every year or so because the school budgets are tight around here and the teachers with the least seniority get the axe first. Ironically, my friend who went to art school probably did the best, since he got a paid internship in the ad department of a publishing company that later turned into a full-fledged job. He didn't like the atmosphere and eventually quit to do freelance work, but he still probably did better jobwise than anyone else I know.

If I had to hazard a guess as to why things worked out this way, I'd say that it's because there's a glut of people trained in the tech field after the dot-com bubble burst and while a lot of tech jobs are being shipped overseas, and the art school my friend went to had an excellent job placement program for graduates. The bottom line, though, is that success for recent college grads is not merely a matter of entering the right field.

[Jefferson]

A college education is NOT job training and too many people think that it is. Before WWII only a small percentage of people went to college, usually from the upper class stratum. Now everyone is going because they think that's the way to get a job. It's not. It's "education". If you want to be trained for a job, go to a trade school. I also think this is why so many college students and graduates show no intellectual curiousity whatsoever and are satisfied with spending hours watching spectator sports and reading People magazine. (I've actually met young college graduates who have never heard of Charles Dickens! Scary!)

[spaghetti happens]

I work in the administrative wing of the construction industry here in Northern California, where carpenters and plumbers with high school diplomas own million-dollar homes while I hang my two bachelor degrees on the walls of my nice rental unit. Being able to frame a house is a lot more valuable to this utilitarian economy than being able to explain the protagonist's motive in "Martin Eden", and wage scales reflect that.

Of course, the economy definitely does not recognize that being able to teach children to read and to understand history, language, mathematics and science so they can be informed citizens is a lot more important than just about anything else. And so teachers, who should be paid similarly to those in the professional classes, wind up making less than those in the construction trades.

[nancy w-s]

"It’s too soon to call college a scam, and as long as they teach a few truly enlightening things, like history and number theory, I won’t."

Nah - go, ahead, call it a scam.

(Along with the adage, "Do what you love and the money will follow.")

[Jacqueline]

Ryan made a very interesting point about knowledge & wisdom vs. a degree. There is also other factors which I will reiterate here: Age discrimination (nobody hires the middle-aged college educated worker) and the fact that employers have gotten absolutely rediculous these past 5-10 years in their minimum requirements they will accept from a job applicant. You should NOT need to have a bachelors degree to work as a teleservice rep in a call center or as a telemarketer. Nor should you have to have a college degree to work in some starvation racket of commissions-only pay and no health benefit "employment" selling mutual funds, annnuities and insurance.

Before I "created my own job" opportunity going the self-employment route selling auto, home, workers comp and flood insurance, I pounded the pavements 4 1/2 years trying to get ANY job that at least paid a living wage and had health benefits - to no avail. I even looked into getting teacher certified so I could qualify for a teaching job. When I ended up losing four front teeth due to lack of access to dental care while poor, unemployed, and uninsured that killed my job search cold. When the last place I applied ( a telemarketing firm that hired mostly young workers in their 20's) told me that I had to get my teeth fixed first - then I'd be considered, although I had no way to get my teeth fixed with no money and no insurance and Medicaid does not pay for dentures (although they will pay for extractions). Bottom line is nobody wanted to give me, a disadvantaged middle-aged woman a chance before the shit hit the fan for me.

While I might be earning enough NOW so that I FINALLY got a denture so I can look normal and eat normal plus barely survive in my commissions-only pay through my insurance agency, I do not have enough income to afford to repay the costly student loans I had to incur in trying to become "worthy" of a chance for a good job after a horrible accident left me physcially disabled and unable to do my construction job as a union plasterer. I made more money and enjoyed more economic security as an "illiterate, uneducated" skilled laborer than I do now as someone with a degree who had to overcome a hell of alot just to get that degree. When companies offering no job security, wages of around $7-$10/hr refuse to hire anyone with only a high school diploma or maybe only a GED, that pushes alot of people of all ages to try to get a college degree - just so they can MAYBE get jobs that a high school grad can do. That's the real rip-off because it is NOT economically feasible to go into debt to the federal government for student loans for tens of thousands of dollars when the job market can change by the time you graduate.

Now the jobs gurus are pushing everyone into nursing and physician assistants bachelor degrees, but the market may very well be glutted once again because there are only so many healthcare jobs. And now at age 40, I am not about to go into even more debt that I can't afford when I won't get hired anyway just because I am no longer young and didn't have the good luck of getting a chance in life BEFORE hitting my middle-aged years.

When I became disabled 16 years ago at age 24, the well-paid "experts" (vocational rehabilitation counselors for the disabled) who get generous salaries and benefits working for the state agency known as Pennsylvania O.V.R., told their disabled clients like me that the ONLY way they (O.V.R.) would help us with job placement and advocacy for accommodation assistance is if we went to school for what they said was viable for re-entering the workforce.

I wanted to go for a B.A. in criminal justice and go on to law school for a juris doctorate and be a lawyer (I don't know any poor lawyers). My O.V.R. counselor said that was off-limits for me. I had to go for Math/IT or get no help with school accommodations or job placement at all. Those very same "experts" who are living large on their nice salaries and cushy jobs did not get penalized when their vocation plans for their disabled clients failed to work out. Yet there is NO way for an individual like myself to sue the state under the doctrine of respndeat superior for vicarious liability of these state-employed "experts" and their collective ministry of misinformation. These experts as well as the "career counselors" and "job placement specialists" employed at various state unemployment agencies like PA Career Link don't lose money, get fired or get docked pay when they steer people wrong. Which begs the question: why are these "experts" steering people wrong in the first place, knowing how much economic harm in crushing student loan debt and lack of income many will suffer as a result?

The answer is, I believe, that big business is behind it all to ensure there is never a shortage of workers for any given field, even though the number of job applicants per job is something like 100 : 1.3. That means that 97.7% of those qualified for the job who are applying won't get the job. If they can't get anything that pays enough to be able to live without having to supplement with food stamps and Medicaid, too bad, tough luck for them. get the spin doctors out in full force to tell the unlucky job seekers that if they are poor, if they are unemployed/under-employed, it is somehow all their own fault and nobody else's. Meanwhile, there is very little, if any, safety net to fall back on when you are poor and middle-aged without kids thanks to the welfare reform laws passed in 1996 and the recent draconian cuts in programs like Medicaid and LIHEAP. There are alot of us who do not deserve to be poor because we did "all the right things". The ultimate slap in the face to me is that as an insurance agent/broker, I am required to have something called Errors & Ommissions Insurance (E & O) because if I act negligently in the scope of my profession, I can be sued. If I don't make enough in commissions in any given month to cover my basic needs plus my own health insurance, too bad. I must pay for this costly E&O just to be allowed to work selling insurance. But the O.V.R. "experts" who coerced me, a disabled woman, into going for a degree in something that in the end provided me nothing but a $54K debt and a long, fruitless job search - these so-called professionals are absolved from being sued for their negligence and conflict of interest in their dealing with the disabled because they work for the state and thus, are not held accountable for their negligent acts. That is the real crime. And for these types of government agencies, I pay taxes? Something is defintely wrong with that picture.

[chris]

I agree that college education should be considered a scam. I am nearly finished with a PhD in philosophy from a midwestern Jesuit college. My grades are impeccable. The employment scenario for one such as me is dismal at best. I was always told--and the Chronicle of Higher Education has reported--that a college professor can make good money. This is only true in the sciences and in the college of business. I am looking at salaries in the mid-thirties, not even enough to cover rent and my student loans. Why is college a scam? It is financially a scam in which students are fleeced, the humanities faculty are fleeced, and only the administrators walk away with anything resembling a middle class existence. The rate of tuition has exceeded the rate of inflation by a significant multiple over the last twenty years and yet wages have remained stagnant and even gone down. Blame the ponzi scheme of capitalism. Blame the republicans and their political theory. Blame us all for our neglect of the public sphere. And, peering over the edge into the future replete with energy shortages and resource wars, trade imbalances, outsourcing, and debt leverages at historic highs, it remains to consider the fact that the other boot is going to fall. Its times like these that cultures have pulled out the guillotine and begun chopping off heads. When the mass of the population has been lied to, when there are dismal prospects for their future, when they played by all of the rules and still come up short, that is the moment when revolutions begin. Let us hope and pray.

[Thena in Maine]

I graduated with a BS in Mathematics ten years ago this month. Since then I've been intermittently employed as a secretarial temp, earning between $8 and $12 an hour. The best year I've had, I grossed under $22K. Most years I make between $12K and $18K since, as a temp, I'm not guaranteed work every day or every week.

I thank my good fortunate regularly that I got out of college with no student loans and a controllable amount of credit card debt. My partner, who is ten years out from a Masters in meteorology and working as an office clerk, still has a few years to go before his loans are paid off.

Everywhere I turn I meet people in our age bracket who are still neck-deep in debt paying for college that was supposed to get us "good jobs." We are all smart, competent people and most of us came from middle-class anglo-american backgrounds. We are still trying to figure out what went wrong.

I have thought of going back to graduate school but am starting to think trade school might be a better bet. I don't know that I'd enjoy unstopping drains for a living, but plumbers make about twice what I do... But, on my wages, I can't afford trade school, and I don't dare borrow money for more training without some certainty that I'd be able to pay it back and not be in the hole the rest of my life.

At this rate, I am regretting not having majored in art. At least my five years would not have been wasted.

[bh]

For my part, majoring in Art History was a wonderful decision, in terms of the overall quality of the intellectual experience. I am about as employable as any math or engineering major I know of in this economy, so I don't feel that I screwed my own chances by not studying "the right things," STEMI, as joe put it. Perhaps the reason education is not as valued or supported in the public sector now, and why we are hurting, is because schools have come to be seen (and hence come to act and subsqequently be funded) as if they were four-year-long career fairs. Treating education as if it were an entree into a good salary, and nothing else, is simply short-sighted and anti-intellectual, and will almost guarantee that less will be gleaned out of the college experience. At this point, I think young people like me should be asking, why not live simply, thrive in your knowledge and not in your bank account, don't buy a car - see what it's like to be fulfilled by things other than owning a house. It's good for a society, even though it's definitely not how we operate here in America, for the most part.

[Rich]

I cannot say that I disagree with Ehrenreich's view of her cost/benefit analysis of a college degree. However, it strikes me as hypocritical for her to fly cross country to accept a degree that she finds so loathesome. She says, "In fact, a BA may be worth about as much as my new “honorary doctorate:” With these degrees and about $2, you can get a ride on a bus." Given these feelings, I could continue to respect her if she had turned down the honorary degree. Unfortunately, she has lost a devoted fan.

[Rachael]

I am a junior studying a practical major at a private, well respected university in the northeast. My parents are in yesteryear's school of thought where they believe that a college education will guarantee me a fantastic job immediately upon graduation. They tell me not to get involved with extra activities, summer/part time jobs, internships, and so on, believing that it will distract me and cause my grades to suffer. I watch my friends who have already graduated with solid degrees from this supposedly prestigious university still living with their parents two years past graduation, or living out of the house but barely paying rent. Many go back to grad school within a year or two, finding it impossible to get a decent job even with a college education. I see others before me with perfect 4.0s but no experience in their field of study try to land a respectable job. More than a few have turned to trade/professional schools AFTER obtaining that magical B.S or B.A.

So I have the constant argument with my parents that it's not just about what you know in the classroom, it's not about scoring at the top of your class; it's also about what you can do to apply what you know. They might wish I would attend summer classes and graduate sooner, but learning from my friends' mistakes, I think it may pay off more in the long run to perhaps do some menial internship instead. Maybe instead of a 4.0 I could get a 3.0 and be able to say- both on a resume and for my own pride- I'd contributed to a few organizations I felt strongly about or was interested in. Networking is huge anymore, and the practical experience anyone would gain from some outside activities may mean the difference between living at home post-graduation or scoring your first apartment by yourself.
I have to admit that I'm almost a little scared of the future, knowing that the odds are stacked against me anymore, what with student loans, a tight job market, and all the other endless points this thread raises. Wish me luck..

[joey]

Sorry guys, you can forget about the "there are lots of great jobs for university graduates in Europe" dream.

I'm from the UK and got my BA 11 years ago and my MA a couple of years later. The situation then was radically different than it is today, when the government is pushing all young people, regardless of their academic ability, to attend college and obtain a degree. We don't have the same loans system in the UK as you do in the US, and the overwhelming majority of today's graduates end up with a next to useless degree, a massive debt and little opportunity to pay off the debt by getting a good job.

Because of the change in the economy (hello, service industry jobs!) and the massive influx of new graduates, every job you will apply for, even a call centre operative, will require you to have a degree.

Obviously, a crappy degree in Business Studies or Art History won't give you very much in the way of management skills but it will give you some nice unrealistic expectations about your future career. Forget them, and enjoy your job stuffing envelopes or making coffee.

I've employed and interviewed many of today's graduates and am depressed by standards of literacy and numeracy, expectations that are out of proportion, and the size of their debts. Also, I am depressed because the excellent graduates I have employed have had to work on a terribly low wage with not much chance for promotion or bettering their financial prospects.

What about the rest of Europe? No idea, and if your only language is English forget about working there, unless your chosen career is "grape picker" or "Club Med representative".

People from the UK want to go to America or Canada so perhaps we can do a swap. Looks like it's not so different on the other side of the pond, eh?

[Brian]

Not all that suprising. I graduated in applied physics (vocationally lacking but still usefull) and it seems I'm headed nowhere job-wise. No regrets though. By the way, I live in houston, home to NASA and the energy epicenter of the world. So like dude. Where's my fricken job?

Anyways, reading the posts in this blog left me with the feeling that people are somehow jaded when their degrees don't land them in a high paying career. Yeah I know, more people are getting degrees causing their value to sink. Sorta like YOU getting a degree is actually causing YOUR degree's value to drop. Funny, huh? Maybe we should quit getting them. Then we could complain about how little money uneducated folk make.

Funny thing is, a college degree can't possibly be hurt your chances at finding employment; unless you happen to be a fine arts major. It also seems that most people in this post seem to forget that alot of higher education is just that, an education. It is not (always) vocational training. The exceptions being accounting, medicine, engineering, prostitution, and I hate to say it - business. So for all you Andy Warhol inspired contemporary art majors who can't find someone to pay you to smoke cigarettes and "read" in a dimly lit coffee-house, quit complaining. What did you expect? Heres a tip. Try convincing your next interviewer that your hair-style is much less "mainstream" than most.

I am suprised more people haven't mentioned outsourcing. The sad truth is I shop at Wal-Mart. Why do I shop at Wal-Mart? Beause it's cheap! Same reason why textile, manufacturing, programming, and engineering jobs are moving offshore. (http://www.rescueamericanjobs.org )

As for the cheap labor and poor working conditions off-shoring creates? Well maybe we could convice the workers to immediately demand higher wages and better working conditions. Maybe then the jobs will come back. I'm sure those poor under-paid souls (No, not us) would be delighted. Free markets bring competition. Don't like it? Neither do communists.

I do agree with Barbara in that university is like a "holding pen". An example would be the GI bill. University enrollment skyrocketed due to it and the glut of unemployed unskilled soldiers returing from WWII. The GI Bills main function was to stifle rampant unemployment.
http://www.75anniversary.va.gov/history/gi_bill.htm

RABDARGAB (Read A Book, Do A Report, Get A Buck) isn't
helping the situation.

This degree is worthless. I should get another degree. Where's the logic?

Why not be a meat handler or maybe a luberjack? Seriously.

[Clare]

Nursing isn't an end all, either. I'm a career change BSN and I'm the only one left from my 1987 class that's still a nurse. Add in nurses to that "degreed people working jobs that don't require a degree" category....my BSN has me working side by side with people who have never been to college. We have the same license, we get paid the same.

People are drawn to nursing out of a desire for career stability. They leave it in droves because of the back-breaking nature of the profession.

I do think my generation (I'm 52)was well served by our independent nature. I've been on my own and self supporting since I was 16. When I hear about adult children living at home into their 30's, 40's....well, I just don't get it.

[Linda Laurin]

I read a book several years ago that still haunts me to this day. The name of the book, if any of you are interested in knowing America's real economic future is: "THE END OF WORK" BY JEREMY RIFKIN. It was written in the mid 90's.

Ironically, Mr. Rifkin's predictions on the U.S. labor market have errily come true over the last decades like the ominous predictions of a modern-day Nostradamus.

I urge all of you who are in this horrible predicament, as I myself am with 3 worthless college degrees, to read Mr. Rifkin's book from cover to cover.

And I fully agree with Chris' post that when we do-nothing Americans have had enough, the only thing left is a REVOLUTION! A warning Mr. Franklin and Mr. Jefferson wrote to us about long ago.

And with the secret passing of the NEW FREE TRADE AGREEMENT, and the pending NORTH AMERICAN UNION via the NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY and the Dallas Logistics Hub by a handfull of Treasonous Democrats and the Bush NeoCons with Mexico, China, Korea, Peru and Columbia, that day is coming much sooner than you think -- for the storm clouds of civil unrest among the declining middle-class and the destitute working poor are roiling within our smog-polluted skies.

The questions is: will all of you be ready when the time comes when we working class citizens will be forced to dismantle our corrupt Federal (and State) Government brick-by-brick and broken law by broken law, in order to right the wrongs of the past fifty years, and disempower the stranglehold of Corporate Tyranny and its Free Market, unfettered Capitalist System gone amok!? I hope so. But always remember: that it is we Americans, by our gross apathy and ignorance and even cowardice, who have allowed the top 4% of the WAR-MONGERING, WEALTHY ELITE and REPUBLICAN FUNDAMENTALISTS, who have entrenched themselves and their self-serving policies like the British Monarchy we booted out several hundred years ago -- that has once again bound us up like indentured servants within our own nation -- with very little if any hope of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For the American Dream died long ago. But too many of us are loathe to admit it.

Take heart! For the time of Revolution will be upon us as early as 2012.

[Vince B]

I'm in total agreement. I have a Humanities degree (4 years) with an emphasis on theatre, philosophy, english, and history. I have had no luck for years with this degree. Finally, I decided to go retrain as a truck driver to make some money on par with what I thought I should be making. Nearly 90% of job orders I feel I could apply for ask for a journalism, english, commerce, business, or finance degree, and I apply anyway with no luck. Corporations don't seem to recognize the value of being versatile, and especially what the value of having theatre/performance experience brings to an otherwise boring boardroom. If you can't get up on stage and perform in front of hundreds, how can you deliver product reports and sales targets in front of a handful? It makes me sick. I'd like to see all programs unappreciated by big business pulled from universities so as not to mislead students on their opportunities for the future. If we are to be linear, then so be it. Just let us know when we are you and vulnerable.

[Vince B]

LAST LINE WAS MEANT TO READ: "...young and vulnerable."