Forum Post: How many have been told that going to college will get you a job?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 2:19 p.m. EST by BogDog
(15)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Now talking about myself right now, skip this part if you don’t want to read my back story. I went to college for only a couple of years. I had a tight budget I had to stick to if I wanted to stay in. But as the second year rolled in, I had found out the cost had gone up and would have to leave college or find better temp work. Needless to say I had to leave, on the up side I did have enough skills be for college, to land a job and work my way up the ladder to being put in the lower middle class range.
Now why I bring up the topic is, now I’m older maybe not wiser but more experience at least. But I have three boys now and we make ends meet. It’s tight every now and then but we mange none the less. With the kids getting older, I like many other Dad’s like to ask “what do you want to do after high school?” and the answer I get is “go to college”, so in turn I ask the “well what are you going to study in college, and what do you want to do after?” normally I get a “I don’t know” or shrug. So after asking many time I decided to ask my two older boys “if you don’t know what you want to do in college or do after why go?” and they’ll tell me the school or a teacher told them so.
But I’ll get right down to the point a lot of kids in high school or sooner are being told to go to college like it’s some means to an end, and that student loans are some kind of magical genie that hands money over for college and they’ll never have to pay it back.
So I’d like to ask how many parent of soon to be college student, know that their kid has been misinformed on how student loans work and what happens after college is over?
Way back in 1979 I was in my senior year of college. I was getting a degree in electrical engineering and wanted to work with computers. I knew what I was there for and what I wanted to do afterward. I met up with a friend from high school that was also attending the same college, but that I hadn't seen for a while. I asked her what she was studying and was told "Greek Mytholoty." I said that was interesting and inquired what she planned to do with that degree once she graduated. She proudly exclaimed "Get a good job, of course." I asked what field, what kind of starting salary and would she have to leave the area to pursue it. I got a blank stare and little more. It seemed that everyone, including her parents told her that she needed a college degree in order to succeed, so she got one.
This year my daughter started college. We had many conversations about what she wanted to study, what career opportunities that degree would provide, etc.
In the 1990's I made many trips to Egypt. There, everyone seemed to have a bachelors degree in something or other. I was told that everyone could get a degree if they so desired. There were college graduates sweeping floors and doing general maintenance and grunt work. It seemed that one had to have at least a Masters degree in order to qualify for better positions.
Enough rambling and I don't think I even addressed your inquiry.
No you haven't but I think you see my point.