Mesabah

I stick by my statement, college is a scam, career earnings mean nothing, it's what you do with those earnings afterwards that counts.

Dirtdiver

All the math skills we use flying commercial aircraft were learned by the third grade(eighth if you're from Alabama). What a 4 year degree shows is that you were able to complete something without a parent guiding you every step. It's not what you learned in college, it's that you were enough of a self-motivator to complete it.

illini90

It also exposes you to a lot of hot babes you wouldn't have had in your hometown. And a place to bring them back to...that your mother won't see.

johnso29

I believe that earning a college degree used to be an accomplishment, & something of value. Unfortunately, I now think "for profit" colleges and universities care about nothing but earnings. They truly couldn't care less about one's education. It's the next bubble to burst.

kingairfun

Do you have a degree? Are you still at a regional? The answer to these questions would prove a few points

illini90

I don't know if I would agree with that. The pendulum has swung at public institutions from taxes paying well over half of the cost, to well less than half. I don't think anybody cares any less...as a matter of fact, the profs I talked to while taking my son on campus tours seemed totally connected to the students. I think the cost has gone up because the taxpayers want to spend their money elsewhere, or spend less. It's a shame that kids have to mortgage their future to go to school, but that's what it's become, even for state schools. When Abraham Lincoln established land grant colleges, he wanted kids to go to school to better themselves and their families. We seem to have screwed that up by spending tax dollars elsewhere...

qball

Unless you went to the Academy

illini90

What that has to do with hiring, I have no idea. I apologize. So here's a nugget for you to make up for my ramble...when you get the call, make a reservation at the Hilton across the street. Don't stay at the Motel 6 to save $40 and walk down Virginia Ave or depend on a hotel shuttle somewhere else. Get in early, stay at the Hilton, get your shoes shined downstairs, have a beer, get a good night's sleep for $110...and in the morning walk across the street to the gate like you own the world!

Now back to the standard hiring questions...

illini90

People who go to the Academy must have never received the ROTC briefing...

gloopy

I think that degree lifetime income assumption is at the heart of the trillion dollar crisis we're seeing with "Big Ed". Yes if you add up all the surgeons and successful attorneys and engineers and airline pilots, etc, and you average in all the high school drop outs in prison etc etc etc the college crowd will earn more. But blowing 6 figures on a reading list of free material and entering a saturated job market 4 years older under crushing debt is a pathetic waste of money for most people these days. There's people blowing 6 figures to learn another language. Think about the stupidiy of that. Not to mention all the other "basket weaving" degree with a double major in graduation.

College can be used to prepare for a high paying career. But just going to college means nothing anymore. Far, far better to spend a fraction of that money working hard, saving and starting a business or three, or getting your ASE, working for a shop then starting your own business, or becoming a plumber or electrician or any number of things. Going to college for the experience and to party hardy in the quad just because your parents did is personally irresponsibile and the financial consequences are crushing if you don't pick the right majors, which most don't.

Standby for the Big Ed bubble. It will rival the liar loan mortgage bubble, both fueled by government entitlement politics.