7 Responses to “Rising student-loans debts pose danger to housing market” »»

1. Funny
   Comment by Funny | 08/20/12 at 9:16 am

   My younger sisters tuition and room & board went up $3000 between last spring and this coming fall. Student debt has surpassed US credit card debt.

   In the end she’ll have paid* between 40-50K just for undergraduate work, and will be looking to continue on to Graduate work since you’re not educated in the Northeast without a Masters. About double what I had to take out.

   *interest payments not included.

2. Marc
   Comment by Marc | 08/21/12 at 7:56 am

   Young people today are being done a true disservice by both educators and societal expectations, which inform them that they *need* to go to college. No matter what. It seems that very few kids graduating high school sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil to compare their expected future earnings to the cost of the education they’re going to get. And (since you shouldn’t expect 17 and 18 year olds to make decisions like this with the wisdom of someone twice their age) it is incumbent upon teachers, guidance councilors, and parents to sit down and do the math with them. And the rest of us need to be a lot more accepting of people who say “I did the math, and decided a four year college degree wasn’t for me.”

3. Funny
   Comment by Funny | 08/21/12 at 8:59 am

   Might be true Marc, but have you seen the unemployment rate for non-college educated workers? How about the wage rate?

   Requirement creep in jobs is worse than even grade creep in schools. Simple office jobs that would require a 1980′s HS diplomas are asking for 3.5 GPA bachelor degrees, or advance college level work (masters / STEM fields).

   It’s truly nuts what entry level jobs are requiring as far as experience and education are concerned.

4. Mike O
   Comment by Mike O | 08/21/12 at 11:07 am

   Well, Funny, along those lines it’s also truly nuts how ill prepared kids are these days coming out of some of the high schools. Even the colleges are struggling with kids who can’t read or write even after graduating high school. Not to mention math, critical thinking, etc.. I have a suspicion the people who don’t go on to college may not have gotten what they need to be effective in the workplace, hence employers’ reluctance to hire.

5. Funny
   Comment by Funny | 08/22/12 at 7:44 am

   Well, seeing as I was required to know pre-calc in HS, meanwhile my parents couldn’t much help with homework past 9th grade… not sure. Calculus is a requirement for most majors in college. Most graduation requirements are much more stringent than they were in the 70′s and 80′s….

   That might not be true of other regions, but it can’t be of Massachusetts where 70% of the population has some college education or trade school. Move to Cambridge and 60% have master degrees!

   I think it has more to do with the same old trends that happened to the boomers when they were kids. Generational stereotyping and slighting. The hippies and the dazed and confused crowd are now in positions where they, like their parents, can shit on those under them.

   History repeats itself. It happens EVERY generation.

   It’s just worse now in a information technology world where the older generations are worried about promises made, and empty savings accounts. There’s a big bubble of bodies in every facet of our culture from the baby boom, including employment; and they’re not ready to retire, so barriers to entry are erected to protect their jobs from the younger and cheaper.

6. Funny
   Comment by Funny | 08/22/12 at 11:00 am

   More to the point: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/08/22/american_schools_are_getting_better.html

7. Andrew H
   Comment by Andrew H | 08/31/12 at 11:26 am

   As long as teachers keep telling kids that they are all meant to go to college the problem will never get better. What happened to trade schools? Plumbers make a lot better money than a teacher who goes to college for four years and comes out with little to no job prospects and crushing debt. And at the end of the day, plumbing and auto repair jobs aren’t going away.
   Andrew- http://www.austinhomelistings.com
   Stop sending so many kids to colleges. Not all are meant to be there or even want to be there.

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