[VIDEO] What is the worth of college degrees in the new economy? What is the new economy?
Ken Coleman of Ramsey Solutions (and you've seen videos from Dave Ramsey here overtime) discusses the "waning worth of college degrees". He may say these trends predate the coronavirus pandemic. He calls into question the college ranking system as he cites a report that Carleton College in Minnesota claims they're #1 in teaching.
My read is that perhaps the public is generally waking up to the idea that the college degree isn't worth the push it's been getting at least over the last 20 years. It's not worth the rising tuition and by extension the debt. It's OK to question the value or even what you're supposed to get from a degree.
[VIDEO] These are the tools Marques Brownlee recommends when you hit the campus in the coming school year. Particularly if you're in college, I would wonder what he would recommend for high school students.
And something from the comments I want to share with you which is important:
Guys, a quick note that you do NOT need all the high-end tech in order to do well at college. If you can (and you should), save as much money as you can while at college, pay your tuition in full and student loans as soon as possible instead of spending on liabilities like gadgets. Get the bare minimum you need and only spend money on products you know you are going to be using for 4-6 years (such as laptop). Don't overspend on phone, headphones, lamps, tablets, etc.
Follow this advice, all of these wonderful items are great. And not to be the negative type, if you live in a college dorm you risk the possibility of being robbed. When I was still on a college campus I've heard a handful of stories on this. Regardless if you want to give Bro. Brownless a small commission for buying these devices give some of these devices go right ahead. Hopefully they will be useful to you in your studies. :)
[VIDEO] I want to share this with you all to celebrate the journey of these young men who will be joining the ranks of Morehouse College alum around the world. They will walk across the stage to become Morehouse Men. Who knows perhaps a billionaire will allow them a grant to pay off their student loans? It has happened, either way I want to see young Black men take this huge step and move forward successfully in their lives.
The stream of this graduation will begin at 9 AM Eastern time on May 15, 2022. Enjoy!
However in this case they're talking about a "debt-free" initiative at Ohio State University. So in lieu of student loans you can finance your education with a combination of grants, scholarships or internships.
While it sounds so good to just cancel all student loan debts, what's really necessary is some reform of tuition and fees in higher education. I've grown to realize that going to college is a hell of a bet to try to spend 20 years attempting to pay off. If you plan to go to school hopefully you have a good financial plan and that means if your dream school is a prestigious school like Morehouse perhaps you have to decide while looking at tuition and fees if that's the right school to attend.
[VIDEO] Dave Ramsey is big on attacking student loans and even squashing any hopes of the federal gov't forgiving student loans. Until the federal gov't decides to make that a reality you got to pay, unfortunately. And don't depend upon that possibility.
In the case of this caller - Carol - to his radio program. She says she didn't know better when she graduated from high school and take this next step. She didn't have parents who really had a clue about going to college to guide her in the right direction. Perhaps even a broader support network to make the right and financially beneficial decisions.
Going into debt to go to school isn't the best investment in yourself that you can make. She talks about going to college and getting a history degree which proves to be a bad move if you don't want to go to grad school and/or teach. She went back to school to get a degree in architecture and makes better money now.
She also says it's OK to stay home as opposed to going away to school. You don't have to go to the party school. It's OK to go part-time or even take a break when you feel it's necessary especially to save some cash.
I would add you don't need prestige, perhaps you'll do just fine going to a lesser known college or even a public college. When you go to college you may never really know until you start working what you want to do with the rest of your life. If you can't pay cash for your degree, definitely wait until you have the cash and of course weigh how much you're willing to pay cash for your studies.
I also want to add that if you have a streaming service like Apple TV or Google Play or even Amazon Prime Video you can check out his documentaryBorrowed Future: How Student Loans Are Killing the American Dream. It's something I hope to check out soon and hopefully discuss here in the near future.
This advice, from Dave Ramsey is good advice. Taken from his ig stories. It’s advice I could’ve used many years ago. If you take some time off to slow down instead trying to do it in four years you might be better for it.
[VIDEO] The argument here is whether or not colleges should dispense with the SAT or ACT in order to provide for an ethnically diverse student body. There are cases out there involving the discrimination of Asian students from getting admitted and attending some of America's more elite universities.
One interesting fact noted high school GPA and test scores help to determine college success. More so than just relying on tests or GPA.
On diversity. Well I think it's OK to insure that students of a variety of backgrounds can get into the colleges of their choice. I'm not only talking race or ethnicity, let's include economic background which is something we do need to discuss as tuition continues to go up. Either way you can accept a student who won't be successful in some colleges or you can reject a student who isn't likely to be successful in some colleges. When you reject that student they can go somewhere so that they can be successful, and perhaps more affordable also.
Well I'm sure even in the middle of a pandemic there are high school juniors and seniors who could use this information right now. If college is in your plan then this graphic from personal finance guru Dave Ramsey is something you should look into. My advice pay for your college in cash and you don't need prestige so while it's nice to go to Morehouse, Spelman, Harvard, Yale or Princeton don't think about how much money you can make in the future. Think about whether or not you can afford going to college without having to incur debt to do so.
[VIDEO] Something to share with you this morning, something to chew on as we hear about President-elect Joe Biden's plans as far as student loan dept. Perhaps Rob Smith is right, the issue of student loans is a hoax and an issue of the elite who made choices about what to study, getting an advanced degree, even to not do what's necessary to not have so much debt.
I flirted with the idea of student loan forgiveness on occasion. Of course the other side of the argument is we shouldn't just forgive all student loans. We hear this would ruin the finance system because well lenders won't be able to get that money back.
Either way we could argue this is an issue or personal responsibility and even I have to question some of my decisions of my time in college.
What I can agree with today, is that going to a university shouldn't be just another entitlement. You have to want it, and that means you have to pay. Ideally, we need to take student loans out of the equation and in order to get that undergrad degree at the very least you need real cash and hopefully not pay interest on it.
The actual article linked is to the Wall Street Journal and unfortunately it's behind a paywall at least Instapundit did a brief excerpt:
Rachael Wittern earned straight As in high school, a partial scholarship to college and then a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She is now 33 years old, lives in Tampa, earns $94,000 a year as a psychologist and says her education wasn’t worth the cost. She carries $300,000 in student debt.
Dr. Wittern’s 37-year-old husband worked in a warehouse for several years before becoming an apprentice electrician. He expects to earn comparable money when he’s finished—minus the debt. When and if they have children, Dr. Wittern says her advice will be to follow her husband’s path and avoid a four-year degree. . . . For more than a century, a four-year college degree was a blue-chip credential and a steppingstone to the American dream. For many millennials and now Gen Z, it has become an albatross around their necks.
Millennials are the most educated generation in the nation’s history, but they are broke compared with their predecessors. So why would they direct their children to take the same path?
“They probably won’t,” says John Thelin, a historian of higher education and professor at the University of Kentucky.
I definitely won't, I don't have children but if I have some money to save for their college I'll help. Of course if their parents are paying their tuition that ideally should limit their options. Also I wouldn't want my children to be burdened with debt, I'd counsel them away from that.
[VIDEO] John Stossel takes a look at Yale University in Connecticut. Yale gets tax breaks which allows them to spend their money in any way they want, however, the town of New Haven has a budget shorfall. Also another consideration in this is student loans.
Well it's hilarious that an Ivy League school known for enrolling wealthy students have student loans, however, collection of student loans are important revenue for schools. It's another means to subsidize these universities.
I'm going to say again we went college crazy in this nation. There needs to be some reform and to the point where a bachelor's degree has some value. Not only that we need end the dependence of student loans.
I just wanted to share this article. There are some parents out there obsessed with getting their children into a top tier college. They're getting them ready early, but then do children not deserve their childhoods.
I don't have children but I don't mind they get involved with sports, however, my hope is that they enjoy playing and they should decide if they should do this for their livelihoods or to get into a top-tier school.
This quote kind of grinded my gears a tad:
On paper, Sloane, a buoyant, chatty, stay-at-home mom from Fairfield County, Connecticut, seems almost unbelievably well prepared to shepherd her three daughters through the roiling world of competitive youth sports. She played tennis and ran track in high school and has an advanced degree in behavioral medicine. She wrote her master’s thesis on the connection between increased aerobic activity and attention span. She is also versed in statistics, which comes in handy when she’s analyzing her eldest daughter’s junior-squash rating—and whiteboarding the consequences if she doesn’t step up her game. “She needs at least a 5.0 rating, or she’s going to Ohio State,” Sloane told me.
What's wrong with Ohio State? Why this pursuit of an Ivy League education? Don't get me wrong if you get in you're set, however, there are plenty of great schools to attend out there - like Morehouse for instance. :P
Another quote from this article I found:
In 1988, the University of California sociologist Harry Edwards published an indictment of the “single-minded pursuit of sports” in Black communities. The “tragic” overemphasis on athletics at the expense of school and family, he wrote in Ebony magazine, was leaving “thousands and thousands of Black youths in obsessive pursuit of sports goals foredoomed to elude the vast and overwhelming majority of them.” In a plea to his fellow Black people, Edwards declared, “We can simply no longer permit many among our most competitive and gifted youths to sacrifice a wealth of human potential on the altar of athletic aspiration.”
Thirty years later, in a twist worthy of a Jordan Peele movie, Fairfield County has come to resemble Compton in the monomaniacal focus on sports. “There’s no more school,” a parent from the town of Darien told me flatly. (She, like Sloane and several other parents, did not want to be identified for privacy and recruitment reasons.) “There’s no more church. No more friends. We gave it all up for squash.” She says she is working on a memoir that she intends to self-publish, titled Squashed.
This article went from obsessions of college admissions to obsessions with sports. I guess families have their obsessions with getting what's best for the young people.
[VIDEO] I'm a huge Casey Neistat fan or became one within the last year. This old vlog from just about four years ago starts off as most of his vlogs would just going through his daily life until he gets to the subject he wants to touch on.
What do you think of his thoughts on college? Just bear in mind he's a high school dropout and being a filmmaker by profession he's never even been to a film school.
Which reminds me I never crafted a graduation message for the class of 2020. We've been in a strange year and I'd better get to it before the year is over and we think about the class of '21.
[VIDEO] I saw this documentary over the weekend which features two figures one more in the entertainment realm who has a well-known podcast named Adam Carolla a comedian who in a different time hosted The Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel. And the other figure is a man named Dennis Prager who not only has a popular YouTube channel and he's also a conservative radio host.
This documentary takes aim at what's going on college campuses. It especially notes the disturbances on college campuses and it seems the lack of diversity of thought on college campuses could threaten our larger society. Indeed as one professor noted in this documentary the college students of today will become future leaders of American society whether in business, entertainment, or even politics.
I suppose we could talk about the issue of free speech when it comes to these campuses. It's definitely one thing to attack issues that most Americans do believe are troubling such as racism or sexism. It's utterly troubling when using those isms that many of us consider abhorrent as a way to attack other ideas.
So to find students deciding to take over a campus in search for a professor they take issue with, to tell a professor that you want his job taken from them because a student doesn't want to have a discussion about some of their ideas, to engage in rioting on a campus because a speaker you take issue with is coming to campus or to outright assault someone who's part of a group to which you're opposed. We're exploring most of that in this documentary.
Ahh safe spaces, I'm unclear on the concept to be honest. I suppose if these are for groups who might want to advocate for themselves that's fine. However for the purposes of this documentary what is being conveyed is that there are safe spaces from some ideas. Should we be safe from different and new ideas?
I think about this now, when I was at Morehouse I reflexively had an issue with communism. My frame of reference was the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, or Cuba which are basically oppressive authoritarian dictatorships. I was caught off guard when one of the young men I met at school had to ask me if I read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx which I did before graduating. I suppose I couldn't be safe from having to actually read up upon that subject which has a number of adherents.
When it was time to graduate from high school, I had no idea of the point. It was in my head to go to college and get a good job. College is the time to explore different ideas especially if you plan to study a field that allows you to academically look at different ideas. That's what this documentary explores, however, if the students and some of the professors are effectively only trying to promote some ideas is college actually serving its purpose?
[VIDEO] This video from Reason.tv talks about alternatives to getting a baccalaureate degree spending money for four years of study. As opposed to taking advantages of different vocational or pre-professional programs that are designed to get you ready for the world of work. One could argue for what colleges expect you to study is what you take these classes for preparing you for day one on the job.
[VIDEO] Dave Ramsey does a radio show on personal finance and he does this video recently to help explore families paying for their children's college education. He speaks with Anthony O'Neal and Rachel Cruze. It's possible with some effort to go to college debt free.
A few things to take away. It's great to have a dream school (and I certainly went to mine) however it's OK to go to a school you can afford. You don't have to go to a more prestigious and expensive school (realize that there aren't any guarantees with that) to accomplish the goal of a baccalaureate degree.
I wish I had really made more of an effort to work while in school or better yet start my own business or side hustle. If only I understood using a blog to make money for example. Aside from this blog I had been blogging and got some notice for it during my college years. Undergrad becomes much harder if you have little to no money coming in at all.
Also this is related to working, perhaps you take on a job that helps you pay for college. Perhaps your industry has a trade organization that offers competitive scholarships. Perhaps your company offers tuition reimbursement if you achieve a passing grade in a course. These are some things worth looking into as you figure out college finance.
If you want to cut the cost of college consider staying home and going to school. Of course, not everyone has this option and I can understand if a young person just out of high school feel the need to leave home. If you do leave home room and board is a major expense.
[VIDEO] I wanted to do a more extensive post on the Chicago Football Classic that takes place today at Soldier Field. According to the clock for the official website by the time I post this it will be at least one hour (kickoff 3:30 P.M.) before today's game. This year is between Virginia's Hampton University & D.C.'s Howard University.
Over the years this classic is played is often between two of this nation's Historically Black College's such as Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Jackson State University (alma mater of the late Walter Payton), Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Grambling University, etc. Often there will be a college fair for high school seniors before this event.
I would like to update you on the game when I find out about the results.
I just got wind of this today so I wanted to share this with you all. Besides while I had branded this blog as a neighborhood blog it has touched upon issues within higher education. Black college studetns unfortunately have been especially vulnerable to student loan debt, unfortunately. As always I often express that we need a new goal for our young people as they graduate from high school.
TODAY, BET announces it will broadcast a new primetime news special examining student loan debt and its disproportionate impact on African American students. The special is the first nationally-televised hour-long town hall aimed at the hot button student loan crisis. Hosted by political strategist and advocate, Angela Rye, this Town Hall looks to sound the alarm and pose solutions toward affecting change to what has become an American crisis. “YOUNG GIFTED AND BROKE: Our Student Loan Crisis” airs Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on BET.
For all students of color, especially African Americans, obtaining a college education can become financially crippling from high levels of unmanageable student debt. Our experts blame many causes, ranging from expensive for-profit colleges that aggressively market to poor students of color, to a widespread lack of financial literacy among first generation college students. Currently, the total outstanding student debt amount in America exceeds $1.5 trillion, mainly held by students from middle and lower-income households. Without a plan of action, this issue will only get worse for African Americans.
This one-hour Town Hall will feature analysis and commentary from policymakers in the CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS (CBC), experts in the education field and student borrowers impacted by this crisis.
I hope you check out this program this coming Sunday. And as often happens here I would like to share with you all anything with regards to student loan debt.
[VIDEO] Dave Ramsey is a radio host who does a program on personal finance. I know that he's done many segments on whether or not college is worth it. Student loans has been an ongoing public policy issue especially since the "great recession" during the late 2000s. Also another issue related to that is the increase in the cost of getting an undergrad degree.
Ramsey finds himself chuckling at the idea of a woman who graduated with her bachelor's degree, but the salary at her job doesn't pay enough to cover the cost of student loans. I get what he chuckles about, she wasn't smart enough to pick a field that would offer a return on investment (RoI). In his mind the person he's talking about made a bad decision as far as her chosen subject, however, he doesn't just blame her. He blames her parents....
With this said do I think this country got crazy over going to college? Yes I do. It was ingrained in my head that you need a college degree it would get you a better job and you'd make more. Of course what even I failed to realize is that getting a college degree is fine but you need to have a plan. Especially what you plan to do when you get out. It's a lot like studying, the sooner you get ahead of the game as far as finding a job once you graduate the sooner you can find that good job once you pay your loans.
Either way this is a telling segment that was uploaded to YouTube on December 15, 2015. Whatever news story Ramsey was reading said that Goldman Sachs believes getting a college education isn't worth it. Especially as far as a financial RoI.
My thing is, college has become the thing you must do. It's the new high school diploma, gone are the days where you were set if you got a bachelor's degree. It's devalued if everyone and their mother seems to have one. Now you have to do more than go to college, to really have something of great value you must go to graduate school.
Everyone isn't meant to go to college and I do believe at one point that was one goal of a disgraced CPS CEO. Instead of prepping our kids for college which they may not be able to complete at least, why not prepare them for the workforce also?
[VIDEO] Yeah so this happened on Sunday. Morehouse men graduating in the class of 2019 will receive a grant from an entrepreneur named Robert F. Smith will provide grants to the 400 strong graduating class an estimated total of $40 million. The goal is to wipe out the student loan debt of those college graduate men. Where was he just about 10 years ago for me? :(
