Wrapping it All Up: The Rest of the Story and Its Relationship to the College Payoff Message
The Fourth Payoff
Again, without going too deep into details, I left the marketing director’s job and re-entered the world of self-employed entrepreneurism, but this time in education writing and publishing, where I quite happily sit today after more than a decade. I have taken a few stabs at earning a master’s degree in liberal arts online, but I have come to the conclusion that this will not happen until I reach the age of getting social security checks in the mail.
The position I am coming to at this point in this three-part blog post is that I would have never reached this plateau in my career had I not earned a bachelor’s degree. So, as noted, there have indeed been college payoffs for me, but I think it is equally important to note that a payoff will definitely NOT come to everyone who earns a degree.
Where Some of My Peers Ended Up
Growing up in a city neighborhood during the 60s and 70s put me in contact with literally hundreds of people whom I still know and occasionally have the opportunity to interact with today. They represent a wide diversity of career pathways. Many have not earned a bachelor’s degree and are quite successful, especially some who are entrepreneurs in the home improvement business. Some without baccalaureate degrees did very well working for the post office, UPS, FedEx, in retail, in manufacturing, for utility companies etc. and have reached a very comfortable retirement stage in their lives. Another is a self-employed, hard-working bread delivery entrepreneur. Others own restaurants and pizzerias that have brought them a fair amount of financial security. On the other side of the spectrum, some never held steady jobs or created businesses and have passed away under extremely unfortunate and horrible circumstances.
Most of my peers with four-year degrees or above have done well, working in the medical field or with major corporations in high-level positions that have put them into the upper middle class. Some with four-year degrees have done poorly over a lifetime. Having a degree never really got them out of the lower middle class or even what can be considered close to or at poverty levels. In short, there are numerous people with baccalaureate degrees who are unemployed or working at low-wage jobs, struggling month-to-month to meet their basic financial obligations.
What it Means to be Economically Secure Today
Relatively new research out of the University at Buffalo School of Social Work (quoted below) shows that achieving even basic economic security in America is definitely a challenging proposition.
". . . single workers need more than $30,000 a year for economic security. Single-parents with two children need nearly twice the income ($57,756) to cover basic expenses and save for emergencies and retirement, while dual-income households with two children require $67,920. These figures are well above – sometimes several times – traditional measurements like the poverty line and minimum wage designed to show what workers require for a basic standard of living. The 2010 national poverty level is $10,830 for a single-person family and $18,310 for a family of three. "
While Americans strive to reach, at minimum, basic economic security, the notion of having to simultaneously go into what can be considered extreme debt in the tens of thousands of dollars while attempting to earn a college degree does not look like an enticing pathway to pursue.
The Debate Ensues
A substantial debate has ensued since the Georgetown College Payoff report came out. Without citing all kinds of references to articles, reports and blog posts that can be seen in all the major education media, I’ll simply say that both sides make valid points. While the cost of earning a degree continues to skyrocket above the cost of living, the number of student loans continues to increase, as well as the number of student loan defaults.
Still, earning a bachelor’s degree with tens of thousands of dollars in debt is not so horrible if you can get employed in a decent-paying career that provides you with enough money to have a comfortable lifestyle while simultaneously paying off your debt in, let’s say, five to seven years. For most humanities majors, that may not be doable. For certain STEM-related majors, the odds are much better.
Cost-Savings Advice
Regarding how to deal with the rising costs of higher education, I thought a relatively brief post by Washington Post writer Jay Matthews in his “Class Struggle” blog made a lot of sense. In short, Matthews provided some common sense advice, such as “pick a school that does not cost so much” and look into food budgeting and finding housing arrangements with roommates to cut room and board expenses. He also noted that job opportunities can become more available to students if they look beyond their course work and become involved in extracurricular, institution-supported activities.
Nonetheless, a lot more needs to be done by higher education to enable students to pursue associate and baccalaureate degrees in greater numbers without incurring too much debt - which takes me back to the press conference mentioned at the beginning of part I.
A Reinvention Need
During the question and answer period I explained how I thought the crux of the problem in relation to the so-called “completion agenda” is that many students simply cannot afford to go to college. “If they don’t have the money, they don’t have the money. What’s the solution?”
Lumina’s Merisotis said that “what we really got to do is reduce the cost, bring down the cost side and develop a more efficient and effective system of higher education. Getting to the productivity of the system is ultimately the way to bring down the price, and that is going to require us to think hard and invest more in reinventing how we deliver higher education. Simply delivering it in the way we have been delivering now isn’t going to be possible for the growing number of people that you are talking about. ”
The Moral of This Story
So where does all this take us? Obviously there is a great need to reform the cost of higher education, but don’t hold your breath for that reform to take place anytime soon. Tuition and fees are still going up everywhere.
I think the message that needs to be dispersed to prospective students more than ever is pretty simple, and it’s not a new one: If you’re going to college and do not want to take on an enormous amount of debt and want a good shot at being financially stable after graduation, you have to work extraordinarily hard and do much more than simply go to class and earn decent grades. You will have to work more than a part-time job at times while attending school full-time; you’ll have to figure out what you can realistically afford and plan accordingly; you’ll have to get involved with extracurricular activities that interest you and will help you make connections and find networking opportunities that could lead to job opportunities; you’ll have to accept that it’s okay to lose some sleep in order to earn money instead of borrowing money ; and you’ll have to pay close attention to your health and habits so you don’t burn yourself out while working hard through your academic career (in other words, “do the right thing”).
In the end you’ll look back and realize that your college days were, indeed, extraordinarily great days, despite all the challenges you imposed on yourself.
