Here is a way to figure out if the cost of a college education is cost effective. The formula is $=+/-{[college]+[education]}. Or the total, all-inclusive cost of a college education is equal to the value of the college's reputation plus the student's academic output over time in college. Go figure it out. It might not be worth the sum saved or borrowed. What was high school like? It might not be any different in college.
Is college education cost effective? The sum of money banked or borrowed to pay the college bursar over four years to acquire a college education for a son or daughter may not be cost effective. As parents of college graduates understand, and graduates themselves do or will at some point, the job in terms of wages may not be adequate for quite a long time before one is able to return the cost plus interest if any to the education underwriter.
College education is no longer cost effective. It is not cost effective for those students whose parents are paying he whole freight including all amenities for some. It is no loner cost effective for those parents or students borrowing all or a portion of the price of each of the four years of college education
Nowadays, the only college students for whom a college education is truly cost effective are those students who are attending college under full scholarship or those students guaranteed a sizable scholarship combined with assurances of continuing financial remuneration in exchange for service completed. The latter can range from waiting on tables to being lab assistants. But to truly earn the capital equal to the cost of a college education, one would have to have a job paying a salary in excess of any earned by many students who have long dreamt of earning their way thus assuring them of the ability to pay all loans without penalty or default.
If this is not disquieting to most high school juniors who know that they will have to pay their way if they truly want to attend college, then they should be told that they need to earn at least the average cost for a 4 year college education, $20,000, more or less, for each year in college. Figuring out how to do that in today's economy might substitute for work experience in lieu of educational credit for "How to Survive in College While Really Trying."
Fifty-five years ago, a Korean War Veteran, using the GI Bill college benefit could marry, attend college with children while living in campus family housing on the $140.00 pr month stipend and still have to line up in Fall and Spring outside the Bursar's office to get a few days postponement on paying the fees, $140.00/ semester for a full 18 credit schedule. The government check came a few days after registration and there was never enough money to pay on time. The bursar heard each individual's plea, but never failed to grant the requested extension. What happened between then and now is the ever-increasing cost of inflation relative to cost and the ability to pay for it. Our standard of living rose, but the standard price rose faster and far ahead of our ability to pay.
Today, those students who must borrow go largely in debt to the tune of many thousands of dollars that has all to be repaid, very often, with great difficulty on schedule. There is no telling how those students in a default rate pool will ever be able to engineer there way out of these terribly disturbing situations. For some paying debt will become a lifetime mind worrying activity. There is equally no telling how impossible for many who owe debt to ever be able to pay it back. Debt always belongs to the debtor as well as the family when there is one; they all share the problems as well as the solutions which often mean having to make great sacrifices for a good many years and sometime never acquiring those assets that were easier for their parents to acquire over the years, money in the bank, insurance coverage, a home to call their own. These will undergo bankruptcy and another chance if at all miraculously possible.
Fifty years ago, it was likely that one went to college with or without financial support and emerged even in the worse of times for job opportunities with a decent job in one's major and still manage to earn a living wage which was expected to go up over time. And it did. Recent years have found that even the best educated cannot find a job which holds a promise for the kind of advancement and security in learning and hold down a job for the long haul. The whole job scene has turned into a mishmash of market demands. Some careers developed within the college major are dead before they even start.
As Jay Leno might have said, "Do you really want to know how bad the economy is?" Well, it's so bad that half of this year's Harvard graduating class is cleaning tables at "Tim Hortons" this summer. That's how bad it is!
Are college students getting the education they want or thought they were getting for the price that they or their parents paid? Or, are college students working as hard as they can while matriculating or are they slacking and working still about as hard as they were during "senior fever" in high school? These lost souls may as well go home and let their parents adjust to the idea of having them home while the kids take a job to pay back the money lost. There is no two ways about it. It costs much too much to attend college. Alternatives are, join the military and tie down a bonus or the current GI Bill for further education after service or attend a junior college until the student makes up his mind that education requires one's full time attention. It's hard work. It might also help to delay college education until such time as the student to be knows his own interests, strengths, and character traits that might possibly lead to success. Then again, the world is your oyster, as they say. The pearl is flawed.