"For instance I have a bachelors degree in business, the concepts of business that would be needed to working the field easily could have been learned in a two year program."

I didn't mean need in the sense that you would need to have it to be able to do a job... just that it is needed for a company to consider you for that position.

Just be smart where you go to school.

I went with a private university that offered a good education and scholarships. I will leave a private university with under $20,000 debt which I already have some paid off since I have been working full time.

Going to college makes sense, but it's important to be smart about it. Think about what you want to do and how you're going to pay for your education. Is a degree necessary in your field? Is it helpful? Are you likely to change your mind about what you want to do 10 years down the road? A degree gives a certain amount of flexibility, but it comes at a price (both in terms of tuition and opportunity cost).

If you want to be a plumber, why go to college? And if you want to be a doctor, you don't have the option NOT to go to school. On the extremes, whether you should go depends on what you want to do.

From a strict numbers standpoint, it probably depends on the field. If you want to be a teacher, it's probably not worth it to drop $60k/yr on Harvard; spend $5k at your community college. You'll be marginally disadvantaged in applying for jobs, but the lack of debt makes a huge difference. On the flip side, if you want to work as an investment banker in NYC, you're infinitely better off shelling out the cash for Wharton instead of saving money by going to community college. Certain schools are going to close off opportunities, so it's important to know what you want to do and how competitive it is.

Student loan debt can be a real killer, but it can also open doors. I don't think that it's true anymore that simply going to college is going to pay off--there are people with six figures of student loan debt for an art history degree or a women's studies degree, and I don't think that makes much sense. Going to a decent school and pulling decent grades are important, too. But for people making reasonable choices and doing reasonably well, college is still one of the best investments they can make (even if, during the present economic times, things are rough).

No, college is not overrated. As long as it makes sense for your desired field, the numbers don't lie in terms of unemployment and annual compensation of employees with and without degrees.

What public school not in California is $55k per year? If you are talking private then it shouldn't be in this conversation since that was a CHOICE made by you to spend that much money there instead of going to a public school.

I even think with the huge tuition bumps in California right now that the state schools are still under $30k/yr.

For the 2009-2010 school year, there are 58 higher education institutions that have a tuition that is over $50,000 a year...compared to just 5 institutions in the 2008-2009 school year.

I do believe this is limited to private institutions.

There really aren't any public schools that have a tuition close to $50,000 a year.

College isn't for everyone. But like a previous poster said, any education is a good education. There is a lot to be said about professional development/continuing education. It's always a good resume builder. And sometimes, the thing about college besides the degree that gets overlooked, is the networking. It's not about what you know, but who you know.

A new saying that is being thrown around is that the "Master's is the new Bachelor's". Meaning (if you don't get it) that a Master's degree is almost replacing the Bachelor's degree in what you need educationally in order to qualify for a lot of careers.

OSH wrote:
A new saying that is being thrown around is that the "Master's is the new Bachelor's". Meaning (if you don't get it) that a Master's degree is almost replacing the Bachelor's degree in what you need educationally in order to qualify for a lot of careers.

I think that's true for the most part. I'm working on my Masters right now because a Bachelor's was pretty much useless for the most part.

I think it's more true for those of us who have liberal arts degrees. Sciene degrees are in high demand, but liberal arts degrees are easy to find right now.

science degrees you can still easily find a great job with a BS, but you are right, liberal arts, history, english, etc degrees might need a masters.

Old joke when I was in college was "engineer majors intern for Goodyeah, liberal arts majors intern at McDonalds". Wasn't nice, but the comparable job markets between the degrees is really that much different.

You need a master's in some fields for sure, in science fields you don't.

I think college is still very important with regard to your earning potential over a lifetime, but it certainly isn't for everyone. One of my sons didn't know exactly what he was going to do with his life and really didn't want to go to college right away so he went into the service. When he got out, he used the money Uncle Sam paid him and went to college. He got a general business degree, and that degree wasn't worth much in and of itself, but it opened doors that would have been permanently closed, and today he is in the pharmaceutical business as the result of an interview his degree got him.
Another of my sons had no interest at all in going to college and went to a trade school as his high school experience. He took the required academic courses and the other part of the day he took his "applied" courses. Today he works as a diesel truck repairman and is very happy with his job. His wife got interested in college recently and through a fee reimbursement plan at her place of work she has graduated with a business degree and has a much better job at her same place of employment. It just depends.

I don't think so. Not only am I learning a lot in the classroom, but I've learned WAY more outside of it with how to deal with people and things like that.

I made some pretty legit connections in college.

If you know what I mean.

(No, I actually seriously mean that I met people who have helped me further my professional career by leaps and bounds, which was really equal or greater to anything that I learned. So, that's why I think college was worth it for sure.)

No. College isn't overrated. Although I would note that term papers are.

"science degrees you can still easily find a great job with a BS,"

It depends on what you mean by "easily" and what is a "great job." I was an engineering undergrad at a top 25 school, most of my friends/fraternity brothers were engineering majors. Even during the best of times (I graduated in the mid-90's) the stats posted by career services were woefully overstated. My roomate/best friend was no slouch, National Merit scholar - college grades were ok, he just missed cum laude, smart guy but probably drank too much when he turned 21. He's been laid off 3 times and is unemployed, and I guarandamntee it isn't because of his work ethic or intelligence, it is a sign of the times. He started off at Sprint in Northern Virginia...they downsized so he move to Texas Instruments....they downsized so he moved to Dell in Austin, got married and had a kid and he lost his job (in yet another downsizing) in June. He's still living off severance and I (and many other people) are working to get him a new position, but there is heavy competition in the job market. It is rough out there, again EDUCATION IS GOOD, but the return on investment is not what it was 10-15 years ago.

If jobs were so available right now, I wouldn't be getting solicitations from my undergrad school or professional school to share my network with recent graduates/soon to be graduates. If you want to further your education and have a plan - go for it, just don't buy into the BS that Big Education sells you.

Manhattan Buckeye wrote: It is rough out there, again EDUCATION IS GOOD, but the return on investment is not what it was 10-15 years ago.

If jobs were so available right now, I wouldn't be getting solicitations from my undergrad school or professional school to share my network with recent graduates/soon to be graduates. If you want to further your education and have a plan - go for it, just don't buy into the BS that Big Education sells you.

I agree. Getting a degree is still a pretty good investment for most people, but it's important for people to be a little more thoughtful about it than was the case 30 years ago. Taking on massive student loan debt is something that shouldn't be done lightly, and I'd advise people to think long and hard about what they want to do before taking on that much debt.

A good friend of ours (26 yo female) went to a private school out here, took out tons of debt (pushing six figs for undergrad) to study education. After graduating, she decided she didn't want to be a teacher, but instead maybe a secretary. She's very nice and relatively bright, but she'll also be paying on student loans for 30 years for a degree that helped her to land a job she could've picked up with a 2-year degree at a community college for $6,000 or whatever.

A college degree at any school in any major with any grades isn't a ticket to the middle class anymore. It's worthwhile to spend some time figuring out what you want to do before spending that much money on something that doesn't guarantee a return.

I don't see why people take on so much debt for degrees that don't need it. Like education, you can get that degree anywhere and it really doesn't hurt your chances to get a job. Even a regular business degree, you can go to a cheap school, and then get your grad degree at a better one. Or transfer after your sophomore year to a better school. People get these loans and act like it is ok, but don't realize they will be paying off the massive debt for a long time. 18 year olds need to think alot harder about their future, monetary wise, before signing up for that expensive school with that expensive loan. I mean, to each his own, and if you want to spend the money then great, but don't complain about it if you chose to do it.

Overrated? Not according to the house my family lives in.

The only thing overrated about college is the actual college part.