This New York Magazine piece centers around why being a millenial/20-something is tough right now. Unemployment and college-related debt for people in this generation is high. Then again, the specific examples I’m reading in the piece relate to English and Poetry majors being unemployed. The hosts on NPR’s “Car Talk” have been joking about these majors (along with Art History) since the late 80’s! One example given in the piece is of a math-talented individual who went to school, became intimidated by superior students and changed his major to poetry writing. Surprise! He graduated in debt and has not been able to find work requiring a college degree. (I borrow this formula from later in the piece but I think it applies throughout - suggesting a belief that people think that there is a lot of work in the U.S. which excludes people without college degrees and hence creates a robust market for even those with poetry majors. I wonder how true this ever was.)
To me, the first lesson to be learned ASAP for kids entering college today is this - college costs a lot. Actually research the odds of finding a job with a poetry degree before taking on a $500-$1000 a month obligation which is not dischargeable in bankruptcy before doing it. The piece also cites someone graduating law school as having difficulty finding work. Do your research. If you’re graduating in 2010, this means that you were pretty much the last class entering before the law firm bubble burst. From 2007 on, no one else can use that excuse. Law School costs even more than college per annum. Practical lesson for the next 5 years (if not for the next 20) - don’t borrow a significant amount of money to finance your law degree unless you are CONFIDENT you can finish high enough in your class to find a job after graduation. The better the school, the higher the variance. Then again, the better the school, the better the student body, etc…
All in all, higher education is and continues to be priced at a level which assumes 2005-2007 level economic prosperity. When we speak of consumer spending/debt and housing, we keep on hearing “we’re never going back to those levels” - yet we don’t hear that with student tuition and debt levels. We should. Plan on unemployment. Spend thoughtfully on college and graduate school. This is more than we’ve asked of people at ages 18-24 in the past for sure.
1 note |#