I am fortunate to have a well paying job. But parents with a college education are more aware to provide for their children no matter their income.

keep up the excellent job!

Is college worth it? Maybe. Depends on what you study and how much you spend to get a degree. The diversity of comments above bear this out. I don’t think that you can make a blanket statement that college is always worth it any more.

I have two daughters in college at the moment. Thanks to a combination of grants, employer tuition reimbursements, and my help – they are both debt free at this point. It can be done. Some of the commenters above are doing it as well. College will be worth it to them because they will be able to get jobs that they couldn’t qualify for otherwise.

The incredible rate of inflation for higher education calls out for a solution. Saddling a generation of young people with five and six figure debt loads is not a sustainable policy. Even things such as 529 plans are only treating the symptoms. My belief is that eventually a solution will come through the Internet providing an alternative source of education. I think the Internet is already starting to have an effect on the cost of text books, and will eventually have an effect on tuitions as well. I just read today about a website offering unlimited tutoring for $100/month. You will probably be seeing more of that sort of thing.

Spent my 1st 2 years of school in Community College, living at home. CC was easy for me and I was able to work full time at a pretty good service industry job. I also paid for a hefty portion with my Cal Star grant (the one thru Gray Davis, for taking the STAR tests and doing well) and I saved a ton of cash and pulled good grades.

I then transferred for 2 years (ONLY!) to a UC (State School). Key points: don’t change your major or you’ll end up in college for 5 years, transfer over as many units as possible from CC (aka only take classes that WILL transfer), and have a ton of free units from AP classes (even if you barely pass with a 3, you still get full credit). Because I transferred so many major applicable units, I was able to take 9 units a semester (full time is 13). To stay enrolled with below-minimum units, I worked 30 hours a week which gets you an exclusion from full-time school.

Got paid very well as a high-level student worker, and at 30 hours a week combined with the $$$ I had saved in CC I was able to easily pay tuition and room + board. Graduated with zero debt … and that includes credit cards.

Now I have a sweet job and I still live like a college student! Gotta save save save for that 1st house …

On another note, I know at least 2 people who have at least $100,000 in loans to look forward to when payments start kicking. Eeek

Including value for life experiences at college and opportunity cost for years lost while in school, it was worth it for both of us.

But that’s in 1990 dollars.

Today, same scenario. Not worth it for her.

In 4 years, looking at wage increases vs. college cost inflation, it wouldn’t be worth it for me (too long til break even).

Funny, we were the first in our families to go and graduate and be “successful”. All the parents were happy and proud. Now we’re not so sure it’s a great idea for our kids – unless they’re gonna be bums otherwise.

In the big scheme, college definitely made sense with too little high paying jobs for too many job seekers. But with our declining birthrate and boomers retiring and taxes increasing everywhere in size and scope – who knows?

It should get really interesting over the next 5 yrs…

I think it was worth it, even though my future job might not pay too well, you’re expected to have an MA of some sort. Plus I’ll have less stress than if I was teaching, or so I think. If I’m wrong I can always start teaching, things are more flexible when you have choices.

After that, transferred 60 credits to the University, wow! Over the next two years I worked about 30 hours / week at a tech business making $12.50 / hour while attending school full time. Time management was hard, and this barely paid my rent & tuition but 5 semesters later of squeezing work/school together I succeeded. Oh, I transferred about 4 credits (university physics 2 + Lab) my senior year. Saved me about $600 between two different schools.

If you go to a private university or like, Yale, I don’t think this would work though. The expenses for education there are just unreal.

In other news…I first went to a jr. college my first 2 years for free. I saved money, and was able to go to the private university I really wanted to attend for the last 2 1/2 yrs.

I graduated with 30k in student loans. I have now been paying on my consolidated loan for a year. What makes this loan not seem overwhelming for me is that every week when i get paid, I make a payment WITHOUT FAIL.

It is very important to be consistent in paying your loan each week, no matter how little you have…make a budget and it will work. So now, instead of paying for my education for 20 years, it will only be 10. Also, I will get my MBA for free, compliments of the company I work for. It won’t get me a raise (I work in engineering), but it is a free degree that I can’t wait to start earning! I believe that once one is out of school, he or she should find a job before deciding on spending his or her own money on a master’s. Your company just might pay for it instead. (I understand that is not possible for everyone, but fight as hard as you can to get into a company with good benefits/tuition reimbursement program.)

“Just my thoughts, don’t mean to pile on anyone specifically, just think it needed to be said.”

No? Then what the hell does:
“I’m quite sure that were BellaDonna to have applied herself and put a little more effort into her education, she wouldn’t be sitting in a cubicle today.” mean?

I answered a question honestly, and you took it upon yourself to spin a nice little tale that had NOTHING TO DO WITH ME OR THE LIFE I’VE LED. I wouldn’t normally give a goddamn, but you had the temerity to put MY NAME on it.

I really, really hope you get at least half of what’s gone on in my life happen to you. Good luck surviving it.

I didn’t say I didn’t learn anything. I said that what I learned wasn’t worth the cost – which was, in fact, the question.

Bite me TWICE. I hope the karmic wheel spins for you in a truly enlightening way.

Well, I’m not sure if my MBA will increase my earning potential, though I sure hope it does. But in my field (computer programming), sometimes education helps to simply remain marketable. I went into a position making >$60,000 a year in Denver during the dot-com boom, but with only an Associate’s degree. I finished my Bachelor’s while there, and two months after graduating I found myself laid off. Ugh! At least I had the degree, along with thousands in student loans, but I was still employable. However, I’m still not back to $60,000 a year, and have had to relocate from the Rockies to find work (that hurts the most). Now I’m working on my MBA, in the hopes that at least I can maintain a $50,000 or so a year income. And that’s no joke. Programming isn’t what it used to be back in the dot-com days, where if you could spell programming you got a job doing it, and paid a lot of money. With H1Bs and offshoring, you have to be more educated and better just to maintain.

I’m paying for my MBA out of pocket as I go, at a public institution to save on cost. Maybe I can take my background and education and land in management, but I won’t know until I finish my degree.

The most important think is the type of degree you get.