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A college degree is a lousy investment

It's sad that a school like Wake is too expensive for education majors (teachers).
 
I wasn't aware they had a businessin' program at State.

Honestly don't know if that's serious or not Ph. I'd bet the NCSU Business program is going to skyrocket pretty soon. Lonnie Poole (NCSU Grad) just gave the school like $40 million with $35 of it specifically for the Buisness program. I'd imagine they will get the best facilities/teachers imaginable pretty soon.

As for the topic on hand, going to grad school or not is the decision i've got ahead of me. Want to go get an MBA after I graduate but i've been in school for so damn long that i don't have anywhere close to the GPA i'd want to go to a school id like that i'm stuck between finding a cheaper school with a decent rep and an okay price. Decisions decisions.
 
Not serious. It was a good chance to get a cheap shot in at State.
 
Just turned down law school for this year because I honestly don't think its worth it right now. Got in state tuition at USCe but started adding up the numbers and it just got astronomical quickly. May reconsider next year if I can get some better scholarships.

Yeah. I'm trying to decide whether to go to USC or CHS law, and I'm not sure either are worth it considering the legal market and costs, despite being able to pay for it out of pocket. I've heard horror stories of people going to nyu law and not being able to find legal employment.


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Yeah. I'm trying to decide whether to go to USC or CHS law, and I'm not sure either are worth it considering the legal market and costs, despite being able to pay for it out of pocket. I've heard horror stories of people going to nyu law and not being able to find legal employment.


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It's probably not worth it on purely monetary level. Could still be a good time though.
 
Doesn't seem like a College Degree can be viewed solely as an investment. That's like saying gambling in Vegas is a poor investment. There are other things that you are paying for other than the chance to make money. Some of the cost goes toward the experience you have.
 
It depends on one's perspective actually.

For example; what else are you going to do at age 18? IF you go to the workforce, work hard you can get ahead and be successful in life.

Otherwise, where else can you go to get a quality education and compete for the best jobs?

Or maybe you value the college experience for the entertainment factor?

Personally, I worked my way thru NCSU in the 80s and had no debt but outstanding memories of the experience that I wouldn't trade for the world. TO me it was the best of both worlds in which you get to live life thru trial and error.

Eventually, you come to the fork in the road of life that requires you to select a path.
 
What did State cost in the 80s? 2 hogs, a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of moonshine?
 
Dented pointed this out to me one time:

I worked for Old Navy for 6 months in high school. Before I left for college they asked if I had any interest in the Gap Management Trainee program. I told them no.

I then spent seven years and roughly a quarter of a million dollars getting my BA and JD. That's 7 years of work experience and salary lost.
 
At some point, you would have reached a ceiling at The Gap at which point you'd need to have a BA and maybe an MBA or JD. Of course, there's the chance they would have paid for it.
 
Makes perfect sense to go to college if the student will apply himself or herself to the academics. I don't think it makes sense to take on choking debt to attend a resort, which is what some of the colleges have become. IMHO, WFU has gone way too far down that road. The new admissions office looks great but the message to families interested in value rather than luxury is to turn around.

I also agree with the view that the easy availability of federal student aid is what fueled this mess. A good example of the law of un-intended consequences.
 
What did State cost in the 80s? 2 hogs, a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of moonshine?

$500 per semester, but then you were eligible to participate in parties where we actually cooked and ate the hog.


(as opposed to just gettin' it drunk and dressed w/lipstick and chased thru a local park....:eek:)
 
On one hand I'd say WFU is far, far too expensive for your return. You could go to UNC in many instances, benefit from the grade inflation, work about half as hard, and take the same path into grad school without drowning yourself in debt. Of course, you'd probably end up a colossal a-hole, so there's that to consider.

But on the other hand, I only have an undergrad from WFU and somehow that still plays very well with bosses, both current and potential. They know it was a "real" education, esp from a business perspective. They also know I can think critically/quickly and can churn out massive amounts of work when necessary. So in that respect I might say the WFU education has paid off several times over.

Of course, I only had to deal with about $20k in tuition per year, less scholarships and work-study funds.
 
What you should do is just get a full athletic scholarship, and blow it by stealing poop from your teammate and leaving it in an elevator....
 
On one hand I'd say WFU is far, far too expensive for your return. You could go to UNC in many instances, benefit from the grade inflation, work about half as hard, and take the same path into grad school without drowning yourself in debt. Of course, you'd probably end up a colossal a-hole, so there's that to consider.

But on the other hand, I only have an undergrad from WFU and somehow that still plays very well with bosses, both current and potential. They know it was a "real" education, esp from a business perspective. They also know I can think critically/quickly and can churn out massive amounts of work when necessary. So in that respect I might say the WFU education has paid off several times over.

Of course, I only had to deal with about $20k in tuition per year, less scholarships and work-study funds.

I'm lucky that I didn't have to pay for my college education because my parents paid for it so I know it's easy for me to say, but sometimes I think the accessibility of college loans is a bad thing. It's too easy and probably detracts some people from looking to get free money instead of just pushing the money problem 4 years down the road. As someone mentioned, you can still go to wake without a scholarship and graduate w/o a crippling debt load. I know plenty of people from wake (i was there 01-05) that got little to no help from there parents and only had little debt when they graduated. They had to hunt for grants and most of them had to work 15-20 hours a week and they probably didn't get to be as big of a drunken retard as most of the priviledged wake kids such as myself, but it's doable.
That's not to say people who get loans are dumb or that it's easy to get free money, but I know several people (not wake people, but other private school folks) who were content with borrowing 80-100K and I know they never really thought about ROTC or spent any time looking for/working for grants and now they can barely keep their heads above water.
 
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