My goal for June is to end worthless degrees like cancer.
Except, unlike cancer, we can end worthless degrees in 2017.
We just have to actually...I hate to say it..."raise awareness."
Having done my share of worthless degrees in Australia just before they started charging for them (phew!) and with two teenage children, year 12 and year 10, I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion & mission. I will be shoving my kindle and your book in front of their little innocent wholesome faces until they read it. Like The Terminator, I will hunt them down where ever they sneak! It will be read!!
I've already told my kids, I will not pay for any Bachelor of Arts(BA) in liberal arts. A former neighbor kid earned a BA in political science and he now has an aspiring career as a...dog walker. I love dog walkers, have one now, but you don't need a BA degree to walk my dog. This kid still doesn't realize how worthless his degree is today. His parents are members of the...baby boomer generation, and paid for this worthless degree. At least the kid (I still call him a kid, because he has the mentality of a 12 year old, thinking the world owes him a job...the world doesn't owe anybody jack squat) has no debt. But, unless he gets off his posterior and retrains himself for having an actual job, his work prospects are not great in both the near and far term. Oh well.
And Bernie Sanders wants us to pay for free college.
I guess if that happens, wed at least get to enjoy the schadenfreude that comes with liberal arts grads truly having no job prospects. These days, some can get hired into the corporate world simply because they need warm bodies with an ounce of smarts to address customer problems. Add in an additional 5 basis points on individual and corporate tax rates to pay for their stupid degree? They'll be like Spanish and Italian college graduates in no time.
These days I tell high school kids to seriously think about skipping college altogether and go to trade school instead. With each passing day, college is becoming less and less worth it. Even if one majors in STEM or medical. What is the use of going to college and getting a job that pays $60-70k/year when one will end up $100k or more in student loan debt?
Where I live (Memphis, TN), we just experienced a bad thunderstorm over Memorial Day weekend that left almost 200,000 people without power. Right now there are electricians, tree removal and carpenters/home maintenance workers who are making a killing working overtime cleaning up the mess.
Mr. Clarey, I have a suggested for high school students. Should they take College Level Education Program(CLEP) tests before college? They can gain college credits and skip a lot of general education courses and go straight to their majors/degrees you suggested during the freshman and sophomore. STEM majors take a long time and students should not need to take a lot of general education courses first. Students stay in college/university for a lot of years because they have to do those general education courses with information they should have known during high school. If they did not have a lot of general education courses, they can complete their college education in a shorter time and not accumulate a lot of student debt. School debt accumulates the longer they stay in school. I should have taken clep tests to skip the pointless general education and got out of college earlier than I did so I would not have accumulated a lot of debt. Even though unemployment rates have gone up over the years, I would not have a deal with $30.000 in school loans because I stayed in school for five years.
A plug for Worthless: My oldest has always liked computers, so I fIgured he'd do something in tech. One day in 9th grade, he came home and declared that he wanted to become an entomologist. Un-bleeping-acceptable. I bought him a copy of Worthless and told him reading the book was his #1 priority. He read it, came to me, and said computers it was, maybe tech support. He graduates from high school next Saturday.
Finding a college wasn't a lot of fun. He did well on the ACT, but mixed A's and B's in 9th and 10th grades really hurt. He did get accepted to a couple of well known schools, but he'd have had to take on $160,000 in loans. You read that right, one hundred sixty thousand dollars, more than my now-ex (don't get me started) and I paid for our first house in 1998. Nope, he said, and accepted almost a free ride (except housing) from a second tier school that admitted him straight to CompSci with Honors. He already has a full time coding job this summer, is working on setting up an internship for next summer, and intends to work on AI, because, "Dad, in 20 years, most simple code will be written by AIs, and if I want to have a job, I have to write the AI code." We figure he'll end up with $20-$40K in debt (colleges basically force you to take out $20K in federal loans), well less than one year's salary. As things stand today, I figure Worthless will have saved my son over $100,000. Buy the book.
9 comments:
Having done my share of worthless degrees in Australia just before they started charging for them (phew!) and with two teenage children, year 12 and year 10, I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion & mission. I will be shoving my kindle and your book in front of their little innocent wholesome faces until they read it. Like The Terminator, I will hunt them down where ever they sneak! It will be read!!
I've already told my kids, I will not pay for any Bachelor of Arts(BA) in liberal arts. A former neighbor kid earned a BA in political science and he now has an aspiring career as a...dog walker. I love dog walkers, have one now, but you don't need a BA degree to walk my dog. This kid still doesn't realize how worthless his degree is today. His parents are members of the...baby boomer generation, and paid for this worthless degree. At least the kid (I still call him a kid, because he has the mentality of a 12 year old, thinking the world owes him a job...the world doesn't owe anybody jack squat) has no debt. But, unless he gets off his posterior and retrains himself for having an actual job, his work prospects are not great in both the near and far term. Oh well.
And Bernie Sanders wants us to pay for free college.
I guess if that happens, wed at least get to enjoy the schadenfreude that comes with liberal arts grads truly having no job prospects. These days, some can get hired into the corporate world simply because they need warm bodies with an ounce of smarts to address customer problems. Add in an additional 5 basis points on individual and corporate tax rates to pay for their stupid degree? They'll be like Spanish and Italian college graduates in no time.
These days I tell high school kids to seriously think about skipping college altogether and go to trade school instead. With each passing day, college is becoming less and less worth it. Even if one majors in STEM or medical. What is the use of going to college and getting a job that pays $60-70k/year when one will end up $100k or more in student loan debt?
Where I live (Memphis, TN), we just experienced a bad thunderstorm over Memorial Day weekend that left almost 200,000 people without power. Right now there are electricians, tree removal and carpenters/home maintenance workers who are making a killing working overtime cleaning up the mess.
Mr. Clarey,
I have a suggested for high school students. Should they take College Level Education Program(CLEP) tests before college? They can gain college credits and skip a lot of general education courses and go straight to their majors/degrees you suggested during the freshman and sophomore. STEM majors take a long time and students should not need to take a lot of general education courses first. Students stay in college/university for a lot of years because they have to do those general education courses with information they should have known during high school. If they did not have a lot of general education courses, they can complete their college education in a shorter time and not accumulate a lot of student debt. School debt accumulates the longer they stay in school. I should have taken clep tests to skip the pointless general education and got out of college earlier than I did so I would not have accumulated a lot of debt. Even though unemployment rates have gone up over the years, I would not have a deal with $30.000 in school loans because I stayed in school for five years.
I spent 20 grand in loans for a network admin and quit trying for a BS. I tell family do not go to college if you can.
A plug for Worthless:
My oldest has always liked computers, so I fIgured he'd do something in tech. One day in 9th grade, he came home and declared that he wanted to become an entomologist. Un-bleeping-acceptable. I bought him a copy of Worthless and told him reading the book was his #1 priority. He read it, came to me, and said computers it was, maybe tech support. He graduates from high school next Saturday.
Finding a college wasn't a lot of fun. He did well on the ACT, but mixed A's and B's in 9th and 10th grades really hurt. He did get accepted to a couple of well known schools, but he'd have had to take on $160,000 in loans. You read that right, one hundred sixty thousand dollars, more than my now-ex (don't get me started) and I paid for our first house in 1998. Nope, he said, and accepted almost a free ride (except housing) from a second tier school that admitted him straight to CompSci with Honors. He already has a full time coding job this summer, is working on setting up an internship for next summer, and intends to work on AI, because, "Dad, in 20 years, most simple code will be written by AIs, and if I want to have a job, I have to write the AI code." We figure he'll end up with $20-$40K in debt (colleges basically force you to take out $20K in federal loans), well less than one year's salary. As things stand today, I figure Worthless will have saved my son over $100,000. Buy the book.
Most degrees are worthless. These days a BS in Chemistry is worthless. The jobs pay 40 to 50 k and are mind numbing.
Even STEM degrees are becoming not that valuable these days. Especially chemistry and biology and such.
Post a Comment