Aug
10
Too Many College Graduates?
August 10, 2009 | 1 Comment
News media has an appetite for the ridicule. The other day, CNBC printed a story about a college graduate who wanted to sue her college because it didn’t found the job she expected to get once she graduated. She had a 2.7 GPA (out of 4.0) and attended IT from Monroe College in New York City.
“It doesn’t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and they come out working at McDonald’s and Payless,” she is quoted as saying.
Regardless of the sense it makes, this is reality: some college graduates will not land the job they dream about, possibly because that job is taken by someone with better qualifications.
College education is a great tool. One that if used right can open many doors. However, it is not a sure bet to land a job. Especially if your college isn’t as prestigious as others, your career is not in high demand, your GPA is not as high as others, or your resume of summer internships is not as extensive as others. In a free country there is no-one verifying that:
- There are as many graduates in each career as needed for that career.
- That only those students capable of doing the job get a diploma.
- That the jobs offered match those wanted by the students.
Should the government get more involved in preventing highly educated burger flippers? You probably know that I do not believe in government intervention on anything. They do more harm than good. Romney had an idea which I supported (if government was to be involved at all, that is): Link financial aid to how many jobs where available on that career.
“Schools are taking advantage of people who are hungry for a better future. They sign us up, promise the world and we get stuck with these absurd loans,” said one of this girl’s supporters.
I think this quote mentions one of the bigger issues: It is easier to apply and get into a $20, 50, 100 or even $200 thousand student loan than it is to get into a home loan. People want to lynch bankers who got people into unworthy properties, with unaffordable loans that carried interest rates that slowly creep up as the years go by, but no one has mentioned (yet) that the same predatory practices exist with college degrees.
If there is one area where government could help is on limiting predatory student loans.
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I couldn’t agree more.
I have trouble understanding the mindset of kids who think that high paying jobs are just going to fall in their lap once they graduate.
Reminds me of a couple I used to know. They were still in school, had just got married. Both were doing BAs in something useless. I asked them what they were going to do when they graduated, and neither of them had a clue. In the meantime – the nice guy at the bank was just feeding them cheap money.