Paradox of Education

We’ve all been brainwashed from TV commercials, Hollywood movies, TV shows and our family and friends for years that getting a college degree is the best thing in the world we can do for ourselves.  The mantra has been for years that “at least they can’t take away my education”.  As the Great Recession drags on, more evidence is starting to form that you want to be very cost conscious of your education at whatever type of institution you decide to go to if you must conform to getting a college degree.

There is evidence showing that the higher education level you have and once you hit 45 years of age, getting hired is very difficult if you are laid off from a job.  This is concerning for crops of individuals like the Millennial’s who are graduating from college with $20,000+ in student load debt, and can’t get jobs that once paid what they expected, further adding to this issue are the growing ranks of students who are giving up on getting a job.  Opting instead to hide out from their student loan obligations and go to graduate school further adding to their student loan costs.

Where I am going with this is that if the trend for Millennial’s is to get a Masters Degree and are still paying down their student loans when they are in their 40′s in addition to purchasing a vehicle, house, and have kids then losing a job will be nearly life ending.

Choosing which college to go to is a big decision and we have been tossing around the idea that the prestige associated with certain colleges are pretty dumb. Rankings tend to be based on anything and everything related to outside of the classroom. If college is supposed to be so very important shouldn’t we be focusing on quality of education?

While we’re working on various little projects around the website this little post by The Consumerist struck a chord with us that we felt was important to anyone that is in Career Purgatory, and considering going back to school, or has friends or family that are trying to pick a school to attend. The piece titled 5 Reasons Why Every Single College Ranking Is a Pile of Crap is pretty helpful for anyone trying to figure out how to pick a college.