The New Age Handcuffs

Since the turn of the millennium we have seen a skyrocketing in college attendance. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there has been an increase of 31 percent in college students from 2000 to 2014. This seems like it would be a great indicator of prosperity for America, and to some degree you're right. The issue that seems to be forming however, is an increase in graduates who struggle to find work in their field. This means settling for jobs that they are overqualified for and thus pay less than they demand. It happens every day. I get it, not everyone can land their dream job right out of college, it takes time to find what you want to get into. Truthfully, it's probably better that you get those rough jobs out of the way now so you can have an idea of exactly what you want out of a career. The problem is that college isn't free. So with that 31 percent increase in attendance comes a staggering 2,900% increase in student loans over the same period.The student loans slow creep up on you and when the return on investment isn't out there in the real world you can get stuck working a job you dislike simply because you're getting crushed by debt. Welcome to the New Age Handcuffs.

This problem is likely caused by a couple of things. The first is the idea of academic inflation. The same way that currency can inflate and be worth less over time,ew education can become watered down and devalued. It's partially due to the massive increases we've seen in college students over the last 14 years. Be it population increase or otherwise, we are simply overloading the work force with too many applicants with equal qualification i.e. a Bachelors Degree. Everyone looks to go to college  if they are able to because in America, that's how our success is measured in our early 20s. Very rarely do you see parents bragging about their child's acceptance into a vocational welding school even if that profession makes double that of an archaeology major. Ken Robinson touches on this subject in his TED talk which is well worth the watch. The major idea being that something needs to be done with the school system immediately. If this trend continues we will continue to pump out kids who think that a Bachelors is a guarantee to a job, that simply isn't the case anymore. You begin to have a generation of students inundated with debt they can't pay for because otherwise they can't pretend to be competitive in the job market. 

This brings me to my next point.

Student debt is far and away the worst type of debt you can acquire. This seems bizarre but this is a pretty common belief. Essentially, student loans are part of a growing bubble similar to the 2007 housing bubble, where the return on investment simply isn't there. Barring in-state tuition, trying to pay off these interest laden loans after 6 months in the real world can be a crippling task. That money to move out of your parent's house or buy a car has to be thrown into repaying for an education that hasn't guaranteed you a job. Even if that doesn't seem particularly frightening consider this: if you put $10,000 on a card partying your college away, you end up not being able to afford it and file for bankruptcy, $10,000 in credit card bills and $10,000 in student loans, guess what is infinitely harder to take care of. Yep, student loans.

My point in discussing all of this is not to scare anybody at the prospects after college but merely to acknowledge that it should be treated as an investment and not a formality. University, if accepted, is not a foregone conclusion. It's still a decision to consider with as much care as possible. That goes double for grad school. 

My two recommendations are looking into a gap year to dial in on the interest you want to pursue and see if you actually need a degree for it. The other is looking into vocational schools. I honestly think that they are the most underutilized and best investments you can make simply because it gives you a trade. It allows you to acquire a skill that is employable in the worst of circumstances.