if I hadn't gone to college I would have been $116,000 richer

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secret friend

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Assume that instead of going to college, I had settled with a construction job, say, making $15/hour (a conservative estimate). Now,
$15/hour x 40 hours/week x 50 weeks/year x 4 years = $120,000

I would have had to pay taxes and what not, say 20% of my salary. That leaves me with a total of $96,000 that I would have made in those 4 years.

Right now I owe $20,000 in student loans. We do the math: $96,000 -
(-$20,000) = $116,000. That means I would have been $116,000 richer by now if I hadn't gone to college.

What did I get out of this "education"? The same I would have gotten out of reading books at the public library and academic articles published on the internet.

But wait a second, since I have a college education, I probably have a very good job right now, right? Nope, I earn $9/hour doing menial office work. After taxes and train tickets, that's an effective $6/hour I put in my pocket.

At the current rate, and assuming that temp assignments will be readily available as soon as the current one ends, it will take me almost 2 years to pay off my debt. Then I will be worth $0 at the tender age of 25.
 
if you had learned all that in public libraries and on the internet you wouldn't have a legal certificate saying you know what you do.

anyway i feel sorry for those of you in america who have to pay for college. come over to europe and study instead! :) you can all crash at my crib, just BYOB
 
going to college means you wont have to do manual labor ...construction is ok at the age of 25, not at 50
 
If you rob a bank, you wont have any problems at all then, and you can continue your education
 
bryanf445 said:
If you rob a bank, you wont have any problems at all then, and you can continue your education
Click to expand...

You will go far in life my son.
 
If you're an international student at a university you'd have to pay a LOT more.
 
I went to a private college & private college educational standards aren't nessecarly that spectacular. Especailly if they're christian colleges. I noticed a strange trend about graduates - they all seemed to end up at walmart.

They paid about $40-$60k for their education, thanfully I didn't pay a cent for that waste of time. Ironically I just found a $60k/year job (starting) & it has absolutely NOTHING to do with ANYTHING I learned at any school.
 
Its not where you study, its your attitude. My dad grew up in a village where he had to shit in a hole and didn't have a chance in hell of going to any nice schools. Now hes a surgeon.

Some people study and still can't find a job. Some people don't and a flying high on a nice salary. Its also the luck of the draw.
 
Get a better job then. You're getting paid shit and it's nothing to do with your degree. In-n-Out Burger's starting wage here is exactly $9 an hour. That's for flipping burgers.. so find something better.
 
In my opinion if you look for a better job your garruntied to get hired for something better than $9.00/hr. Not to make you feel bad or anything but i'm not out of highschool yet and I put $8.00/hr. in my pocket, but hey maybe thats more motivation to look around a little more. My guess is when your alot older your gonna look back and thank yourself for getting a college education. Well good luck.:thumbs:
 
secret friend said:
Assume that instead of going to college, I had settled with a construction job, say, making $15/hour (a conservative estimate). Now,
$15/hour x 40 hours/week x 50 weeks/year x 4 years = $120,000

I would have had to pay taxes and what not, say 20% of my salary. That leaves me with a total of $96,000 that I would have made in those 4 years.

Right now I owe $20,000 in student loans. We do the math: $96,000 -
(-$20,000) = $116,000. That means I would have been $116,000 richer by now if I hadn't gone to college.

What did I get out of this "education"? The same I would have gotten out of reading books at the public library and academic articles published on the internet.

But wait a second, since I have a college education, I probably have a very good job right now, right? Nope, I earn $9/hour doing menial office work. After taxes and train tickets, that's an effective $6/hour I put in my pocket.

At the current rate, and assuming that temp assignments will be readily available as soon as the current one ends, it will take me almost 2 years to pay off my debt. Then I will be worth $0 at the tender age of 25.
Click to expand...

Heh, find a new job.

Consider this, a year out of college I work 40 hours a week and receive a salary of $41,000. That is roughly $20.50 per hour. In two years, I will be earning $60,000 a year (no joke). That is roughly $30.00 per hour. In addition, there is a much higher earnings potential in the future.

So lets assume that you earning $15.00 an hour in a dead end construction job, you will earn about $240,000 pre-tax earnings over eight years.

With a college degree, you will earn $20.50 an hour for the first two years, and $30 an hour for the next six years. Total earnings over eight years? $442,000.
 
blahblahblah said:
Consider this, a year out of college I work 40 hours a week and receive a salary of $41,000. That is roughly $20.50 per hour. In two years, I will be earning $60,000 a year (no joke). That is roughly $30.00 per hour. In addition, there is a much higher earnings potential in the future.
Click to expand...

That's pretty good. That's also what I had hoped to make right out of college, but look how much I make now...

Heh, find a new job.
Click to expand...

You think I answer phone calls because that's my dream job? I am doing that job because that's the only job I could find after graduation, and I searched for almost 4 months. I could have given up, and stayed at home whining, or I could have settled with that job. I chose to to settle with that job.

While I was searching for a job, I got 2 or 3interviews for some decent positions ($30-$40k/year), after mailing out about 50 resumes, but I never got an offer.

I guess I spent too much time doing my homework and very little learning how to make people like me, because that's what it really boils down to, making the hiring manager like you, even if you don't possess all the qualifications he is looking for.

As far as getting a better job, better jobs are not there waiting for me to grab them. It's difficult for someone like me (ie: no work experience or any activity outside of the classroom) to find a job.
 
ah knghenry you so crazy that unless you have a duffle bag of meds I dont see you working anytime soon
 
This is exactly what I'm trying to tell my mother...she won't listen. She seems to have this fixation that as soon as you get a bachelors degree you're going to be a millionaire with a pool and a housemaid and be able to relax every day.
 
Zeus said:
This is exactly what I'm trying to tell my mother...she won't listen. She seems to have this fixation that as soon as you get a bachelors degree you're going to be a millionaire with a pool and a housemaid and be able to relax every day.
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That means your mom is like my mom. Wait until you graduate and can't find a job. Then there will be a very good chance that your mom will implicitly accuse you of being lazy and stupid, like my mom does.
 
To get a job, you need to practice your interview technique. I had 6 months of what I thought was hell, in finding my job. I have a 1st Class Degree, but still I had no luck. Many interviews, many rejections. Then I got my dad to coach me on my interview technique, I did a couple of mock interviews, in the few weeks a year he's home. I got the next job I went to interview for, and I've moved away from home.

Interviews are rubbish at telling whether someone is good enough for a job, but the harsh reality is, that's the only way employers have of judging whether you'd be suitable for the job or not.

You've got the qualification, which allows you to get your foot in the door for the interview, but you've got to show them more to convince them to invest their money in you.
 
kirovman said:
Interviews are rubbish at telling whether someone is good enough for a job, but the harsh reality is, that's the only way employers have of judging whether you'd be suitable for the job or not.

You've got the qualification, which allows you to get your foot in the door for the interview, but you've got to show them more to convince them to invest their money in you.
Click to expand...


You are correct kirovman. Thing is, for someone with my personality type, it is hard to do well at an interview.
 
Thing is, for someone with my personality type, it is hard to do well at an interview.
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I said the same thing, but practicing is what gave me the ability to 'feign' my personality...
What is your personality type anyway?

And you've got a "menial office job" now anyway - that's work experience. It can lead to better things.
 
kirovman said:
I said the same thing, but practicing is what gave me the ability to 'feign' my personality...
What is your personality type anyway?
Click to expand...

Introverted. I can pretend to be nice and outgoing, but in my effort to do this, I tend to overcompensate and come across a bit goofy.

And you've got a "menial office job" now anyway - that's work experience. It can lead to better things.
Click to expand...

That's my hope. The problem is that the more time that passes since graduation, the more my chances of finding a good job decrease.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much how I'd describe myself.

It's much easier to get another job when you're in one, rather than when you're a fresh graduate and/or unemployed. So everyone says anyway (and it sounds logical too).
Anyway your situation is similar to a lot of graduates, but eventually most find their way through the tough times.

Key points for getting jobs:
Focus on how you managed and planned your time/budget/resources to achieve an objective.
How you achieved a common objective as part of a team. How you made sure you kept the team motivated and all focused on the common goal.
How you can take a step back from a problem, to see the bigger picture in order to solve it.

Employers want to hire someone who can get things done and earn money.

Look up some websites on most asked questions and good responses too.
 
Right now, I'm working at home and making $25/hour with no college. In a few weeks, I'll be working another project for $35/hour. Web development ftw.
 
If you're really honest about your job search landing you no results after four months of searching, perhaps your area has a little to do with it, too.

My advice is to find the nearest job fair and go there. Those things are insanely useful, and employers locally and nationally come right there to try to woo people with specific skills. You might find a job in another city where you can start fresh and on the right foot.

Either way, if you're really stuck in a $9/hour job after college and see no opportunity for advancing to get out of debt, then a move might be exactly what you need.

It's nothing to do with your degree though, it seems this is just a situation you've been put into. Whether it's your own fault or something that just happened I can't say because I don't know enough of the backstory.

One question- why do you have no activities or work experience, though?

CrazyHarij said:
if you had learned all that in public libraries and on the internet you wouldn't have a legal certificate saying you know what you do.

anyway i feel sorry for those of you in america who have to pay for college. come over to europe and study instead! :) you can all crash at my crib, just BYOB
Click to expand...
Today there are enough programs, grants, and such that everyone can get a college degree without serious financial stress. You're going to have to worry if you're going Ivy-League or such, but that's super prestigious schooling.

The best plan is to go to community college for 2 years and get your associates degree, then transfer your credits to a state University and finish up your degree for your major. That is VERY affordable, and in fact your learn MORE- as you can focus more on what you need to and get through with your required credits in a smaller class setting.

I have no idea why you're racked up with $20,000 dollars in student loans though, secret friend. That's poor planning.
 
RakuraiTenjin said:
If you're really honest about your job search landing you no results after four months of searching, perhaps your area has a little to do with it, too.

My advice is to find the nearest job fair and go there. Those things are insanely useful, and employers locally and nationally come right there to try to woo people with specific skills. You might find a job in another city where you can start fresh and on the right foot.
Click to expand...

I live close to a major US city.


It's nothing to do with your degree though, it seems this is just a situation you've been put into. Whether it's your own fault or something that just happened I can't say because I don't know enough of the backstory.

One question- why do you have no activities or work experience, though?
Click to expand...

No activities, because I never cared.

No work experience, because I never needed the money (that's what the loans are for), and because I underestimated the competitiveness of the job market and concluded that waiting tables as an undergraduate was a waste of valuable time I could spend studying. Big mistake; a history of good work ethic is something employers look very kindly upon, regardless of the nature of that work.

I have no idea why you're racked up with $20,000 dollars in student loans though, secret friend. That's poor planning.
Click to expand...

I would have owned about the same amount of money if I had gone to a state school.
 
Computer science? And you get 9$ per hour? ROFL you need to quit that job seriously.....I say you keep workin that job till you find another one. I can tell you deserve more.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/
 
CptStern said:
ah knghenry you so crazy that unless you have a duffle bag of meds I dont see you working anytime soon
Click to expand...

I knew he reminded me of someone. Do you really think it's him?
 
secret friend said:
I live close to a major US city.
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Then I don't know what your deal is.. not many other people have this problem.


secret friend said:
No activities, because I never cared.
Click to expand...
Dumb.

secret friend said:
No work experience, because I never needed the money (that's what the loans are for), and because I underestimated the competitiveness of the job market and concluded that waiting tables as an undergraduate was a waste of valuable time I could spend studying. Big mistake; a history of good work ethic is something employers look very kindly upon, regardless of the nature of that work.
Click to expand...
No, that's not what loans are for. They're meant to be a supplement. It's not there to replace working at all, it's there to enable you to do something as you work your ass off to make up the borrowed money. You dug your own whole. Same mindset where somehow people think credit cards are free money.



secret friend said:
I would have owned about the same amount of money if I had gone to a state school.
Click to expand...
I highly doubt you took advantage of every grant and scholarship you could have. Your best bet, seeing as you couldn't afford where you did go obviously without it putting you in debt, would've been to go to junior college for your associates and then transfer credits to a university and save ~$10,000 for the exact same degree and knowledge.
 
Friendly Tip: Your college should have some seminars / workshops on how to find the perfect job and seminars / workshops on effective interviewing techniques. (Attend them in person instead of reading them online, it makes a difference)

By going to a few of those, it improved my interviewing skills significantly. So when I actually interviewed for a job, not only did they offer me a job, I demanded a starting salary of $6,000 more per year - which they gave me.

More importantly than money is college gives you the "tools" to do whatever you want. I enjoy my job infinetly more than what I was doing pre-college. If you have trouble finding a job relating to your degree, do something else. /end college counselor rant
 
Good advice. I was quite irritated, when I discovered my college had nothing of that sort. It's been around for some 40-50 years and that should be one of the most basic elements of any college.

blahblahblah said:
Friendly Tip: Your college should have some seminars / workshops on how to find the perfect job and seminars / workshops on effective interviewing techniques. (Attend them in person instead of reading them online, it makes a difference)

By going to a few of those, it improved my interviewing skills significantly. So when I actually interviewed for a job, not only did they offer me a job, I demanded a starting salary of $6,000 more per year - which they gave me.

More importantly than money is college gives you the "tools" to do whatever you want. I enjoy my job infinetly more than what I was doing pre-college. If you have trouble finding a job relating to your degree, do something else. /end college counselor rant
Click to expand...
 
I want blahblahblah to stick around more, not seen him in ages, hope you are well.
 
Student loan debt is fine, because interest rates are low.

You only have to pay them back once you earn over a certain amount.

Cheapest loan ever.

If you had the money to pay back a student loan, you'd put it in the bank, as the interest you earned from that would be higher than the interest you need to pay back.
 
That i am. You all thought the world whould end yesterday. Well guess who prevented it? Well guess!
 
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