The college trap

"How could I consider having children if I can barely support myself?" says Danielle Jokela, a 2008 interior design graduate. When she finished school, her student loans topped $100,000. [Source]

Life after high school stinks if you're not prepared. You may think just getting into the university of your choice is a great deal, but don't be deceived -- that's not the real prize you should be going for. The real goal is a decent job once you're done, with property and a family beyond that.

The whole idea of tertiary education is a rip-off, in my opinion. You head off to school sold on the idea that you're going to get a great job when you're done and be the envy of all your old classmates. You get oriented, learn what interests you during the core requirement classes, and choose a major, hoping that it will all work out for a great career when you're all done.

Then you graduate and you can't find a job that matches your skills (and those 2008 graduates like Jokela had it hard). That job search works out very differently from how you imagined. And it's not like the school cares -- they've got their money. Your joblessness is your own fault for not preparing yourself.

Six months afterward, you have to start paying back all those student loans you took out. Bankruptcy would sound tempting, except that laws make it harder to be rid of than credit card debt. If it sounds unfair, that's because it is. In essence, your *promise* of repayment bought merely a *hope* -- a "chance" -- for a good job. Careers come with no guarantees.

Sadly, the cost of college is rising, and there are a number of reasons why. Part of it's inflation related to salaries. Part of it's that you're paying to subsidize faculty research (for the Ph.D.s you won't see until your upperclassmen years), and schools need to keep up the research to keep their rankings. [Source]

Plus, more and more people are going for degrees. Nobody "aspires" to be a farmer anymore. You don't hear about people making a new life for themselves on the frontier. They want to work in an office, and to do that you have to have indoor work skills -- the kind that come from a university.

All that demand for higher education leads to higher costs, which come out of people's futures. So here's my contribution -- a few tips to keep college costs down and limit the years of your indentured servitude:

1. AP classes. Take advanced placement class in high school, and earn college credit for them. They'll reduce the number of classes you'll have to take. Even if a class doesn't fill a core requirement, it will at least fill an elective.
    
2. Community college. Because it's typically less expensive than a university, this is a great way to fill a core requirements. Another good thing is that professors get paid to teach, rather than do research, so you stand a better chance of learning something useful. There's a downside, though -- those community classes need to be tranferrable in order to count, otherwise you've wasted your time and money. In addition, you can't take it easy, even if you're working full time -- if you mess up those first two years, it won't matter how awesome you were in high school. Your intended university will only look at your actual performance. And university's don't really get big kudos for having great teachers -- your first two years in a university very well might be spent classes taught by English as a Second Language graduate assistants.
    
3. Know your limit. When choosing a school, pay attention to school costs and stay away from "brand name schools" unless you either can afford it or you get a significant scholarship. You wouldn't buy a house without looking at the price, right? These days, your college years can cost as much as a house, and payments can last almost as long. Schools don't care if you can't afford it later, and just like a home seller they don't care if you can't afford it. They're not the ones extending you the credit. Consider Jodi Romine's experience from the above referenced article -- she studyied business manaement at Ohio's Kent State and racked up $74,000 in student loan debt. I wonder how much she could have saved if she'd done a significant portion of her classes through an online school like the University of Phoenix. True, those places aren't as glamorous, but employers care more about what you can do for them than what school you went to.
    
4. Research opportunties. If you want to work in academia, the opposite may be true. If your dream is to become a professor, then that may work better for you.
    
5. Figure out your four-year game plan before the first day of registration. Know what classes you're going to need and get those first. You don't want to fill up all your electives and then have to scramble to get the classes you actually need. Use those electives only if you can't get into a class you really need.
    
6. Don't "do what you love."  Pick a major based on job prospects for that job and stick with it -- don't waste time trying to find "the one" major that's right for you. English is a great thing and America's a greater place for speaking it, but that doesn't mean you should be an English major. Your mission should be to get in, get out, and get a job.
    
7. Take summer classes. Sometimes schools don't offer enough classes to fit in later registrants, and that stinks becuase it's not like you can just switch schools midway through college. In that situation, you either have to take a purposeless class or sit out a semester. However, you can help avoid that by taking classes when other people don't want to -- either at 7:30 in the morning or during the summer. *Do it.* You never know how next year is going to work out.
    
8. Consider federal service. If you end up working for the federal government or as a teacher, there are opportunities for student loan repayment. Also, max out federal loans before you take our private ones. The military will pay off $65,000 over three years in its program.
    
9. Lastly, have your parents join the military before you hit 7th grade. The Post-9/11 GI bill allows servicemembers to transfer benefits to dependents after six years of service. If they balk at the idea, remind them that they'll probably end up paying one way or another anyway.