generation limbo: 20-somethings today, debt, unemployment, the questionable value of a college education

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/sep/30/even-artichokes-have-doubts/

basically just for this precious quote:

“I’m practical,” she says. “I’m not going to work at a non-profit for my entire life; I know that’s not possible. I’m realistic about the things that I need for a lifestyle that I’ve become accustomed to.” Though she admits she’s at least partially worried of ending up at the bank “longer than [she] sees [her]self there now,” at present she sees it as a “hugely stimulating and educational” way to spend the next few years.

fourth sentence in that article ends with an exclamation point; stopped reading.

I like exclamation points! College journalism I'm not quite so keen on..

google the author of that article

oy

I think she does capture something, though, about the extent to which a certain kind of ivy student is on a kind of conveyor belt in life. Lifelong non-autonomy combined with desperate need for affirmation combined with expectation of material comfort = path of least resistance. Someone e-mails you about a "prestigious" job in your second year of school, you say yes in spite of your vague notions of doing something more "meaningful." And you don't just do it, you rationalize it.

i have found that while it's important to feel occupationally fulfilled in some regard (i have continued to write despite having an unrelated day job), there are so many other areas of life that are important too. is it better to be happy at work and then go home and cry about bills piling up and debt and getting into fights with your significant other about money, and struggling to pay rent, or better to maybe feel unfulfilled at work and then have all that other stuff a little bit worked out? i mean, the choice is not an exact binary. even at uninspiring jobs you can find things to be proud about and ways to deploy your specific talents + skills in a satisfying way. and obv there are those that figure out how to live doing their dream jobs (even if that means cutting back in other areas). it's not just about luxury tho. maybe you want to start a family and now you need to move into a bigger place, buy diapers, pay for childcare, etc. it's not just the path of least resistance. sometimes you shuffle your priorities.

(nb i use the second person a lot here but i think it's obv that i'm talking a large bit about my own experiences...)

I think that's all reasonable. I'm someone who very much based my job decision on a balance of salary, time to see family and opportunity for advancement rather than what I would find most interesting or meaningful (although it's not completely bereft of interest). But I don't think that's how Yale grads are deciding their jobs. I think it's more "here's an easy way I can get a job without having to really go out and compete, and I will continue to be told I'm special and get paid handsomely"

christ. didn't know about the author. :-(

http://gawker.com/5924881/22+year+old-is-very-upset-that-she-didnt-get-to-be-poor-for-a-while

you can pretty easily get yourself into credit card debt and eat ramen every day even if you have money iirc

other than that I don't really have anything to say about this 22-year-old who has crazy-sounding ideas about what she thinks her life should be

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/kfc-urges-loser-college-grads-stop-living-their-parents-141949

thoughtcatalog, i kno. http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/get-a-job-the-craigslist-experiment/

smh at the coffee stain graph

gotta say tho if I ever have to sift through 626 resumes I am tossing every single one with a spelling error

because you gotta decide somehow

KATHRIN 3 days ago
This is interesting and well written. Find yourself a grad student in Math and you’ve got your job. I want more articles of a “pop math” variety exploring the numbers of everyday life. Not only are they interesting and engaging, these types of stories provide the groundwork for helping “us” (entrepreneurs) know what industries we should be attacking.

i should unbookmark this thread. every time it's updated, ten minutes later i'm depressed

MATH GRAD STUDENT INTERN NEEDED FOR ONLINE STARTUP

I think that's a spam bot

http://gawker.com/5933249/even-the-well+off-find-college-unaffordable-now

http://cew.georgetown.edu/collegeadvantage/

the problem w/ the articles like this is that they don't highlight the credentials inflation that's been going on. that's not the whole story, a lot of jobs do require more education ie the types in that manufacturing article, forget what thread that was. but 'you need a BA to get a retail/sales/caretaker job' doesn't really highlight the benefits of education, it highlights the benefits of having jumped over the BA bar in a period of 8% unemployment + continually increasing educational attainment %s.

http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/CollegeAdvantage.FullReport.081512.pdf
pg 31 mentions it - "low, middle and high education occupations are all hiring more educated workers in the current economic recovery than before the recession."

two pages later they counter w/ the stat that on a national level people w/ BAs make more than people w/ the same job and lower education = higher value than employers are willing to pay for. but that logic doesn't square w/ 'across all occupations, more educated workers are being hired'.

rereading that 'ie' = 'eg' (goes back to college)

more on this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/17/education-and-the-recession-continued/
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-recession-for-college-grads

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/how-young-homeowners-lost-out-by-buying/261612/

I've started to think people buying now are losing out too - rates are so low that long-term price appreciation is going to be dampened.

well, as jj said in the suburbs thread, houses are for living in, not for long-term price appreciation

http://www.economist.com/node/21563725

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/degree-inflation-jobs-that-newly-require-b-a-s/

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21567373-american-universities-represent-declining-value-money-their-students-not-what-it

reposted from quiddities, just to keep it all in one place: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html

it's a really good article. like shockingly good for the nyt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/education/parents-financial-support-linked-to-college-grades.html?hp

Parents saving for college costs, take heed: A new national study has found that the more college money parents provide — whether in absolute terms or as a share of total costs — the lower their children’s college grades.

Students from wealthy families are more likely than those from poor families to go to college, and those whose parents pay their way are more likely to graduate. But according to “More Is More or More Is Less? Parent Financial Investments During College,” a study by Laura Hamilton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, greater parental contributions were linked with lower grades across all kinds of four-year institutions.

hahahahaha

lol w/e

http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-has-alarming-level-of-pride-in-institution-tha,30853/

something something correlation causation

http://andrewgelman.com/2013/01/that-claim-that-students-whose-parents-pay-for-more-of-college-get-wors-grades/

wow that study is worse than i could have imagined.

Good postings.

I guess this is the rolling internship thread as well, right?

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/unpaid-internships-are-a-rich-girl-problem-and-also-a-real-problem/273106/

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/opportunity-costs-the-true-price-of-internships

I think the comparison w/ housework is a little forced

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324432004578306610055834952.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read#project%3DBORROW021620130216%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

Okay, this is starting to get to "Vinyl Lives!" levels. Is "people with arts degrees made bad life decisions" just the default slow day story now?

a 0% graduation rate is pretty damning

I mostly just linked it for the interactive chart

the historically black colleges have pretty bleak numbers. 27% default rate at morehouse, which is a fairly well-respected college.

How can anywhere have a 0℅ graduation rate?

well the requirements for graduation at devry university-oregon include solving the p vs np problem

negative-20k/year net cost at Berea College, nice...

I'm curious about why art colleges seem to be so expensive - are their fees really higher than everyone else, or is it just that they don't offer much financial aid? Can only rich people afford to attend?