Ken is a 24-year-old college grad who is over $30,000 in debt, thanks to his quest for an undergraduate degree in history, and who is back home living with Mom and Dad. Ken is a walking Fountains of Wayne song, is what he is. He writes about how much debt one has to accrue to get a college education these days, and how limiting it can be. Ken is right about that, though surely he should have thought about that before going into such heavy debt. And he complains that there are no jobs for history majors -- gosh, ya think?
The truth is, it would have been very easy for me to end up like Ken. My dad kept it from happening. I wanted to go to Georgetown for my undergraduate education, but my father said he would not permit me to assume so much debt for an undergraduate degree. I thought he was unfair, blinkered, ill-informed, you name it ... but he left me no choice other than to apply to LSU and hope for a scholarship. I did get a scholarship, and thanks to that, and to some help from my folks, I graduated debt-free. I wanted to get degrees in political science and philosophy (which I ended up minoring in), but realized early on that they would qualify me only for graduate school or law school, neither of which I was interested in. So I found a major that would enable me to put my interest in both to some practical use.
The thing is, no grown-ups who work for colleges will tell students that their humanities degrees are likely to end them up unemployed and deeply in debt, if they've taken out big loans. Don't read me wrong: college is not simply about being trained for productive work in the economy. A university education, properly conceived, is not glorified vocational training. But no amount of romanticizing can change the hard cold facts of what humanities majors like Ken are facing.
There is no way that Julie and I will be able to afford to send our kids to college without serious financial assistance. If my children are drawn to the humanities, I am going to encourage that, but also encourage them to get some practical college training too, so it will be easier for them to find a job in a field related to their humanities interests. Furthermore, I am going to insist that they go for as many scholarships as they can, and choose a school from which they can graduate without a crushing debt burden to hold them down as they're trying to establish their careers.
Alas, poor Ken, I sympathized with him until I read this part of his column -- hence the "World's smallest violin" subject line:
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and I had no intention of living in a society that was as unfair as this one. To seek a haven devoid of the ruthless 9-to-5 ebb and flow of contemporary America, I moved to Alaska.As a liberal arts major, I dreamed of making a profound difference in people’s lives. Instead, for a year, I lived in Coldfoot, a town north of the Arctic Circle that resembles a Soviet Gulag camp. My job as a tour guide for visitors temporarily alleviated my money woes because it provided room and board, but when the season ended and I moved back home, I was again confronted with the grim realities of debt.
Desperate, I browsed through insurance and bank job descriptions. I had hit an all-time low. Could I surrender my soul for health coverage and a steady income? Could I sacrifice my ideals by falling into line?
Suddenly, living at home didn’t seem nearly as degrading as selling out. But sadly, other graduates don’t have any choice but to work for temp agencies and retail stores to eke by.
That’s the tragedy of student debt: it doesn’t just limit what we do, but who we become. Forget volunteering. Forget traveling. Forget trying to improve your country, or yourself. You’ve got bills to pay, young man.
I think dinkwad is serious about the "unfairness" of this society. I know he's serious about his conviction that being an adult sponger living at home with Mommy and Daddy is less degrading than "selling out" by getting a retail job to support himself. Yes, what a "tragedy" that lending institutions allowed him to borrow money to get a college education, and now expect him to pay it back. I'd trade layabout Ken to Mexico for one of their hard-working laborers any day, but I'd feel like we were taking unfair advantage of the Mexicans.
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I'm surprised that this young man didn't think about what kind of job he wanted to get when he majored in history. His expectations seem to be rather unrealistic. Young people need to think about what they would like to do in life to make a living, and then form a plan to get there. We live in a highly technical world where any form of professional level employment is rather like a craft with a specialized knowledge base. A bachelor's degree is the first building block in many professions, but most require that one farther their education beyond that. If he didn't want to continue in school or didn't have the funds to continue in school, then he should have started with a major that had a higher technical component to it.
This seemed to be so obvious when I was planning for college. Maybe it's because my parents had to work so hard to put us through college. My brothers and I helped to fund our education, and we all wanted to be able to come out of college with a craft or the skills that would be needed to find a job, so we majored in subjects that would enable us to do that.
I enjoyed the electives that I took in history, political science, & philosophy the most, but I never expected the learnings that I took away from those classes to pay my bills. There were many people in my classes who majored in those areas. I assume that they went on to get an advanced degree in something to profit financially from it.
Armchair, maybe they are inventing new systems, we only don't know it so far.
Thanks for the compliment. I learned english at secondary school many years ago, teachers threatened to expel me because i couldn't get satisfactory mark in English :) In senior forms tried to improve it, but never was fluent. Those who got exellent marks were fluent.
A good liberal arts education is great preparation for full-time parenting--and not just in general philosophical ways. In my years as an at-home Mom, I spent about an hour each evening reading aloud. And, not to brag, but I think I pronounced everything correctly (it helps to have a Medieval studies background if your kids like fantasy as much as mine did).
A close friend is still trying to live down (the teasing is from her daughters, not me!) having gone throught the first three Harry Potters pronouncing "Hermione" without the last syllable. This wouldn't have happened if she'd known any Greek, or, given a basic grasp of iambic pentamenter, if she had ever read or watched The Winter's Tale.
Is that a practical application or what? best, Cindy
I lived in Boston for a time, where the guy who pours your latte at Starbucks frequently has a PhD in medieval Albanian basketry or some such field. And I have a rather embarrassing memory of being eighteen years old and protesting the idea of majoring in commercial vs. fine art as being somehow akin to prostitution.
Still, I did eventually learn that while doing graphic design and layout for a boring publication may not constitute fine art, it was not quite on the same level as turning tricks ;) And there is nothing to prevent a person from indulging their passion for medieval basket-making or Aztec history or whatever in their spare time. As my dad always put it, "Why can't you learn all that useless stuff at the library for free?"
I am not saying that people should only major in fields that guarantee gainful employment; but "what kind of job would I get with this degree?" is a question that should be asked at some point before one graduates and finds that one's extremely expensive degree qualifies one for the same sort of jobs that a high school graduate can get.
"I did get a scholarship, and thanks to that, and to some help from my folks, I graduated debt-free."
How fortunate for you that you had parents to help you and the ability to get a scholarship! It must be wonderful to grow up as a privelled upper-middle-class person whose parents have the spare cash lying around to give away to you. Not everyone has that luxury.
Let me guess, you are over 40, right? While it used to be possible to work (or have you parents pay) your way through college so that you could graduate debt free, in most cases this is no longer an option. Please look at the current cost of the college you attended - including the thousands of dollars for room and board and books (some of which are more than 100 dollars a pop now), multiply by the 5 years it takes a typical undergraduate student to complete a degree now, and tell me what you come up with and how it stacks up against your bank account.
Please note also that any loan a student must take out will bleed them dry. I know a man who borrowed $70K to get through undergrad and grad school (both at state colleges); after paying $500 a month for 7 years, his debt was down to $69K. Unlike credit cards or other debts, you cannot refinance your student loan if you do not like the current owner. My loan was sold by the company I consolidated with - who were fine to work with - to a shady company who will not answer my questions when I call and to whom I am paying an entire week's take-home salary every month - and probably will be until I am in my mid-60s.
So please get off your high horse about someone who did not have your breaks - or please mail me the $70K you have to spare so I can pay off my own debt.
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