Programs like Flathead High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) business management course – right now, the only one in the state – should be greatly expanded. Part of the curriculum matches students with local business leaders who share with them their “real world” experiences.
And the real world is a scarier place now.
As these students graduate from high school they will each ask themselves: “What do I want to be?” And answering correctly the first time – before enrolling in school, taking out a loan and declaring a major – is more crucial.
In college, I initially chose the wrong answer. Unfocused and indecisive, I switched majors and ended up paying for an extra year of school. I continue paying for it and will for several more years.
Higher learning is expensive. But I’m still lucky to have graduated when I did. Recently, the costs have risen so fast that smart people are asking: “Is it worth it?” Peter Thiel, an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal, is skeptical, suggesting that the most talented kids skip school and head straight to the workforce.
Thiel and others have referred to a “higher education bubble,” or “student loan bubble.” Part of the concern is rooted in the fact that a simple degree is no longer a meal ticket to a good job. Unemployment rates among young people are extraordinarily high. But while consumers have begun reducing what they owe elsewhere, student borrowing has grown at a record pace.
Outstanding student debt has doubled in the last five years, according to USA Today, and is expected to surpass what Americans owe on credit cards. College enrollment has increased in recent years (it grew by a staggering 38 percent between 1999 and 2009, from 14.8 million to 20.4 million) and tuition along with it. And no longer is a student loan simply considered “good debt,” but a bubble that concerns economists. Haven’t we been down this bubbly road before?
Nonetheless, a large majority of recent graduates still think their degree was worth it, despite the fact that, according to a Rutgers University study, borrowers leave school saddled with roughly $24,000 in student debt.
Catherine Rampell, at the New York Times’ Economix blog, points out that the same bleak Rutgers survey found that “nearly three-quarters of recent graduates said they believed their degree was as valuable now as they thought it would be when they first enrolled in college. Additionally, three-quarters said their college education did extremely well or pretty well in preparing them to be successful in their first full-time job.”
But Rutgers found bigger regrets elsewhere. Almost half of those students who responded to the survey said they would have been more careful selecting a major or chosen a different one. Almost half said they would have done more internships or part-time work. And nearly 40 percent would have started looking for work much sooner while still in college.
By participating in the IB college preparatory program, and meeting with local business leaders who have already made the precarious transition from classroom to office, perhaps Flathead students can decide what they want to be before accruing debt.
While the job market is dreary, college graduates still earn more money and are more likely to land a job than their less-educated peers. But school, even in Montana, is expensive. Tuition at the state’s universities will increase by 5 percent in 2012 and another 5 percent in 2013.
For many, college is still worth it. But, anymore, the job hunt starts before you even get there.