These days a college education is a huge gamble, given the hyperinflated tuition costs and uncertain employment prospects for new graduates in just about any curriculum. Remember student loan debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy so collections can hound you forever. Yet no freshman is ever guaranteed a place at commencement or a position in a suitable career path upon receiving a diploma. Ignorance may be more expensive than education, but a poor choice in institution or in major could be downright ruinous.
Prof Bok was president of Harvard when I was in college, so I inferred that he was talking his book back when annual tuition rises started escalating far beyond the norm. Of course as loose credit caught up, it all became good, right? My point is that it seems incredibly unfair to burden a young adult with a debt load that could be more than a median priced house at a point in life when he or she is likely to be uncertain about what path to take. And even if the curriculum works out, prospects for employment are beyond anyone's control and not even the best economists can reliably predict demand conditions years into the future. Why should an 18 yr old bear all this risk?
In my student days, tuition costs were more reasonable, especially at the state institutions, and government stepped in to provide scholarships based on need or merit. I received one of these and got a completely free ride through graduate school. Now I'm paying a much higher income tax rate than I would have been had I not completed my education, and I have no qualms about this. Government took a chance on funding me and is getting some well-deserved returns on their investment. But if I had washed out or lost interest, I could have walked away at any time without destroying my financial future. Many of today's seniors did read the fine print but still had to sign their loan agreements to matriculate, and they now do not have this option.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 9:51 pm
These days a college education is a huge gamble, given the hyperinflated
tuition costs and uncertain employment prospects for new graduates in just
about any curriculum. Remember student loan debt is non-dischargeable in
bankruptcy so collections can hound you forever. Yet no freshman is ever
guaranteed a place at commencement or a position in a suitable career path
upon receiving a diploma. Ignorance may be more expensive than education,
but a poor choice in institution or in major could be downright ruinous.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:10 pm
The quote is more or less street education and informal education rather than formal.
Just having education like reading the fine print before signing ……you know stuff like that
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Prof Bok was president of Harvard when I was in college, so I inferred that he was talking his book back when annual tuition rises started escalating far beyond the norm. Of course as loose credit caught up, it all became good, right? My point is that it seems incredibly unfair to burden a young adult with a debt load that could be more than a median priced house at a point in life when he or she is likely to be uncertain about what path to take. And even if the curriculum works out, prospects for employment are beyond anyone's control and not even the best economists can reliably predict demand conditions years into the future. Why should an 18 yr old bear all this risk?
In my student days, tuition costs were more reasonable, especially at the state institutions, and government stepped in to provide scholarships based on need or merit. I received one of these and got a completely free ride through graduate school. Now I'm paying a much higher income tax rate than I would have been had I not completed my education, and I have no qualms about this. Government took a chance on funding me and is getting some well-deserved returns on their investment. But if I had washed out or lost interest, I could have walked away at any time without destroying my financial future. Many of today's seniors did read the fine print but still had to sign their loan agreements to matriculate, and they now do not have this option.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Love it!