Some time has passed since the last posting on this blog, but the student debt crisis remains in full swing.
Corporate owned politicians recently mentioned student loan interest rates to make young voters believe they are concerned about the issue. But the fact is, the problem is so much bigger than interest rates it is not even funny.
Of course, raising student loan interest rates is not a good thing, but keeping them lower, or even lowering them, would not address the problem of student lending and tuition corruption.
Student lending has caused tuition rates to skyrocket while the value of all sorts of degrees have been plummeting. The government has shifted the financing of higher education more to the students in the past three decades rather than investing in affordable higher education for it's citizens.
This has all been happening while more jobs are outsourced or cut, and little job growth is happening here for everyone. Near-slavery minimum wage rates skew the whole economic situation even more drastically in comparison to the usurious tuition rates colleges are charging.
On top of all of this though, some very greedy, corrupt pigs in higher education, student lending and the government have gotten obscenely wealthy from this corrupt system and do not want to change it.
We must demand change, and we are. On the positive side of this most negative and vile scam is the fact that people are waking up and speaking out. Much progress has been made this year alone.
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| The aptly chosen image of excrement has come to symbolize law degrees on the Third Tier Reality blog. But law degrees are not alone. Higher education degrees stink in many fields. |
The creation of this blog (Student Debt Emergency) was inspired by the law school "scam bloggers" who have relentlessly ripped the pimped-out whore of a law school industry a new one.
The greedy ABA has accredited so many garbage law schools at a time when law jobs are shrinking, that the six-figure debt people take on to get such a degree is leaving them crippled and remorseful at graduation.
WE ARE WARNING YOU! And national media is picking up on it. What the law schools have done is nothing other than greedy, intentional exploitation of America's youth. They saw the student loan gravy train and rode it for all it was worth.
BUT LAW SCHOOLS ARE NOT THE ONLY PIGS FEASTING AT THE STUDENT LOAN TROUGH!
Many readers have written in to share their remorse and disgust with their degree choices as well. Indeed the following fields have been selling snake oil degrees to well-intentioned students for sometime now. Like law schools, these programs paint an overly-optimistic future for graduates who buy their expensive degrees.
PSYCH. 101
Here are a few top degree regrets:
Clinical and Counseling Psychology- Psychologists make good money, right? Well, the field has changed in many ways and it is not what it used to be. The time and money pursuing a PHD just isn't worth it in the long run for many. Health insurance issues in the US have created a demand for less trained (and less expensive) licensed social workers and counselors to do work once done by Psychologists. Further, research psychologists are always facing funding issues as short-sighted America values the work they do less and less.
Oh, and a Master's Degree in these fields? Fast track to debt hell. You'll make more waiting tables than with one of the MS or MA degrees in most cases. There are exceptions, but for many they have to sell out and leave the field all together for something like filthy pharmaceutical sales, just to pay their living expenses. It's moral prostitution, and a real shame.
Social Work / Education- These have always been a thankless ones. But why?
Social workers and teachers do extremely important work.
Essentially, American society does not value non-profit driven fields and that extends to the pay compensation of those service professionals. But shouldn't these jobs at least be on par with police officers and firefighters? In any event, to take on extreme debt to get a degree in social work or teaching seems absurd, so why is it done?
Well-intentioned idealistic students are drawn to this field, and opportunistic lenders and educational institutions love them. These students often reason that things will "work out" and are unduly optimistic about there career options. They focus on the important work they will be doing, and not on how they are screwing themselves.
This is the thing with student debt: THERE IS A RANGE TO POTENTIAL CAREERS AND FUTURE SALARIES IN ALL FIELDS. STUDENTS "INVEST" IN EXPENSIVE TUITION BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT INCREASES CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AND EARNING POTENTIAL. THEY BELIEVE THEY WILL DO WELL. SCHOOLS AND LENDERS ENCOURAGE AND CONDONE THIS!
The schools market their degrees to this way of thinking, and it is only after a huge dose of reality at graduation (or in many cases, half way through the program itself) that the regret sets in, and students realized they have been conned. It is unethical for schools to be allowing students to take on big debts for degrees they know won't pay.
Isn't that the students responsibility? Well, it's hard for students to figure this out when they are being misled and lied to by the schools themselves and just don't have the life experience to really know. In a decent society adults help their youth make sound decisions, not encourage them to make bad ones so they can make a profit off of them.
Graphic Design- With the technology boom of the past several years, this would seem like a good degree to have. It certainly is advertised and marketed all the time by schools. But many readers have written in saying the market is saturated because of so many degree holders, and that the jobs just aren't there. It seems that for every good paying and interesting graphic design job, there are scores of low-paying bores- and even those are hard to come by now.
Library Sciences- Schools have been selling these degrees for a while now. At first glance it seems progressive; the modernization of the American library and the career of a "librarian." Problem is, the schools are selling the degrees, and the government is backing the loans on the sales- but the government is cutting the funding on the other end. So on one hand, they encourage the education of students in the field of library sciences, but then don't fund the libraries themselves- so there aren't even jobs for graduates. A simple equation that amounts to lots of overqualified, unemployed, and heavily indebted graduates. And of course, society as a whole suffers from this sort of thing.
Film- Oh my. Film, film, film, film, film, film. This one really gets the bitches who have no sympathy for people being crushed by student loan debt.
Idealism and optimism are certainly at play when people pursue this degree, but at the same time they are encouraged to do it. If you are trying to make it in film, then students often reason that going to a big school is important. Places like NYU film school supposedly offer a good education AND the opportunity to be in reach of an urban, world-class film industry, thus making important connections. It seems that these opportunities could make a career, and are worth the extra money.
Each year, talented, naive, well-intentioned film students begin their studies hoping to break into the industry in some fashion. They believe the hype offered to them by the student-debt run schools. Some will do well, but many, many, many more will not work in film at all. If they do, it will be for peanuts, and often part time.
No one can predict the future. But schools should not be selling this degree to students using excessive loans as payment. Not enough film makers, too much debt. If they were offering scholarships it would be a different story.
Film is important. We need film makers. But the degree can destroy a person, and the film school will lick their lips once they have devoured you. The schools are literally lying to you!
THERE ARE MANY MORE DEGREES THAT INDUCE FEELINGS OF SHAME, REMORSE, RAGE, AND REGRET (ISN'T THAT WHY WE WENT TO SCHOOL??)
TELL US ABOUT YOURS IN A COMMENT BELOW.
