Is a College Degree/Advanced Education Expense Worth the Price?

[love_comes_softly]

Is it worth it? Honestly, it all depends on what you’re studying and where you’ll be working afterwards.

Even with continuing education, all my siblings that didn’t go on, make more money than I do and I have that education background.

I think a lot of money can be and will be found in the trades positions, as those positions aren’t being filled as rapidly as they were in the past.

Advice that I’d give someone looking into furthering their education, pray about it. Be sure that it’s a direction the Lord wants you to go in and be open to much more than the schooling or end outcome, but rather the process; this will often be what the Lord uses to work through in your life.

 

[Lanolin]

regarding trades positions, apparently the big money is in painting rich people's houses

If you dont mind paint fumes and climbing ladders, go for it.

Their houses are always going to need painting to look good. And every few years. Its like the Golden Gate bridge, one one end is finished then you have to start all over again. maybe kinda mindless, but then in trades positions the point is not to really expanding your mind. its just do the job, get money.

if you do a good job, you'll get asked back its mostly a matter of turning up.

 

[Lanolin]

Jesus ditched his carpentering job and his disciples ditched their fishing jobs to learn. They didnt do it for the pay!

Also, Mary was learning as well. It was far more important than housework.

Learning doesnt pay off strictly in terms of dollars and cents, but the rewards in heaven are far greater. Most of the time you are relying in God to provide. If its something He wants you to learn, He'll open the door.

 

[TheIndianGirl]

Women generally are not interested in trades jobs, since they require some form of manual labor or going around to different homes. A comparable option for women, who don't want to go to college, would be something like being a dental hygienist, medical assistant, or some form of patient care. But I believe the trades jobs would pay much higher. Some computer jobs do not require degrees but certifications would be sufficient.

 

[TheIndianGirl]

God provides but He also said those who don't work won't eat. I also believe God rewards those who study hard and apply themselves.

 

[Lanolin]

Women generally are not interested in trades jobs, since they require some form of manual labor or going around to different homes. A comparable option for women, who don't want to go to college, would be something like being a dental hygienist, medical assistant, or some form of patient care. But I believe the trades jobs would pay much higher. Some computer jobs do not require degrees but certifications would be sufficient.

women have hands too
and lots of women drive so not sure why you say they not interested in trades jobs. its just many men dont like women doing what theyve always done and harass them when they try. weird but true.

 

[Lanolin]

God provides but He also said those who don't work won't eat. I also believe God rewards those who study hard and apply themselves.

some people have this weird idea they actually dont need to study anything if they go to college. Um no. its a lot of work studying.

even if you only play sports, you need to put in the training.

 

[Lanolin]

when I worked in the engineering department at university they were actually wanting to get more women insterested in engineering it has always been sort of an old boys club. But women DO get harassed by men in male dominated professions. They get told at an early age they cant do things just cos they are a girl. Or its wrong.

Rubbish.

women are just as good as men when they have the opportunity.

 

[Lanolin]

I think a lot of things designed would be much better if designed by women for women. A lot of the machines and tech is not user friendly or even humane. Sometimes it creates MORE problems than its purported to solve. Useless gadgets and complicated designs that are unsustainable just add to landfill IMHO.

this is where engineering skills and would be needed.
Even architecture. what are those horrible bulidings being built that nobody can use or live in after a few years

 

[Kireina]

To answer that if it is worth the price...I'll say yes! Because for us poor people education or a degree is our best way out of poverty....😊

I spend my youth sending my siblings to school coz I believe that, that wil be their stepping stone to become successful...or at least keep themselves out from poverty...

 

[Lanolin]

My mum pretty much paid for 4 childrens education working extra so we wouldnt have to get loans. I think without that support we wouldnt have gotten that far because scholarships were not easy to come by at the time we were going to university.
Its mostly a given in asian culture that parents do EVERYTHING they can to pay for their childrens education so they have the opportunity to study and graduate with something. thats something you wont lose they say. (oh and ideally that something will pay well so you can look after them in their old age)

all the extra learning I did after that I paid for. I just wanted to learn all I could. I just love learning or rather reading and finding out what I never knew. It just never ends. I will pick anything that interests me.

thats a very different culture from parents who basically abandon their childrens higher education and say, even if they are bright, that college is a waste of time. Or the irresponsible students who drink away their student loans. or its just a piece of paper.

well thats what they say about marriage
but a piece of paper can make or break your future
Im also sure those who are divorced dont say well divorce papers are just a piece of paper.

I have pondered this because of opposing attitudes towards education. some people despise all book learning and dont value it.

Like Matilda in the Roald Dahl story whos parents didnt care as long as she could be a used car salespersons assistant and earn money helping her dad sell dodgy cars, they didnt need no education, she was just a girl anyway, and a calculator could do her job.

But what ignorant people dont understand is that knowledge is power. Knowledge may not be cash. But its definitely powerful. It can change peoples lives for the better.

I remeber this filipino friend who applied to do her pHD and even had it approved, she really wanted to be a professor but her parents just wanted her to get a 'real job' to earn money straight away to send to her family so she quit her dream and found work at the dump.

it was really heartbreaking to see her work in a place where she was bullied for being smart. Then she quit that job and found work in a casino. I think that was even worse and I dont actually know what happened after that we lost touch when she found another job and was too ashamed to actually tell me what it was.

 

[Lanolin]

She was studying anthropology and was doing fieldwork into microloans in developing countries I recall.

 

[JohnDB]

There seems to be a prevailing thought that a diploma is some sort of golden magic ticket....
That somehow employers will hunt you down and pay you to now come work for them.

And nothing could be further from the truth.

A diploma is a CV polisher....not a complete story. That education is a stepping stone in the ongoing process of learning a career through the acquisition of skills. YOU have to make the career happen.

Being proficient and professional and unaccepting of lower wages below the market is how you advance. Also such things as LinkedIn being used exclusively for networking. It's not a social media site for friends. Even if friends want to connect on it....my wife doesn't even connect with her family on it. It's a professional site for her career networking.

GlassDoor is another site giving you a view into the environment that a company has....it's not a accurate assessment but some things that get repeated over and over again are likely true. I had to laugh at some of the things said about companies because I know that what they just said was the defining characteristics of the industry....it's not a detractor like they claimed. Some people actually want that "negative " aspect.

Knowing when to "jump ship" after an opportunity is also critical. Knowing ahead of time that the company is unstable, running on capital fundraising, or is dropping like a rock on the stock exchange is important for stability and financial planning.

 

[Lanolin]

most of the time its people recommendations or references
and who you know

anyway career paths are not necessarily linear these days.

When Im in the library I actually get to make my own golden tickets. If anyone reads a certain book. they'll find one. There are only 5 golden tickets and 7000 books in my library. Good luck!

 

[Gojira]

I operated that machine for many years, and when I was laid off two years ago, they shut it down.

Now it sits idle...

I just bought an original, turquoise iMac! Nothing has to remain idle, until it dies. And then for its years of loyal service, you see it off honorably.

What this has to do with the original topic I have no idea.

I agree that highly technical positions always require an advanced degree. But, too many public schools it seems have become communist and anti-christian indoctrination centers. I say, don't spend your 100K on that unless you genuinely need to. Vocational schools are cheaper and last less time. I know. I went to one and I've had a career in computer graphics since 1993.

 

[stilllearning]

Hey Everyone,

I was talking with a friend who is contemplating going back to school to earn a degree in the hopes of finding a higher-paying job.

This led to a conversation about whether or not the high cost of a a college degree actually pays off in real dollars and cents, and whether it's actually worth the sacrifices and high cost or not. I have known many people who didn't get the chance to use their degrees and it just wound up being a very expensive certificate on their wall (which they are still paying off.) But of course, every person's experience is unique, especially since there are some fields (medicine, etc.) in which a degree is absolutely necessary.

When I was growing up, it was almost a given at the time that in order to get a "good" job here in the USA, you had to obtain a 4-year college degree. I'm not sure how it works in other countries, so please feel free to share what the expectations are where you live and what people do in your own country and culture.

I have worked in retail my entire life and often met people who wound up there too because they couldn't find jobs in the profession they had studied. For example, one of my managers had a degree in engineering. When someone asked what he was doing working in a store, he said he and his wife had moved to the area to take care of his mother-in-law, and he couldn't find work in his field. He explained that the area was filled with retired engineers who were fine just working part-time, so no one was offering full-time. Instead, he took a full-time job in retail management because at least it provided health insurance for him and his wife.

The most extreme story I've heard so far was of a co-worker's son and his fiancee. They had both studied to be pilots, but graduated at a time when airlines were cutting back, and so now were looking at getting married with over a quarter of a million dollar's worth of educational debt -- and couldn't find jobs in their field. This was many years ago and I'm not sure what happened, but I know at the time, my co-worker said they were taking any kind of job they could find.

I have heard many stories like this and am wondering what you all have seen and experienced. I have heard people speak of apprenticeships as an alternative, but are they very common anymore? It seemed, in my area at least, that such opportunities were non-existent, or at least very rare.

I would like to know:

* Did you get an advanced education, and do you believe it was worth the cost? Did you make up for the price of your education with a better-paying job?

* Have you been able to pay back your student loans, if you had any? (Here in the USA, you can apply for loans from the government to pay for your schooling, but there are strict rules about paying them back.)

* If you could go back in time, would you have still earned and paid for your degree, or do you feel you would have been better without one? Would you have chosen to study another field (which one?)

* Do you have children or grandchildren (or other friends or relatives) who earned college degrees? Was it worth it to them or do they wish they'd taken another path?

* What would you advise other to do? Should they "go back to school," or what other means would you suggest in order to get better jobs and higher pay?

I'm dropping this thread in the Singles forum because my conversation was with a guy who is doing just fine for himself as a single, but is concerned he wouldn't earn enough to support a wife and family if God allows, and he wants to be prepared.

And please note that I am most definitely NOT trying to downplay or criticize the important of higher education -- I've had people in my own life who have told me I "wasted my degree," but I know my life turned out the way it did for a reason.

I'm just interested in what other people have done as far as college goes, and how their own story has turned out because of it.

I think the points I would have brought up have been hit on. So to just point out another variable and the cost in terms of the human perspective and how it is directly effecting women folk.

Studies have been run in the world and I have seen Christian gals not answer in the same way the world does. So with that said studies have been done and have shown that men tend to date and marry down. By that men don't generally have the need for security of resources that women do. So a man who is a millionaire he could go to McDonalds and see a gal making minimum wage behind the counter he finds her attractive, date her, and marry her.

Not the same if the role is reversed. Some article have been written how women who have degrees and their earning power on the higher end. They are having a hard time finding men to date because they want men who are of a higher status than themselves. As studies find the opposite with women they tend to want to date and marry up or at the very least they want a lateral move on equal footing.

With the current stats in which college being is filled at the rate of two thirds female to only a third male. Articles and studies are coming out how women find they are not able to date and marry as they find that the sexual market of men that fits what they want is less than the numbers of them, women looking for a mate. So you have more women vying for the same man.

Studies also show that marriage is down overall as well as starting with Millennial's it is the first time a following generation is having less sex than the preceding generation. So these two factors are showing in studies how the birth rate is being affected and we are not having enough yearly births to cover the yearly deaths.

So since this not yet that far out of the gate. On this human issue we are not yet aware what the full cost may be down the road in terms of what a financial cost it may be as well as the effects on the human conditions of mentally and emotionally. So just a different angle to look at this to add to what has been said already.

 

[Lanolin]

um
I dont think college degrees affect who you marry, you dont do it primarily as a way to meet someone, that is not the point of an education
doctors do marry each other and lawyers its possibly more equal that way
also teachers often marry teachers
also accountants marry each other
so do scientists


in some ways this does works because you have intellectual interests in common and incomes are more equal
plus your fields being the same means your social lives are not hugely different.

I dont know everyones ages on here but this is 2022 not the 1950s. lol got to move with the times. Women can have an education. They are not stuck with leaving school at 14 and having a child at 16 and not knowing anything and being naive and dare I say it, stupid about finances

 

[Lanolin]

I think for librarians as a profession its more skewed towards females.
there definitely needs to be more of a balance of male and female librarians. Its not just womens work.
Its funny about peoples perceptions of librarians as a profession there definitley are some strange stereotypes out there.

no I dont wear my hair in a bun

 

[JohnDB]

My wife has been working in Cancer Research....she just got her PMP certification. Not the Google one....the real one.

It's as good a qualification as having a business administration degree. But it did take her a year to get it....and she is a fast study. But with the way pharmaceutical companies and research firms have been snatching up qualified workers of late....my wife stands to double her salary once she gets a position in the normal world instead of the non-profit world.

The project management certification is AFTER she has been managing several different projects. She has been doing the job....which is the only reason why she went after the certification to begin with....and because some firms care about the cert.

It's not exactly an easy test. Most fail the first time through. She got "above target" on two of the three areas. Which is an astounding score.

The ink isn't dry on the thing yet....but some opportunities have just come up at her workplace. It might just pay off.

Dunno. We shall see what happens.

 

[Lanolin]

a bachelors takes about 3 years if you do it full time
Mine took a bit longer as I got sick and I also did summer school to make up some credits.
then a masters should take just 1 year but I took about 3 years to get my masters because I was working at the same time so could only do a couple of papers at a time.

I wasnt going to give up but it did take me longer because of various reasons. A lot of people do start but drop out because of heavy workloads or stuff just happens in life. I also did exchanges for both and studied at different univeristies and did distance learning. I think the on campus experience is worth it, thats mostly the biggest expense though. If you can live at home while you are studying you do save money. Instead of renting flats or staying at a hostel or student dorm. But you might be able to get a student allowance.

if you do have a loan dont waste the loan use it just to pay tuition fees not on accomdotion, transport and food! if dont already have a job get a part time one or reduce your hours so you can study part time. Tell your employer. or take a sabbatical if they'll let you. I dont know how old the OP is who is looking into this.