Weenie Does Washington

I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with student loan horror stories. Maybe a weird guilt from not having any students loans myself? A fear for my friends & peers who are scheduled to begin repayment around December, many of whom still do not have jobs?

And I truly believe any college that needs to advertise on television is a scam. End of story. Yeah I’m looking at you DeVry, University of Phoenix, Everest, ITT Tech, Bryman, Westwood… For-profit colleges sicken me - they prey on the poor and those who don’t know any better. They target the unemployed (airing commercial during the day time much?) and those who are just trying to do something good for themselves & their families. Until their graduation rates go up, subpar instruction actually teaches valuable skills, and mind-boggling tuition is lowered - or somebody tells me they are a for-profit university success and can show me they aren’t an exception - I will continue to hate hate hate for-profit schools.

From BusinessWeek: Another good/depressing article.

Interesting Huffington Post article that I think is very relevant to a VERY LARGE number of my peers.

There was a comment on the article that I thought was particularly illustrative of what I’ve been hearing from a lot people:

“Part of the 1/4 life crisis has to do with how the economy has changed over the past few decades. The whole concept of “education = job = career = home, family and a comfortable retirement” is not such a linear trajectory anymore.

“Many of our parents started out with nothing, but were able to move gradually forward. They couldn’t have it all and have it now, but they could eventually get ahead. Today, people take on massive debt just to go to college. We step into our adult lives being tens of thousands of dollars in the red, only to find that we’re qualified for a $10/hr job.”

How interesting. #9 is where it’s at.