Occupy Wall Street is being dismantled and quashed now, but It won't be long until Pomp and Circumstance and mortarboards are in the air with the excitement of college ahead for high school graduates. But then reality smacks: 65% of students that graduate from a private college have outstanding student loans when they finish college.
And for public, "in-state" universities, it is going to cost about $150,000 per kid for a college education. This sum for a private college or university almost doubles! With the rapidly disbanding Occupy Wall Street movement, taking out student loans without being able to find jobs to pay them back is ludicrous. Is it a tuition scam being pulled on our youth and their cash strapped parents? The scam is that the cost of college and tuition has way exceeded the rate of inflation by as much as 10% per year in some areas. Providing a college degree for our children is becoming more of a dream than a reality for many families and taking out loans in this economy is like Russian roulette.
It's not about a cost differential of a designer purse or pair of sneakers over a generic product, it's about a life charting detour if taken too lightly. But parents and students continue biting off way more debt than they will ever be able to chew or hope to digest. A college degree is of utmost importance, especially today but at what cost? We have become really good consumers when it comes to almost everything else … but not so much when we think the purchase is a necessity for our children.
Students today are graduating with literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with a degree that is may not be very marketable in a vile economy and a horrendous job market. Parents bought into the dream that a college degree was paramount but often failed to factor in the marketing genius most universities have deployed the past 25 years. Colleges now invest millions into stadiums, student recreational facilities and gyms that entice enrollment but drive up college cost.
