This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more information.
Hey, groovy freedomist, I got bad news. I was a lazy sh*t the past couple of days and I didn’t finish Part Two of my ten-reasons-why-you-can’t-save series. Part Two won’t be ready until Monday.
Damn! No one ever told me how hard this blogging gig was going to be.
But even though I’m in the blogger doghouse, and I should be devoting all my time to completing that promised post, I still feel obligated to post something today. So I decided to post my guide for choosing the four-year college route. It’s still very much in its skeleton stage, but there’s more than enough bone matter to chew on if you choose to chew on it. Here we go.
Seven Questions Every Prospective College Student Should Ask Before Pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree
If not done mindfully, getting a bachelor’s degree could be the worst financial move of your life. Here’s a great video showing several young people who got chewed up and spit out by the ravenous maw of the college-industrial complex.
In order to make sure you don’t become a dog-walker with a hundred thousand dollars worth of student loan debt, you need to ask whatever college accepts you the following seven questions:
- What percentage of students with my SAT score graduate in four years?
- Of the students with my SAT score who graduate in four years, what percentage have a degree in a STEM field?
- What is the mean debt load of your graduates by major?
- What is the mean starting salary of your graduates by major?
- What percentage of your graduates actually get a job that’s directly related to their majors?
- Do you require a critical-thinking enter and exit exam so you can gauge how well your programs increase your students’ critical-thinking skills?
- And if you do, what gains can someone with my SAT score expect?
Run Away If You Don’t Get Answers
If a college or university is honorable, it should be very forthright with this information. After all, how could any prospective student make an informed choice without it?
And if your prospective college doesn’t provide this information, it means one of two things: either your prospective college is incompetent or your prospective college is run by a bunch of scammers. Either way, you should avoid any prospective college that doesn’t provide this information like the plague.
Community College Is Your Friend
If every college that awarded bachelor degrees provided the information pertaining to the seven questions above, many if not most prospective students would find the vaunted BA to be a bad bet. The number of students who pursue a bachelor’s degree and actually get one—and actually get a job related to their degree—is shockingly small.
But all is not lost.
Community college is much more respectful of your time and money. I spent $185 for a welding course I’m taking right now at my local community college, and for that $185, I’m entitled to 12 weeks of instruction from a seasoned welding professional, access to top-notch welding equipment, and all the metal I can play with. Heck, I bet the cost of the metal I’ve welded so far (there are three weeks left in the course) is worth more than $185. Community colleges are an incredible bargain.
My only gripe with community college is that it isn’t as rigorous academically as the typical four-year college. But I suppose that would quickly change if Americans made community college their default college of choice. There’s no reason why we can’t have the Harvard or Cal-Tech of community college.
Final Thoughts
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. What say you? Do our four-year colleges need to be more forthright about the quality of their product? And should Americans en masse avoid every four-year college that isn’t? Let me know what you think when you get a chance. Peace.
Leave a Reply