With the most recent economic crises
and the aftermath, recent graduate students are finding it harder and harder to
find jobs that pay enough to support incurred debt. It’s simple mathematics: while the cost of
education is increasing, degree
inflation coupled with recent economic crisis makes it harder for recent
graduates to find an entry level job with sufficient earnings to pay off debt
incurred to receive education needed to enter prospective fields.
The benefit of 4 year college education is undisputable and
unarguably equally beneficial for the students themselves and their future
employers. While we wait for the entire
education system to be overhauled and for the economy to recover, what are the
alternatives to the traditional four year university to obtain a degree, have a
fair shot in the job market, and not starting off your life neck deep in student
loan debt?! Let’s explore much less
popular community colleges. Today community colleges are much less publicized
by media, presented in High Schools as an option or desired by students as
their first choice. Granted that a
community college will not get you the desired degree, but utilizing the
community college to obtain your associate degree is an extremely unexplored
option by today’s aspired college students to reduce overall cost of the 4 year
degree.
The idea is to attend the community college for the first 2
years. Once successfully completed,
students have an option to transfer to prestigious schools and earn a diploma
stamped with George Mason University, for example, and pay half the price. In DMV area alone students have a wide range
of options to explore including Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA),
Montgomery College, Prince George’s Community College, etc. According to The
Washington Post, this option is being considered more often then it has
been in the past. Still mainly explored
by minorities, low to moderate income families and by those who’s grades do not
get them into a “brand name” University, the stigma about community colleges
makes this a very much unutilized tool in obtaining proper education.
I totally agree with you that most students see education as a branded product. Most students tend to forget that student loan is a debt that must be paid back when you are done with school. The sad thing is, students leave these branded institutions with so much hope and dream of finding the perfect paying job immediately that will meet all their financial obligations. In reality, the perfect paying job may take years to find, but the student loan debt has to be paid back once a student is done with school.
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