Is college really necessary?

Is J-school needed to become a journalist?  Of what value are four-year degrees in Literature and History and Sociology and French?  Art? Womens' Studies?  Racial Conflicts? PhysEd?

Is an Ivy League education worth the name on the t-shirt?

At forty or fifty or a hundred grand a year, or more, the correct answer is No.

Not when you can expect to assume a debt of three hundred thousand simoleons or more that you might never be able to pay off and then never have anything of value to show for it when the best job you can get with the degree pays $30k a year.

Then consider whether post-grad schooling is worth it.

With socialized medicine coming, do you really want to be a doctor or a dentist or a nurse?  Actually, the best med school education is for kids who want to honestly care for animals.  Veterinarian training is more difficult to get into than human med school.  And, frankly, more rewarding than socialized human medical services.

Wanna be a lawyer?  Why not join the club?  It's not like there aren't more than enough.  Spend all that dough! But go for it. You might make it to a government or lobbyist gig and actually make some money.

But whatever you do, DO NOT go to a broadcasting school.  They have no access to jobs, and they do not train you for any useable skill.

Learn wrenching and work on cars.  Apprentice with a carpenter or a bricklayer or a drywaller.  Take a gig as a sous chef and learn to cook elegantly.  Bartending and table waiting? The tips are great, if you are. 

It appears that the youth of the US are going to have to start over in a service-based economy.

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