Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Votes Are In!

Last week, I posted two poll questions regarding readers' thoughts on higher education as well as the debt load carried with certain degrees. 43% of respondents stated that if they could do it all over again, they would go to tech school or learn a trade after graduating high school (myself included!). 20% would earn a bachelor's degree.

As I suspected, most of the J.D.'s (31 out of 41 J.D. respondents) admitted to having $50K - $100K+ in student loan. The other 10 J.D.'s had $50K or under in student loan debt.

I have mixed feelings about the results. On the one hand, it is nice to know I am not alone in regretting the astonishing amount of time and money spent on a (now useless) advanced degree. On the other hand, the fact that so many respondents would learn a trade or get a technical degree rather than earn any other advanced degree is a bit discouraging. It seems to me that some products of the higher education system are questioning the value of their advanced degrees. Are institutions of higher learning encouraging too many folks to earn these degrees? Any other theories?

4 comments:

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  2. You are definitely not alone! I am extremely bitter at the debt I took in for the sake of higher education.

    How have you managed to not spew bitterness every chance you get?

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  3. Believe me, I am bitter. But - I also realize that life is short, so I don't want to spend it being unhappy all the time and only thinking about my debt. It's just a number on a balance sheet. It doesn't actually mean anything. (Of course, come the 20th, when I make that $600 payment, I will be singing a different tune!)

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  4. Your point about the difference between technical degrees and bachelor's degrees is interesting. But the majority of law students and lawyers have degrees that don't pay especially well on their own (which is to say, they are not engineers or business majors) and consider their law degrees to be a waste of time that was supposed to create value out of otherwise useless undergraduate degrees. I wish I had stood pat on my BS instead of going to law school, but I can see where a number of people (including my closest friends in law school) would do it differently.

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