prospecting

Is college a waste of money? How many friends do you have coming out of school with tens of thousands of debt from their student loans? I have a few. And i am sure they have a few. And i would bet that those people most likely knew a few more. It seems that quite a lot of people are coming out of their undergraduate school with massive loads of debt, and it begs one to ask: Is college worth the expense?
    I think that the right type of college is worth the expense. If you are not able to receive any financial aid and you attend a private institution and are left to bear the tuition and other costs associated with going to school by yourself, then there is a very good possibility that it is not! Going in over your head to go to a school you think may hold more clout than your average state school is a very large gamble. Maybe even a gamble to the tune of $100,000 or more. That is no joke. Say you make 15,000 more from your private school job, compared to one you may have gotten out of a state school; just say. How long will that take for you to pay off all that debt? Including interest? A while. This is only a prospectus so i will not bore you with statistics but when final paper comes i am firing numbers out!!!
   If you do choose a state school though, there is a good chance that college is absolutely worth the expense.
         In order to support this i am going to need a fairly large amount of statistics. I am going to need the median salary of public college graduates, as well as statisitcs concerning those of private school graduates. I am going to have to be able to show that the cost of taking on thousands on thousands of dollars of student debt is not worth the suppossed job you may get from going to an expesnive private school. Also, the economy and the way jobs are not being created, and the inability for many to even find a job will have to greatly be taken into consideration. especially in relation to how well a school helps you find a job, a well paying job, after you graduate without having to pay for more graduate school.

     Some counterarguments which will surely come up will be. You cant get a job without going to college.Expensive colleges get you higher paying jobs. A more prestigious college will look better on your resume compared to a state school where 50,000 people go.

           While it is very hard to get a job without going to college, that is not precisely what i am asking. I am asking whether it is worth the expense. Is going to a college for 50,000 a year for 4 years and coming out making 50,000 worth it? Will you have more of a chance to move up the corporate ladder just because you went somewhere? It may be easier for your foot to get in the door, but once you are in that office space things tend to focus on your current work, not where you went to school. Also how long will you have this debt? How much stress are you going to have about paying for it? These factor into the is it worth it?

     I hope to find research in many different areas in which I am looking at and be able to connect this different data into something meaningful about my question. I hope to find average student debt for public and pricate schools. Rate of job after 1yr out of college. Average income 3yr out of college. Average SAT score for public and private institutions. Highest ranked public and private schools and most likely more when the digging gets even deeper.

http://mrupured.myweb.uga.edu/pdfs/College%20Student%20Persistence%20to%20Degree%28abs%29.pdf  
This article is about how load debt effects students even getting through school in the first place. It could help my paper is that it shows students become so burdened by the debt they do not even complete school, let alone finish and have to deal with the debt in the real world while also trying to find a job to pay it off.

http://www.aei.org/docLib/09-EduO-Oct-2010-g.pdf
This article has developed a system of rating whether a college is worth the investment. It says that many are not, and that public and some very highyl regarded universities are worth it. It is interesting how he goes about rating the colleges, and would be very helpful support for my paper.

http://www.class.uh.edu/faculty/simberman/das_imberman_2011.pdf
This article will be especially beneficial because it talks specifically about non-elite private schools. The schools where it may cost a boatload of money to go there but you will not truly get a whole lot in return. This seems to be just what i am coming after in my paper so it would be very helpful to examine this closely and try to relate to what this author says.