Young Adults Say Our System Has Completely Failed

[Bettie]

41. No, I don't think it was a waste of money

college is adulthood with training wheels if you have supportive parents. That helped them become more responsible without there being terrible consequences for mistakes they made.

My oldest son has a good job that he wouldn't have got an interview for if he didn't have a degree. He's enjoys the work and is very good at it.

Middle son is currently working as a pharmacy tech while his partner goes to grad school. He's also planning to take some pharmacy classes and hopes to move on to become a pharmacist once the partner has completed her program.

Third son is still in high school.

College isn't a waste, but it can set people up for failure if they have too much debt.

When DH and I went to college, tuition was reasonable (1984, my first year at UW Madison was $535 and change a semester) and, more importantly, student loan terms weren't punitive. We were able to pay ours off...simple interest makes a huge difference. Heck, Pell grants were still widely available.

By the time I graduated, tuition had almost tripled and grants were a lot less available; they had started moving toward a borrowing model for education.

It's a bad situation. To get ahead higher education is helpful, but to get that, you end up in debt and wages are not keeping pace with the cost of...existing.