Obama expected to promise student loan relief (Student Loan Debt discussion)

[Jaybar]

I don't think many 40+ y/o's have anything higher than a Bachelor's in some of the big financial job markets who are probably pulling that median.

[archibaldcrane]

that figure on the first page here claiming 1100/week is median for someone with a bachelor's degree seems like total horseshit to me, or some seriously messed up data. ~53k if that's before tax data and a much higher on-paper salary if that's claiming to be after taxes. i make around that on paper but lol @ actually taking home anything near that, and i make near the most of any of my friends in my own graduating class.

There's been such a reaction to that number and it kinda baffles me. Yes, it's for people working full-time with a Bachelors degree. It's not just counting 25 year olds who just graduated, it's EVERYONE working full time with a bachelor's.

The median full-time employee in the United States (regardless of educational attainment) makes $791/week http://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm - which equals $39,550 for a 50-paid-week year. The idea that having a college degree means you get a whopping 14k a year more than that shouldn't be shocking - if that wasn't the case what's the point of going to college?

And yes, you plebs, it is pre-tax income - all aggregate stats like that are referring to your pre-tax income.

[archibaldcrane]

I don't think many 40+ y/o's have anything higher than a Bachelor's in some of the big financial job markets who are probably pulling that median.

It's not an mean, it's a median. The point being that some hedge fund manager making 20M a year doesn't pull the median up any more than some petrochemist making 150k. It's the 50th percentile earner making 1100 a week - half the bachelor's degree holders make more than that, half make less.

[Jaybar]

It's not an mean, it's a median. The point being that some hedge fund manager making 20M a year doesn't pull the median up any more than some petrochemist making 150k. It's the 50th percentile earner making 1100 a week - half the bachelor's degree holders make more than that, half make less.

I meant as in the financial sector is so saturated that the percentile is higher. Ya I guess I made it sound like an average my bad.

[archibaldcrane]

Finance/insurance/real estate sector of the US economy employs 7.9M people who average $30.55 per hour (61kish a year). 6.1M of those are "production and non-supervisory employees" who make on average $24.45/hr - or less than the median bachelor degree holder.

http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag50.htm

I don't know how many of those workers have exactly a bachelor's degree, however. It doesn't appear to be a market segment that is heavily skewing the median upwards though.

[Jaybar]

I see - thanks for clearing it up.

[Drex]

Reading this all that I can think of, despite the massive piles of debt, is that "holy fuck I'm glad I didn't major in anything that could throw a rock to lib. arts"

I mean, I've got about $50k worth of debt all told, but I really don't care. I know I'm going to be employable no matter what.

Though, from my own experience as being in my mid / late twenties while doing an undergraduate degree I will definitely say that unless my kids want to go into a STEM degree they better pray they get scholarships. I won't be paying for them to do some off-the-cuff major because 18 year old them thinks it's a good idea. Would rather them spend a few years in the real world like I did to get a better appreciation for just how nice it is to only have to worry about studying and doing your homework, not how to provide for your family while balancing your debt from a shitty degree.

Nothing like living paycheck to paycheck to make you want to put your nose in a book.

I majored in a quantitative field and have nothing against lib arts in general, but college level lib arts studies are a joke. Senior level classes with open note exams, electives with critical reading questions like "which character loses their left hand?", and creative writing majors complaining that their final is a 10 pg paper (double spaced!) are just some anecdotes I encountered in my 2 months as a creative writing major., and later electives. I imagine there are more effective programs and that my experience is probably not representative, but there is a line to draw between undervaluing art and undervaluing arts majors.

If I am ever in any kind of hiring position, my own experience will most likely taint any applications I receive from lib arts majors. It's probably not fair but I can't take it seriously, and my wife is an arts major who falls on the upper end of the income curve.

So basically I agree: thank goodness I embraced math.

[ronin sparthos]

I'll be sure to check back on BG in 22 years when angry offspring shake their fists to the heavens that the STEM jerbs got farmed out overseas to people willing to do more for less. Or more currently I could chat it up with architecture majors who were promised unlimited jerbs before the housing bubble popped.

[Roranora]

I'm a laid off STEM grad selling insurance 22 years from the future.

[Quicklet]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-has-toug...214118358.html

President Barack Obama had some tough love for young people in a discussion on student loans hosted by Tumblr on Tuesday afternoon, warning them not to waste their time while in college and reminding them that they might have to take a job they don’t like to pay off their debts.

“I worked for a year in a job I wasn’t interested in, because I wanted to pay off my loans,” he said of his time at a law firm. “You know, work is not always fun. And you can’t always follow your bliss right away.”

Profoundly disappointing if this is his impression of the current state of student loans in this country.

[BaneTheBrawler]

lol.

[notorious bum]

Boy, Obama sure is doing a good job at rubbing people the wrong way, like Dubya did best, with his out-of-touch swagger. Where did president MLK go?

[Buffy]

Obama's job that "he didn't want to take" was probably an $80,000/year lawyer gig? There are a lot of Americans who would be pretty excited by that salary. Definitely an out of touch moment. Maybe that is when he was regularly checking the price on Arugula.

[Meresgi]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-has-toug...214118358.html

I'd like to know what the FUCK job you can get, without a college degree AND be able to work while going to college, that could help you pay off the amount of debt college racks up nowadays.

“I worked for a year in a job I wasn’t interested in, because I wanted to pay off my loans,” he said of his time at a law firm. “You know, work is not always fun. And you can’t always follow your bliss right away.”

Oh wow yeah I bet that law firm job was paying $5.55/hr and he was washing dishes till 1-2am in the morning before having to go back to college and take an exam the following day. People are so out of touch with reality when it comes to education and student loans in this country, and since the gov't makes bank on fucking students over it's not going to change until the bubble explodes.

I'll be sure to check back on BG in 22 years when angry offspring shake their fists to the heavens that the STEM jerbs got farmed out overseas to people willing to do more for less. Or more currently I could chat it up with architecture majors who were promised unlimited jerbs before the housing bubble popped.

Yep, which is why people who say "Do research before you go get a degree" don't know what they are talking about. You can't predict the job market well enough in 4-5 years for a college bound kid, because everyone else is telling kids all over they should all go for the same degree because "job growth!"

Art/Communications majors here get at me

I won't say you didn't work hard for where you are, but you're located in Cali correct? I can't remember. But Art/Comm shit just like Tech jobs are great....IF you are in the right area, and a lot of college grads can't really afford to move across country in the hopes the job market works for them, or sit in their shit towns and apply for jobs cross states where the employer isn't going to reimburse them moving expenses or wants them there RIGHT NOW FUCKER.

I would say success is 40% connections, 20% skill+hardwork and 40% luck.

[Aksannyi]

Seriously though. I rearranged my entire schedule from a typical 9-5 to working at 6AM until 1 or 2 every day, then heading straight to class, after which I will go home and stay up past midnight working on school work, only to get back up at 5AM to start all over again. Meanwhile my student loans from the first time I attempted college are still in forbearance accruing interest and have been for years because I have no way to pay them off working the way I have been.

I'm by no means perfect and I have made some mistakes (which I have at least learned from but have left me more indebted than I would prefer), but the idea that the typical American student can work their way through college is incredibly misguided. And those same people go on to have kids who they can't afford to put through school because they're paying off their own debt, so the cycle repeats itself.

I love college and I could literally stay in academia forever, and I do want to go to graduate school, but I will probably never be able to pay it all off, which is highly discouraging when I consider how much work and time I've put in.

[BerenTebogo]

Yep, which is why people who say "Do research before you go get a degree" don't know what they are talking about. You can't predict the job market well enough in 4-5 years for a college bound kid, because everyone else is telling kids all over they should all go for the same degree because "job growth!"

Lol.

Yeah, so doing research before you choose a degree is bullshit because you can't predict. The corollary to that being that jumping in headfirst without research is not bullshit.

Lol.

[Callisto]

All this stuff is p. cool except my loans are already in default from a large bout of unemployment that forced me to drop out after 3 years, and none of the new student loan reforms from the last few years do anything for people who have already defaulted. The last time I tried to rehab I sat down and figured out what I could put together as a payment if I lived off rice and beans and cut out all leisure activities, called up and said I want to start a payment plan and they wanted double what I said I could do and told me to get fucked, lol.

[Meresgi]

Lol.

Yeah, so doing research before you choose a degree is bullshit because you can't predict. The corollary to that being that jumping in headfirst without research is not bullshit.

Lol.

Not what I meant, I was making the statement of "People who say this don't know what the fuck are talking about" when it comes to griping about a graduate not being able to find work in their field. Do all the research you want, but if it's a high demand field, chances are when you graduate with a degree in it so are thousands of other students, and that job market won't be big enough to fit you all. Not even factoring in that the jobs might just shift overseas while you're taking classes lol.

Of course you research your degree and the job options, but don't put at on of emphasis in "This degree will get me a job 100% cuz the market says so!"

In terms of IT, a lot of the entry level tech jobs/help desk shit will be over seas as companies moving more towards cloud and IaaS/SaaS business becomes a reality. (Because the cloud is magic and nothing bad could ever happen!). Cybersecurity is a big deal right now, but only in select areas and the amount of colleges pumping out graduates is going to fill that very quickly. (It's not hard to use metasploit or run prewritten python scripts/Nessus Scans)

[kuronosan]

Great job, President Outtatouch.

[Headspace]

Wonder the % increase in tuition costs there's been since Obama graduated.