What’s Missing?

Posted on May 12, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Who You Are  –  II

There are between 30 and 40 million Americans with a learning history that looks something like one of those below.  You may be one of them.

University -> Major 1 -> Major 2 -> Major 3: No degree
or
University 1 -> Major 1 -> University 2 -> Major 2 -> University 3: No degree
or
Community college -> University -> Start over -> Out of money:  No degree

Some in the blogosphere are debating whether earning a degree is worth it.

 Buzz TodaySource:   Your Future is Calling.  The number of jobs available is directly related to a person’s level of education. The number of jobs available if you have a bachelor’s degree has grown 82 percent since 1988. The number of jobs available if you have an associate’s degree has grown 42 percent, while the number of jobs available to those with only a high school degree actually declined by 14 percent.

Although having a degree does not guarantee you’ll enjoy a well-paying career, this information highlights that job growth occurred only in those jobs requiring degrees. The data are true through good times and bad—recessions included.

On this issue the data is very clear.  On average, those with a degree make more money, were better at retaining their jobs in the last severe economic downturn and degree holders have about one half the unemployment rate as those without a degree.

But even these facts are not the heart of the issue if you are one of the 30 – 40 million cited above.  For you the issue is much more personal.  This is about you.

At some point in their lives, every one of these 30 – 40 million individuals had decided that a degree was something they wanted in their future.  The question is not so much about whether a degree is “worth it”.  The important question for you is “what went wrong on the way to that degree?”

There are many reasons individuals are not able to reach their personal degree goal.  Simply put, life gets in the way.  I talk about these issues in the chapter “You Are Not Alone” in my book Your Future is Calling.  What is striking is how common the reasons are that people stopped out on their path to their degree.

One of the conclusions we might draw from the university -> major sequence, and the tens of millions of stop outs, is that there could be something else going on here.  Missing from this conversation is what I think are some of the most important pieces in this conversation.  Missing are “who you are” and careers.

My suggestion is that the decisions of university and major are means to an end.  The outcome you are trying create is the match between “who you are” and career.  It is this match in the future that will provide the satisfaction of a fulfilled life.

More on these two factors in future posts on this blog.

Filed Under: Adult learning, Career, College degrees, Income // Tagged: , , , , , ,

How to Make Sure College Fits Who You Are

Posted on May 10, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Should Everyone Go to College?  The answer is, of course NO.   But the no answer may be for a different reason than you think.  It is about matching what you do with who you are, not how much money you will make.  If you can earn a degree that earns a healthy income and matches what you want to do with your life then do it.  If that’s not possible, pick what fits you.  Actually it is nearly as easily done as said.

There is a huge debate raging about the advice to go to college.  Like so many things in our society today, this conversation has become politicized around national political agendas and public policy.  The politics is about other people.  What we are talking about here is you and your future.

Buzz Today Source:  Inside Higher Ed. Free for All Over “College for All” “Should Everyone Go to College?” is the title of the research brief co-written by Sawhill and Stephanie Owen, a senior research assistant at Brookings. The paper — essentially a review of existing literature on the topic — is facing sharp criticism, both philosophically and methodologically, from ideological friends and foes alike.  Averages mask enormous variation that means that many individuals do not fare so well, and the authors spend the rest of the paper documenting the ways in which students’ return from their higher education may fall short based on the colleges, majors and careers they choose.

Some in the media and many on the Internet are passionate about the political implications of the policy debates.  But I want to return to what it all means to the individual prospective student like yourself.  In the end, what law makers and policy wonks think about your personal decision is not critical to your future.  What is most critical to your future is starting with “who you are”.

I want to take a few lines to talk about “who you are”.  In Your Future is Calling, I point the reader to several instruments that will help you answer this important question.  The answers are the starting point for you to lay the road-map out to your future.  These are scientific instruments that have been proven with hundreds of thousands of users.  What these instruments do is take your answers to a number of questions and provide information back to you about what it all means.

What these instruments tell you is “who you are” based on the science of the instruments and your personal inputs. They paint a picture for you that lays a foundation for the rest of the decisions you need to make. In Your Future is Calling, I help you take that information and map it to careers, majors and colleges. This approach focuses on you and not the politicians and policy makers in Washington. In the end we are talking about your future, not theirs.

Filed Under: Adult learning, Career, College degrees, Income // Tagged: , , , , ,

Tuition Cost – What You Need to Know

Posted on May 7, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Average Net Price – What Is It?

It is important that you fully understand tuition costs and pricing in higher education. All is not what it seems.

Few students pay the advertised tuition figure, known as the sticker price.  Net price is what you’ll actually pay for college, after subtracting scholarships and grants.

Buzz Today Source:  The Chronicle of Higher Education. A high sticker price can scare students away from a specific college even though it might be a good fit for them. Look at net price, not the sticker price.  A high sticker price can scare students away from a specific college even though it might be a good fit for them. Look at net price, not the sticker price.  Few students pay the advertised tuition figure, known as the sticker price. Net price is what you’ll actually pay for college, after subtracting scholarships and grants.

An education is an important thing to have these days.  Unfortunately higher education is less than fully transparent about what an education costs.  For those of you who may not be familiar with it, The Chronicle of Higher Education is the premiere publication of college and universities.  Professors and college administrators go to The Chronicle for the latest important news in American Colleges and Universities.

The BUZZ Today message is clear.  If you do not know that few students pay the full price, you well could end up spending more money for your education than you need to.  The good news is that there is excellent information on how many current students are getting financial help at a college or university that you are interested in. The source is COLLEGE Navigator

The challenge for you as a prospective student is to navigate the huge data base of college information in COLLEGE Navigator.  For help with the navigation see chapter Chapter 9 “How to Select the Right School” in the book “Your Future is Calling“.

Filed Under: Adult learning, Career, College degrees, Debt, Money, Uncategorized // Tagged: , , , , ,

Confusion

Posted on April 15, 2013 // Leave a Comment

College Grads May Be Stuck in Low-Skill Jobs (from the Wall Street Journal)

It is little wonder that you may be confused about getting your degree.  Headlines like those above, combined with the continuous din about student loan debt, add confusion rather than clarity.   It doesn’t help that this particular piece appeared in the highly respected Wall Street Journal.   Buzz TodaySource:  The Wall Street Journal:  Better-educated workers still face far better job prospects than their less-educated counterparts. The unemployment rate for Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree was 3.8% in February (2013), compared with 7.9% for those with just a high school diploma. College-educated employees also tend to earn more and advance more quickly even when they are in fields that don’t require a degree. 

Don’t be confused. Student debt is a real issue. The federal government is the lender of the guaranteed student loans.  Interest rates on such loans are relatively high and those interest rates are potentially going to double this summer if Congress does not take action to hold the current rate.  In addition, federal student loans are virtually forever since they cannot be discharged under bankruptcy laws.

But we will examine student loans in detail on another day.  For now we need to look at the headline of the article and the data in that article as reported in the BUZZ Today here.

Under any scenario, what the data shows is that earning a degree gives you a far better shot at having a job, advancing more quickly and earning more over a lifetime career than not having a degree.

These results are critical to your decision about whether to get a degree or not get a degree.  From this basic decision, your challenge is to make wise choices about what to study, how your studies relate to specific careers, where to go to school, how to get the most favorable tuition, how to finance your education.  For the data on these important decisions you need an easy to understand road map about where to get that important data and how to use it.  For that, I recommend that you go directly to “Your Future is Calling”.

Filed Under: Adult learning, Career, College degrees, Money // Tagged: , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »