http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...082819966538.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEFifthNews take that college boy.
I've been saying that for awhile now. Just like all groups with a vested interest in stating things in the best light, the college industry chose to fudge numbers. I was in a friendly arguement with a professor at a local college about these very numbers recently. He kept quoting these estimates, and I insisted they needed to be evaluated in an unbiased light, as the College Board was throwing them out and they have an obvious interest in making them look better than reality.
They need to split that study up. Toss the athletic "scholars" and Woman's Studies and Ethic Studies and all the rest of the crap majors in the trash can, then do a comparison. I once read about some moron who racked up 160 large in student loans for a masters degree in music, who then thought he could pay A MEASLY two benjies a month on it! That's 160k that would have served him better by being ground up into fertilizer. One of the biggest sponges I've met since school had a masters in Library Studies - the only job he qualified for was a librarian! Needless to say, he was chronically unemployable even during boom times. Fact is, a degree in something useful is a very good thing. But like any other investment, you have to weigh the risks and rewards. And guess what? The reward for a degree where you spend most of your time partying sucks. It's pretty funny how this would have been obvious to all just a generation ago, and now it's like a massive bright light of uber-intelligent enlightenment.
I once read about some moron who racked up 160 large in student loans for a masters degree in music, who then thought he could pay A MEASLY two benjies a month on it! That's 160k that would have served him better by being ground up into fertilizer. ------------------------- I remember reading the posts of the guy with the music degree. it was hilarious. Personally I never cared for college, I knew I would have to find a career with earning potential to make up for the lack of degree. I managed to do that twice in my life and have outearned or been toe to toe with a degreed person. Point being, it can be done. My daughter has attempted college twice, it is just not her cup of tea. I've been coaching her on how to beat this "lack of degree" issue and am proud to say recently she was offered a position with an 10k raise. She'll race past the degreed crowd if I can just get her focused on investing. But that's another major.
Here's a great joke from SatireWire.com from a long time ago: ELLISON TO GRADS: DIPLOMAS ARE FOR LOSERS Oracle CEO Urges Students to Drop out, Start up NEW HAVEN, CONN. (SatireWire.com) â In one of the more controversial commencement addresses in memory, Oracle CEO and college dropout Larry Ellison told Yale's Class of 2000 they were "losers" whose hard-won diplomas would never propel them into the ranks of the super rich. The evangelical Ellison, noting that college dropouts Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Michael Dell were, like himself, on Forbes' recent top 10 list of billionaires, urged freshmen and sophomores at the ceremony to "drop out and start up," and added that the undereducated Yale security guards who ushered him off stage probably had a better shot at uber-wealth than graduating seniors. What follows is a transcript of the speech delivered by Ellison at the Yale University last month: "Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude. "In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers. "You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence 'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not. "Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not. "Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not. "And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not. "Hmm... you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word 'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy. "You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to No. 10 or No. 11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer. "Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, 'Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?' Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortar boards on your heads. "Hmm... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago. "Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up. "For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as suredly as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me dow..."
Your sponge friend maybe a moron also. My sister actually went and did a Masters in Library Science quite a few years ago now. She has never been unemployed, and has had any number of opportunities to move to other jobs. She started with a fair size company, and now is in the public library system, which was probably a good move as her benefit package is ridiculous. My sister maybe an exception, she was straight A's in everything from grade school on through her Masters. What a pain in the ass act to have to follow. LOL
most would be just as well off, or better, if they paid 1/2 the money they spend on higher ed, as a BRIBE to get a 'good' job.
He would have been "full of himself" at the time with ORCL at ~$40/share, a level it hasn't been anywhere near since then.