actually I managed a modestly large IS group. We have had several secretarties/adminhistrative assistants work they way up to professionals in the department. It is not easy, it is often slow, but it can be done.

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I’m not really sure of the difference between a B.S. and a B.A., but my degree is a B.A. in Communications, and I got a job (as an editor, my dream job) right out of college. It depends what you’re looking for (radio? print?), but for me and most of those in my graduating year who were successful in landing the jobs we wanted, getting an internship and working part-time in our field during college was the key. If you think I might have any insights for you, and you want to e-mail me with questions, go to my website (click on my name above) or e-mail me at the address in my profile in “meet the regulars.” I’ve chosen not to get a master’s, as it might or might not help me and I don’t want to spend the time and the money. But I still have a nice resume.

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Phansel,
It does happen, just not often. Where I have worked, people are promoted based on their abilities and initiative (especially the latter), not their degrees. Most secretaries are not interested in working their way up – management requires a very different set of skills. I have an MBA, but no interest in being a manager – I got the degree to be a better computer professional, because companies are always lacking IT people who also understand business.

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Managers love perpetrating the precious fantasy that you can “work your way up” from being a SECRETARY! Though flattered by offers of a lifetime of pink-collar servitude, I think that grad school may very well be my only option.

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so lets look at the price of a car: make it $40K with a 5 year loan, perhaps $500/mo (I believe this will be high).

The prices of a home: $250K is about the average price of a home. At say 7% interest a year: about $20K/year. And do remember that people do need a home.

And now college: $40K/yr or so.

If I give up my house and I give up my car, I still can’t afford college.

My sense is your math does not appear to be adding up.

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so this will date me, but my tuition when I was young was about $1000/semester. I could make several thousand dollars a year in a job (I did work 30+ hours a week in addition to college), so I could afford my own tuition and room and board.

Today the tuition is about $40K/year. Even a generous argument would allow a sturdent to make perhaps $13K/year. there is no way they can afford their own tuition and room and board.

When I graudated from college my first professional job paid $12K/year. By that point tuition had reached about $4K/year. It could still be afforded on a professonal salary.

Today median household income is about $43K:

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/002484.html

No matter how you cut it, this tuition can not be afforded by the average household without assistance.

In short, tuition has increased at significantly faster than the rate of inflation and faster than increases in wages.

So I susgest that from an historical perspective, your analysis is not convincing: tuition today is a much larger percentage of income certainly than when I was in school.

And so your last sentence is the operative one:

“The folks I worry about the most are the ones who are struggling and don’t have any of the frilly stuff to cut back on. Unless institutions give those students scholarships, education will be closed to them.”

And when I go to schools to counsel students on pursuing college, this frustration and dismay at the arguably unmanageable tuition cost is one of the largest weights on the minds of high school juniors and seniors.

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The rising cost of education seems to coincide with the increased availability of student loans. Colleges don’t have to reign in tuition since students can easily get loans to pay tuition. Perhaps this is a cycle that needs to be checked.

However, on the other side of things…Wages today are much higher and the distractions for one’s pay are much greater than they were back when I was in school. I am shocked to hear people who drive SUVs and live in large houses tell me they cannot afford a private school for their children. They surely can, if they give up the material stuff and save accordingly. Take all those gadgets and gimmes and add them up over time and you’ll have your 160K, no problem. Where you put your money shows what your priorities are. Everything is expensive so we can’t have it all. But we can have the one expensive thing we want the most, and so we choose.

The folks I worry about the most are the ones who are struggling and don’t have any of the frilly stuff to cut back on. Unless institutions give those students scholarships, education will be closed to them.

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[second attempt to post]

your comments on grades is of course the challenge to cameron’s suggestion.

In short, we really have very poor tools to predict student success in college. And hence your model of give them a chance has merit.

The year between high school and college is an interesting idea. I would raise the question: how many potential students will get distracted and lose focus during this year? But perhaps this would be a good thing.

P.S. as an aside, I have always found the special student model for entering grad school appealing: give the students a chance to show if they are capable before granting them full admittance to the degree program. If they succceeed as special students, they will also probably succeed as regular students.

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your comments on grades is of course the challenge to cameron’s suggestion.

In short, we really have very poor tools to predict student success in college. And hence your model of give them a chance has merit.

The year between high school and college is an interesting idea. I would raise the question: how many potential students will get distracted and lose focus during this year? But perhaps this would be a good thing.

P.S. as an aside, I have always found the special student model for entering grad school appealing: give the students a chance to show if they are capable before granting them full admittance to the degree program. If they succceeed as special students, they will also probably succeed as regular students.

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