I'll add that going away to osu for four and a half years turned me into a completely different person too. I took on a lot more responsibility and matured a lot. Staying on campus is an experience I'll never forget. I don't hear a lot of community college grads throw that around.
I know people who didn't go to college and they are doing great in life. I also know people who did go to college that are in a lot debt.
You definitely have more options and a generally higher ceiling with a four year degree -- I'd recommend setting expectations for four years and then going 2 year, if that's a better fit for them. Some of the classes that made me a better, more rounded person were ones outside my major and I wouldn't have taken those with a 2 year degree. I think a more important thing to emphasize at this point is what they want to study. With apologies to sociology, poli sci, history, communications majors etc, but I think it's important to pick a major that both interests you and leads to a career. Not to say that you can't succeed with those majors, but what you study can be a great launch pad or concrete boots. Cost shouldn't be the determining factor. If you're smart about it, you can get a four year degree without mortgaging your future. State schools (especially Oregon State!) are good and generally less expensive than private schools. That said, if you're a good student, you can get scholarships that might put you within spitting distance of state schools. Get to be good friends with the scholarship office...friendly calls can go a long way with those guys.
Yeah, I don't think I spent more than $24-26K on tuition for 5 years. And I'm pretty sure it was a little bit less. And that was just the total paid through the paperwork I'd fill out for my student loans. I'd usually end up with money BACK, which I'd use on books. So, maybe I spent $25-27K for my total education and books. But I'm pretty sure even that is a little bit high. And I could have gotten a little financial help from PSU (they were pretty easy and willing to help out, at least at the time), but was too lazy to deal with it. Of course, in the end, my parents paid the $18K in student loans I had when I graduated as a reward. But still, my tuition is far less than some people are projecting, and I went to school 5 years. I know tuition has increased in the 8-9 years since I graduated, but jeebus.
Generally speaking, I think the floor is higher for those that did go to college, and get a 4-year degree. I just don't necessarily think that a 4-year degree means a higher ceiling than those that chose another route.
$8,000 should have paid for all of it. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dear-class-of-13-youve-been-scammed-2013-05-17?siteid=yhoof2
My advice to the kids is: 1) Go to school only until you know what you want to do. Then quit school and go do it. It took me way too long to figure it out, so I ended up with multiple graduate degrees, but if I'd been smarter I could have been a high-school dropout. 2) Get off my lawn. barfo
Interesting point. I think the truth of it really depends on what you're doing. If you're a child genius computer programmer, you might not need to go to college (2 or 4 year) at all and your ceiling is as high as anyone's. On the other hand, in the biotech world I'm in, your degree pretty well translates to your ceiling. Like crandc said, 2 year degree means your ceiling is being a lab tech, a 4 year degree opens midlevel jobs as a ceiling and a doctorate can get you to the top mgmt levels. Like anything, there are exceptions, but they'd be rare in biotech.
I did say "generally speaking". All of this conversation should be "generally speaking". Obviously, there are always exceptions, and with this subject, there are a lot of exceptions. I'm just guessing, but I'd be willing to be bet statistics probably support the 4-year degree, but success with a 2-year degree is probably growing quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if success without any college degree is also growing. Nowadays, you have a more options for a specific training without necessarily getting some sort of accredited degree.
