I hope you are pursuing a degree that has a guarantee profession afterwards. I have a lot of debt for a piece of paper that I'm not entirely sure is that helpful.
I paid off my loans too yet I voted yay. School should be free for all because that's the way to get equal opportunity for all.
Electrician, it's indoor work, steady work, pay is good and benefits even better. And you don't have to work up high where you could easily fall. No banging your thumb. No needing degreaser to clean your hands. Not as cold in the winter nor as hot in the summer. Work normal hours. No shortage of work. etc. etc. etc.
Probably my greatest fear! The job you have now, how much of a role did your degree play in landing it?
I know a number of degree electrical engineers who got plumb jobs as software engineers. I know a guy who got a degree in physics who now works as an electrical engineer. I also know of one guy with degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering who worked as the president of prominent computer and engineering companies. My roommate after college, was the president of probably the most prominent software engineering company in Oregon. My nephew-in-law who has a degree in mechanical engineering was a vice president at the largest engineering company in the world, CH2MHill. I once had an excellent instructor in computer science who had a degree in biology. I would say you can certainly do it but it helps an awful lot if your degree is in something closely related to what you want to switch to.
I’ve never paid a dime in student loans, which nice. Sometimes realizing school isn’t your cup of tea can be a good thing.
my three kids are all heading towards college decisions over the next 2-7 years, and if they all go, I will pay for college for 10 years with two of them doubled up. Its nerve-wracking to say the least. I hate to saddle them with debt, but I am not paying for 12 years of college over 10 years. That is legitimately 400,000 if they go to an OSU/UO type school.
As am I. For our daughter, we're paying room/board for her school, and she's responsible for the tuition. With the academic scholarships she's earned, she's got a legit chance to graduate debt-free if she works hard and consistently during the summers. Our cost: 40K. For my son (still 3 years left in HS) I assume we'll plan to do the same thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up going the military route.
How did you guys go about academic scholarships? Through the school, or did you get them first, THEN decide which college?
The school we chose had predetermined scholarship amounts based on GPA and SAT. Separately, there are a lot of scholarship options out there that are school-independent, if the student seeks them out. Unfortunately, my daughter didn't pursue many of those, which is part of the reason she has to work so hard to pay her tuition and is still gonna have some debt when she's done.
