Once upon a time in America a young man could earn a high school diploma, get a good job in manufacturing, and raise a family. The conventional wisdom is that those days are over. There is a funny thing about conventional wisdom—it is often wrong. Manufacturing is back. As Margaret Thomson, Director of Marketing and […]
The Million Dollar Myth
September 1, 2014 By 1 Comment
The kids are off to college. The exhortation, “If you earn a BA degree, you will earn a million dollars more than a high school graduate,” is still ringing in their ears. Before you write any more tuition checks for your teenager perhaps you should take a closer look at that popular advice. The Source […]
The Demise of the Stafford Loan: Rest in Peace
August 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The Federal Guaranteed Student Loan program, created as part of the 1965 Higher Education Act, was renamed the Robert T. Stafford Student Loan Program in honor of US Senator Robert Stafford of Vermont in 1988. For a period of twenty-six years college students, for better or for worse, signed up in droves for Stafford Loans […]
What I Learned About College From Bret Maverick
July 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The actor, James Garner, died this month at age 86. His big break was the role of the poker playing Bret Maverick in the ABC TV program, “Maverick.” The show ran from September, 1957 to July, 1962 which roughly overlapped my undergraduate years. (Garner left the series after three seasons.) Every Sunday night at 7:30 […]
Beware of Your High School Guidance Counselor
June 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Why is everyone urging you to go to college? You can blame it on the French guy, Alexis de Tocqueville. The fuss started about one hundred eighty years ago when he wrote, “Democracy in America.” He observed that America was distinct. In American it didn’t make much difference into which station of life you were […]
Too Few Jobs for College Graduates? It Is Going to Get Worse.
May 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Do you have a chess app on your iPad? (There are many available, and they are free.) Even if you are a chess club nerd this app regularly kicks your butt. Your parents can probably remember when IBM’s supercomputer, Deep Blue, beat the world champion of chess, Gary Kasparov, in 1997. It made for interesting […]
Are You College Material?
April 7, 2014 By Leave a Comment
In “the good old days” it was easy. A kid went to college, majored in anything that struck their fancy, graduated, and sifted through numerous job offers. If finances were tight, she worked a part time job on campus and a fulltime job during summers to make ends meet. These truly were “the good old […]
Managing Student Loan Debt
March 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
If you google “managing student loan debt,” you will get a lot of search results relative to the consolidation, minimization, or forgiveness of loan payments. If you are worrying about how to make your loan payments, it is too late to start managing student loan debt. There are three elements to managing student loan debt. The first […]
