generation limbo: 20-somethings today, debt, unemployment, the questionable value of a college education

silby, vanderbilt is offering me a half-tuition scholarship + an ipad, can the university of silby match their offer?

We will have a room at the community center and free water fountain water.

…need to get in to a PhD program first…

My college (which, ugh, mistake) was something insane like 95% adjunct, which they sold as "nearly all our instructors are working artists, imparting real world knowledge [like how to survive at 38 with no health insurance]"

― ENERGY FOOD (en i see kay)

ha, i wonder if we share an alma mater or if many art schools operate this way (which wouldn't surprise me).

#2

even most of the course heads in my school were part time

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the european system is better for your average student but america has 'the best universities'.

Ha, at this point, I was actually thinking about 'better/fairer' for junior faculty and graduate students.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 4:10 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

If you're any sort of scientist, PhD funding is relatively easy to get (and not tied to TA-ing) and there are still quite a lot of postdoc positions. However, permanent jobs in my corner of Europe are few to none.

yep

most of the course heads in my school were part time

"Part-time employees" is so gauche. It's high time we started calling them "itinerant scholars".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/brain-drain-college-grads-wall-street_n_1069424.html?page=1

The young man, who requested anonymity in order to speak openly, graduated with more than $100,000 in debt. He has now whittled that amount down to $80,000.

He does not particularly enjoy his job and he's actively searching for other opportunities. He says the management team at his company isn't helping him grow, and many of his daily tasks are "monotonous" and focused on "damage control."

He wants to make sure his next step is the right one before leaving. But part of the reason he's stayed for three years is because the job compensates well. Between his salary and annual bonus, he's making about $85,000 a year.

I so do not buy the "nyc has such a high cost of living" excuse

is that pre or post tax

pre, and taxes are pretty high here, it's true

but seriously anyone w/ that kinda debt and income owes it to himself to pay it down asap

he probably likes 'going out' and 'eating at nice restaurants'

and 'living in a 2000/m studio'

look at it this way; he's putting approx 10% of his post-tax income towards his school loans a year

he could likely pay more but, in general, school loan debt is good to carry if you can reliably make your payments because of the lower interest rate; it makes much more sense for him to be focusing larger chunks of cash on savings/investing strategies and making sure he has a reserve to cover his credit cards

gotta say though, 85K including bonus sounds a little like he got boned (rip 90s)

^^ harvard glasses

lol u mad

u just mad cuz i'm ivy on u

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gWVfSCasDj8/TkAky9cWgkI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/od33Awt1YMA/s220/CCG_Oct%2B2010%2B398.jpg

you are right as long as he's saving money and not living the gud lyfe xp

John Zimmer grew up in Greenwich, Conn., home to many Wall Street titans -- including former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, who owned a $10.8 million estate there.

Zimmer graduated from Cornell University in 2006 and immediately went into a two-year program in real estate finance at Lehman Brothers in New York City, working on commercial mortgage-backed securities.

this is like the textbook definition of underachiever who gets by on pure privilege alone

xp: he's probably living the okay lyfe, very few ppl who make that kind of money save ALL of it

Dan, at the present moment I doubt there's a decent investing strategy in the world that could give returns comparable to the interest paid on student loans. The "reduce debt" fund at least outperforms "bury it in the backyard" which in turn has outperformed a whole bunch else lately...

Well besides making money with your other money, there's also building up yr credit rating using relatively-easy-to-manage debt, but that usually only matters if you are looking to buy a home or a car. Or a timeshare, lol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/business/economy/as-graduates-move-back-home-economy-feels-the-pain.html

pent-up households

"a handyman to hang a newly framed diploma"..?

a HANDYMAN TO HANG A DIPLOMA? who even thinks like that? even enough to make a not-very-clearly-signposted joke about it?

“I have it pretty good at home, since it’s so close to my work, and financially I just feel like it’s smarter for the long run to buy,” he said. He says that living with his parents enables him to set aside about half of each paycheck. “It’s like I pay rent, but to myself.”

haha i totally see the camera swinging over to his dad, who is gritting his teeth

it's pretty pragmatic! I would totally want to live w/ my parents if they lived somewhere where jobs for 20-somethings were

rly don't understand parents who make their children pay rent but I guess that's just 'the american way'

it's like the economic version of calling your parents by their first name

(unless your parents are struggling w/$, obv)

well yeah. but making your kid pay rent to 'teach them' about 'becoming independent' is, well

i like the unsubtle undertone in that article of blaming young people with jobs for the economy not being better.

i did that after college and a failed 6-mo. stint in DC. it was great. i waited tables, had obscene amounts of fun, stayed out of my parents' hair and they stayed out of mine. i did not pay them rent and basically just slept in the attic periodically, ate some of their food (not much, i worked at a lol health food restaurant and ate there most of the time), and used their phone.

i was also only there for 6 mo., not indefinitely

it's def less stressful when you know there's an end date

i also have virtually no ambition, so doing this was not really a huge crushing disappointment for me

still if my parents lived in the nyc metro region I'd so be cool w/ not helping the nyc rental market rebound, esp now that I don't live w/ my gf anymore

if i didnt have a girlfriend id most likely move back in with my parents

stupid girlfried

correct response is "can I have yours"

oops meant for ows thread

I dont want yr gf I am sure she is nice tho

you cant have her, anyway

we could trade?

lol like i would trade a nyc girlfriend for a NEW HAVEN one

yeah...it's a pretty crappy trade you basically have to half live in new haven, going again today

her apt is a lot nicer and cleaner than mine tho, so it's not all bad

haha no i mean, not judging that dude at all, but the way he says "it's like i'm paying rent...... to myself!!" it sounds as though he thinks he's discovered some magic secret thing

I crashed with my parents for about 4 or 5 months post-college. No big deal there.

i left home when i was 17 and went back a year later for six weeks and then got thrown out with my younger sister. we moved into a flat and quit university and went on the dole and sat around bitching about 'them' for hours on end. most days we wore these full-length, lace-collared, high-necked, floral-sprigged, port-stained, cigarette-singed brushed cotton nighties that our mother had given us for christmas the year before. we were too tired to get dressed until almost evening and also we were scruffs. audience feedback soon taught us to mix some humour and self-deprecation in with the pathos and the bitterness, and to hide our genuine deep sorrow and anxiety. any story featuring getting hit with a snorkel was a guaranteed crowd pleaser; i think the crowd never grasped how much pain a snorkel can inflict upon a teenage girl.