Do students get a bang for the buck by going to American Universities

Parents Forum
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<p>[Higher</a> education: Not what it used to be | The Economist](<a href=“The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance”>Not what it used to be)</p>

<p>Costs of going to school are up 5 times more than inflation over the last 30 years. College graduate pay looks good compared to high school graduate pay because high school graduates have seen their pay decline drastically. College graduate pay has not gone up for decades, despite the large increase in costs.</p>

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<p>dstark, apologies but the thread subject is making me laugh. :smiley: I can’t decide if that’s cheap or overpriced. :smiley: :smiley: :D</p>

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<p>:)…</p>

<p>From what I hear, it doesn’t cost much more than a buck these days. :)</p>

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<p>Salaries have been depressed for at least seven years…some areas more than others. When Michigan went through it’s depression even upper level salaries depressed close to 20% for displaced workers re-entering the workforce. I haven’t seen a bonus over about $5000 since probably 2004 and probably will never see $10,000 bonus like I saw in 2002 and 2003. A couple years zippo bonus and zippo raises and now it feels like raises come in very small increments. I remember years when raises were 7-10% without a promotion. I will always believe that unless a student is especially interested in a trade, which I think are excellent choices right now, college is the value add that will help kids over the long term. </p>

<p>I do know for fact that kids right now coming out of college and entering many, many fields will not earn the salaries that they toss around on some of these forums. I will be happy if my kids stay employed and continue to get promotions and raises…whatever they are. My 2011 grad has had two miniscule raises and a promotion but barely survives. I will say he is just about where I was 2 years out of college back in the late 70s in terms of salary and cost of living so I’m not feeling sorry for him yet. The best prospects of all of my kids seem to be my last who hopefully will be starting a civil engineering major next fall. There is so much infrastructure that has been put on deferred maintenance for so long he should have good prospects. I suspect if he sticks it out he will out earn his brothers for at least a few years.</p>