Paying off Student Loans: What happens when college is overpriced and your future career is underpaid?

The price of college has gone up over the past few decades and this has caused some serious issues for those of us attempting to get educated these days. Back when our parents were going to school, they were able to work summer jobs to pay for their education and weren’t generally stuck with huge amounts of student loans to pay back after graduation. For them, anyone getting a college education was likely to see the rewards of college in the form of monetary compensation for their educational endeavors from their employers. Today, we have to struggle to get our loans paid back because the costs are so high.

So, what can you do to ensure that your student loans aren’t so high that you can’t pay them back after graduation? Well, there are a few things you can do. The first is to make sure you research your field of study really well. Just because you’re really interested in singing doesn’t mean you should try to get a degree in singing, am I right?! I mean, you could, but how are you going to pay it back? See where I’m going with this? You need to make sure that whatever degree you will eventually obtain will actually land you a job- hopefully a job that pays well! I have heard entirely too many stories about people who work in grocery stores who not only have a bachelor’s degree but have also gone back to get their master’s degree as well and still end up working at a grocery or clothing store.

The problem is, the economic market has been flooded with people just like you and me who have been told our whole lives that to make any money in this economy we must first get a college education. Now that so many of us have actually gotten those degrees there are more of us fighting for those jobs. This means that a lot of companies end up requiring bachelor’s degrees for even entry level jobs! By the time we have graduated with our bachelor’s degrees most of us are ready to move out of entry level jobs and into something with a little more pay and a lot more responsibilities, in most cases. Back in the day, a bachelor’s degree showed employers that you were hard working and willing to stick with something even when it is difficult to obtain. Degrees still inform your employers that you are hard working and willing to stick with it when things get hard, but there is now a much larger pool of people to choose from who fit that criteria.

All of this is to say is that I would advise everyone against getting a degree in general studies, gender studies, general science, computer science, history or English (unless you want to become a teacher), or cultural studies unless you have thoroughly researched and have found open job positions which require a degree in the area you are interested in studying. The next step you want to take after having researched open job positions in your area (I know it’ll be a while before you can actually start working in those positions, but you need to know they are actually available in your area before you work so hard and spend so much money on a degree just to perform that job unless you’re willing to relocate) is to check out the salary range in the job description for each of the open job positions you find in your area and figure out what the average salary range is in your area. The last thing you want to do is to go through the trouble of getting your degree and getting that dream job only to realize that you don’t make enough money to pay your bills and pay back those student loans you may have taken out! You want to research as much about the field you’re studying and the available jobs in the job market as you possibly can so that you know you are making a smart choice!

Figuring out what career to begin can be really difficult, especially right out of high school, but at any point in life. The most important thing to remember is to research, research, research! All that research will get you pumped and ready to start those classes! Especially when you have a specific goal that you have set for yourself.

As always, feel free to comment below if you have a question and don’t see a blog post about the topic. I’ll happily create one! Take care of yourselves!