Like other grandparents, we're convinced our grandchildren are the smartest and most perfect creatures on the planet. We've had college 529 savings accounts for them since they were born and know that someday they will cure cancer, end poverty and save the planet!
At least that's our hope. Statistically, it's far more likely they will graduate with a mountain of student loan debt that will bury them forever. One year of college at a private university is over $41,000 annually. Public universities are often over $20,000 per year. Student loan debt of $100,000-$150,000 is easy to get into and almost impossible to overcome. Bankruptcy doesn't eliminate student debt and in many cases, neither does death.
Retirement magazines tell stories about grandparents that cosigned student loans who now have their social security checks garnished and federal tax refunds withheld.
According to a CNN special report http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/us/cnn-film-ivory-tower ), there is well over a trillion dollars of student debt and over half of that debt is in default or deferral. Students who graduate into low paying fields have virtually no chance of paying it off.
Even worse, those who drop out without graduating must still pay student loans that never seem to end, especially when interest and penalties are added.
Seven things I want my grandchildren and their parents to know about college:
1 - High cost isn't equivalent to high quality. There are expensive private-for-profit schools of poor quality that prey upon the uninformed and stay in business through government backed student loans. Even choosing a great public university doesn't guarantee great teaching. In fact some of the worst teaching you are likely to get is during your freshman and sophomore years at a large, public university. Huge lecture classes with graduate teaching assistants are often the norm. Nobel Faculty Laureates will not teach those classes. The faculty that will aren't hired for their teaching skills. Getting tenure is primarily about getting your research published and teaching only gets in the way.
2 - High cost doesn't predict high wages. In Tennessee, two years at a community or technical college is covered by the Tennessee Promise Program where two year graduates averaged $1300 more in wages than graduates of four year universities. (In Virginia, two year graduates earned $2,500 more than the state's four year university graduates.)
3 - Average class sizes can be deceptively different for you as a freshman. If average class sizes include tiny upper division and graduate classes, courses taught by arrangement, and doctorate- level courses, guess where the biggest classes are!
4 - Where you start isn't as important as where you finish. No one cares or will ask about where you took the college credit you transferred into the prestigious university from which you graduate.
5 - GPA matters, especially for highly competitive fields. A weak freshman GPA is hard to overcome. You are unlikely to get into the science, mathematics or medical fields you wanted if you "bombed out" your freshman year at the university because you weren't ready for an overwhelming number of new adjustments all at once.
6 - The notion you should attend the top college that will accept you is bad advice. Graduating as a top student at a less prestigious university will serve you better than graduating in the bottom third of Harvard. You are more likely to be outstanding in your career field and in life by attending a college at which you excel. Read about the bottom third of Harvard in Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath.
7 - Finish your first two years of college with no debt. Get all the transfer credit you can through Early College, Dual Credit, and summer school. Consider finishing your freshman and sophomore years at a public two year college before transferring. You are likely to do much better. Your teachers will be evaluated for their teaching ability. The classes will seem easier even though the rigor is equivalent. Studies consistently show that students that start at community colleges outperform the native students once they transfer. At a two year college, you should earn better grades, discover you really are "college material" and become a great candidate for a transfer scholarship from a top university. After all, they will only have to fund someone who is a proven scholar for two years to have an alum they will proudly claim.