It's December 3 and I saw my first snow of the season today. The high temperature didn't reach 40. The snow was blowing sideways. Not quite cold enough yet to stick, but give it a couple of weeks and we'll have that white ground cover that lasts for a couple of months. It's that time of year when you feel good about getting out the sweaters and hats and scarves and gloves and heavy coats that you haven't worn in a long time. It's that time when you look forward to the cold wind and the first really heavy snowfall. It's winter in the celebratory stage. Come February it'll be in the regrettatory stage, but one thing at a time boys and girls.
Oh, and it's also the time of year when it goes from being cooler near the lake to warmer near the lake. It was 36 degrees when I left the Outpost in The Back of the Yards, and it was 38 degrees when I reached the perch on the 14th floor overlooking Lake Michigan. All temperatures were taken at the Mini. As usual, no wind chill factors available at the Mini, but I walked 4 blocks up the street to Treasure Island and it wasn't too bad out. Got to wear the new birthday coat (No, not the birthday suit. Even I wouldn't go out in 38 degrees dressed like that.) that Babs gave me this year. Nice leather, and long. Looks like something Tony Soprano might wear on a casual day.
Anyway, enough about the weather already. What I really wanted to talk about today is debt, college debt. There are a lot of people in America, just now, who are up in arms about the rising cost of college tuition and how much debt kids emerge from college with. A headline in the Chicago Sun-Times this morning jumped out at me. It said, "Average college grad in Illinois owes more than $20,000." It gave a list in a sidebar that showed how much the average college grad from various Illinois schools owes after graduation. It varied from $13,418 on the low end, at Northeastern Illinois University, to $32,134 on the high end, at Loyola University of Chicago.
The funny thing is that grads of Northwestern and DePaul come out owing less money on the whole than students who attend Loyola, and I went to graduate school at Loyola. I know for a fact that Loyola is cheaper than either of the aforementioned schools. Babs cleared it up for me. She explained that these universities are more fully endowed and there are two kinds of students. There are rich kids whose parents pay for the full ride and they thus emerge from the college experience debt free. Then there are the really smart kids who take advantage of the endowment the university enjoys. These students get lots of scholarships and grants and don't have to borrow as much money. So even though the overall cost of tuition, books, and living may be higher, their students end up owing less after graduation. Go figure.
At any rate, all of these universities have students coming out owing $20,102, on average. The median for the schools listed in the sidebar was somewhere around $18,000. This fact has led many Americans to be seriously appalled. "How can you saddle children with this much debt, in their twenties? It's a national catastrophe."
I have two observations about this debt. Who in the heck are these people who are paying the full ride for their kids to go to schools that charge $35,000-$40,000 per year? I'm not even talking Harvard or the University of Chicago here. I'm talking Northwestern and DePaul. Can't these kids cover some of it themselves? They might appreciate it more, and the parents might have a little more retirement money to enjoy.
Secondly, college is an investment. Get a degree and you get a better job and you make more money. Get an advanced degree and you make more money yet. Better deal than the stock market or a money market account or CD's or bonds. Big return on your investment. This is not a frivolous expense. Furthermore, the average post-college debt is $20,000, give or take. In today's dollars, that is the cost of a new car. That new car begins depreciating the minute you drive it off the lot, but that college degree makes you money the minute you get it and just keeps on appreciating year after year.
How many of these college graduates own $20,000 cars? So why is it such a big deal to owe $20,000 in college debt to get a good job that will pay you back big time? Can we stop with the whining people? Even if you go to a big time med school and rack up $100,000 in debt, you're still going to get that money back in spades people. Get real.
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a poor kid from Central Arkansas. He borrowed money and went to ASU. He moved to Illinois and went to SIU on more loans. He ended up in Chicago and went to NEIU and Loyola. (Paid for these last two with cash as he went.) Now that's a lot of borrowed money. That's a lot of college tuition. That poor lad turned these college experiences into a home on the 14th floor on Lake Shore Drive and a pretty good life. All loans were paid off long ago. All tuition is just a memory. It was an investment in the future and the future finally arrived. $20,000 in college debt? My Mini Cooper cost more than that.
here's another tidbit-- the costs of a BA are fully recouped in 10 years (and that even counts the money you would have earned during the 5 years you were in college). And, the boost to wages over a lifetime is about $300k.
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