What's your educational attainment level?

[NZA]

I already hear the "broke ass career students" jokes from my younger cousins when it comes to talking about a number of older cousins who it seems have been in school since the late 90's . It's really hard to argue with a 20 yr old kid about becoming a MTA bus driver when you see several uncles who own houses doing that and really living that middle class lifestyle in their late 50's while your big cousin who graduated from Albany in sociology is 36 and still living in aunties house

 

[acri1]

Yeah, ultimately I feel like we SHOULD be encouraging more black kids to go to college. Statistically college students DO earn more than people with only a high school diploma, and even outside of income it's good to have a more educated population.

That said, the importance of these things should be stressed way more to 17/18 year olds:

• Choosing a major/degree with decent job prospects

• Avoiding excessive debt (by going to school in-state, going to public rather than private colleges, limiting how many loans you take out, etc.) needs to be emphasized WAY more than it is to 17/18 year old students.

• Talking to less academically inclined kids about the possibility of learning a trade rather than going to university. I know some plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc. making bank. More than most people make out of college actually. This kind of thing is probably a better option for some students.

Personally, I feel like...unless you have a scholarship or you're going into a field with GREAT job prospects, you should probably go to school in-state (since tuition is cheaper) and probably go to a public college. In addition, more students should seriously think about doing their 1st two years at a community college and then transferring to a 4-year school. I didn't do that but sometimes I wish I did, even though I did enjoy dorm life.

 

[Suicide King]

all the more reason college should be explained with a lot of qualifiers and honest talk about its limitations. the status quo is that college has been sold to everyone as the demarcation line for middle class careers. there is nothing implicit about GPA, major, or the ability to do free labor for experience after going into debt to get the degree.

I agree college doesn't give you talent or imagination, all it gives you is training. I lump college with vocational school, you pick one which is the best fit.

 

[Serious]

You should've made the poll public. I see someone is already it talking about they got a doctorate. I have just a bachelor's btw.

doesn't ya boy @The Real have some type of higher level degree in the social sciences...

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Yeah, ultimately I feel like we SHOULD be encouraging more black kids to go to college. Statistically college students DO earn more than people with only a high school diploma, and even outside of income it's good to have a more educated population.

That said, the importance of these things should be stressed way more to 17/18 year olds:

• Choosing a major/degree with decent job prospects

• Avoiding excessive debt (by going to school in-state, going to public rather than private colleges, limiting how many loans you take out, etc.) needs to be emphasized WAY more than it is to 17/18 year old students.

• Talking to less academically inclined kids about the possibility of learning a trade rather than going to university. I know some plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc. making bank. More than most people make out of college actually. This kind of thing is probably a better option for some students.

Personally, I feel like...unless you have a scholarship or you're going into a field with GREAT job prospects, you should probably go to school in-state (since tuition is cheaper) and probably go to a public college. In addition, more students should seriously think about doing their 1st two years at a community college and then transferring to a 4-year school. I didn't do that but sometimes I wish I did, even though I did enjoy dorm life.

Absolutely great advice. I seriously think thats all you need to know to make a well informed decision. Its not rocket science, but its a step most take for granted. Or rather, its a step that wasn't even NECESSARY coming into the new millennium.

I thought the biggest help to me in school was having older black folks who were able to guide me. And I don't just mean my prophytes after I crossed. Before I even got down, I had mentors helping me out. Most of my friends were like first generation college students. So its like not only are you wrestling with the regular knocks of college life, its pretty much amplified when/if you're going about it yourself.

Statistically, everyone is all "woooo we made it out the hood b, we're good." But really for the next 4-5 years, you're gonna get smacked over the head by life defining weed out classes. That's really when you need juniors/seniors/masters students etc to bestow their wisdom.

 

[theworldismine13]

on the topic of it being good to have large numbers of broke black people with student loan debt and weak job prospects...no. just no.

broke college grads have fewer children and later in life. they buy fewer cars and houses and later in life. if their outlook does not improve within 5 years of graduation, they will permanently earn less than even college grads that come later in better times.it is actually a toxic situation, and you dont want to add that on top of all the other crap that comes with being black in america. LOL, this literally sounds like a scheme created by someone who hates black people.

and even if you are concerned with culture, imagine the optics of black children growing up seeing scores of educated black losers who are less economically stable than black people who simply graduated from high school and learned a decent skill with training that cost far less than a degree in basket weaving from NYU. that could further damage the role of academics in our communities.

Holy mother of god, there is like zero statistical information to support anything you are saying, in other words you are lying

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

I have an MBA.

 

[theworldismine13]

lol, you are extremely narrow-minded and that's not good for people.

I live in Detroit... in a fukked up Culture but me and my 'associates' probably have more education than the average person from spoon in mouth suburbs.
"universities" as some cookie cutter solution... foh with that.

College didn't teach me shyt and I went to a couple good ones. If your already good at Math - u don't need universities. Most other things you can learn on your own outside of medicine and nursing. You hype of Capitalism because you're a pawn and your brain is engineered to only regurgitate the things that pawns state - but just to clue you in--- the smartest people best capitalist know that a certain % of the population is stuck in a maze that leads them to poverty or leads them to higher education then into work slavery. So thats the reason why even the socialist in America who understand how shyt works -- do capitalistic shyt to make money, they want to avoid the slavery.

I said all that to say - for black people it was history and government fukkery after slavery that placed us at the bottom.... and in a capitalistic society like ours it's not realistic for the masses of any group at the bottom of the social economic ladder to move up by focusing solely on an education culture because education =/= money, power, influence, or leadership. What Masters degree did Malcolm X have? He suggest school but also suggested real education - the knowledge to know exactly what we must do. Some random black girl getting a psychology degree really isn't helping the masses or her family.

You don't understand why a urban community has and keeps the culture that it does... and it's not because of education - at least not the getting in debt, learning BS education you're talking about.

Thanks for confirming that Detroit has an anti academic culture

 

[Rawtid]

Yeah, ultimately I feel like we SHOULD be encouraging more black kids to go to college. Statistically college students DO earn more than people with only a high school diploma, and even outside of income it's good to have a more educated population.

That said, the importance of these things should be stressed way more to 17/18 year olds:

• Choosing a major/degree with decent job prospects

• Avoiding excessive debt (by going to school in-state, going to public rather than private colleges, limiting how many loans you take out, etc.) needs to be emphasized WAY more than it is to 17/18 year old students.

• Talking to less academically inclined kids about the possibility of learning a trade rather than going to university. I know some plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc. making bank. More than most people make out of college actually. This kind of thing is probably a better option for some students.

Personally, I feel like...unless you have a scholarship or you're going into a field with GREAT job prospects, you should probably go to school in-state (since tuition is cheaper) and probably go to a public college. In addition, more students should seriously think about doing their 1st two years at a community college and then transferring to a 4-year school. I didn't do that but sometimes I wish I did, even though I did enjoy dorm life.

This needs to be stressed WAYYYY before 17 or 18. Honestly in middle school...7th or 8th grade by the latest. By the end of 9th grade a kid should have taken the SAT for the 1st time, narrowed down some schools and start applying for admission and scholarships. Once they enter 10th grade they should be looking to take the SAT a 2nd time and still applying for more scholarships. A kid should know before senior year starts what college they are going to, the cost and how it's going to get paid for.

Parents should also save very early. I mean this can't be a second thought "oh yeah you're in highschool now what about college". It's more like "oh yeah you were born, lets figure out your educational path...including college and how we are going to pay for it."

 

[Liquid]

So damn near 90 of the forum polled so far has a college level degree? I don't know if I buy all that...

Who's lying?

 

[Robbie3000]

So damn near 90 of the forum polled so far has a college level degree? I don't know if I buy all that...

Who's lying?

All the high school drop outs are in TLR

 

[theworldismine13]

So damn near 90 of the forum polled so far has a college level degree? I don't know if I buy all that...

Who's lying?

Nobody's lying and we all make six figures too

 

[Depreciating Asset]

All the high school drop outs are in TLR

Well doesn't it makes sense that the college educated folks are hanging out in the higher learning thread?

 

[ogc163]

Holy mother of god, there is like zero statistical information to support anything you are saying, in other words you are lying

http://www.nber.org/digest/nov06/w12159.html http://yaleeconomicreview.com/graduating-during-a-recession/

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

So damn near 90 of the forum polled so far has a college level degree? I don't know if I buy all that...

Who's lying?

I was thinking the same thing. However, if someone wanted to peep my LinkedIn page, you'd see that I was telling the truth. My real name is over the internet as far as my credentials. I said MBA, I have an MBA. I also have a BBA in marketing. Some people are fronting.