February, 2012

Inspiration / Work — No Comments
27
Feb 12

Enstitute – An Alternative to College?

Rather than burdening students with thousands of dollars in debt before they even begin struggling to find a job in this turbulent economy, the folks behind Enstitute are urging kids to skip college and jump into a startup.

With the help of thirty tech entrepreneurs in New York City, Enstitute offers a two-year program that teaches participants real-world skills by placing them at startups.

In the program’s first year, fifteen selected individuals will work largely in basic administrative roles learning the ropes from top-level executives. After a year, participants will then move into specific business areas where they will learn concrete abilities that will hopefully make them more marketable to future employers.

Co-founders Kane Sarhan and Shaila Ittycheria were inspired to start Enstitute out of their realization that they learned their most valuable lessons outside of academics.

“It wasn’t about the classroom, it was about the experience I got working for a company … I saw so many friends and classmates who were graduating with no jobs and no skills that would get them jobs,” Ittycheria said in an interview with Mashable,

Before you rush off and skip college, be aware that statistics still heavily favor those with college degrees in terms of salary-making potential in the future.

To learn more about Enstittue, head over to their website where they are currently taking applications for their first class.

-Eugene

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23
Feb 12

Anyone want some free money?

Who wants to win an extra 5,000 bucks to pay off their student debt?

It seems that the good folks over at Skillshare are just giving away free money.

Head over to their website now and trade your email address and zip code for a chance to win $5,000 to help pay off your student loans.

The contest ends March 17th, so hurry over.

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17
Feb 12

We Still Want To Hear About Your Student Debt Drama

In our “Voices From the Field” section, feel free to share your experiences with student debt, your prospects on the future, and any advice you might have.

If you want to have your story appear on this blog, just send an email to editors@pluckmagazine.com and to help guide your thoughts, feel free to tackle any of the questions below in 300 words or so:

  • What sacrifices have you been forced to make to attend pay for school?
  • Was it worth it?
  • How do you feel about your future?
  • How are you paying off your debt?
  • Any advice for people struggling about with their debt?

Yours in the ranks,

The Pluck Editors

Inspiration / Listen — No Comments
16
Feb 12

Making College Cheaper

If you haven’t seen the New York Times Bloggingheads piece piece on the price of college, you should definitely have a peak.

Featuring Glenn Loury of Brown University and Walter Russell Mead of Bard College, the two discuss how to make college more economically efficient, why our generation has not been politically more vociferous, a lack of meritocracy within our society, why no cheaper alternatives have emerged, and the history of universities themselves and how they were not necessarily respected institutions by Baby Boomer’s when they were young,

Needless to say their conversation is quite interesting and brings a unique set of opinions to light.

Check it out here.

-Eugene

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15
Feb 12

The Most Hopeful Generation

Pluck began with a mission to show alternatives to the stagnant Great Recession- artists making art, writers writing, entrepreneurs starting up, teachers educating. Yet when we dive into the debacle of student debt in America, it can be difficult to stay cheery. Perhaps this is why a recent survey from the Pew Research Center is a welcome change of pace (even if it, too, has an underside.)

The title sums it up: “Young, Underemployed and Optimistic.” In it, the report shows the good:

“Among those ages 18 to 34, nearly nine-in-ten (88%) say they either have or earn enough money now or expect they will in the future. Only 9% say they don’t think they will ever have enough to live the life they want.”

the bad:

“A plurality of the public (41%) believes young adults, rather than middle-aged or older adults, are having the toughest time in today’s economy. An analysis of government economic data suggests that this perception is correct.”

and the uncertain:

“Among all 18- to 34-year-olds, only 30% consider their current job a career. This compares with 52% among workers ages 35 and older.”

The report is a fascinating document, and well worth a comprehensive read. For another perspective, see Nona Willis Aronowitz on the “just a phase” millennial outlook at Good Magazine.

As we’ve seen with the contributors to our student debt series, no amount of economic hardship can truly quash people’s aspirations and hopes. That’s an important lesson in resiliency, worth remembering when times get tough.

-Matt

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13
Feb 12

California Gets It – Proposed Bill To Cut College Fees by 2/3

Good news folks. It seems that some lawmakers have begun to hear the cry of folks battling against budget cuts and the ever-increasing cost of tuition.

Over in California, State Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D – Los Angeles) recently introduced the Middle Class Scholarship Act, which would help cut fees at state colleges by as much as two-thirds for middle class families. The funding comes from closing a tax loophole that lets out-of state corporations take $1 billion out of California each year.

If passed, the Middle Class Scholarship could save state college students roughly $4,000 a year and UC students $8,200 a year, while community colleges would get $150 million to increase affordability for their students.

For more information about the proposed law, click here, and to show your support, sign this petition.

-Eugene

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9
Feb 12

For Profit Education Lobby Proves Too Powerful

Last week, we here at Pluck published our in-depth piece on the predatory practices of For-Profit Colleges. In their quest for more revenue, for-profit colleges have saddled students with debt at an alarming rate. Despite educating only 10 percent of U.S. college students, they account for nearly half of all the defaults on federal student loans.

Outraged by this trend, United Republic and “The Dylan Ratigan Show” recently wrote a great piece in the Huffington Post, exploring the efforts of the powerful for-profit education lobby in weakening recently passed regulations governing for-profits.

In 2010 the Obama administration passed regulations cracking down on for-profit schools and their vicious recruiting practices which emphasized enrolling students that were unlikely to ever pay off their loans. Unfortunately, just one year later those regulations were severely diluted thanks to a $13 million lobbying effort by the for-profit education system.

From the Huffington Post:

“”Big money won, and students lost,” said Amy Wilkins, vice president of government affairs at the Education Trust, a student advocacy group. “The really eye-popping profits of the industry allowed them to plow huge money into lobbying against a strong regulation.”

The well-coordinated lobbying and public relations campaign, targeted largely at Democrats, was an effort to protect the industry’s access to more than $30 billion in federal student loans and grants that fuel the vast majority of its revenues. Some of the largest higher education corporations receive more than 85 percent of their revenue from federal student aid dollars.

Among the all-star cast of lobbyists hired by the industry: former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt; Tony Podesta, one of the most prominent lobbyists in Washington and the brother of John Podesta, who led President Barack Obama’s transition team; and Penny Lee, a former top adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who was also a senior staff member for the Democratic National Committee. In total, 14 former members of Congress were hired by the industry to fight regulations that would have cut federal aid to programs in which students fared poorly.”

Uhhh, that’s kind of sort of a huge problem…

To read more on the disturbingly powerful for-profit education lobby, head over to HuffPo.

-Eugene

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8
Feb 12

Responsibility And Relief

Debt is complicated in so many ways. It plays off our sense of security, our desire to be responsible, and our push for bigger and better lives. When we can pay it, we do it begrudgingly, when we can’t, we panic.

At the same time, though, debt is inevitable, and it’s also a great leveler. Everyone will experience the pressure of payments sooner or later. So it comes as no surprise to see two successful law school graduates duking it out at the Above The Law blog over the peculiar ways debt makes us feel and act.

Contributor Staci Zaretsky offers the opening salvo, challenging law students to shoulder the burden of signing their name to the dotted line:

“Now, we know that reading comprehension is tested on the LSAT, but apparently, once students complete the law school entrance exam, that skill goes right out the window. How do we know? Because law school graduates, who freely signed up for student loans as law students, are now trying to shirk their repayment responsibilities.”

Fellow writer Elie Mystal, who is name-checked in Zaretsky’s post as someone who failed to live up to this responsibility by defaulting on his own loans (which, Zaretsky rightly notes, is not the same as declaring bankruptcy), responds:

“The story shouldn’t be about students looking for an “easy” way out of their obligations. The story should be about helping 22-year-olds fully understand what they are getting into, and looking at all the options available for people to get out of horrible financial mistakes of the past…”

Regardless of which side of the fence you find yourself on- repayment responsibility versus an equally painful default- the real issue to take away here is that the majority of student debt is “non-dischargeable” through bankruptcy unless the very tricky criteria of “undue hardship” is met.

As we struggle with our own response to the pressure of debt, new data shows that student loan debt is contributing to more bankruptcies than ever before.

-Matt

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6
Feb 12

We’re Not Alone

While we’ve struggled with limited job growth and high youth unemployment in the United States, our peers in Europe have been faced with even higher rates.

For instance in Spain 51.4 percent of those between 16 and 24 are without a job, while 43 percent of youths in Greece are unemployed and 28 percent in Italy. In contrast, in the United States during the peak months of youth employment over the summer, 18.1 percent of youths were left without jobs.

18.1 percent is a difficult number to stomach, but unemployment levels hovering above 50 percent in Spain is inconceivable. To get a better picture of the sentiments of recent graduates as they struggle to make their way in Europe, The Guardian travelled around the continent collecting first hand stories.

From Greece, there’s the twenty-five year old Giorgos Dimas, who has just begun working as a chef:

“I was unemployed for three years until last week when I finally found a job as a chef. I went back to school to train as a cook, and I’ve been learning English but it’s been really difficult. At the back of my mind there is always the thought that the restaurant I’m about to work in might go bust, given that no one has any money any more. But although it might take a few years for my generation to find work I actually think the crisis has been a good thing. Greece was all about jobs for civil servants and nothing else. It had to change.”

From Spain, there’s Marita Blázquez, a twenty-five year old student:

“I’ve found it impossible to get a job in my own field. In my hometown of Granada, I worked as a monitor in a shopping mall kids’ play area and that’s the closest I’ve got to working with kids, which has been my goal since I started studying. I came to Madrid but all I could get were two part-time jobs, first at a department store and then in a clothes shop, where they hired me as a clerk with an illegal contract making €3 an hour. When I asked for better conditions my boss fired me. I started studying again to become a teacher. But only a few posts are open every year so I have no idea what I am doing next.”

To read more stories of struggling youths in Spain, Italy, and Greece, head over to the Guardian.

Speaking of collecting stories, if you care to share your student debt drama, feel free to send them our way. On the Pluck blog we’ve been featuring personal accounts from folks across the country about their student debt nightmares. For more information on how to submit, click here.

-Eugene

Inspiration / Listen — No Comments
2
Feb 12

How To Cut The Cost Of College [Listen]

Today at 11 AM EST, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, an NPR show, will examine how to cut the cost of college.

Ashbrook will be featuring two renowned experts on the issue:

Henry Eyring - Advancement Vice President at BYU-Idaho, and author of The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out

Jeff Selingo, editorial director of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and author of the blog “The Next,” about innovation in higher education.

You can live stream the show here, or you can catch the archived version after work.

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