US borrowing authority to be exhausted by Oct. 17

[tpeichel]

Shrew and Wickabee, both good points, but is it worth going into $50,000-$100,000 in debt? I think not.

[Wickabee]

As someone who didn't go and make those connections, I'd say it very well may be.

[tpeichel]

Boatloads of recent graduates living back at home with their parents, would disagree.

[duane1969]

College is about making connections. The degree is worth the paper it's written on but those connections will get you through life.

Sorry. Can't agree with this. I know it works that way in some circles, but my job is directly related to that piece of paper.

[ajbrinn]

Hard work and determination gets you more places faster. School is such a mute point with certain exceptions, heck my uncle has a grade 8 education and was making more in a month than some people do in a year and its all due to hard work. He started at the bottom of a construction crew and worked his way up to where he owned his own small company., My dad dropped out in grade 10 and went to work as an apprentice welder and through the years learning heavy machinery mechanics and others skills even during the recessions he was never without good work because of the skills he learned working and grinding away. There is something about our parents generation, like they were the last of the go get them nose to the grindstone generation. Not that they are not people like that today they just do not exist to the extent they used to.

[Wickabee]

Sorry. Can't agree with this. I know it works that way in some circles, but my job is directly related to that piece of paper.

Most. You are the exception, not the rule.

[centrehice]

My 3 exceptionally good jobs in life were because I had an initial connection. Mind you this was in the 80's. It's what you make of a connection that you establish.

Now if you are in some type of Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, then it's all about the piece of paper. But if you are in the business, corporate world, it's about who you know, and how that can get you Ground Floor.

[duane1969]

Most. You are the exception, not the rule.

My 3 exceptionally good jobs in life were because I had an initial connection. Mind you this was in the 80's. It's what you make of a connection that you establish.

Now if you are in some type of Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, then it's all about the piece of paper. But if you are in the business, corporate world, it's about who you know, and how that can get you Ground Floor.

I am in education and none of us can be hired without that piece of paper.

[Wickabee]

You can be your field.

[tpeichel]

The other problem with taking on debt to fund an education is that student loans are the absolute worst possible debt you can have (other than owing money to a vindictive loan shark), because you cannot discharge the debt through bankruptcy.