Advice for High School graduates
straight talk
There is both good news and bad news. The good news is that there are ways to get a college education even at an ivy league school.
New programs from Harvard and other Ivy League schools offer free tuition (not scholarships, this is different) for those from low-income homes and that is defined in a way that includes most people living in central PA - under $40,000 yearly household income is a typical upper cutoff. Just contact the school(s) of your choice or look up their Web sites and check to see if they have a free tuition offering.
You can get an Ivy League education even if you stay home. Harvard Extension offers a full Harvard degree, 90% by tele-education (internet) and at a reasonable price - you don't even need good grades, it is open enrollment.
Now for the BAD news (explained in detail below) - unless you have a skilled trade (carpenter, machinist, mechanic, etc. and a trade school background, your future probably has a lot of fast food or Wal-Mart clerking jobs in it. Jobs with low pay, few benefits, and a name tag.
A GOOD trade school will teach you a skill which can't be done by a computer or someone in Asia working for $1/day. Use common sense when considering both school and course.
Unfortunately many of the "trades" being so heavily advertised on TV are worthless or the ads are highly misleading. Get a real skill - you won't become the next great computer game developer without a Ph.D. in computer science and just learning how to run a few programs won't make you a fashion designer. You won't get a REAL job doing computer security without a college degree either.
Economic
If your family doesn't own a good business you can move into, you will need further education or training if you expect to earn a good living. Trade schools are a good option if you don't care to go to college.
Most jobs don't last a lifetime any longer. Just ask any coal miner, steel worker, or even a bank employee who lost their job to an ATM. Sure there are still factory jobs and jobs in the coal mines, but they are few and far between also, there will be fewer of them in the future than there are today even if coal became a big business again, it is also becoming more automated daily, just as factory jobs are becoming more automated.
More and more jobs will go overseas. Factory jobs are disappearing but plumbers, landscapers, carpenters, technicians of almost any kind, including automotive and medical workers of all sorts who work directly with people will have secure jobs. Virtually any job in any field which is mostly done on a computer will eventually be done overseas. That applies to medical coding, insurance, back room banking operations, computer programming, and almost anything else you can think of.
The world may always need ditch diggers, but they won't pay them very much unless they can operate computer-controlled heavy equipment.
Governments everywhere are always a growth industry. No matter what politicians say, there are always more government workers by the time they leave office, never fewer.
Your good credit is second only to a good education. A poor credit rating will bar you from getting a good job, buying a house, renting a decent apartment, purchasing a cell phone, getting inexpensive insurance, and much more. Credit isn't just about being able to borrow money or get a credit card, top employers won't hire people with poor credit because they are a big risk. Insurance companies look at your credit rating to decide if you are dependable and responsible, or a big risk.
You may not need a good "formal" education to be a success, but you need to be very smart, smart enough to educate yourself about what is important and what pitfalls to avoid.
Debt is bad. Cell phones and credit cards, buying a car you can't afford, buying new furniture on credit, failing to understand and buy good insurance, as well as failing to develop good credit are sure fire ways to insure that you will always be struggling to make a living for the rest of your life.
Be smart enough to realize that expensive weddings, new cars, fancy furniture, cell phones, a closet full of expensive clothes, and all those other things you are so desperate for only seem necessary because someone who wants your money is working very, very hard to make you believe that they are essential to your happiness. No one is pushing you to save money because no one makes any money off you then, they make money by selling you things you don't really need and by loaning you money to buy them.
For those who don't believe any of this, do yourself a big favor and read one Sunday copy of a big city newspaper from front to back, making careful note of all the ads offering positions as rock stars or offering big money jobs in other fields to a teenager whose only qualifications are arrogance, a bad attitude and a desire to work with people.
School
Remember that if you didn't get into the college of your choice, it is always easier to transfer in as a sophomore than to enter as a freshman just keep your GPA high.
Not all schools or degrees are equal there are a lot of "professionals" who are driving taxi cabs these days. A 4.0 average in English Lit. or Art Appreciation and $5 will buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but don't feel too bad, the person behind the counter probably has a Masters degree in French.
As the world's richest man, Bill Gates, would tell you, it's better to drop out of Harvard than to graduate from Podunk U.
Social
Virtually all those friends who seem so incredibly important to you right now will quickly develop their own separate interests and lives especially if you or they move out of the local area for school, work, or marriage, in five years you probably won't even know (or care) where most of them live or what they are doing. I know you don't believe that, but that doesn't make me wrong.
Don't invest too much time and money trying to impress them or keeping up what now seem like such important friendships. Spending $500-$1,000 on a prom, $300 on graduation photos, or similar things seems like a great idea now but putting that same money in the bank will repay you for the rest of your life.
Marriage most people who get married under age 25 get divorced within 5 years. Not "a few," not "some," not "many," MOST, far more than half. OK, you're different, I don't know you or anything about you, but that's exactly what all those divorced people said too and they were all exactly like you.
Reality sucks
Something they don't really teach you in high school is just how expensive life will be.
Consider this, you will be extremely lucky to land a full-time job which pays $8/hour.
That's $320 for a full week.
Sounds like a lot doesn't it?
But after taxes and all other deductions you'll only get about $280 cash.
$280/week
Driving to work costs a minimum of 30-cents per mile (gas, repairs, insurance, license fees, etc.), say it is a 10 mile drive each way, every day. That's $6 per day, $30/week.
Leaving $250/week
Rent locally will run $300/month or about $70/week.
Leaving $180
Phone and utilities will cost a minimum of $100/month or about $20/week.
Leaving $160
(If you get different numbers, it might be because there 4 1/3 weeks in a month, not 4 - also, everything costs more, not less so I am rounding up slightly and wages almost NEVER go up as quickly as costs.)
Feel like eating? Make that a minimum of $20/day (1 coke a day, especially from a vending machine, one cup of coffee, and one candy bar will cost an extra $1,000/year) but try counting every penny you (or someone else) spends on food for you in a week and you'll find it costs a minimum of $110/week.
Leaving $50/week if you want to live on your own and get a full-time job that pays $8/hour to start.
How about furniture? Going to movie? Buy popcorn or a soda there? Have a computer? Want a TV and cable connection? How about some new clothes? Want to wash your clothes? Have anythig that needs dry cleaned? Want a cell phone? What about paying for that unexpected speeding or parking ticket? Ever buy a magazine? How about a fancy stereo for your apartment or car? Ever buy a CD or DVD? Sure, you can download music for free but only if you don't count the cost of your internet connection and blank CD-Rs. Have a video game? Want one, or an occasional new game?
If everything goes perfectly you never get injured riding your dirt bike, never get laid off, never catch the flu, etc. you will have $50/week to buy all those things. That's only $7 per day. If anything ever goes wrong what will you do?
Now, do you cut your own hair? Have any hobbies? Ever go on a date? How about vacation? Ever go to a bar? Ever buy medicine? Deodorant? A tooth brush? Makeup? Did I mention that you'll need a security deposit for that apartment? Since you have poor or no credit of your own you will probably have to pay both first and last month's rent too. You might also have to pay for a place to park your car.
Now do you wonder why so many college graduates with good jobs have to move back home when they are 30?
OK, so you get a $15/hour job instead of $8/hour. There are a few such jobs out there, but they are mostly in places where it is much more expensive to live. Also, those taxes go up all the time so $15/hour is really more like $11 or $12 and that sort of job will require better clothes or some tools and a longer commute.
But say you do land such a job right out of school. Half of you reading this will be married within 2 years and have children in 4 years. Want to see some costs involved there? Trust me, two can't live as cheaply as one.
Life can be very hard - but if you give it a bit of thought it doesn't need to be hard. Most young people make their lives hard and the biggest reason is that they expect to live as well as their parents - never realizing that their parents had to work 20 years to get in that position.
