USC Pushed a $115,000 Online Degree. Graduates Got Low Salaries, Huge Debts.

Do social workers typically need Masters degrees?

If we took student lending out of the hands of government and put it back into private hands, they could underwrite these loans based on potential earnings and deny funding to programs that have no earning potential.  If you want a $115,000 degree with no increase in earnings, save up your own money to pay for it and stop forcing taxpayers to foot the bill.
 
Liar Loan said:
Do social workers typically need Masters degrees?

If we took student lending out of the hands of government and put it back into private hands, they could underwrite these loans based on potential earnings and deny funding to programs that have no earning potential.  If you want a $115,000 degree with no increase in earnings, save up your own money to pay for it and stop forcing taxpayers to foot the bill.

It's the credentialization problem in education and government.  The degrees come with massive income increases.  Doubly so if you consider the degree is the defacto req to make the first cut to even interview sans officially prohibited (not sarcasm) insider connections.

IUSD $10K a year by year 6, $15K more by year 9. Don't even need the Master's or Doctorate, just the credit hours, but the Title adds clout and an additional $2590 on top of the credit hours.
https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/documents/2021-certsal_ce.pdf

Of course, if you want the Admin route such as Principal.  Then it's Master's preferred and this the below table.  With Doctorate bump, longevity bump and contractual annual annual increases to the table and obligatory step move annually.
 
7.2 Effective July 1, 2019, the salary schedule shall be increased by 1.7%. There shall be a onetime 1.0% off-schedule payment, based on the new 2019-20 salary schedule, to be paid in one
https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/documents/2021admsal.pdf
 
Liar Loan said:
If we took student lending out of the hands of government and put it back into private hands, they could underwrite these loans based on potential earnings and deny funding to programs that have no earning potential.

and what happens when students apply for a high-earning-potential engineering degree and drop out, change majors, or pursue a different lower-earning career after graduation?  are the private lenders going to repossess the degree? 

private student lending is a farce.  it's nothing more than a dressed-up signature loan (or signature loan of a cosigner, typically).  if it weren't for laws prohibiting discharge of student loans in bankruptcy, they wouldn't exist. 
 
fatduck said:
and what happens when students apply for a high-earning-potential engineering degree and drop out, change majors, or pursue a different lower-earning career after graduation?  are the private lenders going to repossess the degree?

Then the money gets cut off.  Don't give them more rope to hang themselves with a life of debt servitude.
 
Agree with LL. The government needs to get out of the loan guarantee business.

The government should create a clause that any school that accepts federal financial aid needs to offer two year degrees any major and remove the requirement for general electives that make most two year degrees into four year degrees.
 
qwerty said:
Agree with LL. The government needs to get out of the loan guarantee business.

The government should create a clause that any school that accepts federal financial aid needs to offer two year degrees any major and remove the requirement for general electives that make most two year degrees into four year degrees.

So you want Harvard to be a Vo-Tech?
 
1. It is between the student and the school.
2. Buyer beware! Potential student should do their own research and ask questions regarding a new program.
3. Is there a cheaper alternative? Is there the same program at a state school or community college or can they take courses through a website that is reasonable priced such as udemy? (or just learn how to do it by watching youtube lol)

 
i may be in minority but i think the current system is pretty good.  easy access to student loans from a single lender and flexible income based repayment.

the old systems, private and subsidized private, were inefficient and inequitably distributed.  college education is extremely difficult to underwrite.  the underlying asset is intangible and the future income is too far in the future and speculative.  so the only way to do it is with a lot of fees/overhead and basically requiring parent cosigners.  plus all the inefficiency of long-term collections.

govt meanwhile is a great student loan lender.  has access to the cheapest money, has a long time horizon, and has the best collections agency in the biz (IRS).

govt can definitely do more to reduce tuition costs and limit access to loans by predatory institutions.  but that's a failure of congress.  obama admin did a lot of work to crack down on for profit schools abusing federal student loans.  they lost in the courts repeatedly. 
 
John and Ken were talking about this today.  One example they gave was a lady (single mother of 2) working in Iowa as a social worker making $48k per year as a social worker and $200k of debt from USC degree program.

#debtforlife
 
eyephone said:
I briefly took a glance at the degree.
They are charging $115k for a masters in social work. haha
Yup, that is just taking advantage of people that don't know better.
 
eyephone said:
I briefly took a glance at the degree.
They are charging $115k for a masters in social work. haha

At a Cal State college tuition fees around $8k a year for that same master program. Sheesh lol
* I dont think the prestigious college name will put you above the top in this field. (What do I know?)
 
eyephone said:
eyephone said:
I briefly took a glance at the degree.
They are charging $115k for a masters in social work. haha

At a Cal State college tuition fees around $8k a year for that same master program. Sheesh lol
* I dont think the prestigious college name will put you above the top in this field. (What do I know?)

A prestigious college will only open the door for you. If you already hold a job, then it really doesn't matter where you get your Masters degree from, to get a raise.
 
CalBears96 said:
eyephone said:
eyephone said:
I briefly took a glance at the degree.
They are charging $115k for a masters in social work. haha

At a Cal State college tuition fees around $8k a year for that same master program. Sheesh lol
* I dont think the prestigious college name will put you above the top in this field. (What do I know?)

A prestigious college will only open the door for you. If you already hold a job, then it really doesn't matter where you get your Masters degree from, to get a raise.

An article says that person made around $50k something. Also, we are talking about being a social worker. In my humble opinion the $100k plus master degree is the wrong play for this field.
 
eyephone said:
An article says that person made around $50k something. Also, we are talking about being a social worker. In my humble opinion the $100k plus master degree is the wrong play for this field.

No doubt about it. I got my Masters degree in Electrical Engineering for free since both the companies I worked at while taking classes paid 100% of my tuition.
 
I think social workers would typically qualify for PSLF though

So even if you take $200k debt, you are just making income based repayment for 10 years and then the balance is forgiven
 
fatduck said:
I think social workers would typically qualify for PSLF though

So even if you take $200k debt, you are just making income based repayment for 10 years and then the balance is forgiven

You must make 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full time for an eligible employer. After submitting an application, the government then forgives the remaining balance on your loans. (10 year of payments )

PSLF is not guaranteed according to different articles/websites.

The percentage of applicants getting approved not high according to article below.https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/public-service-loan-forgiveness

 
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