Study Shows 85% of New College Grads Move Back in With Parents
Fresh new unemployment numbers and an extremely shitty economy are causing all the new college grads to move back in with mom and dad. Time reported on Tuesday that according to a poll conducted by consulting firm Twentysomething Inc., some 85% of new college grads are going back home not long after their cap and gown ceremony.
85%! That’s like… everyone. This statistic is apparently not surprising, given recent trends. NYMag is on the beat:
Over the past several months, the same sharp and distressing arguments have been popping up in the Times, cable news, the blogosphere, even The Chronicle of Higher Education. The cost of college, as these arguments typically go, has grown far too high, the return far too uncertain, the education far too lax… “The cost of college in the past 30 years has gone up tenfold. Health care has only gone up sixfold, and inflation has only gone up threefold. Not only is it a scam, but the college presidents know it. That’s why they keep raising tuition,” [James Altucher, a New York–based venture capitalist and finance writer recently wrote.]
Indeed, the Time piece offers us some less-than-stellar statistics regarding unemployment of new college grads: 54% of the under-25 group are out of a job already, and many of them have student loans to pay off.
This turn of events, if you will, is a pretty disturbing one if you’re currently in college, especially given the fact that if you’re in college, you typically don’t give a shit about the future and prefer just to not acknowledge the looming specter of post-graduation and instead order another round of tequila shots.
Such statistics prompt us to question the legitimacy of American higher education – at least the financial aspects of it. Anyways, some advice to those going into college: major in chinese or drop out and start an organic farm. Or just reconsider the thing entirely. Seriously.