ROGERS — The high schoolers are headed off to college or the military or, gasp, to a job.
The college grads, well, they are headed to a crazy world where they can only hope they get a job.
I usually offer some advice to the grads. It hasn’t changed:
• Get a job you love even if you starve. This from a journalist who isn’t starving but isn’t exactly rolling in the dough.
• Get insurance. Believe me, you will need it.
• As soon as you can, start saving for retirement. If you don’t want to work until you are 90, you will do this.
That’s always been about it, however, I have decided to add another recommendation:
• Pay your school loans.
It would never have occurred to me that college graduates need to be told this, but apparently they do.
Oh, I know. I have heard about all the loans over the years that weren’t paid, it’s just that the possibility has hit a lot closer to home.
I know it is a struggle to pay these loans — heck, it is a struggle to pay any loan. What I am perplexed about is why anyone would choose not to pay and leave the burden on others.
It took me seven years to pay off my school loan, but I paid it. It never occurred to me not to pay it.
College is an expensive proposition. I sat at a scholarship assembly last week listening to the numbers being tossed around by the college reps — $25,000, $100,000. Thinking about that kind of debt made my head hurt.
One young friend received a $70,000 scholarship to an area college. I asked if it is a “free ride” and she told me “not quite.” Not quite! Good grief this is an Arkansas school, not some Ivy League place. Granted, it is a private college. Still.
I guess this raises the question: do we owe everyone a free college education? Maybe not free, but certainly I think it should be of good quality and affordable.
And how would it be made “affordable?” Darned if I know.
I think there is too much emphasis at some colleges on having the best buildings. Fancy, schmancy buildings do not a good education make.
Not that I think a “college without walls” is necessarily the answer. That was the idea put forth when voters in Rogers and Bentonville established NorthWest Arkansas Community College. It worked for the short term, but for the long term, it didn’t and wouldn’t.
However, in this age of online classes, how many edifices do we really need? After all, you see the instructor and his or her immediate surroundings on a computer. That’s it. No soaring atriums, no glass entries onto a courtyard.
I can hear it now. “But, but, but, that money was given for a building.” I know a lot of people like to see their names engraved in stone. I wonder, however, if asked, if at least some would prefer to be remembered as the person who made it possible for X number of students to receive an education instead of the one who paid for the fancy building.
Maybe not, but I have to wonder if the fundraisers ask.
That said, students need to be more responsible. Staying in school for the sake of avoiding the real world is an expensive mistake. If you can’t decide what you want to do with the rest of your life, get out in the real world. You can always go back to school, and you won’t incur as much debt.
I recently witnessed an exchange about what to do about paying student loans. More than one 20-something suggested just not paying them. Seriously. Parents, are you telling your kids this? If so, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
You cannot rid yourself of student loans via bankruptcy. All you do by not paying the loans is royally mess up your credit. And, if you have a co-signer, you mess up their credit, too.
So, dear student, good luck as you move forward.
And remember, pay your bills.
Leeanna Walker is editor of the Rogers Morning News. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NWALeeanna.