Lower Ed Lesson #3: The “Hustle”

Sources

One. Why is FP college such a bad idea?

It creates high debt.

It creates poor job prospects.

It creates low esteem from others in society.

It creates low meaning types of jobs.

Two. What is a student loan refund check?

A student borrows more than the cost of tuition.

A student borrow for estimated COA, cost of attendance.

An overpayment results in a refund to be used toward COA costs.

These refunds are sometimes used for food and housing.

Poor students use COA money to help them eat and prevent homelessness.

A COA is also used for business ventures by more entrepreneurial students.

Cottom meets Mike who like many graduates working in the new economy find themselves forced to constantly upgrade their résumé so they can survive in their “hollowed out middle class jobs,” which no longer offer security or medical benefits.

Three. What is the hustle?

The hustle consists of three things.

One first has to play by the rules, which means going to college and minimizing risky behaviors that might impede college success.

Two, one has to get a decent job.

Three, one has to engage in “entrepreneurialism,” which means to start one’s own business.

Having your own business and a lavish income is part of the dominant culture’s expectations for men: materialistic success.

Mike has graduated from Morehouse, a very prestigious college that prides itself on having Martin Luther King and Spike Lee as graduates, to name just a couple.

But for Mike, a BA from Morehouse is not enough. He needs an MBA to become an entrepreneur. And he’s willing to go to a phony school, as he sees it, to get his MBA.

A NP college is “not real,” for Mike and many others, but it is a means to get easy loans and easy admittance.

Four. Why is the FP college not a real college in terms of perception by most?

Fake colleges offer the following:

Easy admittance

Easy loans

Easy curriculum

Standardized curriculum

42% of students get vocational degrees.

18% of students get associate degrees.

Only 5% get bachelors degrees.

10% get master degrees.

2.4 million students enroll in FP colleges.

Different professors use the same course work for over a decade.

You might get the same Wikipedia print-outs for over a decade.

You get “low-risk recycled work,” which is often finished by previous students who give you their completed course work. All of these short cuts are very appealing to Mike.

Five. What are some important demographics for FP colleges?

69% of white graduates are in college debt.

94% of black graduates are in college debt.

Debt is relative:

Average debt for college graduate is $29,400 based on stats Cottom gives us.

In 2017, it’s up to over 37K.

Average debt for FP college is close to 35K in 2008.

My dental hygienist went to FP college and it cost her 100K in loans and 10 years of payments. She says she wouldn't do it again.

Students may borrow $20,500 a year at FP colleges (133).

Cumulative loan limits at FP colleges are $138,500.

See above essay for hight debt and unemployment.

When Debt Is Worth It