[jagawhowho]

Thousands of Americans are debt slaves for the rest of their life because they followed the consensus of "good" advice.

The comp sci field may be the exception but you still have to be careful taking advice from people who purchased their degree for a fraction of the purchasing power required for 2014 degrees.

[Ologn]

How much is an in-state CS degree from schools like UIUC, Berkeley, or any of the public universities from which so many successful programmers have come from? Factor in Pell grants and such, and it is not so bad.

I did IT work during the day, and took public college classes at night and on the weekends, and took on no debt at all.

People should look at the numbers, possible salaries, debt and all of that. If you're thinking vocationally and as an investment, an English degree from Sarah Lawrence might not be worth it, depending on your financial situation. I myself would rather have some debt and be working through the next recession or two, then to have no diploma, no debt, and not be working through the next recession or two. If he can't get a job during the next recession, he is going to go into debt, and not have a diploma.

[frostmatthew]

> Thousands of Americans are debt slaves for the rest of their life because they followed the consensus of "good" advice.

The OP was asking for advice regarding a CS degree - high pay and low unemployment probably means there aren't many people in this field that could be considered "debt slaves" - regardless of the increasing cost of a degree.

While I agree higher education costs have gone up far more than they should have over the last decade or two generally speaking a degree is still worth it:

- "Despite these worrisome trends, going to college relative to not going still yields an annual rate of return of 15%" [1]

- "millennial workers with only a high school education earned 61.5% of the annual income of similarly aged adults with a bachelor's degree" [2]

- "workers with a bachelor's degree still earn about 75% more than high school grads, and over a lifetime, that payoff is huge" [3]

[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/07/10/the-grim-reason-col...

[2] http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mo-earnings-college-pr...

[3] http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/24/news/economy/college-worth-i...

[bicx]

Depends on what you do. I kept my grades up in high school, got enough scholarships to more than cover my tuition, and got my degree debt-free. You have to play it smart. Maybe don't go the most expensive school.