WASHINGTON, May 19, 2009
Economic Burdens Mount For New Grads
Poll Finds Students' Anxiety High Over Economy; One-Third Worried About Parents' Finances
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Robert Hudkins of Broken Arrow, Okla., center, cheers during the 2009 University of Oklahoma Commencement at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, in Norman, Okla. Young people are carrying a load heavier than they normally bear as they scatter from campuses, judging from an AP-mtvU poll. (AP)
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Young people are carrying a load heavier than they normally bear as they scatter from campuses, judging from an AP-mtvU poll that finds students anxious about their finances, job prospects after graduation and the pressures facing their folks back home.
Josh Donahue, 23, an Oregon State University economics graduate, is living on food stamps. First in his family with a university degree, he stays with relatives and scrapes even for a menial job instead of the bank gig he'd dreamed about.
"A degree in economics," he said, "doesn't really prepare you to understand the economy very well."
To be sure, tight budgets are a rite of passage at college. Ramen noodles build character.
But in a nation that has lost more than 5.7 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, parent and student alike are swept up in the tempest. In the poll of students, nearly one in five reported that at least one parent lost a job in the last year.
Parents usually worry about their kids' finances. Now the kids are worrying about their parents'.
At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., systems engineering junior Adrian Solomon, 21, of Virginia Beach, Va., said his mother, who is single and raising his 16-year-old sister as well as a foster child, is "trying to support me sometimes, when I need it." At other times she's asked him for money. "I would do what I can to help her out."
Jake Lear, 21, of Warrenton, Va., a digital arts major at George Mason, worked three jobs at a time through the semester and is doing one of them full-time this summer - a resident adviser helping to look after freshmen in dorms - because he gets free housing. His parents work for a federal contractor that shrank its work force and eliminated 401(k) matching contributions. The school is in suburban northern Virginia outside Washington.
"I'm pretty much independent as far as school goes," Lear said. "Where they would normally help me out with cash here and there they don't so much any more, just because money's so tight."
The sleep-deprived but irrepressible Buchi Akpati, 18, of Woodbridge, Va., also juggled three jobs at once through the semester - one online, another at the gym and another as a beauty consultant. Her days have unfolded like this, once she gets out of bed between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.:
"I go to class, study in between class, go to work, study at work, go to my other job, Mary Kay, do some facials, sell some products, study in between, go back to my dorm, study and eat at the same time, work online at the same time, study afterwards from like 2 to 6 a.m., then sleep, and then wake up and do the same thing."
She is majoring in "biology, pre-medicine, with a splash of Spanish" and adding two summer classes to her workload. "I never get any sleep," she said brightly. "That's the thing."
The poll surveyed students at 40 U.S. colleges, exploring financial pressures, job possibilities, their state of mind and when stress becomes depression. Among the findings on the economy:
Nervousness is apparent on campuses, even in the midst of post-exam relief. So, however, is resilience.
Instead of being discouraged by the 29 applications for summer internships that got no response, Larry Robertson is pumped about the one that is landing him an interview.
"I HAVE to get a job," he said. Living at home in Washington, where he devotes Fridays and other times to looking after his grandmother, he's been commuting up to four hours a day to George Mason and scrimping at every turn as he prepares for law school. He'll graduate in December with a major in sociology and a minor in anthropology.
"I don't buy clothes," Robertson said. "I don't shop. I stay at home, I don't go out. I have a very strict academic life.
"I really try to prepare enough so that I'm not stressed out with money. That's the last thing you need to be stressed out by when you're in school."
Corwin Burton, a sophomore at the University of Maryland, also on the Washington outskirts, gave up his apartment and moved back home when the tips dropped off at the bar he tends. Studying nano-engineering, he's confident the economy will rebound by the time he gets out of grad school.
"It always does," he said. "It's nowhere near bad enough to think that the country's going to explode and fail. The economy naturally cycles. I've studied enough economics to know that. It goes up, it goes back down."
In Grants Pass, Ore., Donahue wonders when it's going to go up. He regrets stretching his bachelor of science in economics over five years, thinking he'd be a financial analyst now if he'd finished school in four, before the crisis. Given the turmoil in the financial industry, however, it's questionable whether an entry job would still be there.
Sharing his $200 a month in food stamps with his aunt and uncle in lieu of rent, he's applying for work as a delivery man, a hotel clerk, a bank teller and a white-collar job in the insurance industry. He's planning on going to law school.
"Having a college degree and having to ask other people for help is not a funny thing," he said. "It's a little demoralizing."
Still, faith persists among the young in the value of an education as a career builder, and a temporary shelter from the outside world.
Lear gets the occasional "panic-inducing thought" that capitalism itself is unraveling, a scary prospect with graduation ahead of him in December. "Right now, it's the only thing to do," he said of schooling. "There's always grad school and I'm not afraid of more education."
Then there's the laser focus of Robertson, on track to become a public advocacy lawyer.
"I've made up my mind about what I'm going to do and so I'm going to do it," he states. "If I have to endure some challenges and struggle a little bit, that's fine. If it's going to take me some extra time, I want those credentials, it's really important, so I'm going to do it."
The poll was conducted April 22 to May 4 by Edison Media Research and involved interviews with 2,240 undergraduate students aged 18-24 at four-year colleges. To protect privacy, the schools where the poll was conducted are not being identified, the students who responded were not asked for their names, and people interviewed for this story were not part of the survey. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The TV network mtvU is operated by the MTV Networks division of Viacom and available at many colleges. MtvU's sponsorship of the poll is related to its mental-health campaign "Half of Us," which it runs with the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit group that works to reduce suicide among young people.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by fasilandu at 1:05 PM : May 19, 2009
If student funding is based on academic competency, in comparison it should be the American students worried. Also, for international students, academics is more of an economic survival issue.
I have talked with college students, they know that they got screwed by Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Dufus. They are will to do what it takes to make things better now. They know that they are at a crossroads where if it is not done now, it will be too late forever.
Posted by jwind1 at 12:12 PM : May 19, 2009
...because we're able to connect the dots. Get it???
in the public eye defending his, his ex-bosses and his parties record?
They say, if your guilty, the best defense is a good offence.
Most Administrations fade into history, quitly, allowing their former actions to speak for themselves.
I quess I just answered my own question why Cheney won't shut up and go away.
Posted by ianlou at 12:01 PM : May 19, 2009
Great post....and I would only add that Cheney is just doing a bit of political posturing before the boogey man cometh! And besides, he has to at least have the appearance of justifying his administrations actions and what they all brought down upon this country....that way it looks and sounds genuine and not contrived or treasonous!
Let me guess...you also still believe in the tooth fairy and santa claus too right!
Posted by flanejr ,
GREAT POST AND EXACTLY CORRECT;
YOU CAN THANK NIXON, REAGAN, AND THE BUSH/CHENEY CRIME FAMILY
FOR THE IDIOCY OF VOODOO, TRICKLE DOWN, ECONOMICS, THEY CREATED
THE CURRENT NIGHT MARE THAT HAS TURNED THE UNITED STATES INTO
A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY,
REPUBLI'CON's ARE FOOLS
Posted by mcintoshlou at 11:39 AM : May 19, 2009
this story is about college graduates...what are you two posting in here for?
in the public eye defending his, his ex-bosses and his parties record?
They say, if your guilty, the best defense is a good offence.
Most Administrations fade into history, quitly, allowing their former actions to speak for themselves.
I quess I just answered my own question why Cheney won't shut up and go away.
Well thats what all these college kids get for voting for a "rock star" instead of the right man for the job
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We'll judge the democrats performance in 2016, if they hold on to power that long.
As for the current mess, it's all on the GOP, and most Americans know it.
Posted by dfnj2009 at 9:57 AM : May 19, 2009
Good one!
Posted by LithiumDeuteride
GREAT POST, THE REALLY SAD PART OF THIS IS THAT FOR THE AVERAGE
REPUBLICAN MORON OUT THERE, WELL, THEY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH
FACTS AND REALITY, IT IS THAT BRAINWASHING THEY ALL GO THROUGH
DOW AT THEIR CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY, MAKES THEM STUPID
Let me guess...you also still believe in the tooth fairy and santa claus too right!
Posted by flanejr ,
GREAT POST AND EXACTLY CORRECT;
YOU CAN THANK NIXON, REAGAN, AND THE BUSH/CHENEY CRIME FAMILY
FOR THE IDIOCY OF VOODOO, TRICKLE DOWN, ECONOMICS, THEY CREATED
THE CURRENT NIGHT MARE THAT HAS TURNED THE UNITED STATES INTO
A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY,
REPUBLI'CON's ARE FOOLS
Posted by guyfrompa45 at 10:47 AM : May 19, 2009
LOL....and if McSame had won, we'd already be at war with the penguins in Alaska, or elephants in Africa, or anywhere that another senseless and costly war could be started. The best person DID win the election, unlike your hero who stole 2 and ruined 2 countries (America and Iraq).
Let me guess...you also still believe in the tooth fairy and santa claus too right!
I wonder just whose watch this began on???
FOR THE IDIOCY OF VOODOO, TRICKLE DOWN, ECONOMICS, THEY CREATED
THE CURRENT NIGHT MARE THAT HAS TURNED THE UNITED STATES INTO
A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY,
REPUBLI'CON's ARE FOOLS
Capitalism is Hard at Work.
- by WayAround May 19, 2009 11:20 AM EDT
- Wasn't it Daddy George Bush who prophesized a "kinder, gentler nation" with a 1000 points of light. (His words!!!)
- Reply to this comment
See all 20 CommentsWell, graduates (Students' Anxiety High Over Economy), welcome to the kinder, gentler world. LMAO