Reply #22: I disagree - college is only worth it if you can do unpaid internships

[conflictgirl]

After facing a 10-month period of unemployment my husband decided to go back to school and finish his degree. He got his degree in accounting specifically because it was reported to be a field in high demand. He graduated in April 2010 and is still working at the same job he had while in school (which doesn't pay very well - only about half of what he had seen as the average starting wage for a new accounting grad.) Now we have his student loans to pay and he doesn't even get interviews because he has no accounting experience.

He went to a job fair a few months ago and talked to reps from some of the top accounting firms in the area, all of whom told him that he should have done an unpaid internship while he was in school and because he didn't, he'll have a tough time getting a job. He has a family to support - there was no way he could have done an unpaid internship and they never told him while he was in school that his job prospects depended on that. I think the odds are stacked against people trying to change careers later in life. College was most definitely a huge losing proposition for us and I'm not sure we'll ever recoup the losses.

edited to fix a mistake