post-college

The share of young Americans living with parents hit a high of 40.9% in 1940, just a year after the official end of the Great Depression, and fell to a low of 24.1% in 1960. It hovered between about 31% and 33% from 1980 to the mid-2000s, when the rate started climbing steadily.

   "Happy Graduation!" by Gates Foundation, cc license Echoing many previous pieces around the internet, the Cleveland Federal Reserve, too, is letting everyone know that the cost of a college degree is worth it.

   There are lots of great resources for recent grads. Among our favorites are a series of Ted Talks called "Graduation... Now What?"

  "10" by Michael Randall (flickr user pigpogm, cc license) On Monday, President Obama signed an executive order that should grant relief to millions of federal student loan borrowers.

  career fair at college of dupage, from flickr user codnewsroom, cc license You have (or, your student has) just finished a college degree. Congrats! It's a huge accomplishment. And, perhaps best of all, no more assigned homework. However, just because no one is assigning more reading to be done at home doesn't mean you shouldn't devour writings on important topics. Today, we're suggesting the second of five critical topics for recent graduate readings. We may not be your professor, but these readings still count for pass/fail--in real life. Consider these required readings.

  screenshot of figure from 2014 National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey The 2014 National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey bears good news and bad news. The good news? Median starting salaries are up almost universally across the board, with the exception of a slight decrease for business majors. The bad news? While salaries jumped up about 1.2%, they were expected to increase by nearly 5%. As the report indicates, it's quite possible that salaries are leveling off again.  

  "Happy Graduation!" by Gates Foundation, cc license Data that can be extremely useful for students looking to choose a school has become abundant. College rankings of all sorts and sizes are posted on every corner of the internet, while reports like Payscale’s College Return on Investment demonstrate the difference between economic returns on college choice and major choice.   Yet, while quality data has thankfully alleviated some of the difficulties of pre-college choice optimization, there remains a considerable data gap in helping students seeking to optimize their in-college years for post-college quality of life. Today, however, a new report has provided a framework that may eventually bridge that data gap.