New College Grads Embrace Altruism While Parents Brace for Debt

There's a great article in the Wall Street Journal Online about new college graduates who are opting to enter service programs in lieu of pursuing career-savvy graduate programs. The article reports that today's youth are more altruistic than the previous generation, owing to the awareness of the effect of poverty, here in America and abroad.

Parents, the article says, are wringing their hands, worried about repayment of student debts and the prospects of having to support their children's do-goodism.

There is so much to say here. First, let's look at the programs mentioned in the article and the compensation they provide. Teach for America, a federally sponsored program that funnels college graduates into schools desperate for teachers, provides salaries equal to those of beginning teachers. While it's not a lot, teachers' starting salaries are on par with what many new college graduates will earn.

Peace Corps volunteers are paid a stipend that allows them to live at a standard equal to those in the area they serve, plus full medical and dental coverage. Peace Corps volunteers also can reduce Perkins loans, federal student loans, by 15 percent for each year of service. Plus, the Peace Corps provides a payment at the end of volunteers' terms, to ease their transition back to U.S. soil.

And parents who are concerned about the financial well-being of their children might want to take a long view of the situation. While their daughter or son is off in the hinterlands and not off at Harvard for an MBA or JD securing the road to future wealth, these young people will return home with experience that selective graduate schools are looking for. Graduate admissions committees know that this type of service greatly broadens a student's abilities to learn and contribute to the diverse environment these schools consider essential. They also know that these types of graduate students tend to launch careers that will make everyone proud.

Yet, the reality is loan repayment can't be ignored. Two sources in the article show that the burden of college debt rules out making a living on beginning teachers' and social workers' salaries. One can't help but wonder if the problem here is not the starting pay of those in the helping professions as much as it is the level of debt students accrue. Outside of information technology and other science and technology fields, the first few years out of college can be financially humbling for anyone.

Perhaps this is where this situation needs the most attention, because, as the article points out, all these college admissions requirements for public service are doing nothing but whetting the appetites of young people to contribute to the greater good. They know that such service yields its own form of wealth. And, with their education and life experiences, they will eventually strike a balance between earnings and debts, both to financial institutions, their parents, and their fellow humans.

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