Those students know that with a graduate degree and no working experience, it will actually make is harder to get a job than easier to get a job. The "Catch 22" is that even though today's recent bachelor's degrees are eager to get a job, they all need to get good-paying jobs to handle the enormous student loan payments.

But most colleges and universities are now skating financially on their graduate programs and online degree programs. It's the traditional graduate programs that are going to slide into oblivion in the next couple years. All those MBA programs that started up over the past decade at every street corner outlet, are now going to have to radically downsize to remain viable.

The loan bursting and graduate program drop-off happening at the same time will definitely have a negative effect on many colleges and universities and it may have the unintented consequence of forcing many people to consider other alternatives beyond college degrees. In other words, the vocation schools may see a huge bump in enrollment.

So perhaps, just as many 4-year colleges took on MBA programs a decade ago to increase their net revenues, these same colleges might have to develop and implement plumber and electrician programs just to keep their doors open. Then we can talk about the coming plumber and electrician bubble.

-Tim Corwin
November 2011