Forget Generation Y: college graduates today are starting to be known as the Boomerang Generation. “Boomerang” refers to the trend in which young people in the U.S. are leaving their parents’ homes for college, achieving a few years of independence, then being forced to move back home.
A widely cited poll by market research firm Twentysomething reported that 85 percent of college graduates in the U.S. planned to move back in with their parents after graduation in 2010; others estimate that the real figure is 65 percent or lower. But there’s no doubt that the trend is real. Some college grads will stay in their parents’ homes a few months; others will stay for years. Census figures show 25 percent more people aged 25 to 34 living with parents than before the recession.
The reasons are obvious. With the economy staggering through the tail end of a recession, college tuition prices skyrocketing and employment numbers dwindling, the average college student can barely afford a Coca Cola, let alone rent and utilities. An undergraduate degree, once a symbol of financial success, is now becoming a burden for students who find themselves in crippling amounts of debt before the age of 25.
For the Boomer generation, an undergraduate degree was seen as a guarantee of long-term social and financial success. In the present economy, the only thing a college degree guarantees is a mountain of student loans. The average debt for college graduates in 2009 was $24,000, more than double the figure of $9,200 for 1992. Even more frustrating is that many college graduates are either jobless or taking jobs they could have gotten without a degree. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12.8 million college graduates under the age of 30 are unemployed, working part-time, or working a job that doesn’t require a college degree.
Given the state of the economy, moving back in with your parents as an adult doesn’t carry the same social stigma it did in previous generations. But does that mean that this phenomenon is a good thing? Is it possible that today’s “smart kids” are the ones going to community colleges and living in their mothers’ basements? Or are the Boomerangs destined to be a generation of perpetual Peter Pans?
Dr. Greg Schmutte, professor of psychology and executive vice president for academics at American International College, believes that while moving back in with parents can feel like a setback to most college students, it doesn’t have to be crippling. Schmutte says that most college graduates “probably had a pretty idealized notion of, I’ll graduate, I’ll get an interesting job, I’ll be a hip young single. Instead they come home, they don’t have a place of their own, they probably are coming back initially to no job.”
Dr. Schmutte believes that there are steps a student can take to turn a potential setback into a positive transition to the professional world.
“I feel that it’s important that they put in a good effort to try for some sort of professional entry-level position as opposed to taking the summer job they had in high school,” says Schmutte. “While I’m certainly not denigrating those occupations, I think it’s more difficult to get yourself back in the market for the professional job. I’d rather see them making less money but getting some experience so that transition is easier when the economy opens out again or when they find a job. You come home, you’re tired, the last thing you want to do is networking and following down leads. But it’s best to do it.”
Nara Allen, a recent graduate of UMass-Amherst, believes that moving back in with your parents after graduation is a great way to save money and prepare for living on your own.
“Nowadays it is really difficult to find a decent job right after you graduate,” says Allen. “What else can you do but say, ‘Hey, mom and dad, I’m back! I’ll be living in my old bedroom again for awhile. Hope you don’t mind the extra company. By the way, I want steak for dinner.'”
Allen moved in with her parents after graduating in May in order to save money for a doctoral degree in psychology. She believes that moving back in with parents after graduation is “a great way to save money and a good place to go until you’re able to get on your own feet. Just because you have a college degree doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a job. “
For many graduates, giving up some independence now is necessary to securing real independence later on. Says Allen, “It’s only the first step of a very lengthy process called life.”
