is college overated this days?

[Tony22]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I am a parent of college age kids
You can shoot yourself in the foot going to CC. If you can then transfer to a 4 year public college, they'll probably accept all your academic credits, but perhaps not for anything but electives. You may end up taking longer than if you just went straight to college.

When I transferred from a 2 year school to a 4 year school, they only took 60 of my 70 credits.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by UNC4Me

You missed the point of this post. It was meant to point ou that there are doable ways to reduce the amount of money one has to borrow to get a college degree. Will they work for EVERY student? Of course not. But, I contend there are ways that students can reduce the amounts they have to borrow. I also contend that there are students that waste loan money on things that are not necessary.

I don't know kids sitting on the couch either, but read a few other posts on this forum you'll find out this is an issue for some parents. Sometimes kids can't find jobs. My suggestion was that an unpaid internship or volunteer work is an alternative that can provide a worthwhile experience. As to Mom and Dad, helping their kids.... where did I ever say they shouldn't? I just said they shouldn't ENABLE their kids. There's a bit of a difference.

The kids I have known who couldn't find jobs generally did volunteer work, or worked for their parents, who paid them for help around the house with specific projects, and so forth. I just object to the phrase "Mom and Dad" as if the parents are some sort of enablers. The economy is not great right now, if you haven't noticed, hasn't been for some years. "Summer jobs" are actually hard to find, and tend to be limited to camps and other recreation facilities. A FEW places may hire some summer help to cover vacation time, but it's more the exception than the norm.

Then don't live at home. Live in the dorm and be an RA. Get's you free room and board. Live within walking distance and have a bunch of roommates. Point is, if you're borrowing money for school, do your research and figure out how to live the cheapest you can.

My daughter was an RA, it was a real PIA job. It's easier to get an RA if you're a guy, as more girls apply. At DD's college they got a paycheck, not free R&B. Most college students live with roommates.

Perhaps this is true in Colorado. In NC, the community colleges work directly with the students to insure that all their credits will transfer to any of the universities in the public system. And NC is typical not atypical in this regard. Most Community colleges make sure their classes will transfer. If they didn't, they'd eliminate many of their students.

The Colorado public college/university system has a list of courses they will accept from the CCs. It includes academic courses only, in other words, courses from Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Science, and foreign language courses. No remedial courses, vocation courses such as auto mechanics, courses intended for certificate programs, and the like. While they will give you all of the credits, you may not be able to apply those credits to your major, or even to distribution requirements. You may get elective credit only, especially for certain courses.

So many wrong statements. Colleges will accept as many credits as you have that meet their score minimums. They won't tell you "Sorry, but even though you made a 5 on the AP Spanish Exam, no credit for you". Won't accept credits in one's major? HAHAHA. My daughter was a biology major. Didn't have to take BIO 101 or 102 or Physics 101 or 102 or any Math at all or a Foreign Language or English or History. All those are REQUIRED classes. She had in excess of 40 AP credit hours going into college. The only true thing (for my kid) about your statement is that it didn't knock any time off college. Not because she didn't get credit, but because she added Chemistry as a second major. If she'd stuck with Bio only, she could have been done in 2.5 years.

I'm not the ones making the wrong statements. Here are several links about limits on AP courses colleges may impose.

Transfer Credit & Policy - USC Undergraduate Admission

A maximum of 32 units is granted under either the A.P. or the I.B. program, or in combination.

AP Courses - Are AP Courses Worth It?
AP Courses - Are AP Courses Worth It?[/url]
Colleges do not necessarily award credit for AP courses because they don’t believe that AP courses are equivalent to their own courses.
•Colleges may not award credit for AP lab science courses.
•Some colleges limit the number of AP credits each student will receive. If you have five "5s" you may have to choose two or three that you want to use as credit.
Some credits don’t really fill a slot in your program. Those courses are called electives. Elective courses are extra courses that take up time but don’t necessarily move you forward to graduation. AP credits sometimes end up as elective credits.

Muddle on how to value Advanced Placement tests

Instead of graduating early, many students who do receive credit use it to add flexibility, giving them room in their schedule for more courses they want or for a second major.

At Allegheny College, which limits AP credits to 20, Scott Friedhoff, vice president of enrollment, said even students with many credits end up staying for four years.

Maybe not at U of C. Take a look at the stats for other colleges. Some have 90% in frats/sororities. Again you missed the point, kids borrowing money should be looking for ways to reduce costs not add them. Study Abroad is a wonderful program, but Abroad isn't going anywhere. It's not necessary for kids to study anywhere but their college to get a degree.

VERY few colleges have that high a "Greek" membership, and those that do are mostly small, private colleges.

Both of my kids did study abroad, and both they and I are glad they did. Once you get out of college and start working, you may not have an opportunity to do so again for many decades. It didn't add *that* much to the cost of college, either.

Maybe and maybe not. Ride share, use a parent's car for those night trips. If a car is a must, buy the one where cost/reliability make the most sense for you and then get a part time job to pay for it.

Ride sharing is hard when everyone is on different schedules. Occasionally one has to be on campus early Saturday mornng for a meeting, or go back at night to study, etc. Public transportation might work better than ride sharing, which also depends on the cooperation of everybody doing it. I will never be in another carpool again after my kids' middle school years. Use a parent's car? Isn't that the same thing as the parents giving the kid a car? It never ceases to amaze me that some parents will consider giving their kids a car, but think college tuition is a waste of money.

Both of my kids were blown away but the amount of money/trips/things some kids had when they were in college. Being on a tight budget themselves, they didn't understand how some kids were doing it all. Then they figured it out. SOME kids were borrowing the maximum amounts they could and living large off the money. I'm sure they had a FUN, FUN, FUN in college. But, now the FUN is over and it's time to pay back those loans. And they're complaining about their payments and how big they are and how they can no longer afford to have FUN.

If those people aren't asking your kids to repay their loans, why are you/they concerned about them?

[UNC4Me]

Originally Posted by Katiana

If those people aren't asking your kids to repay their loans, why are you/they concerned about them?

Uh.... have you read anything in these forums or paid any attention to the OWS crowd? There are MANY people who feel that we (you, me, our kids and all the taxpayers) should excuse all student loans. I simply do not agree.

Yes, things are tough these days. That has not escaped anyone's notice. Even so, I think people should be responsible for the loans they take out. It would be ideal if all the kids going to school on student loans had parents who were financially savy and able to guide them to smart decisions. Unfortunately, that is not the case and many kids end up borrowing way more than what is necessary to get their degree and begin post-college life under a tremendous burden.