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Bull****. Almost every student I knew in college couldn't pay for college without it. This has been almost a decade ago and tuition has only gone up since then.
Then work for a few years before college. With people living at home post college what difference is it to live at home from 18 to 22, work a $30-35k/year job and save $15-20k/year.
Then use that to fund college, graduate at 26 instead of 22. Also graduate with a work history/experience, something other students may not have so it is a competitive advantage
Instead many people go to college from 18-22, find they are still living at home until 26 and paying on student loans.
Debt is a choice, you can work first if you dont have scholarships/grants.
I have been thinking lately that college is a scam. I guess it is what it is for certain professions that require it for training...but really why not just get training and pay for it. So many people go off to college clueless after taking SATs, going through a gruelling application process, then finally paying for it and making sure you pass....and actually then finally...getting a job.
This is basically impossible to do once you have kids unless you have someone else supporting you or your company paying for it
Does anyone think this whole process will ever go away? This just isnt a fit for everyone. Sidenote i have a masters so i did go through all this...but it just seems dumb.
I mean, it's one of the things that I agree with Trump on - end Common Core education. College isn't the scam, college is a wonderful experience that preps you for the work world. The public schools and test scores are part of the "rigged" education system which is built to buffer the top 20-40% and make a hard time for the rest who don't make the cut. I've seen it, witnessed it, lived it. It's call New Jersey public schools run by the crooked NJEA.
The SAT is an exam built to trick kids and creates a money pit for training for it (look at the Princeton Review.) I ended up going well on the ACT which wasn't even promoted in my high school because the SAT is HQ in NJ and the NJEA is forced to promote it. I ended up taking the exam some 60 miles away from my hometown on the border of Pennsylvania.
High school is pretty silly if you ask me. You know it because it's the kids who get coddled in high school WAY too much that fail or drop out of college and get crappy jobs.
Bull****. Almost every student I knew in college couldn't pay for college without it. This has been almost a decade ago and tuition has only gone up since then.
Very much so. I know kids who are screwed financially because their parents took out crap loans before the recession and are now 80-90K in undergrad debt. Wasn't their fault, parents just failed to read the interest rate correctly before signing and putting it in their names. I mean, do most kids have a clue what student debt is at 17? I really don't think so.
I also know a lot of kids who got expensive undergrad paid for in full by parents and had zero debt. That's not good either
I got lucky - I had a little bit and paid most of it down by now. I also graduated in the worst era for jobs (2009) so it took me a while to get there.
The newest scam is a lot of colleges are refusing to accept transfer credits from community colleges. They don't want people saving money by taking classes there. A few states have laws to prevent that but the practice is wide spread. Colleges are a bubble and a fraud and should lose their nonprofit status.
Because taking away nonprofit status will make attending less expensive?
Because the for-profit colleges have done so well?
The problem is due to the watered down curriculum everyone and their brother can eventually graduate college today sooner or later. So the mills are churning out college grads but there isn't enough jobs to go around. Jobs aren't being created fast enough to keep with all the people graduating college
I don't know it's totally a college problem as it is a "not enough good jobs" problem
The popular argument is under such a system a genius who could someday cure cancer will never get there because they were rejected from college. But come on, someone who is that bright and ambitious is not going to do so poorly as to not get accepted into a college.
Depends on the admissions requirements. If they look at your class ranking, then I would never have gotten in. I was in the bottom 1/3rd of my class.
But I was in the top 2% for SAT/PSAT/ACT scores (I took them all. I thought they were fun).
My math scores pulled me down because at my high school they didn't bother to teach the girls. I kid you not, about the third time I heard "don't worry about it, dear, you'll never use any of this anyway" I was about ready to scream. I was only in the top 80% for my math scores. Else I'd have been top 1% overall. I missed the PSAT scholarship by like 2 points.
My grades were so low because I was doing all the cooking and cleaning for a family of 7, plus - abuse. At school AND at home. Plus - bored anyway. IQ of 152, female, 1960s - I was an alien creature.
The school counselor tried mightily to talk me out of going to college. Because - bad grades in high school (except when I liked the teacher). Also I was considered a weirdo. Also also I was female. She made me take typing classes because "then you'll always be able to get a job, dear", shaking head mournfully at my unrealistic ambitions.
Those typing classes actually DID come in handy - in my career as a software engineer.
Point being - lots of guidance councilors, teachers, and admissions officers do NOT have the best interests of the student in mind. I wouldn't trust an admissions officer to make balanced, fair, rational decisions in the absence of somebody standing over their shoulder watching what they do. Anybody they don't think is "college material" - say, women, or poor folks, or people of color, or "foreigners" or whatever the bigotry-du-jour is, or bored geniuses who didn't get great grades in high school - won't get in.
Not so. You could do a "dirty job" no one wants to (something in harsh Alaskan winter, garbage truck, etc.) that doesn't require a college degree, and earn enough to save up and pay for the school in cash. Perhaps you don't find this desirable but it absolutely can be done. A relative of mine made $35,000 in a few months on some sort of (crab harvesting?) boat job - and to boot, lived on the boat so did not pay rent.
It's all about what sacrifices you are willing to make.
You're going to save $30k driving a garbage truck? Where the hell are you going to make that much money driving a garbage? Crab fishing is also one of the most dangerous jobs out there. Sorry I (and many others don't want to risk our lives for a few dollars.) You sound very out of touch with reality. The days of saving up for college are LONG GONE for the most part.
Nope, it's still a choice. College is a choice, no one forces you to go.
I understand the point you are making, that for many college is unaffordable without going into debt. That's a problem of its own.
But it doesn't change the fact that college and debt are still a CHOICE, no one has a gun held at their head forcing them to take out loans.
I love when people make comparisons like your last sentence about going to college. Where the **** are people going to get the tens of thousands of dollars it takes to go to college if they didn't join the military, don't have wealthy family members, or didn't get scholarships?
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