Obviously the plan must be that only the rich will become educated. The rich will run the country, the poor will not question their place.
We've gone back to the Victorian Era...
Is the College Debt Bubble Ready to Explode?
- Thread starter Brian Foley
- Start date
We've gone back to the Victorian Era...
superstring01
Moderator
That's ridiculous. There are hoards of colleges and universities in any nation (about 2,400 in the US). No one is required to go to the most expensive of them. Northeastern is a private university that tells people in advance that their tuition is exorbitant. It doesn't go out asking kids to apply or attend. She could have done a cost-benefit analysis in advance and attended a state or public college and come to the same jobless conclusion, but with a fraction the debt.
But no, she wanted a big flashy name, and now she'll pay for it.
But don't worry, here in the USA poor people can still attend college in most areas (mine, comes to mind) for practically nothing. If you earn under a certain amount in my state (and California, Texas, Florida and a number of other states) you get drastically discounted rates (free if you're native American). If you're really smart, you can apply for all the grants and scholarships that various private and government agencies give out to all sorts of unique groups. Serve in the military? (if you did, you're probably poorer than most Americans) You get to go for for years for free as well.
But, if you're hell-bent on going to Northeastern, Harvard, Yale, Berkley, UPenn, Brown, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT (or some other comparable university), then have the brain power to know the risk and accept the outcome.
~String
But no, she wanted a big flashy name, and now she'll pay for it.
But don't worry, here in the USA poor people can still attend college in most areas (mine, comes to mind) for practically nothing. If you earn under a certain amount in my state (and California, Texas, Florida and a number of other states) you get drastically discounted rates (free if you're native American). If you're really smart, you can apply for all the grants and scholarships that various private and government agencies give out to all sorts of unique groups. Serve in the military? (if you did, you're probably poorer than most Americans) You get to go for for years for free as well.
But, if you're hell-bent on going to Northeastern, Harvard, Yale, Berkley, UPenn, Brown, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT (or some other comparable university), then have the brain power to know the risk and accept the outcome.
~String
superstring01
Moderator
I added that at the last minute.
Another alternative is to do what my younger brother did. Graduate from high school, attend a four year private university, get a commission in the military and let them pay the college loan for you (I believe it's $80,000 if you get a non-medical commission, $100,000 for a medical commission). And my brother wasn't even poor. His dad is a top-level manager at PNC and was able and willing to pay for most of his debt.
This girl can take her skills and see if one of the seven uniformed services will offer her a commission. That's 80k off the top of her loan.
Guess she's not quite that desperate?
Guess she doesn't have much of a reason to complain then.
~String
superstring01
Moderator
Edit: She's even more of a dope than I thought. Who pays $200k for a SOCIOLOGY degree? Really?
She didn't even bother to do a reasonable cost-benefit analysis before going there. Did she EVER hope to get a career capable of paying that off? Probably not. If you're going to become a professional sociologist, guess what? Private, Ivy-Leage-esque education and connections don't really do much.
~String
She didn't even bother to do a reasonable cost-benefit analysis before going there. Did she EVER hope to get a career capable of paying that off? Probably not. If you're going to become a professional sociologist, guess what? Private, Ivy-Leage-esque education and connections don't really do much.
~String
My son will be going to college in four years, my daughter in six and my step-son in seven. Shocking actually to think of the costs of college.
I attended SUNY (State University of New York) in the 80's and remember tuition was $662 per semester for full time 12 credits. Today it's more like $5,000 per semester, and the tuition is just the tip of the iceburg!
My daughter wants to go to the University of Phoenix but now you're talking $50,000 a year all inclusive- it's insane.
I watched a documentary about a month ago called "Declining by Degrees" which is about cash-strapped colleges going public and raising the tuition 1000% to become profitable- to then be able to build that $25 million addition etc... to the campus.
The only way to be able to attend college these days is by taking those loans and grants and accruing $200K in debt to have to pay back $400K for the next decade. It's really sad when education becomes an elitist thing because that's what it has become.
I attended SUNY (State University of New York) in the 80's and remember tuition was $662 per semester for full time 12 credits. Today it's more like $5,000 per semester, and the tuition is just the tip of the iceburg!
My daughter wants to go to the University of Phoenix but now you're talking $50,000 a year all inclusive- it's insane.
I watched a documentary about a month ago called "Declining by Degrees" which is about cash-strapped colleges going public and raising the tuition 1000% to become profitable- to then be able to build that $25 million addition etc... to the campus.
The only way to be able to attend college these days is by taking those loans and grants and accruing $200K in debt to have to pay back $400K for the next decade. It's really sad when education becomes an elitist thing because that's what it has become.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
A comedian recommended to a teenager that she should apply for as many credit cards as she can get, and then use them to pay her university expenses. The reason? If she ends up too far in debt and declares bankruptcy, all of her credit card accounts will be written off and closed, and it will even be illegal for anyone to pester her about them
But student loans are never canceled. For any reason.
I didn't think this ended up being so humorous.
But student loans are never canceled. For any reason.
I didn't think this ended up being so humorous.
SilentLi89
Registered Senior Member
Do you mean UC Berkeley in California? They are a public school they aren't all that expensive, at least they weren't when I applied there back in 2006, but they don't cost nearly as much the school I currently attend. Almost anyone can go to UC Berkeley (Cal) or UCLA, they just have to get in and fill out their financial aid forms right. Thanks to federal aid and grants I cut my $50,000/ year tuition to about $7000.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
The University of California at Berkeley is indeed a state university. It's often grouped with Stanford, Caltech and the comparable schools in the East, because it is of that caliber in every way except price.
Yeah, this girl seems to have tried to skip directly from the whole "first person in a blue-collar family to attend college" right to the "trust-fund baby who attends exorbitantly expensive private school and majors in navelgazing." There's supposed to be several steps in between there, involving successive generations working their ways through reasonably-priced schools to get degrees in remunerative fields, only culminating in the sort of leisure class status that would make it appropriate to pay for a Soc degree from Northeastern out-of-pocket after much time, hard work, and luck.
On the one hand, I can't blame an 18 year old too much for buying into all of the "college debt is good debt" and "you will make a bajillion dollars if you attend our awesome university" hype. But on the other hand, the gross mismatch between her financial position and educational choices is facepalm material. Did she not notice that everyone else in her Sociology classes was a trust-fund baby with no expectation of ever working a day in their lives?
SilentLi89
Registered Senior Member
Right... so like I said it shouldn't be grouped with actual ivy league schools in this instance. Cal is affordable, even a middle class family can pay the tuition out of pocket if they had to. Because they often do. There isn't much risk to consider as far as cost goes, if you're going to UC Berkeley.
But what I don't understand is the lack of financial aid in this woman's case. I am a first generation college student who currently attends a university with a similar price tag and while I did get a few small merit based grants my debt is no where near $200,000. I was accepted at Yale and my tuition would have been about $12000/year back in 2007 had I attended. I wonder why she did it all on her own like that, it seems rather foolish to me...:shrug: Unless her parents are extremely wealthy, she should have been able to get some aid.
So no one can be a self-taught renegade anymore? The only way to learn anything is to shell out a ton of money for a lot of things you might not be passionate about and hence, will discard from the memory banks later down the road?
superstring01
Moderator
SilentLi89
Registered Senior Member
It can even be better than just teaching yourself. If your school has a strong alumni network you can get hired for jobs you aren't really qualified for yet, just because they want to see a fellow alum succeed and then you can make twice the money for half the actual work... the American Dream
Also, Berkeley is really good in science and engineering. The Ivies are, generally speaking, not so much (some exceptions, obviously).
There is definitely something very fishy about that part of the story. Either she is really really bad at fillling out forms, or her parents (college educated or otherwise) are loaded but for some reason wouldn't pay for her education. We may never know...
SilentLi89
Registered Senior Member
Every school has their strong points and their weak points. UC Berkeley is an excellent school. While I don't really think it has the same "umph" behind it's name that an ivy league does, you will still get all the nods and bragging rights you could ask for, that is if you're into name dropping.