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The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

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Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#201

Post by GFischer »

RUG3Y wrote: post #172
stinkytaco wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freelance? Start contributing to OS projects and consult? I mean, if you're trying to break in without existing credentials or work product, I would have to think you'd need to create some work product and connections.

I have some creds + experience but I'm looking to get more. I haven't cracked freelancing yet. Places like Odesk seem like a mess and I haven't had good results.

Don't go to Odesk. There's plenty of advice on how to freelance here on Hacker News.

I've actually been on both sides of the table - as a freelancer I never got work through Odesk, I was actually hired through Hacker News once, and when it comes to hiring freelancers, I've recruited through my network (recommendations, etc.) and haven't considered Odesk.

If I were to go freelance again I would make it known in the local entrepreneurship community.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#202

Post by nercht12 »

poikniok wrote: post #182
nercht12 wrote: post #155

Even STEM can be a bad investment, depending on what you do. I graduated with a degree in Chem, wanting to do nanoscale computers and -later- optical computing. Found out 3rd year that unless I got a doctorate, I'd be a glorified lab rat. What's worse is that even if I got a doctorate, I'd still be a lab rat while trying to get one and would have a sliver of a chance to get a job anyways. My choice? I graduated, but…

How can California be too expensive to consider a job in? Total comp can be very very high ...

Pay is offset by the cost of living because everyone out there thinks you can afford it. I suppose it would help pay off my bills faster, but that's assuming steady work. That said, I'm so-so as to whether or not to take a job there.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#203

Post by nercht12 »

dikdik wrote: post #166
nercht12 wrote: post #155

Even STEM can be a bad investment, depending on what you do. I graduated with a degree in Chem, wanting to do nanoscale computers and -later- optical computing. Found out 3rd year that unless I got a doctorate, I'd be a glorified lab rat. What's worse is that even if I got a doctorate, I'd still be a lab rat while trying to get one and would have a sliver of a chance to get a job anyways. My choice? I graduated, but…

I did an undergrad in biotechnology which was effectively worthless, could barely make a dent on my 20k in undergrad debt. Now I've got a MS in bioinformatics and while I got a slight raise, I also had to take out more loans for the second degree. So I'm still floundering. If I had known what I know now, I never would have attended college (even though I had 70k worth of scholarships thrown at me). Would have picked…

My sympathies. We're stuck in the same boat. That said, assuming you have some steady work, have you looked into quicker loan payoff services like Sofi?

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#204

Post by stinkytaco »

RUG3Y wrote: post #172
stinkytaco wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freelance? Start contributing to OS projects and consult? I mean, if you're trying to break in without existing credentials or work product, I would have to think you'd need to create some work product and connections.

I have some creds + experience but I'm looking to get more. I haven't cracked freelancing yet. Places like Odesk seem like a mess and I haven't had good results.

Well, I'm looking for some experienced Perl devs, so if that's in your tool box, we should talk.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#205

Post by burfog »

ryandrake wrote: post #69
austenallred wrote: post #12

The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't p…

> The thing that irks me about this the most is how it's the people who were doing exactly what they were told that got hurt the most. The good kids who went to the best school they could get in to, studied whatever they were interested in, and if that thing happened to be literature or women's studies or a wide number of other things you might just spend the next 20 years figuring out how to live with debt you can't…

In the early 1990s at least, high school guidance people in Massachusetts did in fact tell us to study whatever we liked. The claim was that the degree wouldn't matter, because you'd get a job that wasn't really determined by your degree. (in that case why get a degree, hmmm?)

I think it made sense to the people giving the advice. That was how their lives had worked out. They got degrees, then ended up employed to give high school students career advice. (this is a low-paying job) For some reason it never occurred to them to say "Whatever you do, don't go down the path I went down!!!".

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#206

Post by burfog »

douche wrote: post #190
tangent128 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 years ago, manual labor was still a dominant slice of the economy; a sixteen-year-old who uncritically followed the advice of their parents would probably not be screwing over their career. And if they could attend college 100 years ago, it was worth the investment.

I still find it disappointing how dysfunctional we expect people to be these days. My grandfather had four children at my age, and had fought kamikaze pilots off Okinawa.

At age 9, Abraham Lincoln's father left for half a year. Abraham had to take care of his sister, hunt for food with a rifle, and chop wood to stay warm. This was in a 1-room house with no running water, no electricity, a dirt floor, and no privacy.

He turned out OK with that parenting, even elected president. Modern social services would have put him in a foster home.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#207

Post by RugnirViking »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #123
r_smart wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt there's some cabal of rich people that don't want others to understand interest. If anything, it would be to their advantage to have more potential business partners floating around out there. I think the reality is more likely that people working in schools are public employees, they tend to be apathetic or hostile towards capitalism, and not terribly interested in boring business stuff. These are the…

Public employees in most other developed countries seem to do a pretty good job, though. Why do you think they succeed where America fails?

Major citation needed on that one i'm afraid. Pretty much worldwide, the public sector and government are regarded by many as slow, excessively bureaucratic and failing the youth.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#208

Post by erroneousfunk »

epalmer wrote: post #163
roymurdock wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly recommend that your son/daughter cross register for biz classes (negotiations, basic accounting) at Babson and a liberal arts class or 2 at Wellesley in junior/senior year. The best class I took at Babson was a combination biz/engineering course at Olin called Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship. The lead instructor, Ben Linder, is amazing. Wrote more about the project/experience here if you're interested:…

@roymurdock Thanks so much. She is planning on taking a class or two Babson and Wellesley. We are pretty excited about Olin. She is doing a gap year this year as an Americorp Vista FIRST Robotics employee. She was mature already but the gap year has really helped her thinking develop in critical ways. So gap years are recommended when it can be worked out. Edit: added a "Pretty cool" Pretty cool project. Thanks for s…

I graduated from Olin, never took a class at Babson, but would also highly recommend classes at Wellesley.

The major downside to Olin is that it's very small and the humanities offerings are very scarce and not comprehensive at all. Olin has a four class humanities requirement for graduation and you're required to have a "theme" to the classes so that you have a sort of "humanities concentration." Some students don't really think about this until senior year, at which point they panic, take a couple more classes, and submit some sort of hand-wavey statement that tries to tie together all the extremely different classes they took.

I took Russian 101, 102, 201, and 202 over the course of 2 years at Wellesley and it was fantastic. I would highly recommend that she think about, not just her engineering major, but what topic she wants to pursue in the arts or humanities. If you make a decision in your freshman/sophomore year and pursue a specific set of classes it's an amazing opportunity to pick up a new skill/hobby, or expand on an existing one.

Re: The Lasting Consequences of Student Debt

#209

Post by dikdik »

nercht12 wrote: post #203
dikdik wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did an undergrad in biotechnology which was effectively worthless, could barely make a dent on my 20k in undergrad debt. Now I've got a MS in bioinformatics and while I got a slight raise, I also had to take out more loans for the second degree. So I'm still floundering. If I had known what I know now, I never would have attended college (even though I had 70k worth of scholarships thrown at me). Would have picked…

My sympathies. We're stuck in the same boat. That said, assuming you have some steady work, have you looked into quicker loan payoff services like Sofi?

I have never heard of that, will check it out. Thanks.
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