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Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

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Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#151
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a CE too and almost done with my PE. I want to stay engaged with learning after I’m done. And CS is definitely something I want to do afterwards but don’t really want to pursue a Master’s or any schooling. Can you recommend any CS books you loved? Anything iOS related would be great but I’ll take any recommendations from a fellow CE.

One of my favorites when I was a CE and looking for interesting usecases for my job was Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. I was able to automate and speed up lot of slow, manual processes like signing and stamping shop drawings.

Ok thanks! I’ll get the book and go through it. Funnily enough, the only CS course I took in college was Python. I am familiar with the language but I’ve only made very simple scripts that are barely 20 lines of code. Looks like it’s a good road to go down to get better at things.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a CE too and almost done with my PE. I want to stay engaged with learning after I’m done. And CS is definitely something I want to do afterwards but don’t really want to pursue a Master’s or any schooling. Can you recommend any CS books you loved? Anything iOS related would be great but I’ll take any recommendations from a fellow CE.

CE here with only FE (only 25) I taught myself programming in my free time as I work for a state DOT with a decent amount of free time. One of the cool things about CS (specifically data engineering/science) is it sort of is / will be permeating every technical field so you can sort of combine the two. If your asking about the order I learned things I got pretty good with python for 2 years, tinkered with web stuff i…

That’s the plan. I don’t plan to get a degree in CS. The most I’d be willing to do is attend a boot camp and that’s a big IF.

Like I mentioned in the comment to the other commenter, the only CS course I took in college was Python. I’m very familiar with it but haven’t used it too much. I am not wanting to change careers because I also have a similar job like yours. I have plenty of time to learn and I just want to stay productive.

Anyways, thanks for the info. Really. And good luck on your PE if and when you take it. It’s not hard. It’s just a lot.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#153
post #12
post #11

tldr The Academy of Art (San Francisco) is just another place that figured out how to scam the loan system by labeling itself a Graduate School where the $limits are higher. Yale is substantially lower priced so it's not about quality or student degree choice... it's about scamming.

Privately owned for-profit art school should be a giant warning to anyone thinking of enrolling.

"But I'm following my passion."

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#155
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The dept of education needs to treat universities the same way Medicaid treats healthcare providers. Determine what it actually costs per student per year to run a university, and tell the schools "Accept $x or shove off". If they're going to benefit from gov backed loans, they should play by the govs rules. This sounds appealing, but healthcare and education are different in some fundamental ways. People (generall…

> But people do choose to attend Masters degree programs -- they aren't forced to by circumstances outside their own control. Really? You don't think the climbing housing and living prices and job hiring requirements have anything to do with more people pursuing a Master's degree?

Huh? People do things for all sorts of reasons, including pursuing a Masters' degree.

Are you saying people are forced to get these degrees because housing is expensive and job requirements are increasing, in the same way that someone unconscious in an ambulance is forced to get medical care?

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#156
post #65
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The dept of education needs to treat universities the same way Medicaid treats healthcare providers. Determine what it actually costs per student per year to run a university, and tell the schools "Accept $x or shove off". If they're going to benefit from gov backed loans, they should play by the govs rules. This sounds appealing, but healthcare and education are different in some fundamental ways. People (generall…

If all people were buying Teslas using government-backed loans that the gov was then responsible to collect, while Tesla got paid up front and claimed to be a non-profit, they would absolutely have the right to tell them what they could charge. If a university is going to call itself non-profit, they should only be charging whatevers needed to cover costs of operating. Tuition has skyrocketed in the last 10-20 years,…

First, tuition and costs have both gone up for universities, and you can make up whatever costs you want. New sports facility? Part of the costs. 7-figure salaries for administrators? Part of the costs. How would you decide which costs are "reasonable" and which aren't? It's a real morass -- what you are suggesting, to be effective, would require government micromanagement of private education.

Second, government already runs public education -- those institutions cost less, but costs have still gone up and tuition has still skyrocketed.

Third, despite the fact that Medicaid does impose price caps, both the list price and costs for medical care have also skyrocketed.

Explain again how price caps solve anything? Every market with price manipulation looks like a disaster. Housing (rent control) and medical care (medicaid & insurance payments are limited or contractually negotiated) are just two examples.

I think what we want are not mandated prices, but mandated transparency in value, so that you know if the price is worth it!

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m confused as well, I’ve known a few MS CS students who didn’t do the RA TA Route, but were paying out of pocket. I never asked why because it seemed to be an infringement on their privacy.

RA TA requires you are a slave of the professor. If you just want that degree by taking classes and doing a small project then you gotta pay up. Trafeoff

Yeah but RA or TA requirements are A) pretty beneficial B) worth the thousands of dollars that are in exchange especially when considering A

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#158
California already had free education. See the "California Master Plan for Higher Education." We had to stop because of prop 13.

"The State’s higher education and prison systems are a study in opposites. The prison system saw its state funding in dollars leap 436% between 1980 and 2011. Back then, spending on prisons was a mere 3% of California’s budget; it’s now 10%."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/california-publ...

https://time.com/4276222/free-college/

https://senate.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2017-02/Reclaimi...

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#159
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

School vouchers. Still bad for college: why give free money to the richest of society?

Because relatively speaking, there’s not that many of them and it’s only fair. The rich get Medicare, right?

Medicare definitely has regressive components to it. But I don't know enough about the aggregates to make a conclusion.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric from Elizabeth Warren and the like... The underlying problem is the giant wealth transfer to colleges, and the progressive fixes seem to be to transfer even more wealth to them.

> This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric I assume by "this" you are refering to the OP's statement that "This is what happens when there's 0 pressure on universities to price their programs competitively." One of the idea's behind free public college is to apply market pressure to private college's, so that they have to price their programs competitively. In a risk free debt financed system, pric…

> Also I am curious, are you in favor of abolishing public high school? What part of your argument against free college does not apply to free high schools?

High schools are for minors. The return/cost benefit of them is much higher, and the users of it are not responsible adults, a decision is made unto them.

College is used mostly by the upper half of society, and the majority that goes to college can afford it. Taxing the populace to give the richer resources is "trickle down economics".

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