181–190 of 463 posts
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> $75,000 annual sticker price Dear lord, that's insane. UT Austin estimates $26,000/year (in state), including room and board.
And $26k is still insane, at least compared to when I went to school in the 90s. It’s tough these days.
How does that compare to what you paid?
> While other parents cheerfully promise that “if you get in, we’ll figure out the money part,” That is literally the worst mindset to go in to this about. I profoundly want to see college be free for all, and debt zeroed out. Failing that rather utopian vision, the smart bet is to get a degree that you can pay off in under 10 years without a miracle. I plan to save up enough to help my kid out, which might well invo…
And if you get into very top tier private school, the networking alone is definitely worth it.
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The problem with vocational training that /r/personalfinance and similar forums trumpet is that it often points directly to manual labor which leads to severe physical decline and often injury. I hope industries such as plumbing, welding, HVAC, construction, etc. have improved and now teach best practices for safe lifting, mandatory physical therapy, and enforce them - but I don't think they do. Effectively what we'r…
Jobs that involve typing and computer use for extended periods of time will often lead to pain and health problems. It's not a quality unique to blue collar jobs.
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It’s certainly not something I want limited tax dollars to pay for, given that we still have childhood poverty and homelessness to work on.
Our economy generates enough wealth to take care of those people too.
And here we have once again why the government shouldn't be subsidizing student loans and shouldn't exclude them from bankruptcy. We need to quit incentivizing sub-prime loans. Unlike the housing crash where the houses retained most of their value and could be sold later, you can't sell your degree to pay back the money. If you're getting a necessary degree, it's very uncommon to default on your loan because you'll b…
so, uh, I guess I'm the modern equivalent of those trades. I mean, I don't have a union, but I fix computers and make a whole lot of money doing it, without any education. It is a lot like a trade, 'cause essentially I'm infrastructure for industry. I mean, instead of maintaining electricity at a factory, I'm maintaining servers in a build farm, but it's still infrastructure.
On the individual level you have a point. I mean, as a sysadmin, I do make like 30% less than a SWE, but I still make a whole lot of money, and I started when I was 17.
On a societal level, though? when you don't have a degree, the amount you make is dramatically dependent on how productive the people around you are.
Because I live in silicon valley and manage infrastructure for (mostly highly educated) engineers who are incredibly productive, I make a lot of money. A huge amount for someone who isn't educated or born rich.
If I was in a rural area, I'd be fighting for a job at geeksquad. I mean, I'd handily win that fight, but if I'm maintaining infrastructure for people who aren't very productive, I'm going to make... not very much money.
My point here is that if the US continues this trend of not educating it's children and excluding foreign educated people? Jobs like mine, for uneducated maintainers of infrastructure follow the jobs for the more productive people. If those people start working from china? They're probably gonna go find locals to do my job.
What I'm saying is that it is very much in my interest to do what needs to be done (mostly, I think, pay taxes) to see to it that kids go to college, even if I don't have any children of my own.
One of the best things my parents ever did for me (and themselves) was tell me, despite getting accepted, that I was not going to a fancy 40k+/yr school for undergrad. I was angsty about it at the time, but I got over it pretty quick and now looking back appreciate how much stress and debt they saved me from. I went to a magnet high school so there was a lot of pressure to go to a "prestigious" school, and "settling"…
Same here. Got into MIT for engineering and went to a (still good) in-state school for engineering. My parents made it clear that they had saved enough to pay for the in-state tuition (+ an academic scholarship) but that I'd have to go into debt for MIT. Some of my peers were kind of shitty about it. "So-and-so doesn't like to try so I get their decision." There was definitely a cult of Ivy League there. I'm very hap…
Serious question: how does a parent deal with their high school kids wanting to pursue college in a field with a low probability of high lifetime earnings (art, theatre etc.) ? Especially when they are middle class without generational wealth to insulate themselves
Though, in reality I would have continued to support them if they switched majors after giving STEM a chance for 2-years.
> While other parents cheerfully promise that “if you get in, we’ll figure out the money part,” That is literally the worst mindset to go in to this about. I profoundly want to see college be free for all, and debt zeroed out. Failing that rather utopian vision, the smart bet is to get a degree that you can pay off in under 10 years without a miracle. I plan to save up enough to help my kid out, which might well invo…
If you don't mind, can I ask some questions to expand upon this?
First, does this count living expenses? Many students can save greatly living at home, but this requires going to a college near your home, for there to even been a college near your home, and decent enough relationship with the parents/guardian. If we don't cover room/board/etc. it greatly limits freedom of picking without people still having to take on some level of debt, but makes the overall cost cheaper. If we do cover room/board/etc. then what sorts of limits are on it?
Second, you say free for all, but does all mean the people who take more than 4 years to finish a 4 year degree? What sort of upper limits? What about people who have a degree but want to go back (perhaps there degree is in a field that is currently shrinking)? Would there be an expected level of academic achievement that must be met to continue?
Many people I've spoken to in the past will quickly point out that many nations already solve these problems, but I also find what the person envisions and how it works in other countries do have some level of disagreement (especially with regards to merit qualifications and the actual experience itself), though I haven't been able to verify if this is really the case or not.
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I think this trade school obsession is foolish. Everyone cargo-cults it as "pragmatic" without actually analyzing what the jobs entail and what you can actually expect to make. Statistically, you still earn way more with a degree than without. You EARN that pay in the trades, and being an electrician is dangerous. The work is hard on your body. A lot of electricians end up on disability. I wasn't very academic growin…
Personally, I think learning a trade should be an option in high school. A trade is better than a high school diploma both in pay and practical usefulness, whereas "college prep" is almost always useless. If you learn a trade and dislike it, you should have as much time as possible to pivot to something else. I think high schoolers should have two choices: - Associates Degree track at a local university - apprentices…
Lots of Americans do learn a trade in high school. Just to copy the "Programs" menu from the Tech Center at the high school where my wife teaches (suburb in VT): Automotive Technology, Building Technology, Cosmetology, Computer Systems Technology, Computer Animation & Web Design, Dental Assisting, Design and Creative Media, Childhood Education & Human Services, Engineering & Architectural Design, Natural Resources, Professional Foods, Health Informatics. I understand that many of these programs, if not all, are supposed to be a career for the students, and that many of them are thought of as hard.
There’s some weird things about this article. 1) Their daughter likely would’ve qualified for quite a bit of financial aid, which potentially could have brought a fancy art college to within reason for her. That she never even applied to her dream schools means she will never know if they would’ve been competitively priced. 2) Collectively, student debt is $1.6T, but that doesn’t tell you much about the per graduate…
Median payment seems like a misleading statistic because there are many repayment plans: the default is 10 years for student loans; but income-based repayment could extend that. Affordable monthly payments across the board is good for all graduates, but it doesn't necessarily imply it's $222/month for 10 years for all debtors.