Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Great College Hoax

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 139 posts

Re: The Great College Hoax

#91

Post by sanj »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #79
sanj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a time when I felt that way. But somewhere along the line I married a woman who's got a degree in History and Literature. I can see your eyes rolling already. It gets worse: she never even (gasp!) took Calculus. But the fact is that she's smart. Crazy smart. Quoted by the Supreme Court smart. And she sees the world through glasses that are very, very different than my own. Our discussions are not about whet…

count yourself lucky. attractive women who don't spend their lives acting like 3rd graders just because they can are few and far between. This is also why people join mensa and similar clubs even though it seems kind of stupid to pay to belong to a "smart club". People need a level of interaction similar to their own. I'm sure most of the people on hacker news are frustrated on a daily basis with the 8th grade readin…

I do count myself as lucky -- very lucky!

However, I continue to be amazed at how many men I find that are scared by smart women. But that's a topic for another thread. And perhaps not on HN.

Re: The Great College Hoax

#92

Post by njharman »

tptacek wrote: post #65
Retric wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median household income income in the US 48,000 USD (2006). Let's say you get to keep 1/2 of the 60,000 per year over that for rent. That's easily 2,500 extra rent to cover living close to Manhattan / San Francisco over the national average and you probably don't need a car. The secret is to avoid Starbucks and other expensive things that are not part of the normal middle class lifestyle but seem so important to yupp…

That's a gross oversimplification. Drink a $5 cup of Starbucks every working day, and you've added $100 to your budget. Cut that expense; congratulations, you've saved 3% of your college loan payment. (Can you tell I've had this argument with Erin before?) The big-ticket items I don't trust you're considering: * Child care will cost between $1000-$2000/month. * Commute will add $300-$500; parking $500-$900 (plus car…

Drinking $5 cups of Starbucks is not Lower Middle Class.

Re: The Great College Hoax

#93

Post by madmanslitany »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #75
tptacek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$110k is ~$6600/mo net working Manhattan, living in Jersey. Aggressively assume $2500/mo to rent a house (forget buying). Assume part-time child care @ $900, commute @ $400, lowball utilities @ $500 (I pay more than that in Chicago), food @ $1000, car insurance for one car @ $200, and dependent health care at $150. At $110k/yr, you're now less than $1000/mo over break-even. Lose an alternator in the car, you're in th…

You can rent a 3bdrm apt for $1500 in JC, easily enough space for a family of 3-4. Utilities, figure $100-200/month. (Savings of $1200 over your numbers). Maybe you want a really big house? The apartments I'm talking about are close to the path, so forget the car (save $200). Path+subway every single day is $185/month (save $215), for a 23 min commute. So using your numbers, you are $1000 over break-even. In reality,…

I mostly agree with you, but isn't $1500 a bit of an underestimate? Jersey City isn't that cheap; $1500 is definitely impossible in Newport or near Exchange Place, and I thought that even around Journal Square it would cost more than $1500 a month for a three bedroom apartment.

Re: The Great College Hoax

#94

Post by RobGR »

eli wrote: post #16

Totally offtopic, but I hate it when people link to the Printer Friendly version. It's a whole lot harder to read on a widescreen monitor. If you don't want to see ads on the regular site, install AdBlock like everyone else.

Narrow your browser window.

Re: The Great College Hoax

#95

Post by yummyfajitas »

madmanslitany wrote: post #93
yummyfajitas wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can rent a 3bdrm apt for $1500 in JC, easily enough space for a family of 3-4. Utilities, figure $100-200/month. (Savings of $1200 over your numbers). Maybe you want a really big house? The apartments I'm talking about are close to the path, so forget the car (save $200). Path+subway every single day is $185/month (save $215), for a 23 min commute. So using your numbers, you are $1000 over break-even. In reality,…

I mostly agree with you, but isn't $1500 a bit of an underestimate? Jersey City isn't that cheap; $1500 is definitely impossible in Newport or near Exchange Place, and I thought that even around Journal Square it would cost more than $1500 a month for a three bedroom apartment.

$1500 is roughly what you would pay in Journal Square or the heights. The really nice areas you mentioned cost a bit more, of course.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/aap/jsy?query=jersey+ci...

Re: The Great College Hoax

#96

Post by becked »

eli wrote: post #16

Totally offtopic, but I hate it when people link to the Printer Friendly version. It's a whole lot harder to read on a widescreen monitor. If you don't want to see ads on the regular site, install AdBlock like everyone else.

I use the following in a bookmarklet to narrow the width of the content on the page:

javascript:void(document.body.style.width='500px');void(document.body.style.position='relative');

Re: The Great College Hoax

#97

Post by captainobvious »

time_management wrote: post #39

Shutter the bad and mediocre colleges, law schools, and business programs. These diploma mills border on fraud. Most people who think they went to "college" didn't. They were expensively babysat for four years because the job market couldn't figure out what to do with them (and, alas, still can't). The upper-middle tier schools (respectable but not distinguished state schools) shall stay in business but should be hal…

>A law program loses accreditation if less than 50% of its students fail the bar exam.

Guess a crummy school where more than 50% fail the bar wouldn't have any problems then.

Re: The Great College Hoax

#99

Post by nostrademons »

tptacek wrote: post #67
Retric wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking up is not going to reduce their debt.

No, but if both of them want kids, it will allow them to find a partner that isn't saddled with $1600/mo in college loans. As a partnership, breaking up potentially cuts their debt load in half.

It sounded like they'd already had kids together, in which case breaking up opens up a whole other can of worms...

Re: The Great College Hoax

#100

Post by unalone »

captainobvious wrote: post #98
unalone wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, but the complete lack of margin was painful.

Shrink your browser window, or increase the font size.

It's not that. I could read it. But psychologically I need that border. When text gets on the edge like that, it hurts to read.
Post reply on HN