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I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

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Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#51

Post by rcoder »

This closely mirrors my experience, though my "summer job" straight out of my Freshman year of college was part-time cashiering at a pizza restaurant. From there, I temped as an office worker at a startup, convinced them to hire me full time and let me build databases, then pivoted that into writing Java code.

After a year of work wherein I made about $25k, I talked to the financial aid office and found out that my expected contribution towards tuition, room, and board was likely to go from about $5k/year (barely covered via loans and family support) to $15-20k, which was totally untenable.

My response was to drop out, keep coding, and figure out how to backfill the CS knowledge I needed by working with smarter, more experienced people than myself. 15 years in, it seems to have worked reasonably well, and I'm regularly reminded how much easier my life has been not having tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loan debt hanging around my neck throughout my 20s.

To be clear: I know that the plural of anecdote is not "data", and I don't want to suggest that the dropout -> tech industry path is easy or in any way guaranteed. However, I think that it's a far easier field to get into than many others if you have the aptitude and motivation to build some things on your own and learn as much as you can from the process.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#52

Post by keiferski »

socialengineer wrote: post #23
Glyptodon wrote: post #19

It's lame when a distant internship won't provide rent, but also possibly this person is going a too expensive school? It sounds like between the two internships combined they'd have made around $30k total, no? If so, that seems like just barely enough to cover living expenses and a year at a public university with $4 to $7k in tuition and fees a semester. Though it would be lame to have to spend 9 months off school…

She goes to University of Pittsburgh, which is a public school.

Just for clarification (I'm a Pitt alum): Pitt is sort of a public school. A portion of the budget comes from the state, but not as much as many other state schools (the California system, for example).

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#53

Post by stevewilhelm »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #28
mchannon wrote: post #15

Across this country, this very month, legions of rubes will be getting low-interest student loans to enroll in psychology, general studies, and undecided major degree programs, paying $40k per year, only to drop out shortly thereafter with a huge financial hangover and little ability to pay for it. In contrast, an electrical engineering degree will easily pay for itself, particularly if you've managed to bootstrap yo…

You say with great conviction that EE is the way to go, but with the world being what is is, who can predict the future these days? In the early 2000s a degree in chemistry was considered a safe bet, especially with a biochemistry PhD tacked on. Then there was the 2008 recession, the great round of layoffs at the major pharmcos, combined with the offshoring of early discovery. If anyone says they feel cheated I'm not…

The US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an Occupational Outlook Handbook. [1]

It includes projected number of new jobs this decade and projected growth rate per career.

[1] http://www.bls.gov/ooh/

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#54

Post by dsrguru »

anologwintermut wrote: post #26
epistasis wrote: post #4

This is broken, and it shouldn't be this way. There are far too many broken bureaucracies in modern society, both governmental and corporate. And most of these impede those with the fewest resources or capabilities to work around them. Just because we've been trained to think that government or corporate policy is supposed to be complex and broken, doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to improve. Without a ridiculously…

The flip side to this is I know someone who went through the legal steps to have their parents money not be counted as theirs and got huge scholarships. Trick: Their parents still supported him and were worth about 100 million. So he got a nice Mercedes(2 actually, he crashed one) and cheap college. It's a flawed system, but simply not counting your parents money is an even more flawed system.

What are those legal steps?

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#55

Post by mateyrose »

This is a travesty, and one I witnessed as a college professor again and again. Why does the US pretend that we don't have enough science and engineering "smarts" among our own students, and seek talent from other countries, when in fact our talent is right here, but unable to afford tuition. Moreover, we hear quite a lot about the lack of women in science and engineering fields.....and here is one who is passionate about engineering yet cannot afford to complete her degree. Something is terribly wrong with this scenario. Businesses: if you really want bright, gifted young women and minorities in the engineering field, put your money where your mouths are and pony up. The rewards will far outweigh your contributions.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#56

Post by kkthnxbye »

I was in a similar situation in Canada (but of course, total cost for a semester in engineering school + housing + food amounted to about $8k - $9k). With an internship that landed me about $22/hr post-tax, 40% of the total I made was put towards paying for the next semester. That automatically kicked me out of the low-income family grant which would've given me $8k a year.

I remember some of my friends saying they received more in grants and bursaries than what I made in that 4 month period alone (with no effort, to boot!), and that slightly discouraged me a bit, but one needs to remember this is an investment that will pay off in the next few years.

That being said, I was enrolled in a software engineering program, but most of my friends have found work in EE as well.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#58

Post by batbomb »

hga wrote: post #33
rayiner wrote: post #14

I agree with the ultimate sentiment, which is that it's generally inadvisable to try and pay your way through school these days. The federal government will let you and your parents borrow as much as you need to pay for school, and you'll make more money after you finish your degree, so your efforts are better spent trying to finish in as few semesters as possible to minimize the amount of money you need to borrow in…

Is there still a screw case for "kids from wealthier families" when the families refuse to help? At least during the '80s, I was told I was ineligible for any financial aid.

Unsubsidized Stafford loans are, AFAIK, always available no matter what your parents make. They will cover half to most of in-state tuition (~3-5k) at many in-state colleges, but not much more. It wouldn't cover even half the tuition + fees at Cal Berkeley, but it would cover half to most at SFSU.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#60

Post by brownbat »

dsrguru wrote: post #54
anologwintermut wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side to this is I know someone who went through the legal steps to have their parents money not be counted as theirs and got huge scholarships. Trick: Their parents still supported him and were worth about 100 million. So he got a nice Mercedes(2 actually, he crashed one) and cheap college. It's a flawed system, but simply not counting your parents money is an even more flawed system.

What are those legal steps?

Probably referring to emancipation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_of_minors

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