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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

#71

Post by Moto7451 »

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.

It's been my experience that when people say any they really mean the straightforward stuff like Federal and State grants and loans. Being Ineligible for Federal grants is one thing, but so long as you filled out a FAFSA you were still eligible for school grants, private grants, and private student loans with deferred interest payments. That's a huge incentive to complete a FAFSA. Even people who have used up their Federal and State aid should keep their FAFSA going and check their school's financial aid office for other types of aid.

Case in point: in high school I lined up thousands of dollars in financial aid that no one else bothered to apply to. The largest check being $4,000 from my Alumni association for writing two paragraphs about how much I liked my school. A white friend of mine even got a NAACP scholarship because no one else applied (In case you don't believe this happens or think I'm joking, see [1] (not my friend). No one seemed to mind in his case).

I had some family issues and then had a falling out with my family and was locked out of FAFSA until I turned 23. Now THAT is something that does made you ineligible for pretty much any financial aid aside from traditional loans and working a lot. That really sucked. I ended up having not finishing my bachelors as a result. Thankfully Community College worked out pretty well for me.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/jeffrey-warren-whit...

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#72

Post by NkVczPkybiXICG »

noonespecial wrote: post #50

There should be a way for companies to invest in promising interns, paying some of their tuition costs in exchange for a certain number of years employment with the company afterwards. While this wouldn't work for many fields, it would certainly help in cases like this (and tech in general). It would seem that with as much as companies pay for head-hunters and recruiters (and how much they whine about the lack of qua…

The freedom to quit is vital to maintaining a non-exploitative workplace.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#73

Post by pliny »

noonespecial wrote: post #50

There should be a way for companies to invest in promising interns, paying some of their tuition costs in exchange for a certain number of years employment with the company afterwards. While this wouldn't work for many fields, it would certainly help in cases like this (and tech in general). It would seem that with as much as companies pay for head-hunters and recruiters (and how much they whine about the lack of qua…

You are describing indentured servitude, which is illegal because it is a form of slavery.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#74

Post by nabnob »

I'm slightly confused about the logistics of this because I also attended Carnegie Mellon and received around $20k in financial aid per calendar year (grants and Stafford loans combined), and my parents made over $100k.

If this isn't too intrusive - how much were you making when you received $16k in financial aid vs. $104? Are you only including grants in this amount, or does this also include low-interest student loans?

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#75

Post by muzz »

baddox wrote: post #67
hga wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't forget parents with modest incomes but a lot of savings from planning their own retirement. That's the reason I didn't get any financial aid (other than some subsidized loans to cover part of my costs).

Retirement accounts don't affect financial aid, they are not even asked for on the FAFSA.

Only if they had savings in a non-retirement account-- where they could use it for things other than retirement-- it would affect your financial aid.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#76

Post by rcoder »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #62
rcoder wrote: post #51

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 e…

"6 figure student loan debt" is a persistent but false meme. It implies a different distribution of student debt than actually exists. Average graduating debt was ~$23k last year. http://www.finaid.org/loans/

Yeah, I realized it was hyperbolic immediately after posting; hence the edit to say "tens of thousands of dollars".

I also wasn't really trying to generalize; I was attending a fairly expensive liberal arts school (albeit to study math) with 100% need-based financial aid, and tuition alone doesn't cost nearly as much at most state schools.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#77

Post by nabnob »

gwbas1c wrote: post #47

"Despite having federal loans and a work study job, I had to borrow money from my friends and max out my credit cards just to make ends meet." When I was in school, that was a red flag. Without knowing the details of Ingrid's education costs and spending habits, it's just as easy to conclude that Ingrid lived beyond her means. Thus, before blaming the system, I'd want to know what Ingrid's numbers were. She did inter…

Yeah, the numbers don't really make sense. My parents made over $100k per year and I still received about $20k in grants and low-interest student loans, AND I worked part-time during the school year in addition to full time during the summer.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#78

Post by tomphoolery »

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…

My parents helped me pay for college. In fact, they covered my tuition. We did take out some loans but not much. I am eternally grateful that this debt has not been saddled upon me for the rest of my life, because if it was I probably wouldn't have gone to college in the first place, seeing no way of ever making enough money back to warrant what I've learned.

I did not go to school for CompSci, btw, or anything programming-related (unless you count programming synthesizers as "programming" :P)

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#79

Post by mullingitover »

gscott wrote: post #64
dsrguru wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are those legal steps?

Doing an adult adoption by a poorer family member would do the trick (if you are over 18)

Or just marry your roommate. As soon as you're married (or get an honorable military discharge) you don't have to be saddled with your parents' income.

Re: I cannot afford to go back to engineering school

#80

Post by nutate »

superuser2 wrote: post #45
hga wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep. If your parents are wealthy and don't want to help you, you are most definitely not going to a high-end school, not even a state flagship. At that point community college is the only reasonable option (because it's actually possible to earn enough without the degree to cover the cost). You couldn't really have it any other way without drastically altering the structure of higher education: the alternative is tha…

My parents had just gotten divorced. My dad had zero net worth, my mom very little. Full federal financial aid and need-blind admission at Columbia U. Super cheap, but only later did I realize how lucky I was (in a way) compared to a kid from a moderately wealthy family with two siblings in college. Let alone my friend who came to CU from a rich family but with no parental support who had to get an official parental divorce to make it work!
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