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Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

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Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#261

Post by hajile »

dminzi wrote: post #235
kerkeslager wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That applies to inbound freshman, but for students going into their sophomore-to-senior years, who are already accepted, taking a year off seems like a no-brainer.

Everybody keeps saying that it is a no brainer to take a gap year. I am headed into my senior year and I don't think it is as clear cut as everybody here makes it out to be. What are my options when I take a gap year? I can either live in my apartment near my school and do nothing or live at home. Either way, I am doing nothing because I have no money. I haven't gone to classes consistently since the end of my sophom…

Beware of the job market. If you can't find a job when you graduate next year, you get to go into the horrible "haven't had a job since I graduated X months ago" which can turn your resume into poison for quite a few industries.

I saw a lot of people have this issue after the 2008 collapse.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#263

Post by abdullahkhalids »

abvdasker wrote: post #69

I agree. For some degrees it's less of an issue but for areas of study like chemistry, biology, physics and many others, access to the college's physical resources like laboratories is part of what you're paying for. I don't know how you solve this problem with the current constraints imposed by COVID-19, but you can't expect these students to pay full-price for an inferior education.

My university is solving this by having everything online except for physical lab courses. And these labs will run at reduced density.

This does mean that students from out of city will have to find safe accommodation, but thankfully they are only a small part (<10%) of the student population at my uni .

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#264

Post by nitrogen »

kerkeslager wrote: post #184
astura wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only you can afford to do something like that or are bankrolled by someone else. I couldn't afford being away from my only source of income at school (student loans) for a year when I was going to school, I would literally be homeless without it. Add on that it's very difficult to get a job to support yourself right now and full time students are not eligible for unemployment. That's not even considering the risks yo…

Don't assume I'm coming from a position of privilege. I dropped out of college because I couldn't pay for it, and if I could go back, I would absolutely not go in debt for those years of college which didn't result in a degree. Let's be clear here: student loans are not income. If you're going into debt to pay for college, that's even more reason that you should wait to go to college. If your reason for staying in sc…

In any other year, if the economy is doing well, and if your degree program is good, then it makes sense to use student loans to get into the high tech workforce ASAP. But there are tons of other assumptions around that: health, chronotype, personality, housing, etc.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#265

Post by kerkeslager »

dminzi wrote: post #235
kerkeslager wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That applies to inbound freshman, but for students going into their sophomore-to-senior years, who are already accepted, taking a year off seems like a no-brainer.

Everybody keeps saying that it is a no brainer to take a gap year. I am headed into my senior year and I don't think it is as clear cut as everybody here makes it out to be. What are my options when I take a gap year? I can either live in my apartment near my school and do nothing or live at home. Either way, I am doing nothing because I have no money. I haven't gone to classes consistently since the end of my sophom…

> What are my options when I take a gap year? I can either live in my apartment near my school and do nothing or live at home. Either way, I am doing nothing because I have no money.

You could work. The delivery companies are all desperate to hire people. It's not glamorous or high-paying work, but it's better than paying through the nose for online classes.

> That said, I am paying nearly $70,000 this year. Same as I paid last year. I am being ripped off this year. I was ripped off last year. Last year was terrible and this year is extremely terrible. At this point, I want to put the whole thing behind me. College has been great because all I've had to do is learn and I've made amazing friends. This year we'll be in our apartment carrying on.

With due respect, there's no college in existence I would pay $70,000/year for. In four years that's $280,000. That's a nice single family home in a nice suburb, or a brownstone in an up-and-coming city neighborhood. Even if the job market magically rights itself, what job are you expecting to get that will allow you to pay that off?

One thing you could do during a gap year that would be worthwhile would be to apply for every scholarship you can to bring that cost down.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#266

Post by kerkeslager »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #244
kerkeslager wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't assume I'm coming from a position of privilege. I dropped out of college because I couldn't pay for it, and if I could go back, I would absolutely not go in debt for those years of college which didn't result in a degree. Let's be clear here: student loans are not income. If you're going into debt to pay for college, that's even more reason that you should wait to go to college. If your reason for staying in sc…

If you leave school for a year, how hard is it to return? I.e. any re-admission issues?

In the past, as long as it's only 1 or 2 years, there weren't really any readmission issues as long as your previous grades weren't terrible. I've been readmitted, and had a few friends readmitted. There are lots of reasons that students take a gap year, some of which are well outside the students' control, so it's a fairly common occurrence that colleges have provisions for.

However, if you go too long, prerequisites start to change, credits start to expire, etc., so even if you're readmitted that can be problematic.

And there's the caveat that Covid may have all sorts of effects in the coming years.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#267

Post by kazagistar »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #244
kerkeslager wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't assume I'm coming from a position of privilege. I dropped out of college because I couldn't pay for it, and if I could go back, I would absolutely not go in debt for those years of college which didn't result in a degree. Let's be clear here: student loans are not income. If you're going into debt to pay for college, that's even more reason that you should wait to go to college. If your reason for staying in sc…

If you leave school for a year, how hard is it to return? I.e. any re-admission issues?

It will be hard to be readmitted when the school Financials completely collapse in the next few years due to a massive drop in attendance.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#268

Post by nitrogen »

Grimm1 wrote: post #199
astura wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they literally don't know how to learn what they are interested in? I went into computer science as a major because I was interested in computers. College was literally the only way I was able to learn because I didn't know anything about getting started - I didn't know what a programming language was, for example, so I wouldn't know to learn to program. I grew up poor and my public education was very substandard.…

Google "Careers in computers", followed by how to learn then click on any of the resources and get to it. I'm very much not a fan of the kind of "learned helplessness" being displayed in this comment and getting started in something like this is trivial with the amount of resources available right now. It's really not that hard to get started learning and college doesn't really prepare you for these jobs anyway so if…

I'm very much not a fan of the kind of "learned helplessness"

Someone coming from a community where there are literally zero engineers or programmers will be very lucky if they even know what words to look for. We can't search for what we don't even know exists. On the flip side people don't know what they do know, in the sense that assumed common knowledge might not actually be common.

I was lucky that I had a parent who was a teacher, at a time when textbooks started including simple BASIC programs to demonstrate concepts. I was also lucky to have access to a safe and clean public library as a kid, that happened to have a couple of shelves with computer books.

Re: Online classes are not worth cost of full tuition

#269

Post by znpy »

azhenley wrote: post #247
humanistbot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except "embracing" is definitely not the right word. Very few professors I know are happy about this whole situation. Universities are begrudgingly accepting the fact that they can't have in-person classes, so they have to turn to online alternatives. Tuition can't be changed because the few costs that are being saved (facilities still need maintenance) are offset by the massive losses in revenue from student housing…

> Very few professors I know are happy about this whole situation. Right. As a professor, I'm not embracing this at all. We all hate the situation and don't really know what the best thing to do is.

Adapt maybe?
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