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PSA: Potential college students, don't be like these college grads

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ksheets said:
PM me on this...I've got some GREAT money making opportunities if you can show me how to go back in time....
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Too late. I just went back and got in on this yesterday. I'm going back and working on the details now. See you tomorrow....today.:hmm:
 
Man, we need more programmers and engineers. There's such a shortage, that we're hiring people from other countries (namely, India..). All these guys do is send money back to their countries, and not much of that stays inside. Gah.. Job shortage? what job shortage? How come kids aren't choosing technical majors? That said, we also need more engineers and scientists in public office.
 
ksheets said:
PM me on this...I've got some GREAT money making opportunities if you can show me how to go back in time....
Click to expand...

safety-not-guaranteed.jpg
 
My sister will be graduating this May with 6,000 in loans and I have 17k in loans but I was in school for seven years(ughhh drama). When I read stories like these, I can't imagine putting myself in a situation paying off 200k+loans.
 
DanTMWTMP said:
Man, we need more programmers and engineers. There's such a shortage, that we're hiring people from other countries (namely, India..). All these guys do is send money back to their countries, and not much of that stays inside. Gah.. Job shortage? what job shortage? How come kids aren't choosing technical majors? That said, we also need more engineers and scientists in public office.
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We definitely need more engineers! I work in an office full of them and have been enlightened...

I mean, in the past week, I went out to work with two of them in the field. Both managed to get the work 2-rear-wheel drive F150 stuck in the mud, but that's not where the genius is! The genius is that one of them thought that rocking it back and forth in drive/reverse would work the 20th time after failing 19 straight. Even smarter is the other engineer with a MASTERS that backed into a ditch doing a U-turn, and decided that flooring both the brake and gas at the same time for 20 seconds straight would do anything but burn the brake pads. Engineers, F-yeah!
 
Maybe we should outlaw liberal arts degrees...seems like the only ones making money off of those are the schools that issue them. Good luck with that African history or dancing degree!
 
Imp said:
We definitely need more engineers! I work in an office full of them and have been enlightened...

I mean, in the past week, I went out to work with two of them in the field. Both managed to get the work 2-rear-wheel drive F150 stuck in the mud, but that's not where the genius is! The genius is that one of them thought that rocking it back and forth in drive/reverse would work the 20th time after failing 19 straight. Even smarter is the other engineer with a MASTERS that backed into a ditch doing a U-turn, and decided that flooring both the brake and gas at the same time for 20 seconds straight would do anything but burn the brake pads. Engineers, F-yeah!
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You are a douche.
 
I'll be graduating with about 14k in student loans this december. Most of that was for a couple study abroad trips (only way to complete my minor actually), and living money as the job opportunities in my area went to zilch. If I continued on with this degree I suspect I'd be north of 30k after completing my masters degree, but also making 80-120k so easily repayable. Not going to do that though, so hopefully I can pay this debt down significantly between now and going in to get another degree in another field.
 
IMO, student loan debt is a non-issue. The students could have joined the military and had the GI Bill along with state aid for veterans pay their way through school after an Honorable Discharge. There was a point where I made the decision that I would prefer to pay student loan debt for the rest of my life for the comfort of a knowledge worker office position than work as a submarine mechanic.

Why do they feel entitled to a comfortable lifestyle without earning or paying for it? I will not pay for their comfortable lifestyle.


EDIT:
That student loan debt is what allows a person to raise themselves from a blue collar position to a comfortable life in a white collar position. Youth deciding against taking the debt learn a trade, earn money, and live without the student debt. Decisions and tradeoffs are made.
 
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shortylickens said:
I've BEEN going to community college. It sucks even worse. Way too much money for a shitty education that impresses NO ONE!
Work is just plain better. If you can find it.
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...

the idea is get your gen eds done. then transfer to a 4 yr school for the last 2 years for a BS degree.

I
 
BagOfWalnuts said:
Risk/Reward.

I'm middle class white, there was NO financial aid for me. It was all student loans. It's a choice between going to college, or not. I have a masters in psychology and 153,000 in student loans now. I worked full time all the way through my post-secondary education and got a grand total of 3000 dollars in financial aid along the way. Fortunately about 50,000 of that load is below 3% interest rates.

I got hired by a hospital to a position that pays about 15% over what the average for my degree is. I noticed no other members of my team went to state schools, we all went to private colleges. Will the extra loans be worth it in the end? I started much higher than most $ wise, and as such have a higher life-time earning potential, and I believe it's at least in part due to where I went to college. I don't believe the education I got was ANY better, in fact I have found that the education I got at state colleges along the way when I would take courses at them was actually better. But others have a very good perception of the school I got my bachelor's from, and a very very good perception of the school I got my master's from. As such it opened some doors for me through networking with others from this college.

Does this mean I feel vindicated for turning down the 165,000 scholarship for biochemistry I got? Nope. I went full-retard on that one.
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I can definitely see the argument for the psychology master's being from a more-reputable institution, and most of those programs are going to run $50-70k for the two years you're there (unless you're fortunate enough to find RA or TA funding). However, when it comes to most master's programs, where you went to undergrad is generally a rather small factor in the admissions decision. Heck, it's not even THAT big a deal for psychology doctoral programs. Unfortunately, most 18-year-olds don't realize this before taking on the $30k/year in undergrad loans to attend a private institution rather than a state university.

They really do need to start telling people in high school that if you're planning on going for a graduate degree, you're often best served by attending a state school, doing well in your classes, smashing whatever standardized test you need to take, and getting a healthy amount of research/volunteer/practical experience in your desired field.

Oh, and yes, regarding the OP: turning down a full ride at UT to attend Tulane is just dumb.
 
This thread inspired me to go ahead and deal the death blow to my student loans and finally get rid of that 6.8% drain. The ol' bank account will be dealt a bit of a blow, but then I also tend to have a pretty nice buffer built up. 🙂
Assuming I'm not laid off next week, I won't lose any sleep over it. And given that we're horrendously swamped with rather profitable orders right now, I don't see that happening.


(I graduated in May of 2009 with somewhere around $25-$30k in loans - and a B.S. in mechanical engineering technology.)



I'll also add in a vote to go to a community college to get your gen ed courses out of the way for much less money than a university would charge - just be sure that the credits will transfer to a university you'd like to go to. And be sure that you're not selecting a university because it has the most elaborate architectural lighting in the computer lounges. That stuff costs wastes money, and guess who's going to be paying for it for the next 15 years - plus compound interest. 😉
And in my experience (maybe it's the norm), state universities offer lower tuition rates if you're a resident of that state.
 
Imp said:
We definitely need more engineers! I work in an office full of them and have been enlightened...

I mean, in the past week, I went out to work with two of them in the field. Both managed to get the work 2-rear-wheel drive F150 stuck in the mud, but that's not where the genius is! The genius is that one of them thought that rocking it back and forth in drive/reverse would work the 20th time after failing 19 straight. Even smarter is the other engineer with a MASTERS that backed into a ditch doing a U-turn, and decided that flooring both the brake and gas at the same time for 20 seconds straight would do anything but burn the brake pads. Engineers, F-yeah!
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but i bet you cant solve a differential equation?
 
In what world is Tulane > UT.

If you have a full ride to UT you have no business turning it down unless you get into an Ivy with aid or into Rice with aid. Anything else and you are stupid for turning down UT.
 
Wreckem said:
In what world is Tulane > UT.

If you have a full ride to UT you have no business turning it down unless you get into an Ivy with aid or into Rice with aid. Anything else and you are stupid for turning down UT.
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My only guess is that it was a campus other than Austin? Even then, I have trouble seeing how Tulane would be worth such a huge added cost.
 
Bignate603 said:
I think even the one with $50k for their degree from NYU isn't really that bad. That's only $12,500 a year in loans. NYU is insanely expensive (tuition is ~$40k a year and living in NYC is very high) so that person must have done quite a bit to keep their costs down.
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A history degree is fairly useless, on its own, unless you can get into a prestigious PhD program. Someone from NYU should have easily been able to get into a prestigious PhD program, unless they fucked off and did poorly.
 
Wreckem said:
In what world is Tulane > UT.

If you have a full ride to UT you have no business turning it down unless you get into an Ivy with aid or into Rice with aid. Anything else and you are stupid for turning down UT.
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Tulane was a good school. I say "was" because I went there for a year until Hurricane Katrina made them get rid of my degree program. They must have changed their financial aid/scholarships though. While I was there people fell into 3 categories:

1. Insanely wealthy
2. On massive scholarships
3. Really stupid

Almost everyone fell into the first two categories. If you had a decent SAT score and good grades in high school they would throw huge amounts of money at you. I wasn't really paying any more than I would have at a state school. Either that girl screwed something up and missed out on their aid or Tulane has really cut back since I was there.
 
Graduated with loans that are 50% of my entry level salary. I went to a state school. I'm pretty happy.

Granted I got lucky that my state school also is in the top 10 for the three programs I care about.
 
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