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Young woman talks about her useless degree, and her huge student loan debt.

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MarkXIX said:
Kids have all been raised on this Disney shit though where every one of them is just one magical moment away from their own televison series followed by a record deal and international travel the rest of their lives. I've banned the Disney channel in my house because of it.
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Well that's one of the dumber things I've heard this month. I guess you don't allow her to watch movies like Rocky because its absurd to think that the little man can take on a giant and come out on top.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Well that's one of the dumber things I've heard this month. I guess you don't allow her to watch movies like Rocky because its absurd to think that the little man can take on a giant and come out on top.
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Frankly, I don't give a shit what you think. Bottom line, the Disney channel in particular sets unrealistic expectations for children, especially all those "tween" shows. Not even in the same realm as Rocky, so bad example. At least the Rocky movies show the downside and the gritty work required to get to the top.

These shows were a bad influence in my child and I shut it down. Fuck me for being a concerned parent, right? You'd probably be the same guy telling me how fucked up I am as a parent for allowing my child to do whatever questionable shit she's doing...can't have it both ways. LOL!

Besides, Disney doesn't have a good track record now do they? Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan...I can go on.
 
Pro Tip...

Learn German
Take (and pass) the German ZfA Prüfung (German version of the TOEFL)
Apply to a German university
Study in Germany = NO TUITION FEES
Meet a lot of German and European women
Get a MA or MS in Germany
PROFIT
 
As for myself, I had the brains back when to calculate my own ROI on my college education. I visited some 25 colleges, universities, and military academies and in the end had to do a value assessment.

I opted for Georgia Tech where not only did I qualify for in-state tuition AND the HOPE scholarship but also for their amazing co-op program. Combined with the scholarship and working a real, paid job for several semesters, I left GT with a BS and financially in the black.

Some sense needs to be shaken into these kids who opt for "party schools" or seek "designer" degrees from private colleges, etc. There is a lot to be said for a really good community college experience.
 
Fingolfin269 said:
We don't allow kids to drink until they're 21 years old. Apparently they are not responsible enough. Yet we allow them to get themselves into debt that will carry with them their entire lives
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excellent point.

my kid got invited to a Duke University recruiting thing over the summer and the selling point i heard the entire time was "the Duke experience". Even the Alum who came out for this shing ding brought up how wonderful the duke experience was.

So in other words pay us $250,000 for your degree and you get the privilege of calling yourself a BlueDevil, go on a University sponsored peace corps thing to some shit hole that the student has to pay for and throw frisbees on the quad...

no thanks.
 
GTaudiophile said:
As for myself, I had the brains back when to calculate my own ROI on my college education. I visited some 25 colleges, universities, and military academies and in the end had to do a value assessment.

I opted for Georgia Tech where not only did I qualify for in-state tuition AND the HOPE scholarship but also for their amazing co-op program. Combined with the scholarship and working a real, paid job for several semesters, I left GT with a BS and financially in the black.

Some sense needs to be shaken into these kids who opt for "party schools" or seek "designer" degrees from private colleges, etc. There is a lot to be said for a really good community college experience.
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<sarcasm>Wait! Hold up now. You mean this whole college thing is a lifelong investment? Not just a way to get a shit ton of money on a loan, head over to the student union computer store and drop thousands on an Apple laptop and a bunch of other technology and then live high on the hog for a while? That's not the bill of goods I was sold. </sarcasm>

Again, the problem is not the loans, it is parents and students who fail to properly plan for this endeavor in life. So, unless my children receive substantial scholarships, they'll be attending whatever university is most financially viable for them.
 
OutHouse said:
excellent point.

my kid got invited to a Duke University recruiting thing over the summer and the selling point i heard the entire time was "the Duke experience". Even the Alum who came out for this shing ding brought up how wonderful the duke experience was.

So in other words pay us $250,000 for your degree and you get the privilege of calling yourself a BlueDevil, go on a University sponsored peace corps thing to some shit hole that the student has to pay for and throw frisbees on the quad...

no thanks.
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Duke TIP...my kid's been getting them since 5th grade. Oh, and there's a fee to participate...imagine that.

No thanks, also.
 
I personally would like see a national program whereby IF a student graduates with a degree (AA, BA, BS, MS, etc.) from certain *approved* colleges/universities in a STEM- or hard science/engineering field AND maintains a 3.0 GPA or better then the government would reimburse the student IN FULL for all tuition expenses incurred AFTER having received the diploma. An "approved" institution would have to prove a certain level of rigorousness and accreditation to qualify. Has anyone heard of the Skills Gap?

Another option that I support and indeed promote on a professional level is the introduction of German-style VET options for American high school students. I work with companies and education institutions in the US and Germany on a daily basis doing just this type of work in addition to several other projects.
 
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GTaudiophile said:
I personally would like see a national program whereby IF a student graduates with a degree (AA, BA, BS, MS, etc.) from certain *approved* colleges/universities in a STEM- or hard science/engineering field AND maintains a 3.0 GPA or better then the government would reimburse the student IN FULL for all tuition expenses incurred AFTER having received the diploma. An "approved" institution would have to prove a certain level of rigorousness and accreditation to qualify. Has anyone heard of the Skills Gap?

Another option that I support and indeed promote on a professional level is the introduction of German-style VET options for American high school students. I work with companies and education institutions in the US and Germany on a daily basis doing just this type of work in addition to several other projects.
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LOL so you're saying some degrees are more important than others? So everyone should get a STEM-based higher education degree? That makes no sense at all.

There's nothing wrong with the degree this girl chose to get. It costing what it cost is the problem.

Edit: Please note my kids have gone to STEM gradeschools and are currently enrolled in STEM middle school. My daughter is no STEM student though... not by a long shot. She's completely artistic and struggles at math (my son is the direct opposite). I wish the district offered an art based school for her, but they don't. Apparently the arts are a waste of time...
 
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It was funny, back in the summer of 1997 or so when my dad took me around to those 25+ colleges, universities, and academies, at some places like UGA and FSU I was the idiot who, after the entire football/cheerleader spiel, had to ask the question concerning minimum GPA requirements for acceptance. It was like they had never heard the question before.

At other places like Wake Forrest and USC-Columbia, the tour guide was a gorgeous, hot blond who was quick to point out the location of ATMs on campus as well as the driving distance to the nearest mall.

Of course visiting places like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Notre Dame, etc. was the opposite. For example, the Carnegie Mellon tour guide was a girl no taller than 5", a little overweight, no makeup, but she was working on a rover project for NASA. Talk about impressive.

Of course the various US military academies are the absolute highest echelon IMO in terms of their demands of not only academic but also physical and personal excellence. They are also free and you are paid if accepted. These grads have my highest respect.

Then you have the northeastern Ivy League schools like Dartmouth and Harvard, etc. Amazing schools where the 1% pay for their kids to play, network, meet more members of the 1%, and sustain all power and prosperity. I personally want nothing to do with these schools and have little respect for their "grade inflated" graduates.
 
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MarkXIX said:
Frankly, I don't give a shit what you think. Bottom line, the Disney channel in particular sets unrealistic expectations for children, especially all those "tween" shows. Not even in the same realm as Rocky, so bad example. At least the Rocky movies show the downside and the gritty work required to get to the top.

These shows were a bad influence in my child and I shut it down. Fuck me for being a concerned parent, right? You'd probably be the same guy telling me how fucked up I am as a parent for allowing my child to do whatever questionable shit she's doing...can't have it both ways. LOL!

Besides, Disney doesn't have a good track record now do they? Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan...I can go on.
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Very defensive there aren't you?

Instead of teaching to be able to discern fantasy from reality, just remove the fantasy totally. I think there was a movie about this.
 
Homerboy said:
LOL so you're saying some degrees are more important than others? So everyone should get a STEM-based higher education degree? That makes no sense at all.

There's nothing wrong with the degree this girl chose to get. It costing what it cost is the problem.

Edit: Please note my kids have gone to STEM gradeschools and are currently enrolled in STEM middle school. My daughter is no STEM student though... not by a long shot. She's completely artistic and struggles at math (my son is the direct opposite). I wish the district offered an art based school for her, but they don't. Apparently the arts are a waste of time...
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Don't get me wrong, the arts are amazing and necessary. In fact, I believe every K-12 child should spend at least two school days per week ONLY focusing on foreign languages, music, and the arts in addition to their STEM focus subjects.

Those that succeed in the arts typically take a different track of education that is not as applicable to the topic of this thread.

My point is that we have a skills gap and we should be doing a better job of dangling the science/engineering carrot for kids.
 
Homerboy said:
Apparently the arts are a waste of time...
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It's not this at all. The arts have their place. The question becomes one of why a parent or young adult would go ahead and drop $50-120k on an art education, knowing the likelihood of a means to pay all that back is challenging at best.

The education market is like any other free market. There are plenty of opportunities to shop around and get the best price possible. People aren't doing that. They're taking out massive loans without planning on how those will be paid back and then whining that they've been screwed. THAT'S the real problem here.
 
GTaudiophile said:
Pro Tip...

Learn German
Take (and pass) the German ZfA Prüfung (German version of the TOEFL)
Apply to a German university
Study in Germany = NO TUITION FEES
Meet a lot of German and European women
Get a MA or MS in Germany
PROFIT
Click to expand...

Even for foreigners?
 
the disney channel is stupid, I've seen it sometimes and those TV series are real brain-killers.
Of course, disney has plenty of good cartoons. But you don't need to pay for a TV channel to have those.
Free TV channels are better because they provide a limited amount of cartoons or child-aimed serials so the screen time limits itself. There's all the ads though.

Anyway I don't think the state should subsidize only STEM degrees, but should subsidize the best in each field according to how many graduates the labour market can absorb.
Like, make STEM free if you have a GPA over a certain limit, and do the same with arts but set the limit much higher so that only a small % of students get their arts degree reimbursed. This way you avoid encouraging those masses of people who do not know what to do with their life.
 
All of this is nothing new. Anyone with an arts degree even in the 80's was expected to be nearly homeless out of college 😀
 
Since we're talking about this generation of kids, let' also throw in their lack of social skills because all they know is the tablet or phone that's been put in front of their faces since infancy. There is no hope for the future.
 
GTaudiophile said:
Since we're talking about this generation of kids, let' also throw in their lack of social skills because all they know is the tablet or phone that's been put in front of their faces since infancy. There is no hope for the future.
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Smartphones and tablets haven't been around that long, degrading communication skills has been ongoing long before the iPhone became popular.
 
MarkXIX said:
Besides, Disney doesn't have a good track record now do they? Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan...I can go on.
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Imp said:
Not going to argue with you on Disney being a bad influence... but I think Nickelodeon has a worse track record. Miley Cyrus was Nickelodeon. Lindsay was Disney.

Mickey Mouse Club:
http://screen.answers.com/television/8-celebs-who-got-started-on-quot-the-mickey-mouse-club-quot

Most of them ended up okay eventually?
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You son of a bitch. Look what happened cause you brought it up!

https://ca.celebrity.yahoo.com/news...picion-driving-under-influence-195224486.html
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Very defensive there aren't you?

Instead of teaching to be able to discern fantasy from reality, just remove the fantasy totally. I think there was a movie about this.
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When even the History Channel is fantasy, I think I'm on solid ground. Thanks for the concern farmer Nikolae with all your strawmen you put up to protect your non-GMO thought crop that's withering on the vine.
 
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