Student Loan Debt?

[kenmbz]

Son wants to teach english and be a writer.
I went for EE and CS and made a good living, wife went for accounting and became a software developer.
We have friends who went the construction, electrician and my cousin is a carpenter and doing well.
Can't see my son in the trades, he is more writing and music.

Unfortunately there are a lot of majors out there that we would not even consider minors when I went......

 

[5030]

Kind of like my wife's sister. She has her Masters in fabric art of all lame things and works at Wendy's stuffing burgers. Basically unemployable except an a menial job and she will never be able to repay her college loans. Talk about a pizz poor decision on higher education, there it is. Her hubby just killed himself and I can understand why.

 

[kenmbz]

Kind of like my wife's sister. She has her Masters in fabric art of all lame things and works at Wendy's stuffing burgers. Basically unemployable except an a menial job and she will never be able to repay her college loans. Talk about a pizz poor decision on higher education, there it is. Her hubby just killed himself and I can understand why.

that is sad

 

[dmccarty]

Has your total food bill gone up 100% in the past 3 years?

Good gracious this discussion move fast....

Yes, I would say my food bill has doubled in the last few years. I documented the costs in this post, Student Loan Debt?.

Given we eat the same thing each month so only the costs have gone up. Not what we buy.

Now, I am NOT including what my kids spend at the grocery store, or if my wife goes, so our actual grocery bill is higher than what I said. But since I am the one buying the same food week after week year after year, I have seen our grocery bill double or close to double, in the last few years.

Certainly this is because of the high diesel and natural gas costs caused by government programs which increase the cost of food. Putin's war has limited food production while driving up fuel prices which adds icing to the food inflation cake.

The other cause for the price increase is labor costs. Not only does it cost more to hire people in my area, since the pandemic, there are more workers in the store than before. They hired more cashiers to minimize lines, we could have VERY long lines a checkout, but that ended with the pandemic. The stores have also hired more people to stock the shelves. That puzzles me but it is what I am seeing and have been seeing. Far more people stocking shelves than ever before.

 

[jyoutz]

MSN

When talking to other parents this weekend, seems everyone is unaware of how to go about getting scholarships and negotiate with colleges.
We have a lot of work to do besides getting my Sons SAT scores higher.

Anyone with any insight how to negotiate this maze?

All universities that I’m familiar with have scheduled campus tour days for prospective students and their parents. Go online and sign up for a tour. They will go over all of that financial aid information on the tour and have Q and A sessions.

 

[dmccarty]

Rib eyes $7.99 locally.

Advertised Specials

lowerysmeatandgrocery.com

Just checked our grocery store advertisement for the week and New York Strip is $13 a pound but on sale for $9. From your link, New York Strip is $6 a pound. Now the steak in our store is Select not Choice much less Prime. We do have a butcher shop, and they have better cuts of meats, but they are more expensive. They do have better sausages than the grocery store for about the same amount of money. Their turkey was really expensive but better than the grocery store. I think the turkey was $40-50 and it was pretty big but I can't remember the weight.

The grocery store and butcher have dried aged meat, but the price is sky high, not that regular cuts are cheap.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, a mandatory food plan, at University of North Florida is $2200/semester, for 1st year, first time college students, or roughly equal to a dual occupancy door room for a semester... That includes 14 meals per week at the cafeteria. Per meal, that's not terrible (not amazing), but the issue I have is; what student is going to eat at a cafeteria 2 meals per day, 7 days per week. I feel that is making 'paying' students subsidize the meals (operating cost of cafeteria) for the non paying students.

If the student (kinda want to say kid, but they are adults), has a job, I'm guessing they will average less than 3 meals per week in the college cafeteria. But they still force you to pay for 14/week. Think most people shrug, and go, it's part of the cost....

 

[jyoutz]

Today, having a college degree is basically worthless unless you want to work at a fast food joint.

Much better to learn a trade like becoming an AWS certified welder for instance, or a tool and die maker or an electrician.

Not true. Most college degrees are in demand: engineering, teaching, science, medical, communications, business, finance, accounting, and more. General studies, and wonky degrees are not. Most students don’t study those fields with no career prospects. Those that do, find they made a bad choice.

 

[jyoutz]

So, a mandatory food plan, at University of North Florida is $2200/semester, for 1st year, first time college students, or roughly equal to a dual occupancy door room for a semester... That includes 14 meals per week at the cafeteria. Per meal, that's not terrible (not amazing), but the issue I have is; what student is going to eat at a cafeteria 2 meals per day, 7 days per week. I feel that is making 'paying' students subsidize the meals (operating cost of cafeteria) for the non paying students.

Every university I’m familiar with has different meal plans. You pick the number of meals per week.

 

[drssg]

Today, having a college degree is basically worthless unless you want to work at a fast food joint.

Much better to learn a trade like becoming an AWS certified welder for instance, or a tool and die maker or an electrician.

There have always been garbage degrees, but plenty of others are quite worthwhile. There is still demand for doctors, lawyers, computer programmers, and such. Plenty of degrees will pay at least as well as a good trade.