The Higher Cost of Higher Education

[smstonypoint]

Probably a re-hash of previous comments. We don't need anymore literature and art or liberal arts grads. History majors, marine biologists, lawyers, English majors or math majors on a restricted quota.
Medical, engineering, chemistry & accounting we do need.

I am content to allow students (and their parents) to make their own decisions about their majors. Of course, they should evaluate their career prospects for their majors, and the universities/colleges offering the majors should provide information on the employment situation of their graduates and the prospects for future graduates.

We have too many math majors. Really? According to The College Majors That Are Worth It - In Photos: 15 Most Valuable College Majors - Forbes, applied mathematics, mathematics, finance (really an applied mathematics field), and statistics (really an applied mathematics field) are included among the top 15 majors for starting salaries, salary growth, etc.

Steve

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Surely you jest.

Steve

And stop calling me Shirley. (sorry, a quote from Airplane) :laughing:

 

[smstonypoint]

And stop calling me Shirley. (sorry, a quote from Airplane) :laughing:

And a great movie for word play.

Operator: [Captain Oveur is on the phone with the Mayo Clinic] Excuse me, Captain Oveur, but I have an emergency call on line five from a Mr. Hamm.

Captain Oveur: Alright, give me a Hamm on five, hold the Mayo.

Steve

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My oldest starts college next fall at a small private college in Arkansas. The cost is no more than going to a local state college. He plans to major in computer engineering, so it wasn't practical to go to a Community College first. He already spent 2 weeks there last summer taking an honors course so he already has some credits, plus he's taking AP calculus and Physics in HS, so hopefully he will do well on the AP tests. By taking the course last summer, he has already met and determined his roommate and suitemates. They already keep in touch with each other. Not sure yet how we will pay for it. I managed to get thru college without any student loans, except a little from my parents that I paid back. I worked summers to pay for a lot of my tuition, course it was much less then percentage wise.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

And a great movie for word play.



Steve

And I just remember the shirley quote, and the bouncing body parts......:laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Freshman dorm mates are usually luck of the draw.

Our oldest son's first room mate was a real PIA. As it happened his room mate was struggling with some identity issues and hadn't gotten out of the closet yet.

Second son's first room mate was an alcoholic. He already had 1/2 gal. bottles of cheap vodka on the bookshelves when we moved our son in. He didn't last long.

Within reason of course, it is a good learning experience to let kids to solve their own college problems, from room mates to cranky professors. Ya gotta let go sometime, may as well get used to it. I know it isn't easy.

Surely you jest.

Steve

Within reason.... however, once the drunken, promiscuous room mate starts bringing home different drunken sex partners every night, someone starts urinating on the floor while passed out, and the kid feels unsafe in the room, and has gone through the proper channels for several weeks and gets no resolution in a timely manner, its O.K. for dad to contact the person in charge of student life to get the kid out of a dangerous situation. At least that was my reasoning.

 

[dave1949]

Within reason.... however, once the drunken, promiscuous room mate starts bringing home different drunken sex partners every night, someone starts urinating on the floor while passed out, and the kid feels unsafe in the room, and has gone through the proper channels for several weeks and gets no resolution in a timely manner, its O.K. for dad to contact the person in charge of student life to get the kid out of a dangerous situation. At least that was my reasoning.

Typical helicopter parent. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Typical helicopter parent. :laughing:

Yeah. I had reservations about interfering, but my kid was sleeping at the library. She followed all protocol for resolution, but it was taking many weeks. Fortunately, we spoke of this to a family friend, who just happened to have lunch at a conference the week before, and sat next to and struck up a friendship with the personal assistant to the person that was in charge of student life at the entire campus. I called the P.A. and she was out.... her boss answered the phone! I told her the situation and she said she had it on her desk and read me the details of it, so I knew she had it. She told me everyone involved, all the steps, etc... apparently there is quite the required documentation and procedures that have to be legally followed because someone may get kicked out of university. Anyhow, things move quickly after that and all ended well. It was already a year and a half ago. Time flies when your kids grow up.

 

[dave1949]

Yeah. I had reservations about interfering, but my kid was sleeping at the library. She followed all protocol for resolution, but it was taking many weeks. < snip>

I don't blame you. Even universities need to be somewhat responsive their customers. :laughing:

In the long run, you are just saying their standards of operation are falling short of your expectations as a parent, and the needs of a student. Assuming the interfering is warranted, they should be cooperative.

Now, if you had a wild child who may decide to try out drunken threesomes ... well, it's just better if you don't know that. :laughing:

 

[HillStreet]

The cost of education is out of control. I have two kids in school now at a cost of about 84k annually. They are both great swimmers and where able to get some $ money for there swimming. What disturbs me the most is the Gov did very little to help these kids pay off the loans. In the past many people took advantage of the system and defaulted on their college loans and payed nothing back. What makesthings even worse is there is little assurance a job is waiting for them when they graduate

I am a former Connecticut resident, and my daughter went to UCONN for one year. She had a chemistry professor that said to the class "you teach me english, I teach you chemistry". Sorry, that's not why We pay tuition.

Also, I read in the paper a few years back that the police chief at UCONN made $247,000 a year, and had an accelerated law enforcement pension. How the heck did this get so far out of control?

And remember the new library, that architectural wonder? They could not put books in it because it was not designed for the weight of the books.

They waste money because it comes too easy.