[Sushi]

I got into a great school, got the opportunity to explore every possible field I was interested in, and, once I'd settled on a field, immediately got to work on practical field research. My thesis was relevant to a major problem the community was facing and involved a lot of street work. As soon as I graduated, the skills I'd learned got me a high-paying job that allowed me to help work with social issues all around the globe. As a side effect they also made me a killer political canvasser, giving me the ability to really make a difference in local elections.

I also didn't have a single dollar in debt.

I couldn't have asked for a better education.

I'm sure you admit that you're more fortunate than most.

As am I: good school, full tuition scholarship (for undergrad, at least), plenty of breadth to keep me well rounded, enough depth to make me competent, and a great job once I graduated. Total college dept: a few thousand dollars borrowed informally from my father to help finish my MS, which I was able to repay within 6 months.

I beat the odds, and I'm grateful for it.

[Unknown Target]

Indeed. As I go through college with no debt I can't help but worry for the fate of those less fortunate than I. I at least try to be as active as I can to help.

I know that the education isn't worth the price tag, and I know it's definitely not worth the lifetime of debt.

Btw, the ads in this thread are ironic; "Small classes. Personal Attention. On-campus and online. Devry University"

[Kosh]

When I was at OSU the university was constantly (and very significantly) raising tuition stating they had huge budget deficits, yet simultaneously somehow managing to find millions of dollars to renevate their precious football stadium.


Beyond the obvious obscene tuition increases across the board, to make matters worse university budgets are black boxes, IIRC there has never been a budget audit at OSU, so there's no accountability what so ever.

[Unknown Target]

Aye. My uni (RIT) does the same thing. Additionally, the students have almost no control, direct or indirect, over how their tuition money is spent or how the university is run.

[Mustang19]

Here's that Russia Today thing I was talking about it. Watch it if you have half an hour to waste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzHGJMhKfQ

[Ravenholme]

theres not a doubt in my mind that higher education is a scam to sink people into debt so they can be made more pliable and thus easier to control. i rebel by not paying my student loans. they can suck it.

Right, which is why I'm getting my higher education free. As does every Scottish citizen. (I could take out a loan if I couldn't hack the living costs, but I work as well so don't have to)

[Unknown Target]

theres not a doubt in my mind that higher education is a scam to sink people into debt so they can be made more pliable and thus easier to control. i rebel by not paying my student loans. they can suck it.

Right, which is why I'm getting my higher education free. As does every Scottish citizen. (I could take out a loan if I couldn't hack the living costs, but I work as well so don't have to)

In America, we don't get our higher education for free. I assume he's talking about a country where higher education is not free. I imagine the same rules would not apply to everyone across the board.

[IceFire]

What's tuition like in the US these days? We're pretty pissed off here in Canada (although very quietly most of the time) that our tuition keeps going up. When I went through it was about $4,500 a year. Some in Engineering probably closer to $5,000. Plus another $1,000 for text books and lab materials. I remember in 2000 when I was looking at it... US tuition for some schools was somewhere around $30,000 a year...Not sure what it's like now.

I'm glad I'm out of the undergraduate school business these days although taking courses post grad seems to be even more expensive.

[Astronomiya]

For public universities, it's generally under $15,000/year (I'm out of the UC system in three weeks, and theirs is about $13k/year, though it's going up a lot, since California is about to cut $1 billion in funding...).  Private universities can be upwards of $40k/year.  However, most of those private universities have programs in place to get you through if your family is too poor to pay, and so do the public systems, although they offer less.  Even so, I'm not pissed at the public universities for raising tuition, I'm pissed at the states for cutting funding, not raising taxes (which could avoid a lot of the service cuts), and committing to education like they should.  Honestly, the US has crazy low tax rates compared to the rest of the developed world, and it's hurting us.

[Scotty]

Going to KSU, I'm paying about $15k/year for mine.  Federal grants pay for about $5k of that a year, and I've got a scholarship for $7k, so I've only got to come up with about $3k a year, which is paltry, compared to what I could be paying.

[Unknown Target]

It's $40,000 a year here at my private uni, and goes up by 3-4.5% yearly. They still keep managing to build new buildings though.

[Ravenholme]

theres not a doubt in my mind that higher education is a scam to sink people into debt so they can be made more pliable and thus easier to control. i rebel by not paying my student loans. they can suck it.

Right, which is why I'm getting my higher education free. As does every Scottish citizen. (I could take out a loan if I couldn't hack the living costs, but I work as well so don't have to)

In America, we don't get our higher education for free. I assume he's talking about a country where higher education is not free. I imagine the same rules would not apply to everyone across the board.

Broad sweeping statement was made, he didn't bother to qualify. America =/= the World. Etc

[BrotherBryon]

Went to the army, got the meager college fund which really didn't pay for much more than half my tuition. Because of how it's pay system is setup I still had to front the cash each semester. Started off at a community college and then moved on to a full university after getting my Associates. Went to college full time (just barely) and worked two part time jobs ranging from 40 to 60 total hours a week in order to get by without depending on student loans. Still managed to get decent grades despite everything, it can be done though it took me 6 years instead of 4 and was really tough it was still well worth not being burdened with debt. Not a recommended course of action though unless you are really strong willed.