What does that have to do with anything? He's talking about having to deal with crazy creationists (also known as religious extremists). That doesn't mean he is one himself.
652 karma · joined July 30, 2012
I haven't seen my mother in well over half a decade, and am much healthier for it.
>It's going to mean loans.
Well, no shit.
>It is not that much more expensive.
It is when gas is $4/gallon instead of $2/gallon, and the economy makes it much harder to find a job of any kind. Not to mention tuition itself is increasing at about twice the rate of general inflation.
" On average, tuition tends to increase about 8% per year. An 8% college inflation rate means that the cost of college doubles every nine years."
http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml
>You'd hypothetically already be paying the rest with the 7k / year job that's keeping you kicking.
Hypothetically, sure. In reality, if you don't have 7 days a week of 24/7 availability, you can't get a job in many places.
Most of these low end jobs will have you coming in at 7AM one monday, and closing at 11PM the next. You can't plan your courses around work since there's no regularity.
In the best case scenario, you have a job already and try to change availability, but in that case they'll often slash your hours to barely nothing. Can YOU live on 12 hours a week of minimum wage?
> 6k in other loans a year to fill it in at today's cost
>4 years of loans, even if they're shitty, "credit ready" loans at personal loan rates, still only leaves a fictional Ohio traditional student with $45k in student loan debt at the end of the degree
You cannot get these without a cosigner or guarantor. When I was 18, I tried banks, sallie mae, online options, etc for (roughly) this amount and was completely denied. Hell, I couldn't even get a credit card for any amount, even through my bank.
Even when I later had a better fulltime job making 20K/year, I was again declined for loans. (At that time, I had 3 credit cards and awesome credit.)
>In any STEM discipline, paid internships and co-ops are also possible, which would further reduce the loan load required.
You have to have access to loans in the first place to get there.
>But I'm sorry, not having parents foot the bill generally isn't yet a barrier to a high-quality education.
Oh, I see what the problem is. You don't live in reality. I'm talking about people who live in the US, FWIW.
/s
I think it's a really great system for people who live in state, though! (or states close to California) I've heard some things about impacted classes, but it sounds like California has their CC -> 4 year transfer system set up much better than a lot of places. The regent scholarship sounds great, but it'd have been a huge gamble to try to move out there for it, since you won't know until you're applying to the four year school if you'll get it or not. There are so many unknowns, when tuition is this high. The CoA for Berkeley for example is $33,000 for in state and over $50,000 for out of state.
Why is paying for college so much harder than getting accepted to one? Ugh.
" Financial Aid from the government is based off of need. Grants are for anyone who qualify."
Key phrase: anyone who qualifies. When I was 18, I qualified for a $4500 stafford loan and nothing else. If I went to a community college, this dropped to about $800-900/quarter, which wasn't enough to even pay tuition.
Incidentally, the best need based grant you can get from the government is a pell grant. This maxes out at about $5000/year, and you can only get it if you make less than about $10,000/year (and your parents have no income, or you are an independent student).
"They do not take ability to pay into account when determining transfer admissions, that's illegal."
This is only true for public universities. Private can do whatever they want.
"Elite colleges do accept transfers, find me one that doesn't."
Princeton.
"You're a young, pissed-off undergraduate student just finding your place in the world."
I'm not 18 anymore, and haven't been for over half a decade.
"Deaf Queer Youth Scholarship The Deaf Queer Resource Center sponsors a $500 scholarship for deaf lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer students"
Well, I'm not deaf.
"Gamma Mu Foundation Scholarships The Gamma Mu Foundation awards $19,000 in individual scholarships to gay men"
Nope, not this either.
"Malyon-Smith Scholarship Award The American Psychological Association's Division 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian and Gay Issues) offers this award to support graduate student research into psychological issues "
Not interested in psychology, also, still worrying about undergrad.
"Live Out Loud Annual Scholarship ...the scholarship is open to graduating high school seniors in the tri-state area (NY, CT, NJ)."
Well, shit, I guess that's out too.
"The Messenger-Anderson Journalism Scholarship and Internship Program offers several $10,000 scholarships ($5,000 for the first year and $2,500 for the second and third years) to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students pursuing a degree in journalism and communications "
Not a journalism major.
"NGPA-Education Fund Scholarships for Aviation Students The National Gay Pilots Association (NGPA) Education Fund provides scholarships to members of the gay and lesbian community (including straight allies) who are pursuing an aviation career as a professional pilot."
Not a pilot.
"National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) NLGJA provides several scholarships and awards for "students who demonstrate a commitment to providing fair and accurate coverage of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community."
Not a published journalist.
"NWSA Graduate Scholarships in Lesbian Studies This award provides financial assistance to graduate students doing Master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation research in lesbian studies."
I think I would rather punch myself in the face than go to school for "lesbian studies." Also, not for undergrad.
"Roy Scrivner Research Grants The American Psychological Foundation (APF) sponsors the Roy Scrivner Research Grants for graduate and postdoctoral research concerning the study of lesbian, gay and bisexual family psychology and family therapy."
Not in grad school, not into psych, etc.
"Transgender Scholarship and Education Legacy Fund (TSELF) TSELF awards several scholarships for transgender-identified students in the helping and caring professions, including social services, health care, religious instruction, teaching, and law."
Not going into "helping and caring" professions.
"An Uncommon Legacy Foundation, Inc. The Lesbian Leadership Scholarship program, for both undergraduate and graduate students, provides awards for projects that address lesbian social, cultural and educational needs. Consideration will be given to academic performance, honors, personal or financial hardship and especially service to the lesbian/gay community. Candidates must have a minimum 3.0 GPA, have financial need, and demonstrate a commitment or significant contribution to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."
Didn't have "financial need" on paper from ages 18-24, and it's hard to "demonstrate a significant contribution" when you're trying to survive.
"Point foundation"
Applied for this, didn't get it.
"Queer Foundation Scholarships The Queer Foundation (http://queerfoundation.org) sponsors a high school seniors English essay contest to promote queer studies. Winners receive $1,000 scholarships for study in queer theory or a related field such as queer medical, legal, or social issues."
Not going into "queer studies."
Everything else is regional or athletic, and the one regional one for my area requires: "dedicated time and energy to the GLBT community and toward GLBT and HIV/AIDS issues."
"SOLGA Kenneth W. Payne Student Prize Competition "The American Anthropological Association - Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA) offers this award for a scholarly anthropological paper, written by a student, on a gay or lesbian topic. The prize consists of a $400 cash award and a letter of commendation from the Prize Committee. (The prize is not specifically for tuition, but rather is intended to reward excellent graduate student papers.) The deadline is in mid-June. deadline is July 15."
>The prize consists of a $400 cash award
Oh, I really hope I get this one, everyone knows that $80,000 in undergrad can be paid for with a $400 grant.
It'd also be wise to note how many of the few scholarships that do exist specify that you have to be a high school senior, something I no longer am. I applied for 40+ essay scholarships during the time that I WAS one, though, and it wasn't enough.
I don't really see any reason to disclose my disability to you when you're rude and condescending enough about GLBT things: "It's 20and fucking13; the youth of America don't give a shit about who you want to have sex with."
1. It wasn't 2013 when I went to high school. 2. There are still plenty of asshole homophobes in the youth demographic, which is why the suicide rates are so high. You are an incredibly insensitive person, and I hope for their sake that you don't work with glbt youth.
I think a lot of it is that people don't want to accept that their own college degree was more a factor of luck and money than anything else. Passing classes isn't hard at all, paying for them is.
A four year university in my home state is $20,000/year. Going out of state to almost anywhere is even more expensive (california is up to nearly $40,000/year), and if you do find somewhere cheaper, you need the savings for a move, which is difficult at the poverty level.
Many colleges are completely unaffordable, even working full time jobs:
"The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If a minimum wage worker is employed full-time (forty hours per week for 52 weeks), that worker would earn $15,080 annually."
http://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-annual-earnings-full...
And that's IF you can find full time work, which is difficult in many areas. I had to live off of half that for several years because I couldn't find anything better for a long while. If I went to a community college, they'd only give me $900/quarter in student loans when the cost was more like $1500/quarter for tuition. So, I couldn't afford community college either, for quite a while. It was only once I was working 35-60 hours a week (it was a fulltime job, but weird work schedule) that I was able to afford to both not be homeless and attend community college. As a result, it took about six years to get even my associate's degree (between the waiting and the working).
There are a lot of barriers. I think a lot of people on HN don't realize how rough it is out there for low income people right now.
I also had a hard time getting them to mail anything to New York because the address "wouldn't fit" in their computer system, so after two "lost" transcripts I found out they'd left off chunks of the address and thought this wouldn't be a problem. My suggestion of "write it by hand" was rejected. Very annoying. Of course, I was told "our transcripts always arrive" at the in state college. Well, thanks, I totally want to stay here after the crap your college system has put me through.
Luckyily I have access to enough loans/savings now as an independent student to move to another state (if I'd been born here, with their $5,000/year tuition, I'd have graduated with an engineering degree by now...), but I really wish people would stop recommending community college for tech people. Some states just see it as another way to waste your time and make more money off you. If you're a transfer student, many colleges won't give you any institutional aid, either, which means you're limited to places you can afford on a $5,000 pell grant (if you can get one) and yearly stafford loan limits.
I loved my cc profs, I just wish the four year colleges couldn't get away with so much snobbery/bs.
I'm glad that you think that being a sexuality studies major is a noble goal, but I'm interested in tech (which eliminates a great deal of them--most require a sociology major or something similarly specific), and I'd also like to point out that leading a gay youth initiative (as is often required by these scholarships) is hard when:
1. You're the only out person in high school. 2. Your school won't even let you into NHS because you are gay. No teacher was willing to stand up for me because they didn't want to lose their job. Can you imagine the difficulties of getting one to volunteer to sponsor some sort of gay group? It'd never happen. 3. Your parents almost send you to a gay reparation camp because they're fundamentalist christian. 4. You live in a flyover state in the middle of nowhere. (many of the scholarships are for specific states, too.)
It's great that you had the resources to land a glbt scholarship, but they're mostly unavailable to disadvantaged students. You may want to rethink your ally status if you're going to go around bashing gay people for not trying hard enough when there's already usually quite a lot on our plates.
It's what I've done now that I have access to independent student level of stafford loans. I got a 35-60 hour/week job for 2 years before I moved which helped too. (Full time jobs are very hard to find due to the economy, where I'm from.)
6 years later I got a full tuition science scholarship at a community college, but that took a ridiiiiiiculously huge effort and it only lasted for a year since I wasn't an 18 year old anymore (meh). I'm still incredibly grateful to my chemistry professor who helped me get it, though.
It was really baffling to me that colleges preferred to take people who got 2s and 3s on their AP tests to someone who scored 5s, so long as they had parents who would fork over thousands of dollars. At a poorly funded rural high school where most people were members of FFA, outscoring my classmates wasn't hard, and there weren't many collegebound to begin with, outside of the people with welloff families. It was frustrating to see them get to go instead of me because I didn't have tens of thousands of dollars for the tuition bill. (I mean, a lot of them were in the low to mid twenties on their ACT scores...)
I also had health problems that went untreated as a kid that made it hard to work. No college also meant no healthcare. Of course, I had to work anyway because I'd be homeless if I didn't.
It's hard to pay $20,000/year for college when you can't find more than $7,000/year in work. $7,000 is barely enough to keep you fed and housed as it is.
(Even at age 24, you don't start getting pell grant money until you make under about $10,000, incidentally.)
I know an english major who graduated still unable to distinguish between "your" and "you're." Who would you rather have in college, her or me?
Most colleges don't extend financial aid to transfer students (even if they guarantee full need for other students), most take ability to pay into account when determining transfer admissions (even if they go on and on about making it affordable, apparently this doesn't apply if you're not a college credit virgin), and quite a few elite colleges don't accept transfers at all (and if they do, it's usually 5x more competitive than their normal admissions process).
Meanwhile, many of my far stupider peers with richer/more benevolent parents have already graduated. The only difference between me and them is access to tens of thousands of dollars in tuition money. Colleges are nothing but a business, and if you think otherwise, you are very lucky to have been in a situation where you have never had to wait out half a decade in poverty because of where and how you were born.
It doesn't seem like you care much about it ("scientific research"), but IMO it's much more likely to put programs in place to help doctors learn basic literacy/documentation skills than to subvert the basic biological truth that staying up for as long as most medical students/residents/etc are forced to do puts them in a state equivalent to drunk driving. (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/20/sleep.deprivation/) I do NOT want someone crashing my health into a ditch because they were too tired to miss something important. Also if you don't have enough doctors? Maybe you should start training more of them, instead of artificially limiting supply. (Residency placement slots are a whole other issue, of course, but still not something that should stymie a first world country so.)
I've had way too much experience with rude, sleepy, and grumpy residents who bungled my medical care in the last two years of frequent ER and inpatient stays to have much trust in the profession as a whole. I mean, if you're going to charge me $50,000 for your crappy medical care, could you at least not snap at me? Or forget me in an observatory room for over 12 hours waiting for a scan? They "lost" me in the system somehow until a nurse wondered why I'd been sitting there so long, called radiology, and left the room to bitch them out about forgetting me. Since the doctors couldn't be bothered to tell me what they were checking for, I only found out 13 or so hours later that the scan was to rule out a carotid artery dissection. I was in extreme pain the whole time, which they did nothing to even try to alleviate. Incredible lack of empathy.
I'm glad to hear that your hospital has gone to at least trying to adhere to reasonable shift limits; it's a sign that at least some people in some hospital systems have decided that policies leading to killing or crippling patients is something that should be prevented, not encouraged. It's certainly not something I've seen in the major medical systems in my state. :(
I actually had a classmate tell me the other day that me being able to get the medications I need to stay alive (because of the ACA) was going to drive the country bankrupt and (direct quote here) "destroy America." In my experience, my countrymen do not care for others very much--only themselves.
Truck drivers aren't allowed to drive if they haven't gotten any sleep, but your doctor in the ER making the decisions that will either keep you alive or let you die will almost always insist that 36 hour shifts are essential. There's a lot of ego involved, as can be seen in the way that that same physician will usually support limitations on truck drivers but will readily believe in their own inability to make mistakes--even in the face of scientific research showing otherwise.