Posted on 05/03/2016 1:19:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In early April, my son Dan arrived home from the University of Wisconsin’s Admitted Students Day holding a Wisconsin windshield sticker—and immediately affixed it to our car above his older brother’s University of North Carolina sticker, with a smile I can only describe as vengeful younger-brother joy.
He, too, was going away to a prestigious public university in a storied college town and with a cult-like alumni following.
A couple days earlier I’d photographed him, lanky and beaming, at Bascom Hill, and posted to Facebook: “On Wisconsin! Dan’s a Badger.” Congratulations poured in: 58 “Likes” and 17 comments. He performed the teenage equivalent, recording Snap Stories for his buddies.
All along, he had been clear that he didn’t want to attend a private school because of the price tag: “$70,000 a year! That just makes me angry!” And then he’d laugh at the ridiculousness of those costs. Above average but not a rock star student, he labored through five Advanced Placement classes, including calculus, biology, and statistics; and earned a weighted grade point average well north of 4.0, as well as a very high ACT score.
He’ll graduate next month from a public high school in a New Jersey suburb, one of those places where 98% of the class attends a four-year college. Some go to Ivies or near Ivies, many to prestigious liberal arts colleges, and another group to public research universities. That’s my kids’ peer group. So Dan and I exulted our way through April.
Then, two weeks after we put down the deposit for Wisconsin, we got the financial aid package. We were stunned when he got zero—nada—in aid. Unless you count the $5,500 in federal loans we were offered.
“This must be a mistake,” I thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
The husband of my friend with the daughter going to dance school at University of Alabama is a civil engineer running landfills for the State of South Carolina. They are *dying* for heavy equipment mechanics who don’t use marijuana. If Tom gets through the program our community college offers, he’ll be pure gold on the job market.
One of my church friends said my son can have a job this summer (once he gets done his Boy Scout camp counselor gig) as an overnight driver for Krispy Kreme, taking supplies from the regional warehouse to the stores. They can’t keep drivers because they end up with traffic violations or ... can’t pass the drug test.
Thanks for the info. He mentioned something about HVAC as an option. What he really wants to do is go to Europe for a couple of years and design and build racing cars. His dad (my son) told him he could do most anything if he could figure out how to pay for it. He scores in the upper 90’s in AP STEM classes and loves math. He’s just 16. Whole lifetime ahead of him and no serious girlfriends yet. We’ll see.
so didn’t try to apply for scholarships with a 4.0?
they’d better get used to raman and hotdogs for the next 4 years as well as working a serious part time job.
HVAC employment opportunities are linked to local construction prospects.
Europe exports skilled labor more than it imports, but he could research job prospects as well as studying German or French.
Tell them he’s a black transgender. They’ll cover all his costs AND give him a per diem.
>>Funny thing is when I hear professors at these schools, they keep saying they need more money. I have family who teach at a university. They do not make major coin, but yet the tuition is horrendous.
Where is the money going?
Some of it is going to the Dean of Diversity and similar boondoggles.
I had an engineering prof who had just come from Wisconsin when I was in college. At the time, the state of Wisconsin was running a tourism promotion campaign with the tagline “Escape to Wisconsin.” He had taken one of the bumper stickers and hacked it to read “Escape Wisconsin.” He was no friend of the rampant Leftism at the university of.
Plus you got to experience Groton Ct
Go to a school he can afford! Let him work pt while in school.
Yep I suggest the U.S. Air Force and the Gi bill
There are lots of things that I want that I cannot afford. Unlimited wants and limited resources - the basis of economics.
I suggest that her son do what I did and what my kids are doing now. Go to a college you can afford and work to pay for it. Work full time for a year or two after high school before going to college.
Most of the money goes to useless programs that have some title with “studies” in the name. The tier two degrees are not marketable. Administration is the other black hole on most campuses. Cut admin by half along with the useless degrees and focus on Tier 1 programs like business and STEM programs. All the rest is expensive fluff and a disservice to students and parents.
As a former college professor a little reality check. You go to the restaurant you can afford, you buy the house you can afford and you go to the college you can afford. The state university in your state which will offer you instate tuition will also give you a good education.
You have that right. Africans, especially if even approaching the average ability of whites, will be recruited and showered with scholarships so they can attend for free, at least to them. The discrimination against whites is simply unbelievable unless you are on the inside.
Military first is a very good option I often wish I had done. You learn skills for life.
I’ve never heard of Williams College.
At the time she applied, it was one of the top colleges in the country, and very hard to get into.
UW Madison alum, 1984-88. Tuition (in-state) was $535 per semester when I started. Another 5 grand or so for a dorm room and a meal plan for a year. Between Army Reserve drill pay, Montgomery GI bill, Army tuition assistance and 2 part-time jobs, no loans, grants, scholarships or even help from the parents (though they would have been more than willing) was needed. I think out-of-state tuition at that time was around $3k per semester.
Sound reasoning, and I love hearing people believe in that choice. Young, committed families built this nation.
Surprise, Surprise!!! - in today’s it’s always the other guy’s responsibility society, those who try to make their own way responsibly, pay their own bills, save for the future and take care of themselves are always the losers - better to spend it as you go, plan not a bit for tomorrow and when need arises throw yourself on the mercy of big brother government -that’s the way the politicians and their henchmen in places like academia want it - today when the grasshoppers who’ve been playing all summer come around looking for help, the government steps in and makes sure the ants pay up.....
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