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The Real World Can Wait (11 Years In College, 28 Year Old Doesn't Want To Graduate)
Wisconsin State Journal ^ | April 7, 2005 | Doug Erickson

Posted on 04/07/2005 9:57:22 AM PDT by MisterRepublican

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To: MD_Willington_1976
If he can afford to stay in school then why not...he isn't hurting anyone is he?

My thoughts exactly. As long as he is shelling out his own money let him stay in as long as he wants. He'll have to start paying back his $30K student loan as soon as he stops being a student.

I envy him a bit. College was a blast! The best seven and a half years of my life!

61 posted on 04/07/2005 10:53:15 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: conservativeharleyguy
But there's a big difference between winning a judgement and getting paid for it.

Not even the govt. can take what isn't there.

Oh, I agree. You can't get blood from a turnip. If someone has no assets and minimal income, there is very little creditors can do to get their money back.

That being said, having something like that on your credit record pretty much disqualifies you from getting any other type of loan or any job that requires any type of credit or background check. You pull something like that and you've sentenced yourself to a lifetime of living at or below the poverty level.

62 posted on 04/07/2005 10:56:45 AM PDT by Modernman ("I'm in favor of limited government unless it limits what I want government to do."- dirtboy)
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To: WhyisaTexasgirlinPA; Junior

His middle-class parents pitched in financially for the first two years. Now he owes $30,000 in student loans but otherwise pays as he goes, using money earned as a waiter at the Janesville Olive Garden.

I was recently told by an admissions counselor at NC State Univ that the state subsidizes half of an instate student's fees. So if an instate tuition is $10,000, really the figure is $20,000 and the school is in effect giving you a scholarship.
The state through the taxpayers are subsidizing this "KID" and the federal loan's he has are subsidized by us the taxpayer. Since he has taken every class they have to offer, some of them twice, he is denying the seats in those classes to someone else who may need them. He needs to grow up and move on.


63 posted on 04/07/2005 10:57:34 AM PDT by kalee
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To: MisterRepublican

Wonder who's paying?


64 posted on 04/07/2005 10:58:18 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: cspackler
Damn, and I thought Blutarski was bad....

Interesting you should say that. John Belushi went to UW-Whitewater.
65 posted on 04/07/2005 10:59:09 AM PDT by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: jude24
I'm in my fifth year at my university, and am working towards my doctorate.

Most four year degrees nowadays take five years to finish.

Was your undergrad in Basketweaving or do you just eschew sleep?

66 posted on 04/07/2005 10:59:25 AM PDT by Triggerhippie
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To: Junior

He better start his own business when he gets out of college, because noone is going to hire him.


67 posted on 04/07/2005 11:00:08 AM PDT by dfwgator (It's sad that the news media treats Michael Jackson better than our military.)
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To: MisterRepublican

" He's taken a full course load every semester except the current one, in which he's taking seven credits.

Lechner has completed 234 college credits, about 100 more than needed to graduate and so many that he's now paying the so-called "slacker tax."

System students who exceed 165 total credit hours - or 30 more than their degree programs require, whichever is higher - pay double tuition."

...and the "journalist" apparently didn't take any math courses to have believed this "student" carried a full course load for 11 years and only has 235 hours.

I earned 144 credit hours in 8 semesters - 4 years, and never took a summer class.


68 posted on 04/07/2005 11:01:54 AM PDT by IamConservative (To worry is to misuse your imagination.)
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To: MD_Willington_1976
If he can afford to stay in school then why not...he isn't hurting anyone is he?

Well, you can certainly make the argument that he's only hurting himself, but I guess that's his right; let's just say that in a competitive job market with a bunch of hungry go-getters, he's doomed. But if he stays in academia, of course, he doesn't have to deal with the competitive job market. At least not now. Later maybe.

At this point in his life, he's pretty much limited to the kind of jobs that college kids have. Part time jobs. Crap jobs. Jobs that will NEVER EVER pay him enough to pay off that $30,000 loan. At the rate he's going, he'll be in his 30's before he qualifies for his first entry-level position.

His only hope is to graduate and apply for grad school. That'll keep him off the street until his college fees go up so much that he won't be able to afford them waiting tables.

He might even wrangle a part-time gig as a teaching assistant. But one of these days soon, he's going to wake up and realize that everybody else; employers, banks, peers of his own age group, even the younger kids who started after him and will graduate before him - see him as an irredeemable loser.

The problem here is that you get older as the years pass even if you don't grow up. He better enjoy the company of those loopy little 18-year old college chicks while he can, because no self-respecting grown-up women is gonna want to get anywhere near him.

69 posted on 04/07/2005 11:03:23 AM PDT by Kenton ("Life is tough, and it's really tough when you're stupid" - Damon Runyon)
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To: rellimpank

70 posted on 04/07/2005 11:03:51 AM PDT by Chinito (6990th Security Group, RC-135, Class of '68)
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To: MisterRepublican
My dad knew a guy years ago who he thought was going to make a career out of going to school. He became a p.e. coach.
My husband has a friend with several degrees, because the Indian Reservation paid for his education. He has never really used them in any field of work he has done. Every time he applied for a job he was always told, "You're asking too much money." He had not even put down a salary amount. Then they would say he was overqualified. He was just looking for something to pay the bills. At that point he did not care if it was what his qualifications would pay or if it was less than his last job.
71 posted on 04/07/2005 11:06:57 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy (Walk Softly, For a Dream is Born)
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To: IamConservative

Interesting that he isn't take a full load this semester - hope he understands that student loans will become due for payments in six months......


72 posted on 04/07/2005 11:07:15 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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To: Triggerhippie
B.S. in Chemistry.

Worked hard and didn't change my major.

73 posted on 04/07/2005 11:08:01 AM PDT by jude24 (The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.)
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To: kalee

We're paying out of state tuition this year - no one has to remind me how much more it is than in state.....lol


74 posted on 04/07/2005 11:08:15 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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To: jude24

Did you take some prelim courses during HS and clep out of anything? If not you have busted your rear! Even so, you have worked hard....congrats


75 posted on 04/07/2005 11:09:36 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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To: Kenton
He might even wrangle a part-time gig as a teaching assistant. But one of these days soon, he's going to wake up and realize that everybody else; employers, banks, peers of his own age group, even the younger kids who started after him and will graduate before him - see him as an irredeemable loser.

BTTT. This guy seems to love the college atmosphere. If he was smart, he would have used all his various connections on campus to find a job with this university. He could have remained in the college culture, while avoiding the "unpleasantness" of the real world.

76 posted on 04/07/2005 11:09:55 AM PDT by Modernman ("I'm in favor of limited government unless it limits what I want government to do."- dirtboy)
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To: Chinito

My Marine went to school there......his frat was "Tappa Tappa Keg"......


77 posted on 04/07/2005 11:10:15 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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To: MisterRepublican

We had a guy like him in college. B was the beneficiary of a poorly-drawn trust by his grandfather which allowed him to rake in the $$$ as long as he was "enrolled." He was a sophomore when I got there ('67) and a junior when I left ('71). The draft ended a year later and B still didn't go. A reunion speaker later said, "... and then there was B -- it took him three terms to finish his junior year -- Nixon's, Ford's and Carter's."


78 posted on 04/07/2005 11:11:03 AM PDT by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: radiohead
...On the other hand, considering he's taken full credits each term, he must enjoy school...

That's the same thought I had. And I agree with you about steering him towards graduate school. I'm one of those wierdos who, if I could afford it, could probably have spent my whole life in academe.

OTOH, had I done that I may never have become a Freeper! ;-)

79 posted on 04/07/2005 11:15:39 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (If this isn't the End Times it certainly is a reasonable facsimile...)
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To: WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
I took a couple AP exams - and came in with 30 credit hours as a freshman, but most of those were elective credits because its a very poor idea to skip freshman calculus or chemistry if you are a technical major. The only AP's I used to opt out of requirements were AP English and AP American History.

When I graduated, I had 148 credit hours - 120 is required to graduate, and my junior and senior years were basically all 12-credit hour semesters. Not bad at all.

It's all in the planning.

80 posted on 04/07/2005 11:17:22 AM PDT by jude24 (The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.)
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