Posted on 04/07/2005 9:57:22 AM PDT by MisterRepublican
WHITEWATER - At the off-campus house Johnny Lechner shares with three other UW- Whitewater students, the stairway to his attic bedroom is lined with photos dating back to his freshman year.
Lechner has lost track of many of the buddies that posed with him at these long- ago fraternity parties and Homecoming parades. They have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene.
"I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater. 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. The Board of Regents instituted the surcharge this school year as a none-too-subtle hint that a state-subsidized education has its limits.
The slacker tax doubles full- time tuition at UW-Whitewater (12 to 18 credits) to $4,816 a semester. With the surcharge, Lechner is paying $2,810 per semester for his seven-credit load.
It is a measure of Lechner's campus notoriety that many classmates call the slacker tax "The Johnny Lechner Rule." While he doesn't mind being known as "that guy who has been in college forever," Lechner declines to take credit for the Regents' sweeping policy change.
(Excerpt) Read more at madison.com ...
ping
Am I the only one that sees a problem with post #10. I had a brother do the same thing, 3 junior college degrees on the GI bill. It made me sick. I constantly pointed out to him that he needed to thank me for my tax dollars. He wouldn't and we don't speak today.
I think you're assuming that in those 6 years, he obtained three associate's degrees. That would certainly be excessive. If he had a large family, it's far more likely that he took one or two classes at a time to get an associate's eventually. No problem with that at all.
"many of the buddies.... have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene "
REAL LIFE is not pretty....
It's pathetic.
I had a fraternity brother who was a professional student. After getting out of the Air Force, he got his BA, then his Masters, then PHD, then Law degree.
To make ends meet, he was a TA, then professor. Through it all, he remained staunchly republican.
Looking back, not a bad way to go through life.
BINGO!!!!
Here is why Johnny can't leave!
You have to figure out how to get paid for going to school - find the right major. I have a full ride, plus 2 additional scholarships for a PhD (this is after a career as a lawyer). I'd be broke if I was a history major, but in a tech-related field, they throw the money at me. I am one of those people who enjoy school and figured out a way to stay in academe and get paid for it.
Being a doctoral student also gives me plenty of FReeping time!
Depends on school policy.
When I was fighting my classes, the closer to graduation one was, the higher their registration priority. It meant that those lower on the totem pole got the their pick of the left over classes, times, and profs. Made it impossible to get a decent class schedule that allowed for maintaining a consistent work schedule; and it also meant being stuck with the whack-job profs.
If nothing else, he is warming a chair someone with serious intent could have had.
Another consideration is just how good any of his courses are for graduation, grad school, or even upper division classes.
We had to have completed prerequisites within a time frame based on 'normal matriculation' which meant introductory or Lower Division classes more than 3 or 4 years prior were considered 'stale'. They had to be repeated before being allowed to register in follow up courses.
I realize a lot has changed in 40 years, but it looks like some things never do; we had professional students, too.
Jude, He DID attain 3 associate degrees in 5 1/2 years.
Your brother may have, but the poster in #10 may not have.
He's like a real life Van Wilder, thats pretty cool...
I think that guys like lack the foresight to consider things like the effect on their credit scores.
They are fated to eke out lives as marginal people, and are doomed to suck the govt. sugar-ti**y for life.
Part of the 8 to 15-year undergraduate B.A. program phenomenon is not entirely just because kids are lazy and flakes. It also has something to do with the incredibly disorganized, chaotic, and absurd nature of the design of college and university curricula. A student can "float" on a campus for years and never find a sane rational adult who is in any way "in charge." Bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy. The other thing is colleges and universities are trying to do TOO MUCH. To be ALL THINGS to everybody. They end up doing no ONE THING very well at all.
If my sister in law weren't already married to a loser, she would try to land this one, I'm sure.
Who's paying? If him he is sad,if mom n dad then they are
"He's one of those people in life who actually has the guts to do what makes him happy," Koskinen said. "He's one of the happiest people in the entire world, and if you reach that level of happiness, why not keep doing it?"
Glad to see hes met everyone in the world and hey if the guy wants to stay in college and mooch off mom n dad then its rather pathetic but hey it aint my money
So mom n dad are paying...something tells me they voted for Kerry
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