College Classes

[smurfy2day]

Colleges also need to be regulated. The costs are SOOOO outrageous!

 

[wildernesse]

Not every college is very expensive--and you get what you pay for, in many instances. A public school, like UGA, is financed by the state (mostly) and is much less expensive than a private school that may use tuition as its major financial support. Most public universities are relatively inexpensive and smaller regional and community college are even less expensive. Also, the federal government subsidizes many people's education through grants like the Pell grant and other scholarships.

No one has to go to college--although I think everyone should have the opportunity. It's a great experience and you learn more about yourself and the world around you.

--tibac

 

[smurfy2day]

Originally posted by wildernesse
Not every college is very expensive--and you get what you pay for, in many instances. A public school, like UGA, is financed by the state (mostly) and is much less expensive than a private school that may use tuition as its major financial support. Most public universities are relatively inexpensive and smaller regional and community college are even less expensive. Also, the federal government subsidizes many people's education through grants like the Pell grant and other scholarships.

No one has to go to college--although I think everyone should have the opportunity. It's a great experience and you learn more about yourself and the world around you.

--tibac

 

I'm really sorry, but I must disagree with you on a couple of points.

 

Unless you are really poor, or are a minority, college, is NOT affordable, not here in Michigan anyway. I know first hand I am working full time while my husband is attending school, and we BARELY make it each month. We are considered in the poverty level, but he gets a $700.00 scholarship per semester and that is it. (We are also white.) He is going to a local college, but it is still costing us $5000.00 a year out of pocket, and we mostly have to rely on our family to help us out with that.

 

The other point; this day and age you HAVE to go to college to be able to make it and get decent pay. I personally feel that this should not be, as college is not for everyone. I know, personally again. I went and hated every minute of it, and eventually stopped because I did not belong there.

 

Sorry to disagree, but again, I have experienced all of this first hand.

 

[wildernesse]

I'm sorry that we disagree smurfy. All of us have different experiences and those shape our ideas and perceptions. My ideas of college have been shaped by free tuition and a great learning experience; other people haven't had those experiences. I'm sorry that your experiences with college have been so negative. I hope that things work out for the best for you and your husband!

--tibac

P.S. What is your husband studying?

 

[strathyboy]

Originally posted by smurfy2day

Unless you are really poor, or are a minority, college, is NOT affordable, not here in Michigan anyway. I know first hand I am working full time while my husband is attending school, and we BARELY make it each month. We are considered in the poverty level, but he gets a $700.00 scholarship per semester and that is it. (We are also white.) He is going to a local college, but it is still costing us $5000.00 a year out of pocket, and we mostly have to rely on our family to help us out with that.

I agree completely. I'd also like to add disabled to that list you have in your first sentence. If I was disabled, a minority, or very poor, I would be receiving more funding than I could spend. But since I'm a normal, white, middle class student, I have a huge amount of trouble getting any money from anyone to help out.

 

[wildernesse]

This is why you people should live in Georgia and get HOPE!

--tibac

Edited to add:  My views about college affordability have been strongly influenced by HOPE, so I do forget that most people don't get free tuition and a book allowance.  That really does affect my views of college affordability.  Sorry if I'm sometimes insensitive on this subject, I really don't mean to be!

 

[Blessed-one]

in Australia, going to university is free (you take out a loan), that doesn't include excursion fee, union fee and books. The loan is to be paid back when your income goes above a certain level, so naturally we've got a lot of people not paying back the debt.

it seems that things work different in the US.....

 

[MSBS]

Hmm....as a white male with no handicaps and a political bent that is pretty far right, I have to say that I disagree with most of what has been posted here. As an undergraduate I attended a very liberal school (the University of California, Davis) but I never had any problems in any of my classes because I disagreed with the professor's politics. If the class is on a certain subject, the professor expects that you can prove that you have learned about that subject reguardless of your personal feelings about the subject matter. You can disagree all you want. I have done so on assigned papers, but so long as I was able to support my points and meet the course requirements there was never any problem. I even got to be somewhat friends with one history professor that was so far left you could call him a communist. We got along because each of us could support our veiws while discussing an issue, while half of the class were such a bunch of dull eyed sheeple that they could barely identify their own views let alone defend them. For the most part if you do the work you will get the grade, reguardless of your politics. I had to take a few classes in which I strongly disagreed with the message presented in the material, said so in class and in my assignments, and still earned As.

As for the list of whacked out classes, you are not likely to be required to take them. Most universites have specific breadth and depth requirements for your major, and then require GE credits in order to earn your degree. Many "diversity" requirements come under this, but for the most part you can find fairly inocuous couse offerings that won't offend your sensiblities. My GE classes were "Comparative Religion", "Philosophy of Science", "History and Philosphy of Science: Darwin", "Native American History", and two "History of Medicine" classes. These were all subjects that I was interested in. I think most major universities have loads of subjects to choose from, so most people don't have that much to worry about.

As for the affordability....well, what can I say. I'm about 50k in debt comming out of graduate school, and I've spent every summer for the last seven years putting in 100+ hour weeks driving a truck in order to make it through school-- but starting pay in my field is at 50k+ right now, so it looks like the sacrafice has been worth it.

 

[HazyRigby]

I'd like to add that I'm not a minority in any sense of the word, and my parents were not poor. I didn't have to pay a thing for college--including residence and books. The bottom line is that if you're wealthy enough (according to the government) to be able to pay for college, then you'd better work your butt off in high school to be able to get a scholarship. There are plenty of them out there. Lacking that, you know, there ARE colleges that aren't very expensive--you don't HAVE to go Ivy League to get a good education. Stay within your state of residence and pick a smaller, less popular school if you must go.

And as to disagreement giving you bad grades--I was one of the few outspoken non-Christians at a small, ultra-conservative college in the South. I never felt that a professor was unfair with me in any sense of the word. In fact, most of them resepcted my opinions and graded me accordingly despite the fact that most were also very religious people.

 

[Morat]

  There's always loans and grants through the government, as well. You can't beat the Federal Student loan programs (10 year loans? Keyed to the lowest interest rates available? Where you can defer the things up to 60 months (or not pay them at all as long as you take a certain classload), or have them forgiven entirely if you do things like teach for three years in areas with a critical teacher shortage? Where some don't even charge interest until you graduate, and none require payments until graduation?).

  Yeah, college costs a lot. I came out of college with about 15,000 in student loans. I pay about 150 a month (more than I need to, actually) and should have it paid off in 7 years, not 10 (assuming I don't start paying more soon).

  It's not cheap. It's not free. But you get what you pay for, and there are ways to pay for it. It requires work, dediction, and sacrifice true. But what worthwhile things don't?