Did these kids ever hear of financial aid? - Page 7

PWS · 06-28-2005, 06:33 PM

Those really top schools do have a lot of scholarship money and other financial aid, beyond the government's....they try to say that no one should ever not come for financial reasons... but a lot of the money is in loans that mean you need to choose a major/career that will allow you to pay them back. So social work, etc., probably not the choice you'd make in that situation.

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AJane · 06-28-2005, 09:55 PM

I've always found the idea of expecting teenagers to incur tens of thousands of dollars in loans in order to get an education utterly appalling. Kids are our future, yet we expect them to start their adult lives with crippling debt. A university education is required for many, if not most occupations, and not all of them are lucrative enough to live comfortably and make huge loan repayments (along with car payments, mortgages, the expense of starting families, etc.). How incredibly discouraging for any young person.

go trees! · 06-30-2005, 03:15 PM

Regarding the original post, I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but there is no scholarship for getting above a 1300 on the SAT. National Merit Finalists get some aid, but it's less than 1/8 of what it costs to go to a good school. The reason these kids need this is because they will get little to no aid. Colleges are saving up financial scholarships for the very low income students who could not even afford a state or community school. While I think this is the right thing to do, the problem is there is not enough money being spent on education.

bebewood · 07-04-2005, 03:07 PM

trustee scholarships and such are by no means based on financial necessity. a lot of the kids who grab them up are filthy rich.

**Mariner** · 07-04-2005, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bebewood

trustee scholarships and such are by no means based on financial necessity. a lot of the kids who grab them up are filthy rich.

bebewood,
Not every school has trustee scholarships which are not based on financial need. In fact, most don't. I think it's great your school has the resources to offer them.

boxhill · 07-05-2005, 12:23 PM

To return to the original question...have these kids heard of financial aid?

I'm sure they have. But take the example of the child of someone I know who got into a university in DC: he was awarded a full tuition scholarship, but that still left him with about $20K per year to find for room and board and fees if he lived in a dorm (not an unreasonable expectation, living in a dorm...). He's going to a universtiy in Canada. With no aid at all, it's still cheaper than the US school with paid tuition.

Half the parents I know are praying their kid will go to McGill or the like.

Iamsohooked · 07-05-2005, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bebewood

Glitter, it's really not a necessity. You can easily survive on a low income. If you want to be rich, then yes it might be a necessity, but no one NEEDS to go to college. Yes the value of a college degree has dropped, but even people who never graduated highschool are able to get jobs and fend for themselves.

Justafan, I understand college is expensive, but you shouldnt be expecting the government to pay for your kid's education. If your kid really desperately wants to go he can always join the army or navy or something and get his education fully paid. We are lucky that programs like this even exist.

bebewood - I am not asking the government to give my child an education by any means. I was just asking for a loan program that allowed me to keep my money in the bank earning interest while I borrowed interest free from the government while my kids were attending college. This would then allow me to continue to earn alittle more over the 4-6 years and then I would pay off the loan in full as it came due. This would allow me to pay the debt and have alittle left over.

I don't ask the government for anything - we are self-sufficient in my household. We have no debt, no car loans and no mortgage and yes, my husband and I are under 50. We have five kids and two are in college. My oldest had to go the CC route for the first two years to save us money - he now attends a state university for the next two years - still a low cost compared to an ivy league but a great engineering school just the same. My second one in college goes to a state college and lives at home. My kids didn't have the choice of a 4-year ivy league or private college - it is out of our league.

On another note - there are millions of tradesmen out there earning a living every day without a college degree. They are the carpenters, plumbers, electricians and janitors. They have skills the rest of us don't and their time is of value $$. So you don't need a college degree for everything in life. You can get rich without one - you need to work hard and maybe take a few chances and hope they work out. In the coming years - there will be a great demand for these tradesmen (women too - not being sexist just easier to say it that way) because these jobs won't be filled by a college degree. I have an 18 years old recent high school graduate who came out of a vocational high school, is a gifted carpenter and he started working the week after school making more than most recent college grads and has already paid cash for a new truck. My husband is a carpenter, I am a stay-at-home mom so if you are willing to sacrifice alittle - pass up the newest fad, don't drive the new car, don't go on big vacations, etc. You can live well.

Iamsohooked · 07-05-2005, 03:18 PM

There is alot wrong with the system but there are somethings positive too. My neighbors two oldest children did attend an ivy league school on full 4-year all expenses paid scholaships. These are kids who attended a city public high school and excelled and were rewarded. This is a family who lives paycheck to paycheck on a postman's salary, in an old house with one car. These girls are both very smart (like the ones on the show) and it was their only hope of a good college education without debt. One of them has gone on to graduate school where they pay her tuition, housing and a salary for the year!

On the other hand - my second son graduated valedictorian of his class. In Massachusetts, valedictorian's receive scholarships - only the year he graduated they discontinued those scholarships due to financial problems. Well, the next year the government must have had more money as they reinstated those scholarships - a year too late for my son. Massachusetts has a mandatory test that must be passed to graduate from high school called MCAS. My son's class was the first class to have to pass this test to graduate. This year (2 years later) they established a scholarship fund for students scoring above average on this test - 4year paid tuition to a state or community college. My son graduated 2 years too late for this one and how ironic that he attends a state college.

So as you see this is a huge sore spot for me. I hope by the time my daughter graduates high school that maybe we can qualify for something or maybe the scholarships will apply the year she graduates. I think we should get alittle something in return for not milking the government for anything and paying thru the nose.

Iamsohooked · 07-05-2005, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muduh

No, I was talking about illegal immigrants. I was replying to a post by Speedbump. If they are illegal, I assume that they plan to eventually return to their own country. AFTER they get educated, of course.

trying not to highjack the thread but to just voice something. If this is the place to come to, where will we put them all? I know there are other countries out there that have good systems, nice ways of life and a chance to excell. Why don't the masses go there?

I don't have anything against immigrants - we all have ancestors that were immigrants except for the American Indians - but if they are here illegally and we aren't - where's the justice? I know there are alot of problems in the world but we can't solve them all, we have our own. America is spread too thin and it needs to address our own problems first. Something needs to happen in these other countries to help them get rid of the bad and get things right so their own people want to stay. You can't solve anything by running away.

I would just like America to not feel like we need to solve everyone's problems. Where did this come from? Sorry to go off topic again. Just needed to vent and maybe get others' opinions on this.

PWS · 07-05-2005, 06:38 PM

You could even look at it that the "Native Americans" are immigrants...after all no humans evolved on this continent, we all came here from somewhere else, they just got here first.

At least if you are a believer in archaeology rather than (Native American) creation myths.
I'm not a mod, but I expect that they will think discussing immigration in general and illegal in particular is probably a threadjack, and should go on the general discussion page, not on the show page, so your post may disappear. I imagine legal is kind of ok, as so many of the contestants' families are immigrants, but after that.... As you can imagine discussing America solving everyone's problems could go from this to the Iraq war in a NY minute.
OK... then I started to reply to you and the next thing I knew I was onto the Supreme Court...perfect example... so showed great restraint and deleted, but, as I say, I think there is a general discussion area, so you could try raising this issue there.

06-28-2005, 09:55 PM	#62
AJane Provoked Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Looking for a complication Posts: 7,414	I've always found the idea of expecting teenagers to incur tens of thousands of dollars in loans in order to get an education utterly appalling. Kids are our future, yet we expect them to start their adult lives with crippling debt. A university education is required for many, if not most occupations, and not all of them are lucrative enough to live comfortably and make huge loan repayments (along with car payments, mortgages, the expense of starting families, etc.). How incredibly discouraging for any young person. __________________ All my life, I have felt destiny tugging at my sleeve. ~ Thursday Next The truth, like humor, is where you find it. - Henry Rollins

06-30-2005, 03:15 PM	#63
go trees! FORT Fan Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: CA/MI Age: 23 Posts: 283	Regarding the original post, I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but there is no scholarship for getting above a 1300 on the SAT. National Merit Finalists get some aid, but it's less than 1/8 of what it costs to go to a good school. The reason these kids need this is because they will get little to no aid. Colleges are saving up financial scholarships for the very low income students who could not even afford a state or community school. While I think this is the right thing to do, the problem is there is not enough money being spent on education. __________________ http://lifeisarealityshow.blogspot.com

07-05-2005, 03:18 PM	#68
Iamsohooked FORT Fan Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 385	On a Good Note and a Bad one There is alot wrong with the system but there are somethings positive too. My neighbors two oldest children did attend an ivy league school on full 4-year all expenses paid scholaships. These are kids who attended a city public high school and excelled and were rewarded. This is a family who lives paycheck to paycheck on a postman's salary, in an old house with one car. These girls are both very smart (like the ones on the show) and it was their only hope of a good college education without debt. One of them has gone on to graduate school where they pay her tuition, housing and a salary for the year! On the other hand - my second son graduated valedictorian of his class. In Massachusetts, valedictorian's receive scholarships - only the year he graduated they discontinued those scholarships due to financial problems. Well, the next year the government must have had more money as they reinstated those scholarships - a year too late for my son. Massachusetts has a mandatory test that must be passed to graduate from high school called MCAS. My son's class was the first class to have to pass this test to graduate. This year (2 years later) they established a scholarship fund for students scoring above average on this test - 4year paid tuition to a state or community college. My son graduated 2 years too late for this one and how ironic that he attends a state college. So as you see this is a huge sore spot for me. I hope by the time my daughter graduates high school that maybe we can qualify for something or maybe the scholarships will apply the year she graduates. I think we should get alittle something in return for not milking the government for anything and paying thru the nose.

06-28-2005, 06:33 PM	#61
PWS FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 8,297	Those really top schools do have a lot of scholarship money and other financial aid, beyond the government's....they try to say that no one should ever not come for financial reasons... but a lot of the money is in loans that mean you need to choose a major/career that will allow you to pay them back. So social work, etc., probably not the choice you'd make in that situation.

07-04-2005, 03:07 PM	#64
bebewood FORT Regular Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 58	trustee scholarships and such are by no means based on financial necessity. a lot of the kids who grab them up are filthy rich.

07-05-2005, 12:23 PM	#66
boxhill FORT Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 610	To return to the original question...have these kids heard of financial aid? I'm sure they have. But take the example of the child of someone I know who got into a university in DC: he was awarded a full tuition scholarship, but that still left him with about $20K per year to find for room and board and fees if he lived in a dorm (not an unreasonable expectation, living in a dorm...). He's going to a universtiy in Canada. With no aid at all, it's still cheaper than the US school with paid tuition. Half the parents I know are praying their kid will go to McGill or the like.

07-05-2005, 06:38 PM	#70
PWS FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 8,297	You could even look at it that the "Native Americans" are immigrants...after all no humans evolved on this continent, we all came here from somewhere else, they just got here first. At least if you are a believer in archaeology rather than (Native American) creation myths. I'm not a mod, but I expect that they will think discussing immigration in general and illegal in particular is probably a threadjack, and should go on the general discussion page, not on the show page, so your post may disappear. I imagine legal is kind of ok, as so many of the contestants' families are immigrants, but after that.... As you can imagine discussing America solving everyone's problems could go from this to the Iraq war in a NY minute. OK... then I started to reply to you and the next thing I knew I was onto the Supreme Court...perfect example... so showed great restraint and deleted, but, as I say, I think there is a general discussion area, so you could try raising this issue there.