ADVERTISEMENT

This is a good idea

I guess we need to consider what being educated even means.

Interesting that you would toss law school in with bouncing around in different disciplines in Bloomington. After 19 years of k-12 education, 4 years undergrad, and 3 years law, I can easily say that I did not consider myself educated until law school.

Here is a bit of personal history that emphasizes the point.

When I was in Bloomington, candidates for a Bacekor of Arts degree had to pass an English proficiency exam. I flunked it. The paper was grammatically acceptable but I had nothing to say. (We were given some abstract question to comment on). I met with a grad student a few times, wrote another paper and passed. That was in the spring. Months later I was a 1L taking a mandatory class called something like The Legal Method. It was taught by a tough taskmaster. The grade in that class was based on a single paper. I got the highest grade in that class. What was the difference? I can’t put my finger on it other than to say law school was unlike any other learning experience.

Professor Kingsfield:

That story screams for another explanation: that your work right before law school to rework your paper improved your writing ability.

What did you major in during undergrad?
 
I guess we need to consider what being educated even means.

Interesting that you would toss law school in with bouncing around in different disciplines in Bloomington. After 19 years of k-12 education, 4 years undergrad, and 3 years law, I can easily say that I did not consider myself educated until law school.

Here is a bit of personal history that emphasizes the point.

When I was in Bloomington, candidates for a Bacekor of Arts degree had to pass an English proficiency exam. I flunked it. The paper was grammatically acceptable but I had nothing to say. (We were given some abstract question to comment on). I met with a grad student a few times, wrote another paper and passed. That was in the spring. Months later I was a 1L taking a mandatory class called something like The Legal Method. It was taught by a tough taskmaster. The grade in that class was based on a single paper. I got the highest grade in that class. What was the difference? I can’t put my finger on it other than to say law school was unlike any other learning experience.

Professor Kingsfield:

I have never seen that movie. I need to add it to the list.
 
We'll see what FASFA says and what scholarships she gets.

Her thinking is there's always going to be a need for teachers. I can't argue with her on that point.
Teachers are in need and so important. But this a field crazed notes as needing people to be rational. You can’t go to some private college and ring up a quarter mil in debt. In state. Sadly if broke maybe commute
 
  • Like
Reactions: BradStevens
Teachers are in need and so important. But this a field crazed notes as needing people to be rational. You can’t go to some private college and ring up a quarter mil in debt. In state. Sadly if broke maybe commute

She's looking at two schools, both private.

One she can stay home, the other she'd have to room there. It was about a 10k difference from the numbers they gave.

She's leaning (at least she says) to the school to stay home. She can still keep her job and work while going to school that way.

I told her she can come work with me... that didn't go over well. 🤣
 
She's looking at two schools, both private.

One she can stay home, the other she'd have to room there. It was about a 10k difference from the numbers they gave.

She's leaning (at least she says) to the school to stay home. She can still keep her job and work while going to school that way.

I told her she can come work with me... that didn't go over well. 🤣
It’s tough. It’s a shame we’ve gotten to this point. Fwiw, which is nothing, I firmly believe the kids who stay at home and get jobs have a much harder time ever graduating. I’m insisting my daughter go away
 
It’s tough. It’s a shame we’ve gotten to this point. Fwiw, which is nothing, I firmly believe the kids who stay at home and get jobs have a much harder time ever graduating. I’m insisting my daughter go away

I would rather her go away for school as well... I think it would be good to experience living on her own with people not her family.

It's not going to matter though if she goes away or not, she's gonna want to work. She's had a job since she was 14 so she's use to balancing work and school.
 
I would rather her go away for school as well... I think it would be good to experience living on her own with people not her family.

It's not going to matter though if she goes away or not, she's gonna want to work. She's had a job since she was 14 so she's use to balancing work and school.
So you got me thinking. I just looked it up. A kid could get a degree here for $25k. Could be a social worker, a writer, a teacher, anything without fear of debt. But it wouldn’t be fun. Two years of junior college then two years at the university of Missouri St. Louis
 
That story screams for another explanation: that your work right before law school to rework your paper improved your writing ability.

What did you major in during undergrad?
Poli-sci/Econ.

I also married my stoker in the meantime. I think that is a better explanation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcmurtry66
Hold on, I never said that. I’m talking about the degrees people walk away with when they’re done — and the income people can expect to earn by having those degrees, relative to the cost to obtain them.

Of course people can (and should!) take worthy electives. But the cost of any particular degree should absolutely bear some rational relationship to the value (and I do mean monetary value) of having it.

This is a problem. And we have to address it…sooner rather than later. I’ve given one idea on how to do this, but I’m always in the market for other ones.

I think in some aspects we agree more than you realize. You mentioned that college isn't needed to lean a language, very true. Some day I will learn Klingon from Duolingo to prove the point.

I said earlier I believe the value of the degree is far more showing the willingness to spend years working, proving one has the desire to better oneself. Something I failed at at 18. That is the gatekeeper.

That and looking at transcripts shows one has taken and passed ASL (as a language example). Most employers don't want to devise a test to prove fluency in a language. They don't want to grade a paper to show an employee knows how to write. They don't want to administer a math test to show they know how to do math, or grade code to show they really know how to code. Looking at a transcript showing all that is far easier and less time consuming. That's the role university is providing.

So I am not sure why we would discount a degree in religious studies, philosophy, geography. We do, but why? Those have math requirements, language requirements, public speaking and writing requirements. All necessary for most modern jobs. Most people I know with a business degree state right up front they didn't learn anything that really made them superior. So, why do we value them more?

Now clearly if I were hiring someone to design bridges, I would want someone with an engineering degree. But I also know the way we overvalue degrees. After my year at the IRS, I was 6th in their rating system. Once tax season ended, they kept the top 5. Since points were given for having a degree, and I was the highest scoring non-degree, I am fairly confident that lack of a degree cost me. On the other hand, it worked out because I much prefer where I have been and what I have been doing for the last 35+ years over the IRS. And that worked out because in the late 80s we needed more IT people than we had people with degrees in IT. "Can you program Dbase III+ and can you replace RAM in a computer" was pretty much the job interview. And some were lucky, my roommates were Comp Sci majors and they were in desperate demand. They proved Gladwell's point that people like Gates were really lucky in one way, born a year or two earlier and they wouldn't have been in computers and born a year or two later and someone else would have already made their contribution.
 
  • Like
Reactions: larsIU
So you got me thinking. I just looked it up. A kid could get a degree here for $25k. Could be a social worker, a writer, a teacher, anything without fear of debt. But it wouldn’t be fun. Two years of junior college then two years at the university of Missouri St. Louis
Another non-fun option is Western Governors. I am not sure how it works for teaching. But in IT classes, one earns various IT certificates in the program. So one can move up career-wise even before graduating. Basically if one takes a course on computer security, the final is passing the CompTIA Security certificate exam.
 
So you got me thinking. I just looked it up. A kid could get a degree here for $25k. Could be a social worker, a writer, a teacher, anything without fear of debt. But it wouldn’t be fun. Two years of junior college then two years at the university of Missouri St. Louis

She's not considering a school less then 50k a year, and those are in state.

That doesn't include a meal plan, room and board, ect.

I'd punch my own mother on the nose for her to get a 25k degree.
 
I can do that myself -- and for a whole lot less money, too.

I get asked for advice all the time about this. And I tell them all the same thing: if you're going to go to college, make sure you're getting a degree that's worth all it costs to get it: and the time spent there is at least as valuable as the checks you'll write. There are such degrees. And if you have any questions about whether or not one is worth it, look into it. There's gobs of information out there about it.

If you're not going to get one of these degrees, save the money you'd spend on college and find a career path that doesn't need it. And there are tons available. Save that money, invest it, use it to stay out of debt. Work hard, learn how to sell, go use what you learned to sell things, think about entrepreneurship, etc.

The world has changed a whole lot in the last 25 or 30 years. And one of the changes is that most college degrees aren't worth what they cost to obtain. If they were, we wouldn't have a student debt crisis. We have a student debt crisis because the income one can expect to earn with most degrees isn't sufficient to justify the cost.

While that seems to be the common talking point.... The college debt issue isn't really the result of a degree not paying off.... But rather the fact that something like 40% of people with college debt never graduated.

The wage gap between a high school degree and a college degree is higher today than it was 30 years ago.
 
She's not considering a school less then 50k a year, and those are in state.

That doesn't include a meal plan, room and board, ect.

I'd punch my own mother on the nose for her to get a 25k degree.
That just doesn’t make sense brother. If you’re going to be a twenty or jdb fine. Learn that things are robust. But not education
 
She's not considering a school less then 50k a year, and those are in state.

That doesn't include a meal plan, room and board, ect.

I'd punch my own mother on the nose for her to get a 25k degree.

$50k /yr where?? A state school?
 
That just doesn’t make sense brother. If you’re going to be a twenty or jdb fine. Learn that things are robust. But not education

I can make recommendations, but she's an adult and will make decisions she thinks is best for her, no matter if I agree or not.

I just have to hope we've done a good enough job that she thinks through what she wants to do and weights the pros and cons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcmurtry66
She's not considering a school less then 50k a year, and those are in state.

That doesn't include a meal plan, room and board, ect.

I'd punch my own mother on the nose for her to get a 25k degree.
So this is where I think crazed comments come to play. What is the benefit that those 50k schools might provide someone studying education that an Indiana State, Ball State, etc. would not?
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcmurtry66
That just doesn’t make sense brother. If you’re going to be a twenty or jdb fine. Learn that things are robust. But not education
"Robust"

Show Off Mike Ross GIF by PeacockTV
 
St Francis, in Fort Wayne, was a little over 50k a year (going off last year's numbers).

Indiana Wesleyan was like 65k when you figured in room and board (again, off last year's numbers).
Those are insane choices. Asinine. Seriously. You have to drop the hammer
 
So this is where I think crazed comments come to play. What is the benefit that those 50k schools might provide someone studying education that an Indiana State, Ball State, etc. would not?

She doesn't want to go to a big school... she doesn't want to get lost in the shuffle.

The schools she's looking at have classes no bigger then 20-25 for the most part. I think there is value in that kind of environment, personally.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BradStevens
St Francis, in Fort Wayne, was a little over 50k a year (going off last year's numbers).

Indiana Wesleyan was like 65k when you figured in room and board (again, off last year's numbers).

That's the sticker price or what she would actually pay after FAFSA, etc....?
 
I can make recommendations, but she's an adult and will make decisions she thinks is best for her, no matter if I agree or not.

I just have to hope we've done a good enough job that she thinks through what she wants to do and weights the pros and cons.
I think you better get her a rivals account and tell her to spend a few days on here, attending CoH University. It's free and she might see things in a different light.

Hell, if she plays her cards right, she might get a Dream Team invitation.
 
  • Love
Reactions: jet812
That's the sticker price or what she would actually pay after FAFSA, etc....?

Sticker.

FASFA isn't open until like middle December, plus any scholarships she may get (not really counting on a lot there - she's my ds get degrees kid).
 
She doesn't want to go to a big school... she doesn't want to get lost in the shuffle.

The schools she's looking at have classes no bigger then 20-25 for the most part. I think there is value in that kind of environment, personally.
There most definitely is value in that. But now she has to place a monetary value on that.

By the way, if you put in some work, you can find many classes outside freshman year (some in it) that are smaller at big unis. At least you could back in the early '90s.
 
The first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging. You aren’t going to find your way out if you don’t do that.

But there’s no urgency, because the money is currently going into the black fiscal hole that all our bad money goes to. The fixes won’t be popular or pleasant - same as with entitlements. So of course politicians don’t want to touch it.

Craze, as you know, government spending whether it is mandated (as in entitlements) or is discretionary that it does not go down a hole. It ends up back into the economy where it is spent, saved, or invested.

The political question before us is always about the size of government spending and what the spending should consist of. In addition how and what does the government do to raise the revenues necessary to cover the spending without deficits.

Finally if there are deficits, do we just accumulate them ? The final question being, for how long and how much do we allow deficits to accumulate ?

The answer to this question continues to this day to be unresolved.
 
That's the sticker price or what she would actually pay after FAFSA, etc....?

That is one thing the sticker price doesn't cover. The overachievers get all sorts of scholarships. The poor get all sorts of aid. The students who are pretty good but not great from a slightly above-average income are the ones really hurt.
 
I think in some aspects we agree more than you realize. You mentioned that college isn't needed to lean a language, very true. Some day I will learn Klingon from Duolingo to prove the point.

I said earlier I believe the value of the degree is far more showing the willingness to spend years working, proving one has the desire to better oneself. Something I failed at at 18. That is the gatekeeper.

That and looking at transcripts shows one has taken and passed ASL (as a language example). Most employers don't want to devise a test to prove fluency in a language. They don't want to grade a paper to show an employee knows how to write. They don't want to administer a math test to show they know how to do math, or grade code to show they really know how to code. Looking at a transcript showing all that is far easier and less time consuming. That's the role university is providing.

So I am not sure why we would discount a degree in religious studies, philosophy, geography. We do, but why? Those have math requirements, language requirements, public speaking and writing requirements. All necessary for most modern jobs. Most people I know with a business degree state right up front they didn't learn anything that really made them superior. So, why do we value them more?

Now clearly if I were hiring someone to design bridges, I would want someone with an engineering degree. But I also know the way we overvalue degrees. After my year at the IRS, I was 6th in their rating system. Once tax season ended, they kept the top 5. Since points were given for having a degree, and I was the highest scoring non-degree, I am fairly confident that lack of a degree cost me. On the other hand, it worked out because I much prefer where I have been and what I have been doing for the last 35+ years over the IRS. And that worked out because in the late 80s we needed more IT people than we had people with degrees in IT. "Can you program Dbase III+ and can you replace RAM in a computer" was pretty much the job interview. And some were lucky, my roommates were Comp Sci majors and they were in desperate demand. They proved Gladwell's point that people like Gates were really lucky in one way, born a year or two earlier and they wouldn't have been in computers and born a year or two later and someone else would have already made their contribution.
I wanna get back to what it even means to be “educated”. A specific discipline is of course import for some jobs, like engineering. But I think there is more to it that allows a person to excel within a discipline. I’ve worked around lawyers for decades and even though I think a legal education is a great education, not everyone walks away with the same skills and abilities. I think a purpose of education that applies to all disciplines are things like independence, resourcefulness. Problem solving, creativity, confidence, communication, people skills entrepreneurship; stuff like that. Any college education costing thousands of dollars should improve these kinds of abilities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Baller23Boogie
If I had more backup in the house, I would certainly give it a try.

With wife in menopause, middle kid worry about college and youngest starting puberty, I'm just trying to not get stabbed while I sleep.
Get a back bone. I told my daughter to stop crying last night. Her response? She cried harder. I then told her to go in the other room if she can't stop herself because I don't want to hear it. I ain't scared 😁
 
Craze, as you know, government spending whether it is mandated (as in entitlements) or is discretionary that it does not go down a hole. It ends up back into the economy where it is spent, saved, or invested.

The political question before us is always about the size of government spending and what the spending should consist of. In addition how and what does the government do to raise the revenues necessary to cover the spending without deficits.

Finally if there are deficits, do we just accumulate them ? The final question being, for how long and how much do we allow deficits to accumulate ?

The answer to this question continues to this day to be unresolved.
But we're doing it all wrong, hoot1. Our current federal government subsidies drive up the cost of college, while making students and their families bear the brunt of that cost. At the same time, state's have cut funding to their state universities across the country, funding that goes directly to operations, which keeps tuition costs down. So we've made college more expensive via state inaction, and are throwing more dollars at it through federal action.

This is one area, too, where it appears allowing the consumer to make choices does not drive down costs (contra arguments re healthcare, for example). Of course, that shouldn't be surprising given we are now making people decide one of the biggest financial decisions of their lifetimes at the age of 17 or 18.
 
Last edited:
I wanna get back to what it even means to be “educated”. A specific discipline is of course import for some jobs, like engineering. But I think there is more to it that allows a person to excel within a discipline. I’ve worked around lawyers for decades and even though I think a legal education is a great education, not everyone walks away with the same skills and abilities. I think a purpose of education that applies to all disciplines are things like independence, resourcefulness. Problem solving, creativity, confidence, communication, people skills entrepreneurship; stuff like that. Any college education costing thousands of dollars should improve these kinds of abilities.

Either you mistyped or I misread this, as it would appear we agree which would be impossible. :).
 
  • Haha
Reactions: CO. Hoosier
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT