Where did you go to School?

Other discussions not related to the Permanent Portfolio

Moderator: Global Moderator

User avatar
Mark Leavy
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1950
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:20 pm
Location: US Citizen, Permanent Traveler

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Mark Leavy » Fri Mar 18, 2016 10:56 pm

UCSD - physics, economics and Spanish Lit in '83 if I had graduated.  Unfortunately, my mom moved after 3 years and I had to get a job to feed myself.
bedraggled
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 705
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 4:20 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by bedraggled » Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:10 am

Niagara University,  BBA in Accounting, 1977.

Total cost for 4 years: $14,000, including room and board (all-you-can-eat at the cafeteria).

My father gave me the student loan coupon book when payments started 6 months after graduation, $5,500.  After 2 masters degrees, I paid off the loans with a lump sum.  Those masters degrees were at public colleges in New York City.  It was not that burdensome.

But… our 2 kiddies with their advanced degrees are costing.  We are committed to paying their ways through grad school and emancipating them from student loan debt.  So far, so good.

My father was 55 when he shook the dust of college responsibility from his sandals.  I turn 61 next month and anticipate paying for the younger one when she returns to school for yet more.  Looks like our check book will be back in action.

Isn't the "Wayne's World" mantra "Party On!"?

Oh, yeah.  The inheritance from my civil service parents went to the colleges and our Honda Accord is 25 years old.  I wear some of my son's cast-off clothing.

My primary grad school professor once said their is a Yiddish curse, uttered thusly: "May you be blessed with gifted children."  My in-laws have 4 Ph.Ds in bio, organic chem and physics.  My wife's uncle led the development of the first space shuttle heat shield down in Texas.

These kids cost!  Since the start of private pre-K in 1993, $1.1 million on a gross salary basis.  (I.e., not actual cash but based on the amount before deductions.  Put another way, this is 15 years of salary I ain't got).  When the little one goes back, north of $1.2 million.

Many laughs!  Unbridled fun!  Life has been kind to us and this is a way of giving back to society.  It is all good.

Especially be wary of unsubsidized school loans.  The interest accumulates on the unwary.


Cheers.  (And I think I wandered a bit).
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:41 am

Johns Hopkins BS in EE.
University of Pennsylvania MD/PhD

Bedraggled, I can't imagine going through the graduate work grind while paying full price.  I got very lucky with costs.  Hopkins had low tuition at the time plus I had a merit scholarship, graduate work was covered by college (i.e. grant funds), I worked a few years in between schools, then NIH loan repayment program took care of the MD loans.
bedraggled
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 705
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 4:20 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by bedraggled » Sat Mar 19, 2016 7:08 am

WiseOne,

You have been and are there.

THe younger one earned  a $15,000 per year scholarship, $60,000 total, for the undergrad bio degree.  I hope that clarifies.  She just got hired to work as a surgical ICU nurse right out of college.  Apparently this hire is rare for a new graduate.  In clinical courses and part-time floor assistant work, she has shown ability.

On to nurse practitioner in anaesthesia?  Scholarship $$$ here?  I am learning the joy of paying for the next step, too!  And how 'bout a Ph.D and a professor's position at a nursing school when she finishes the next step.  I dare not chuckle.  With this crew, all is possible!    My son thought organic chemistry was amusing.

As Gopher said to Owl and Whinnie-The-Pooh, when Pooh Bear got stuck: "This is going to run into money."
 
Thanks.
User avatar
ochotona
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 3353
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2015 5:54 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by ochotona » Sat Mar 19, 2016 7:53 am

I went to school with actresses Jennifer Beals and Daryl Hannah. I remember Beals being a middle schooler with braces, she was a cute kid!
bedraggled
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 705
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 4:20 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by bedraggled » Sat Mar 19, 2016 8:00 am

WiseOne,

THis nursing masters has a small scholarship with it.

I have been told that a Ph.D is usually financed by grants, etc.  When my son's intended was thinking Ph.D, she did not expect to pay much at all.

We will see what future academic endeavors will cost.

Back to the origin of this thread: when my wife graduated  from Columbia University in 1981, her senior year cost $5,000.  It appears 4 years at Columbia cost approx. $18,000 then.  My 2nd tier college cost almost as much.  It is a strange world.
User avatar
Ad Orientem
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 3483
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: Florida USA
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Ad Orientem » Sat Mar 19, 2016 8:24 am

Broome Community College AA in Liberal Arts  1999.
State University of New York BA in European History (cum laude) 2001
Albany University (SUNY) MA in US History & MLS (Library & Information Science) 2003
Trumpism is not a philosophy or a movement. It's a cult.
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14231
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by dualstow » Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:58 am

ochotona wrote: I went to school with actresses Jennifer Beals and Daryl Hannah. I remember Beals being a middle schooler with braces, she was a cute kid!
Hah! Was Daryl Hannah good looking back then, or did she grow into it more slowly like Barbara Eden?
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years
User avatar
Mountaineer
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 4959
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:54 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Mountaineer » Sat Mar 19, 2016 10:16 am

West Virginia University - BS Chemical Engineering - 1968

Total expenses for 5 years (tuition, fees, off-campus apartment, food, books, gas and maintenance for a VW beetle, entertainment):  ~$5000 paid for by two scholarships and my summer jobs.  Cost to my parents - zero.  Wow, have times changed.

... M
DNA has its own language (code), and language requires intelligence. There is no known mechanism by which matter can give birth to information, let alone language. It is unreasonable to believe the world could have happened by chance.
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WiseOne » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:37 am

Bedraggled,

Not sure what your question is.  The rule in my family was that my parents picked up the costs for the first college degree, and we were on our own after that.  With that as motivation, your kids may find that they don't need parental help for graduate work after all - not only are there grants held by the mentors but also independent fellowships that can be applied for.

In fact, I encourage my students to apply for independent funding for several reasons.  First, it's good grant-writing experience.  Second, if they get the grants I can use the funds thus freed up to hire more students.  Third, it tells me exactly how serious they are.  It's a lot of time & effort to get a student up to speed on the workings in my lab, and after I had a couple of people vanish away without producing anything I'm on high alert for students who might do the same.

All those costs may be worthwhile, but it depends on what your kids want to accomplish with it.
User avatar
WildAboutHarry
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1090
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 9:35 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WildAboutHarry » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:31 pm

California State University, Chico.  B.A. in Biological Sciences 1978 (G.I. Bill, tuition about $98 per semester for all the units you could stand, if I recall correctly).
California State University, Chico.  M.A. in Botany 1980
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Ph.D. in Botany 1983
It is the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.  The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none"  James Madison
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14231
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by dualstow » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:33 pm

WildAboutHarry wrote: (G.I. Bill, tuition about $98 per semester for all the units you could stand, if I recall correctly).
Nice!
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WiseOne » Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:46 pm

WildAboutHarry wrote: California State University, Chico.  B.A. in Biological Sciences 1978 (G.I. Bill, tuition about $98 per semester for all the units you could stand, if I recall correctly).
California State University, Chico.  M.A. in Botany 1980
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Ph.D. in Botany 1983
So is Bernie Sanders onto a good thing then?

Government paying tuition might actually stop the vicious cycle of tuition increases, egged on by the easy availability of student loans.  And it would be far less painful than the only other way to stop the cycle:  stop providing student loans.
Libertarian666
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 5994
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Libertarian666 » Sun Mar 20, 2016 9:46 pm

WiseOne wrote:
WildAboutHarry wrote: California State University, Chico.  B.A. in Biological Sciences 1978 (G.I. Bill, tuition about $98 per semester for all the units you could stand, if I recall correctly).
California State University, Chico.  M.A. in Botany 1980
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Ph.D. in Botany 1983
So is Bernie Sanders onto a good thing then?

Government paying tuition might actually stop the vicious cycle of tuition increases, egged on by the easy availability of student loans.  And it would be far less painful than the only other way to stop the cycle:  stop providing student loans.
No, there's another way: allow student loans, but also allow them to be discharged in bankruptcy, perhaps after a minimum time period (to prevent gaming the system by newly-graduated doctors, etc.). That would force the lenders to underwrite the loans properly, which would stop the escalation of costs.
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14231
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by dualstow » Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:02 pm

Well, come on, you've got to bold the G.I. Bill part, too.
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WiseOne » Mon Mar 21, 2016 6:35 am

Libertarian666 wrote: No, there's another way: allow student loans, but also allow them to be discharged in bankruptcy, perhaps after a minimum time period (to prevent gaming the system by newly-graduated doctors, etc.). That would force the lenders to underwrite the loans properly, which would stop the escalation of costs.
But almost by definition, every graduating student with a fistful of loans has a highly negative net worth and no assets to speak of.  You'd have to either require parents to cosign or make going through bankruptcy harder.  When your credit score is already in the toilet, you have nothing to lose.  That's way too easy.
Libertarian666
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 5994
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Libertarian666 » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:23 am

WiseOne wrote:
Libertarian666 wrote: No, there's another way: allow student loans, but also allow them to be discharged in bankruptcy, perhaps after a minimum time period (to prevent gaming the system by newly-graduated doctors, etc.). That would force the lenders to underwrite the loans properly, which would stop the escalation of costs.
But almost by definition, every graduating student with a fistful of loans has a highly negative net worth and no assets to speak of.  You'd have to either require parents to cosign or make going through bankruptcy harder.  When your credit score is already in the toilet, you have nothing to lose.  That's way too easy.
Right, which is why I said that they would have to wait a minimum time before getting the loans discharged in bankruptcy, maybe 7 years? That would reduce gaming the system while not keeping them in indentured servitude indefinitely.
User avatar
Pointedstick
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 8864
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Pointedstick » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:31 am

An alternative approach that might work well is to have the "loan" become instead a percentage cut of the graduate's future income for some period of time. That way schools would have an incentive not only to underwrite properly, but also to actually produce graduates who earn a decent income.
Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant.
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
User avatar
WildAboutHarry
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1090
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 9:35 am

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by WildAboutHarry » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:00 am

[quote=dualstow]Well, come on, you've got to bold the G.I. Bill part, too.[/quote]

Right you are.  I spent 4 years in the Navy as an enlisted man making a ridiculously low salary (we did get a good salary bump in 1971) in exchange for a B.A. (and a semester of grad school).  Fair exchange, I think.  And I don't have a problem with GI Bill type of arrangements, where service is exchanged for some future benefit (college, trade school, etc.).  But one should have to give to get.  So I don't think I align with Bernie.
It is the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.  The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none"  James Madison
User avatar
Tyler
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2066
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Tyler » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:14 pm

Libertarian666 wrote: No, there's another way: allow student loans, but also allow them to be discharged in bankruptcy, perhaps after a minimum time period (to prevent gaming the system by newly-graduated doctors, etc.). That would force the lenders to underwrite the loans properly, which would stop the escalation of costs.
If we make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy again I also love the idea of putting the schools on the hook for half the money.  Providing a monetary incentive for colleges to graduate employable students with manageable debt would be a wonderful development. 
User avatar
Greg
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1126
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 6:12 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Greg » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:26 pm

Tyler wrote:
Libertarian666 wrote: No, there's another way: allow student loans, but also allow them to be discharged in bankruptcy, perhaps after a minimum time period (to prevent gaming the system by newly-graduated doctors, etc.). That would force the lenders to underwrite the loans properly, which would stop the escalation of costs.
If we make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy again I also love the idea of putting the schools on the hook for half the money.  Providing a monetary incentive for colleges to graduate employable students with manageable debt would be a wonderful development.
Would this have to be linked to GPA at all? I would think someone would ideally be more employable if they had a 3.8 GPA versus a 2.1 GPA when graduating. If schools are on the hook or only get funding based on a percentage of the student's salary, I'd want to know whether I think this student can really earn money or not, not just based on their degree, but how strong they are as a student.
Background: Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Control Systems, CAD Modeling, Machining, Wearable Exoskeletons, Applied Physiology, Drawing (Pencil/Charcoal), Drums, Guitar/Bass, Piano, Flute

"you are not disabled by your disabilities but rather, abled by your abilities." -Oscar Pistorius
User avatar
Cortopassi
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 3338
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 2:28 pm
Location: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbL ... sWebb.html

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Cortopassi » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:30 pm

Slippery slope here it would seem to incentivize giving better grades than warranted or massive curving.
Test of the signature line
User avatar
Pointedstick
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 8864
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Pointedstick » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:34 pm

Outside of academia and government, I don't think people care much about your GPA.
Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant.
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
User avatar
Cortopassi
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 3338
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 2:28 pm
Location: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbL ... sWebb.html

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Cortopassi » Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:53 pm

I graduated with a 2.9/4.  I cannot ever recall where it mattered, other than senior year on-campus interviews where there was a cutoff below which companies would not talk with you.

The name, University of Illinois, coupled with an engineering degree, was all that ever mattered, and helped in a couple situations.
Test of the signature line
User avatar
Pointedstick
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 8864
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Where did you go to School?

Post by Pointedstick » Mon Mar 21, 2016 8:35 pm

Desert wrote: Hey, just curious:  Did you ever consider UIUC, your hometown U?  I'm guessing you wanted to get out of town and go to a cooler place, but just wondering.
At the time I was still a flaming liberal and I wanted to go to the most incendiary left-wing institution I could find. My parents were also not-so-subtly guiding me in that direction. Finally, in high school, I abandoned math and science as soon as they became challenging so my grades in those subjects were poor; it's possible I might not have even been admitted to UIUC. So no, I did not consider it, although in retrospect I totally should have. It's easy to look back at that phase of my life and shake my head at how many silly decisions I made, but it's all turned out well regardless so I try not to beat myself up over it.
Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant.
- CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Post Reply