The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

[NDAlum]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I highly, highly, highly doubt it man

Girlfriend is a teacher with about $35,000 in loans. She has a 50% forgiveness if she works in a Title I school for 5 years.

It would take you five years to pay off that loan if you did nothing but pay your salary towards the loan...

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I highly, highly, highly doubt it man

Girlfriend is a teacher with about $35,000 in loans. She has a 50% forgiveness if she works in a Title I school for 5 years.

It would take you five years to pay off that loan if you did nothing but pay your salary towards the loan...

i've paid roughly $14K toward student loans....only $7K of it has gone to the principle ....almost half in interest payments

[Cabke]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I highly, highly, highly doubt it man

Girlfriend is a teacher with about $35,000 in loans. She has a 50% forgiveness if she works in a Title I school for 5 years.

It would take you five years to pay off that loan if you did nothing but pay your salary towards the loan...

Basically, I'm gonna go for this year, and see how many scholarships I can get. We have a Midwestern Student Exchange program where I can go to schools in the midwest for 150% of the instate cost. That would save me some money and then I'm gonna pursue more grants. If it's not looking good, I'll transfer to a school here in MO. I'm also gonna teach at a Title I school. My high school was one, and we weren't very urban at all. I definitely won't teach in the inner cities though.

[acts238shaun]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

BTW, Chemistry is another good multi purpose/occupation degree. Get a great job working for a pharm company.

[jb12780]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

It depends on what a person wants to do with their life. I live in New York, which has one of the best public college systems in the country. I didnt apply to a private school because it wasn't worth the cost, and numerous SUNY schools made Kiplinger's list as best values in public colleges.

I am currently attending SUNY Plattsburgh studying in Political Science (whose alumni include current congressman Anthony Weiner lol). It is listed as 64th in the country for in-state students, and 63rd for out-of-state students.

Moral of the story: different strokes for different folks.

Kiplingers top 100 public college list: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colle...ublic#colleges

[ryan36]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

The education isn't what I valued the most from my 4 years at Alabama. It was the networking that I would not have been able to do otherwise.


Networking is the #1 thing you need to learn from college. Know who, when, how to present yourself, how to follow up, etc.

That's why I'm going to the liberal arts college I am... narrative evals, pass/fail grades but everyone is pretty much entrepreneurs ...

I think all those stats listed are pretty pointless. It is not as simple as college vs. no college. It's all what you do with college. Going to a expensive private school to major in sociology is probably a waste of money. Going to a state school wiht a great business or engineering program is not.

I would say going to a private school to major in sociology helps a lot because of name recognition. I'd say it's the engineering degree that could be gotten anywhere (except MIT).

Intelligence doesn't have a grade level, degree, or title.

I know some folks who have all these degree and I wouldn't trust them to get anything done.

I don't really think it matters.

Yes, but you don't work in a field where a BA is required. For what i want to do , I HAVE to have a BA. I love when people with a master's level credential are told they can't be hired as police because they're overqualified.

Oh no the 75% thing I don't have to do anything, but for teaching some countys offer a thing if I work there for 5 years or so the gov't will forgive any of my loans.

Some of those places really suck to live in. LOL

I highly, highly, highly doubt it man

Girlfriend is a teacher with about $35,000 in loans. She has a 50% forgiveness if she works in a Title I school for 5 years.

It would take you five years to pay off that loan if you did nothing but pay your salary towards the loan...

But if that's the only to what he wants to do...



I guess the point is some jobs require a degree, some don't. As long as you USE your degree, it's worth it. If you go into an obscure field where there's only 27 of you in the entire country and only 6 make money, that's one thing.

Plus , debt to income ratio make may make huge debt seem insurmountable- BUT really it's a 100 a month or 200 as long as you don't to a private lender. I would much rather be happy than rich.

[NDAlum]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

In my field degree = more money
Degree also = promotional requirement

[bukktown]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I really don't understand college economics.

I'm in Electrical Engineering at the U of Minnesota and me and most of my classmates get generous grants and scholarships.

A friend of mine (who is in his 50's) was laid off from an engineering job a couple years ago and he decided he wanted teach high school chemistry. He has a chemistry degree from college and started a program at the U which costs $30,000 for a 2 year teaching program so he can teach high school.

[eDotd]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I was talking to a girl in my class during the commute home and thought of this thread.

She has a Bachelor's in Engineering, Master's in Public Administration (or Public relations? I forgot what she said, it was public something) and currently works for the city. She's still paying off the loans for her Bachelors and has a $70,000 loan for her Masters queued up right after that. So now she's back in school trying to get into Nursing to hopefully become an NP, because with where she's at now she'll be stuck in the same cycle for the rest of her life.

On the other hand, my girlfriend's friend went to college for about 2 weeks before he dropped out. He worked Summer Youth (an employment program here in the city, not sure if all states do it) for the MTA processing Metrocards. After the program ended they kept him on and he's been promoted twice and is now making something like 40K. I believe he is 22, still lives with his parents so no bills whatsoever. Just bought a new car actually.

I have another friend who never attempted to go to college and has been working at Dominoes for the last 4 years.

So I'll answer this question the way you should answer any question.

It depends.

Personally I only think it's worth it if what you want to do in life is a highly specialized field.

[bgeno]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

Oh no the 75% thing I don't have to do anything, but for teaching some countys offer a thing if I work there for 5 years or so the gov't will forgive any of my loans.

My girlfriend just got her teaching degree, and she's got some kind of deal where she gets help with her loans if she teaches four of her first five years in a district that is defined by the state as low-income.

[ryan36]

My girlfriend just got her teaching degree, and she's got some kind of deal where she gets help with her loans if she teaches four of her first five years in a district that is defined by the state as low-income.

Yes but states are even cutting these programs.

[FlyingFinn]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

I just learned today that I'm going to owe $138,000 on a federal loan of roughly $90,000 for my next three years of school. I want to be a teacher. I eventually want to get my masters and PhD. in something history related so I can teach at the college level. I'm currently asking myself if this is really worth it.

90,000 loan? What in world school are you going to that you need a $90,000 loan to attend.

My wife went to school all the way to get her Phd and her total loan for undergrad, masters and Phd was $24,000.

In addition, people should treat graduate school like a job. Schools compete for the best students by giving them grants/stipends etc... so if they are trying to make you foot the entire bill, I say skip it.

[USF11]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

With "Income Based Loan Repayment" School makes sense again.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/IBRPlan****p

[Cabke]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

90,000 loan? What in world school are you going to that you need a $90,000 loan to attend.

My wife went to school all the way to get her Phd and her total loan for undergrad, masters and Phd was $24,000.

In addition, people should treat graduate school like a job. Schools compete for the best students by giving them grants/stipends etc... so if they are trying to make you foot the entire bill, I say skip it.

Out of state for Nebraska is about $30K a year and I'll spend three years there. I'm looking in to some other stuff that should bring it down to about $20K a year. I can live with that.

[AnArtofWar]

Re: The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

It's interesting looking at this and the College Conspiracy video especially as I am getting ready to narrow down my schools as I visit a couple more this summer and maybe the fall...

While I think both are exaggerated they still give a good picture in what could happen, but I am going to an engineering program this summer at Columbia U. So if I like it, I will definitely proceed...if I don't, I might not go to college even though I REALLY want to have the great experience it is. I will just do stocks and have that money saved up for college for my use.