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Myth of working your way thru college
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DrTorch Offline
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Post: #1
Myth of working your way thru college
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/myth-worki...00352.html

Quote:a graduate student named Randy Olson listened to his grandfather extol the virtues of putting oneself through college without family support. But paying for college without family support is a totally different proposition these days, Olson thought. It may have been feasible 30 years ago, or even 15 years ago, but it's much harder now.

He later found some validation for these sentiments on Reddit, where one user had started a thread about the increasing cost per course at Michigan State University. MSU calculates tuition by the "credit hour," the term for the number of hours spent in a classroom per week. By this metric, which is used at many U.S. colleges and universities, a course that's worth three credit hours is a course that meets for three hours each week during the semester. If the semester is 15 weeks long, that adds up to 45 total hours of a student's time. The Reddit user quantified the rising cost of tuition by cost per credit hour:


This is interesting. A credit hour in 1979 at MSU was 24.50, adjusted for inflation that is 79.23 in today dollars. One credit hour today costs 428.75.

Follow-up comments compared the rising cost of academic credit at MSU to changes in the federal minimum wage. In 1979, when the minimum wage was $2.90, a hard-working student with a minimum-wage job could earn enough in one day (8.44 hours) to pay for one academic credit hour. If a standard course load for one semester consisted of maybe 12 credit hours, the semester's tuition could be covered by just over two weeks of full-time minimum wage work—or a month of part-time work. A summer spent scooping ice cream or flipping burgers could pay for an MSU education.

The cost of an MSU credit hour has multiplied since 1979. So has the federal minimum wage. But today, it takes 60 hours of minimum-wage work to pay off a single credit hour, which was priced at $428.75 for the fall semester.
~more~

My comments:

Doesn't even consider taxes, which rise disproportionally _higher_ with the increased minimum wage. (The immoral progressive tax).

But this was a good article, and good work by Mr. Olson.

Now maybe his baby boomer grandfather will get off his entitled butt and go lobby the Michigan legislature and regents to get rid of the administrative bloat and superfluous grad requirements that drive tuition to such absurd levels.
04-01-2014 01:51 PM
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firmbizzle Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
They need to stop government loans and get rid of the bankruptcy exemption for private loans. Tuition would drop like a rock.
04-01-2014 02:52 PM
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JDTulane Online
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Post: #3
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
I had a full time job and supported myself during my undergrad and masters and I will be paying loans for a while. The idea that Grandpa worked harder than me is laughable. We live in totally different worlds.
04-01-2014 03:00 PM
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gdunn Offline
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Post: #4
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
(04-01-2014 03:00 PM)JDTulane Wrote:  I had a full time job and supported myself during my undergrad and masters and I will be paying loans for a while. The idea that Grandpa worked harder than me is laughable. We live in totally different worlds.

It can be done. I mean at the point I am in life, if I wanted to improve on my degree, I'd have to do it per course hour.. I couldn't work the job I have full time and then take a full load of classes. It'd take longer but could be done.
04-01-2014 03:03 PM
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Murray007 Offline
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Post: #5
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
One of the reasons I'm at ODU (even though I was admitted into other, more selective schools) is because of scholarships. Students who want to go to college need to keep price in mind, and sadly I see a lot of people assuming they will just pay the loans back without regard for the total cost.
04-01-2014 03:05 PM
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gdunn Offline
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Post: #6
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
(04-01-2014 03:05 PM)Murray007 Wrote:  One of the reasons I'm at ODU (even though I was admitted into other, more selective schools) is because of scholarships. Students who want to go to college need to keep price in mind, and sadly I see a lot of people assuming they will just pay the loans back without regard for the total cost.

What's the point of going to a college if you can't pay off the skin hanging on the wall. I know so many people that wanted to go to Ole Miss.. But ended up with me at USM because they couldn't afford the lifestyle. Or let me rephrase that, their parents couldn't afford the lifestyle.
04-01-2014 03:08 PM
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Murray007 Offline
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Post: #7
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
(04-01-2014 03:08 PM)gdunn Wrote:  
(04-01-2014 03:05 PM)Murray007 Wrote:  One of the reasons I'm at ODU (even though I was admitted into other, more selective schools) is because of scholarships. Students who want to go to college need to keep price in mind, and sadly I see a lot of people assuming they will just pay the loans back without regard for the total cost.

What's the point of going to a college if you can't pay off the skin hanging on the wall. I know so many people that wanted to go to Ole Miss.. But ended up with me at USM because they couldn't afford the lifestyle. Or let me rephrase that, their parents couldn't afford the lifestyle.

Exactly.

Plus, I am determined to not have my parents pay for my college education. This is my choice and they shouldn't have to pay for a decision that they didn't make. Of course, they want to help but unless something happened they would have no need to do so and I'm proud of that fact.
04-01-2014 03:16 PM
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JDTulane Online
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Post: #8
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
Depends on your goals post undergrad. The debt is worth it at some institutions where you gain access to research more readily and have a much easier foot in the door for post undergrad schooling.

Med/grad school at top notch universities is much more attainable that way
04-01-2014 03:46 PM
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HeartOfDixie Offline
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Post: #9
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
Government loans are part of the problem and so is the fact student debt is very difficult to cut in bankruptcy.

Back in the day, creditors were shafted when people just declared bankruptcy but today's system can easily lead to being a debt slave.

Keep the government loans but allow for a certain amount of debt to be expunged in bankruptcy, specifically private loans.
04-01-2014 04:00 PM
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firmbizzle Offline
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Post: #10
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
If it's not Ivy League, Duke or Stanford, it doesn't matter.
04-01-2014 04:09 PM
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supertiger Offline
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Post: #11
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
(04-01-2014 04:00 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  Government loans are part of the problem and so is the fact student debt is very difficult to cut in bankruptcy.

Back in the day, creditors were shafted when people just declared bankruptcy but today's system can easily lead to being a debt slave.

Keep the government loans but allow for a certain amount of debt to be expunged in bankruptcy, specifically private loans.

I honestly don't think there would be any private loan market if you removed the BK protections of student loans.

If there was one, the rates would be 20%+.
04-01-2014 04:17 PM
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firmbizzle Offline
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Post: #12
RE: Myth of working your way thru college
(04-01-2014 04:17 PM)supertiger Wrote:  
(04-01-2014 04:00 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  Government loans are part of the problem and so is the fact student debt is very difficult to cut in bankruptcy.

Back in the day, creditors were shafted when people just declared bankruptcy but today's system can easily lead to being a debt slave.

Keep the government loans but allow for a certain amount of debt to be expunged in bankruptcy, specifically private loans.

I honestly don't think there would be any private loan market if you removed the BK protections of student loans.

If there was one, the rates would be 20%+.

Exactly. Why is the government garnishing wages for private companies? Imagine if they had this kind of protection for every loan. Loans would be easier to get than during the housing boom.
04-01-2014 04:26 PM
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