Student Loan Debt: Why?

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s not so good for students who actually need financial aid to go to these schools. While the rankings were initially created to help students evaluate different colleges and make some money for the magazine, it has,over the past … Student Loan Debt: Why? and that s what s so sad about this entire student loan situation. It s past the point of lunacy for people who aren t privileged enough to have rich parents (or if they re not poor enough, for that matter). Why bother to help people

Jasonn Calcanis offers a job to a 16 year old who likes statistics. I would hire someone who could show a working knowledge of my profession like that on the spot. The age of internet education is upon us already, not because of the state of the university, but the state of business. A degree means nothing if there is no conduit for success after it. The web and technology provide huge tubes as conduits for education and collaboration. The university provides much smaller tubes called hoops. How many hoops can you jump through?

Here in Florida, the system *almost* works. If you are in the thousand+ range on your SATs, at least 75% of your tuition is covered. Get a little higher and 100% of it is covered by the state. Of course, we also have one of the lowest college tuitions in the continental United States.

Either way, it seems counter-intuitive not to place more emphasis on trying to educate your citizens. I’m always a bit surprised at the type of hoops people are being forced to go through in order to try to excel and I really love hearing success stories from people who have managed to make it through the student loan quagmire.

This maybe off topic…but has anyone checked on tuition & fees for colleges outside the US. While reading the above…I remembered something about Canadian universities being a fraction of the cost tuition-wise of US schools.

Student Loans serve a good purpose: They get you an education you might not otherwise receive. Other than that, they are worthless. They don’t improve your credit score, they are a drag on your net worth, they cost a bundle. So what do you do? Get as much ‘free’ help as possible, then go for the loan and pay it off as soon as possible. There are people who will tell you that a Student Loan is ‘good debt’. NO DEBT is a good debt. Everything else you are paying MORE for what you received than what it would have cost if you spent cash (or using a debit card) unless you pay immediately for it. The only good part about a student loan is that you MIGHT make more after receiving a degree than before (ask a History major what they make and where they work, you might be surprised at the answer.) So, think carefully before signing on that loan application.
As to making the Internet a University, half of the ‘information’ on the Internet is supposedly made up or outright false. You would need some sort of validation system with checks. I do believe that the Internet has increased our knowledge of some subjects, but has clouded knowledge on others.

Another comment on our great American Educational System: It has been going downhill for a long time. Why? Because we have an ineffective system of granting FEDERAL monies. If you ask your local school system how they get them, the answer in most cases is “I don’t know, comply with whatever the Department of Education wants this year.” This is a Federal Department that was setup in 1964/1965 to enforce anti-segregation laws, not to set some sort of standard of what qualifies as a good learning experience. This has further been brought down by the misguided attempts of our present President (Texas’ level of education dropped until the laws he put in place were repealed.) No Child Left Behind is just an attempt to get our educational system to prepare everyone to go to college. Not everyone should attend college and not everyone wants to (we still need manual labor and I could care less if the mechanic who works on my car has a degree in anything other than Toyota Automobile repair (I own a Prius, and don’t drive that often (one tree or less a year)).) We need to teach life skills, like what a credit card actually does or how to balance a checking account, how to detect fraudulent transactions and how to deal with them, etc. College used to be a privilege and enjoyed by few. Maybe we need to look back and try to make it that way again (I know this is not popular, but I’m also for Federal Service to pay the way, not just serving in the military.) What I mean is if you want to go to college, you plan for this many years in advance and then when the time comes, you take the SAT, ACT or maybe even an exam by the college. Not blanket testing of everyone. Elimination of the Department of Ed. would free up wasted monies and maybe even fund preventive health care for everyone. Would that be a neat idea?

Here’s a response to the Canadian college comment. I am originally from Boston and went to McGill University in Montreal from 1964-68. It was a very good school and my decision was driven by both a desire to do something out of the ordinary and a need to find an economical education. At that time McGill was about $700 (Cdn) and Brown and Tufts where I was accepted in the US were much more expensive at $3,000 – 5,000. Don’t hold me to the dollar on these because it’s a long time to remember. My education at McGill proceeded well in two ways: when I came back to the States to get a Ph.D. in chemistry I was well prepared for the graduate courses. My second education was in the role of a country in the world. At that time the US was fighting the Vietnam war just as we are fighting the Iraq war now. By living in Canada I learned how a nation could be respected at the table of nations rather than despised by many for demanding the seat at the head of the table. As the US is overtaken by China economically and technologically we risk the danger of hastening our own demise by continuing to demand that seat.

I am against federal run schools. First off, the government along with the ‘education boards’ are teaching an agenda and currently are deliberately dumbing down the USA. Why? Cheaper labor for big business would be a good start to understanding the greed behind the machine. Our education system is much better off being state run and keeping the federal government out of the picture entirely as long as prejudice is kept out of the school systems.
Second, uneducated people are easier to control and to enslave. The financial system in this country is a clever trap to keep people as legally indentured servants for their entire life without even realizing it.
Ask how many of your friends are not indebted to the financial system?
Granted our lifestyle is an interesting trade for our loss of freedom. People used to be able to speak freely but now our churches have bought into the system as well and are now giving up the freedom of speech. How many pastors have been silenced from speaking out against the wrongs and evil in our society because they are afraid of losing tax exempt status? Our nation’s free speech has been castrated by lawyers and financial freedoms are enslaved by bankers. For what? To live a live of material wealth is a lousy trade for real personal freedom.

‘…When the “global economy” becomes an absolute reality – we’re going to wish we had done more to teach our citizens, giving them the tools to truly compete in a market that exists beyond these borders”

This is where the mighty US will eventually be taken down like England eventually was. I just hope I don’t live to see it, but the way we are heading with indadquate funding for education from Pre-K to Grad School, it seems inevitable. It goes back to the old axiom about the missing horseshoe nail that lost the war!

This is a great idea but it has some problems. I think that for the best info you need some sort of fee. Most of the fee’s for your college goes to your teachers salary. Another problem with learning on the internet is you can ask your teacher questions 1 on 1 or get help on a single problem.