Re: BS, MS, PhD Graduate level programs are even more worthless for the most part (sans nursing, medicine, and engineering programs). Business school, for example, is a huge joke. Unless you're going to a top-10 (Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, NYU, etc..) an MBA is not a sound return on investment. The only reason those schools make sense is the exit opportunities to top management consulting firms and investment banks (which only recruit from those schools anyway) pay a large enough salary so a newly minted MBA can keep their head above water debt-wise. Even then, how do adults in their 20s and 30s afford to stop working completely for two years and go back to school? Law School is also pointless. The market is so completely over-saturated with law students that they cant find jobs. So now you have $250k in law school debt and cant find a job to pay it off. Fun.
You are right, her sense of entitlement is terrible. No one told her no. I wanted to go to a private university in DC that only offered a tiny scholarship and got told no. I pouted a little because my older sisters got to go to Notre Dame and they shelled out for that (partially because that's my dad's alma mater and partially because it is just a better/more recognized school) but I completely get it now. It sounds like her parents just told her yes her whole life. Reality check, you shouldn't buy things you can't afford.
Oh, hey, and look at that. Some tenured professor (Dr. Munn E. Baggs) just got a big ol' honking grant to conduct a study on the effects of a whole grain diet on heart disease. And, the grant was provided by the generous members of the Kellogg family. Hey, what do you know! It turns out that whole grains are good for you - I mean, it's right there in a University study. Why, yes, Kelloggs sells a bunch of whole grain products, but why do you ask? And, just because Dr. Baggs is teaching Health 107, that requires a $135 text book that happens to be written by Dr. Baggs, and Dr. Baggs never comes to class because Hoo Flung Du, one of his grad students, is always filling in? Don't let that concern you.
Re: BS, MS, PhD This is exactly where I am at right now. I've been bouncing back and forth with the idea of going to get an MBA, but the 2 things keeping me from actually saying fuck it and starting the process are the cost of most programs and whether or not having an MBA will open up the job market for me. I would get one to help get myself out of the clinical aspect of radiology and more into the business and management side of things. But the programs range anywhere from $40k to over $100k. I can't justify that kind of debt for maybe a better job. So I haven't done it yet. And everything I've read about the career world indicates that getting one isn't really worthwhile unless your employer offers some sort of tuition reimbursement.
Re: BS, MS, PhD That's kind of the shitty thing I found out in business school. Almost every teacher I had put it in blunt terms. Your degree will be next to worthless in six months. One, the business worlds standards and practices change at a breakneck pace, two, you will have to learn the ins and outs of what ever specific industry you wind up in regardless of what you learned in school.
I went to the Big E over the weekend, which is basically New England's Fair because the states are too lame to have their own. My buddy got deep fried butter balls and tried eating them in front of me. As soon as he bit into one, melted butter squirted all over his shirt and I threw up into some bushes. It was the most revolting thing Ive ever seen- and Ive experienced multiple bodily fluids simultaneously.
Deserve might not have been the best word to use. I mean that whoever backs the student loan needs to treat it as an investment instead of an entitlement. A lot of these kids are bad investments, but the government gives them a loan anyway and lets them drown themselves in debt. Imagine if a bank have you a mortgage they knew you would never be able to pay back, except you can't discharge the debt even in bankruptcy. That's student loan debt.
My first gig out of law school was working for the Louisiana Attorney General's office collecting defaulted student loans. As a word of caution you can't ever get from under this debt. You can pay it off or die. That's it. They are not dischargeable in bankruptcy and the statute of limitations on them is, in Louisiana anyway, 30 years. I filed suit on 25 year old debt. I laid $40,000 judgments on guys working at McDonald's, I garnished wages on people making minimum wage, if you think you're getting a tax refund, think again, you found a sucker to co-sign? I sued them, too. I ruined security clearances, careers, and lives. I was the Fifth Horseman. That isn't to say any of this is the right tactic, though. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to make someone unemployable if you want them to pay you something, but that doesn't matter. The Feds want judgments, the Feds get judgments and then they can point to the judgment and say, "Look, we're getting results."
But then you fall into the trap of only educating people who already have money (lower risk) or financing "marketable" degrees, which sets up a whole other string of problems. It'll turn into only educating the people already with means, which drives a bigger wedge between our class and income gap. I'm not saying it doesn't "make sense" to issue loans to people who can afford it. The whole situation is fucked up and I don't think there is one thing that will fix it. It's going to take a long time and a lot of small changes along the way.
I would contend that being bright and motivated are better indicators of future success than what major they pick. Lower quality candidates would get funneled into more marketable degrees, but they're the ones really struggling with worthless degrees now.
I went to UVA too! She claims in the article that she chose NYU because she had faced ridicule as a lesbian in her rural town and wanted someplace more gay friendly. I would dispute that UVA is plenty gay-friendly, as is probably VCU or one of the schools in NoVA.
Re: BS, MS, PhD I'd look into part-time programs. Sure it's a bit of a pain in the ass, time management wise, but they are usually much more affordable and you don't lose out on 2 years of earnings. I think it definitely has value if you're switching careers. I have about $50K in debt, which SUCKS, however, jumping jobs earned me a 60% raise and my next promotion will likely have a 70% gap between where I would be with another promotion at my previous jobs. Other people in my current role who have made the shift without an MBA are 3-5 years older. I also have more freedom within the organization to move around than they do as a result of the degree. This is also switching industries/job functions. Thats where I still see benefit, just moving up in the same company or a similar company, unless there is tuition reimbursement like you said, doesn't make as much sense. I've mentioned how my old roommate went to USC to get his MBA, full-time, living on loans the entire time. He got a good job with Oracle, and given the cost of living bump comparatively, I would imagine he's making 6 figures, but he's not in some finance role making $250K out the gate. The thought of his loans give me anxiety. I was in the application/interview process with Kellogg (Northwestern) when I was applying, but it literally would have been 100% more expensive over the 2.5 years and I don't think its gonna be worth a $50K difference in salary down the road, but it absolutely would have made life WAY more difficult in the neartime with those loans. Meanwhile, I have 2 friends that work for GE Capital that got full MBAs paid for by work. They can go fuck themselves.
This thread has gotten too serious. I'm going to San Juan, Puerto Rico this weekend. Anyone been there? Any tips?
I'll second this. I was there in January and Old San Juan was by far my favorite part of the city. My brother got married at the Courtyard by Marriot in San Juan and we were there for a few days (was nice) but before, we stayed at a condo in Loiza (about 20-30 minutes east of SJ on the coast) and it was fantastic. We had a mile long stretch of beach to ourselves there. We spent only one day walking around Old San Juan and toured the forts, but I could have spent a week there. My favorite restaurant we ate at was Bebo's Café, which was recommended by most locals we asked and had simple yet very tasty island barbecue food. Old San Juan... Spoiler If you're into hiking and wilderness, El Yunque National Forest is worth a visit too. Spoiler