Student loan forgiveness

[JaneV2.0]

I've seen it amusingly called "auto carrot."

[ToomuchStuff]

Some of the Ivy League schools are essentially free if you have financial need. Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton issue financial awards packages that include $zero in student loans, and students graduate debt-free.

And in some cases where there is no need. Friend had seven figures set aside for his daughters education. She went out on her own and got a full ride from Harvard, got her MD and went to work for something that I confuse with the WHO.

I find that odd. When I went to college, I had to investigate the various loan and grant options available to me, and judge between them all. It did not involve any complicated math. I would think someone going to college would be expected to understand that level of analysis.

Then again, people get ripped off all the time with auto and consumer credit because they can't do math, or they want instant gratification, or ....

There lies the problem, people have the right to be stupid.

I certainly wasn't ready for college at 18. Didn't want to deal with the same idiots from school (where I had been at gun point and had a knife to my throat), certainly didn't have any money. (I always wondered why people whose parents divorced, were required to put money aside for their kids college, but as a kid from a marriage where they stayed together, at 18 you are on your own)
I finally started at 20, paying as I went, as one of the values my grandmother instilled in me was don't take on things you can't pay for. During that semester she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The next semester I was working full time, trying to go to school full time and doing the Hospice, thing. (averaging 4 hours of sleep a night), school had to give and she passed.
Within days of that, I had to move into her house to secure it from a neighbor that tried to break in, help break up the property. A month later, after moving my inheritance four times in a week I found out that due to my inlaws new job, my sibling wasn't getting the house. I inherited half and had to buy the other half out, no more college, must pay mortgage.


Now my grandma's "fourth grandkid" (kid of family friends we grew up with,who is much younger), at 37, finally got a job with the degree he took out student loans for, and I don't think the cover what he paid. (comic book degree)

[LDAHL]

My daughter is a Research Fellow at Cambridge. Her salary is ~$52k/year. She also receives hugely discounted faculty/fellow housing consisting of a very small flat with kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a sitting-room meant for receiving/teaching students. She receives two meals free a day at the College dining hall, which is no meagre benefit - dinners are served with wine, and many meals have servants doing full table service. The hall also looks just like Hogwarts.

For all of this, she had to work her way all the way up to Ph.D., publish, and then compete for one of the handful of positions available, there were ~400 applicants for the position. Probably the other Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celticists are working in museums as guides, or teaching Latin to high schoolers.

Now, she'd make *more* here working on one of our local whale-watching boats being a wildlife guide. Or cleaning houses. Which is her backup plan.

She graduated from her US undergraduate institution with no debt, had to pay for her UK Masters out-of-pocket as she was a foreigner, and her UK Ph.D. was entirely grant-funded and included a $31k/year stipend for living expenses.

She refused my suggestion to get a minor in petrochemical engineering so she'd be employable.

I read recently that Cambridge is saying that “Anglo-Saxon” isn’t a real thing anymore. It apparently contributes to “myths of nationalism”.

[flowerseverywhere]

My daughter is a Research Fellow at Cambridge. Her salary is ~$52k/year. She also receives hugely discounted faculty/fellow housing consisting of a very small flat with kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a sitting-room meant for receiving/teaching students. She receives two meals free a day at the College dining hall, which is no meagre benefit - dinners are served with wine, and many meals have servants doing full table service. The hall also looks just like Hogwarts.

For all of this, she had to work her way all the way up to Ph.D., publish, and then compete for one of the handful of positions available, there were ~400 applicants for the position. Probably the other Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celticists are working in museums as guides, or teaching Latin to high schoolers.

Now, she'd make *more* here working on one of our local whale-watching boats being a wildlife guide. Or cleaning houses. Which is her backup plan.

She graduated from her US undergraduate institution with no debt, had to pay for her UK Masters out-of-pocket as she was a foreigner, and her UK Ph.D. was entirely grant-funded and included a $31k/year stipend for living expenses.

She refused my suggestion to get a minor in petrochemical engineering so she'd be employable.

With discounted room, board and no commuting to work expenses it seems wonderful. I hope she is very happy.

[Tradd]

Being able to write well is absolutely a worthwhile skill. I wasn't a journalism major but I wrote enough papers in high school and college that I can also write reasonably well. I've never touted that as a particular skill but it's definitely come in handy in various jobs I've had over the years.

THinking about autocorrect, there used to be (maybe still is) a site with a name like "damn you autocorrect" that posted hysterical autocorrect gaffes.

Yes, I remember that website. It was hysterical.

I’ll tell you, these days touting your writing skills is absolutely a good idea, given how badly many people spell and write.

[Tradd]

I've seen it amusingly called "auto carrot."

OMG, love that!

[LDAHL]

I see the President has vetoed a bill that cleared both houses that would have killed his debt “forgiveness” move. The SCOTUS gets the final word on the matter.

[frugal-one]

I see the President has vetoed a bill that cleared both houses that would have killed his debt “forgiveness” move. The SCOTUS gets the final word on the matter.

So we know how that will go....

[iris lilies]

So we know how that will go....

So how will that go then? The right way? The constitutionally valid way?

[frugal-one]

So how will that go then? The right way? The constitutionally valid way?

However the radically conservative want it to go. I don't care one way or another but you know it won't fly.