how far did you get into school?

a reply to: tadaman

Interesting in fact: the year (1998) I first attended college tuition was $1850 every 6 months. By the time I graduated in 2003 (I went to a land grant university and took the 5-year plan) it was $2800 every 6 months. Today it's $8300 every 6 months. No, it's not a typo. In just over 15 years tuition at a state-supported school has increased almost 5-fold. College isn't a waste but sure as hell is a racquet.

Lastly, for what ever reason graduate school tuition wasn't nearly as affected. I got my masters in economics for less than $20k. The marginal utility of my graduate school dollars was much higher than that of my undergrad. At any rate, that's my 2 cents.

a reply to: ArnoldNonymous

Reading most of the comments on this site should have tipped you off.

a reply to: KEACHI

I'm sure you weren't capable of critical thought or meaningful posts in web forums until you got your arbitrary piece of paper denoting your ability to conform to societal expectations.

I was going to give a different response but I now realize I misread the topic headline.
I thought it said "How Fat Did You Get In School."

a reply to: theboarman

My degree is a piece of paper saying I did what they required. I know of many who did what was required that I wouldn't find worthy of carrying water for the dropouts here.

I raise my glass to the ATS dropouts. You don't need your education to be validated by an approved source to be truly educated. Most education isn't happening in the hollowed halls. I did it for employment, not for education.

graduated high school. played a year of college football, but my heart was no longer in it (which i hated then and now....i wanted to want to play still....it just wasn't there anymore).

So i dropped out of college after a half assed attempt at a freshman year.


I tried to re-enroll in the local Junior College last year to take some classes that would help me in my job. I was told that they would not be able to teach me much, and they offered me a job as an instructor (only someone with a degree gets the title "professor" at their institution). LOL. My already low opinion of a college degree sunk just a little lower.

Cool tadaman, I hope you do get to go back to school one day. It's never too late! I'm 33 and still in college.

I'm hoping to transfer to a really good school and get my bachelors and possibly keep going until I can't anymore. I should transfer sometime next year after I finish up here (community college) with an associates (I hope). I actually just started the common app the other day... and started writing some essay stuff. And started looking up scholarship stuff. I can't even afford my life right now as it is, but if I can make school happen via financial aid, loans, grants, and scholarships, I'll do that like it's a second job. But I've always been kind of a lost soul and school gives me direction, and I really do enjoy school. And also I've always had a natural talent... so I'm just using that as my compass and watering my already innate abilities so that they can grow. And then one day I might be useful to somebody while simultaneously affording a life. And like, it's not really not about the money. Money in itself has never really motivated me. It's more about... what kind of life you want to be living? Cause if it was about the money then God only knows what I'd have been gotten into, by now...

Happy Saturday!

a reply to: theboarman

Sounds like they handled under-achievers and kids who didn't care about education poorly, but that said, when you put yourself in that position, that's kinda what you get "in the real world" as well. I just think they should try harder to get through to kids whose parents clearly aren't.

As for me, I got the wrong 2 bachelor's degrees (Business Administration and Marketing) and halfway to my MBA before I decided the degree wasn't worth sitting through however many more classes I needed full of stuff I already knew or already knew was wrong.

I should have gotten a degree in science or engineering, but I didn't know at the time, and had terrible advisors.

a reply to: geezlouise

Please avoid the unsubsidized federal loans; subsidized loans may require some 'some jumping through of hoops', but it's worth it. Unfortunately, Bush gutted the Pell grants, so good luck finding resources to pursue your education.

a reply to: theboarman

I hear what you're saying. I knew a lot of people who had very similar experiences and hung out with plenty of them.

It used to bug me that so many of these people were told "You'll only be a carpenter", or a plumber, a tiler, etc etc. As if having a specialized trade was a bad thing. I mean, if the plumbing in a teacher's house springs a major leak on a Sunday morning (Murphy's law of when these things spring leaks), who are they gonna call? Someone with a PhD in water resource management?

In my case, I got through high school and went on to college, dropped out after a couple of years, then went back 7 years later after my first marriage ended and finally got my diploma. In teaching.

My Dad was a mechanic in the Navy. Specialist in aircraft, working on carriers for the whole 8 years he was in. He taught me a lot of useful stuff, but the most important thing I learned from him was to never stop learning and always try to gain new skills. He actually went back to school when he was in his late 30s and wound up becoming an engineer. But on weekends, he still spent a lot of his time working on the family car, or making furniture and other things for our home.

There's nothing wrong with getting a college education. There are some fields of knowledge where there's just no other way to really get the knowledge. But I live by the motto that "all work is honorable". No-one should be put down or made to feel a lesser person just because they don't have a diploma to hang on the wall. Everyone has their own talents and we should encourage people to discover them, develop them and use them.