Community Chat

[songbird]

@suzyQ3 

. "A shocking number of college students are homeless and hungry on a regular basis."

This happened to one of our students.  He ended up living in the library.  He hung around the library till 2:00AM.  Then he went to sleep.  Friends of him let him come in the dorm to take showers.  He had a partial scholarship and grants.  But that wasnt' enough.  He was from a poor family and the only money he from them was 1 meal per day plus cost of classes, so he had to skip the boarding.  He was living there for about a week before they found out.  I don't know what happened.  

We had strange things happen in our school.  One year an entire homeless family with small children (no dad) lived in the library for about a semester, before they finally found them. they were illegals to begin with, so they would have been in big trouble found like that.

[shoesnbags]

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@suzyQ3 wrote:

Have some attained the American dream just on their own initiative and smarts? Of course.

But the reality is that far more people attain the American dream with countless help -- the family they "chose," the neighborhoods they've lived in, the financial situation of the family, and of course their demographics relalting to race and ethnicity.

In the vast number of cases, the self-made man who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps is a myth.

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@suzyQ3  Read the book “The Millionaire Next Door.”

[Kachina624]

@songbird   My dad and his best high school friend got football scholarships right before school started in the 1930s.  Off they went without a penny in their pockets, both poor farm boys.  They swiped fruit from orchards for meals for their first couple of weeks.  The coach got wind of their predicament and got them part-time jobs.  They both worked the whole four years until they graduated.  

The friend became a high school football coach and has a stadium named for him in California.   My dad taught awhile, got his master's and became a corporate personnel executive.

[BaileyBop]

IMHO the colleges are just as guilty as the parents/students.

[lovesrecess]

A high school close to where I taught many years ago had a wonderful program where students could learn trades...many of the boys learned construction ...one of my former students built a deck on our house one summer under the direction of the teacher. It was beautiful. The class built a house every year and it was sold at the end of the year....the proceeds paid for the materials for the following year. The lot was donated by the city. Wonderful program. Another program was cosmetology and girls could enroll their jr year if they had their grades up...they took classes in the mornings and worked in a beauty school in the afternoons... by the time they graduated, they had full-time jobs as hair stylists or nail techs. The auto shop did oil changes for $5 for teachers.....college is not for everyone. They need to bring back those options.....but the college push for every student...no matter what,,,is ingrained in our education system and there doesn’t seem to be any going back. Apprenticeships would also be good to bring back.

[Desert Lily]

Ivy league schools have more funds than public schools and can better afford research programs, low student-to-professor ratios, can globally recruit top professors in their field, etc. Admissions are stringent, and less than 5% of student applicants are accepted. There are some very good public higher-ed schools with great reputations, as well as other private ones. However, our public higher education schools are funded by our taxes - which may be a significant effect - and perhaps some things depend on how much each state invests and the admission qualifications.

[PamfromCT]

People first have to realize college is not for everyone.  Learning a good trade is a route to make a good and honorable living.  

I think it it is wonderful that so many community colleges are offering many options.  We need skilled people in all areas to serve all our needs.  In our family, we dislike “college snobs.”

And surprise, no matter where you go to college, no matter your GPA, when you graduate you are expected to produce when you hold a job.  Mom and Dad can’t help you with that.

Yes, DH and I, plus kids are “educated.”  But college is just a beginning to a life of constant learning.  And money is important to have enough to take care of your needs.  Beyond that, you “can’t take it with you.”

A cousin revealed something to me recently I had never known and saddened me.  He literally sailed through Harvard and CalTech for a PhD in Physics.  When he announced his plan to teach at college level for his career, his father was disappointed at his choice.  Said “You can make much more money doing something else.”  He recently retired from university, having opportunities to teach abroad from time to time.  He had a happy and constructive working life.  An honorable life.  Isn’t that what matters?

[gardenman]

Compare the size of the endowments many colleges/universities have to the amount of student debt they're burdening their students with, including most of the colleges involved in the bribery scandal. USC has over $5 billion (billion with a "b") in endowments. Harvard has over $38 billon in endowments. Yale has $29+ billion in endowments. And yet they send out students burdened with debt they may never be able to pay off while the schools wonder what to do with all of the money they've acquired. How does one even spend $38 billion? If you tried to spend it all in one year, you'd have to spend over $100 million each day for 365 days. 

[alarmclock]

When you are in grade school and high school, you are treated like the child you are.  Teachers get after you for assignments, etc.

When you go to college, you are an adult.  Your instructors do not care of you show up or not.

In many cases, kids are in college and they have no clue how to handle real, day to day responsibility.

That is a huge contributing factor to their failures and dropping out.

Colleges have no legal or moral responsibility to make your kid grow up.

[novamc1]

This is such an interesting conversation............

High school grades don't predict later-life success, nor do college degrees.  But do the degrees and the college  pedigree help? 

I think they do  for some people in some fields of work, but  I am aware that some of the best-paying jobs can be in the skilled trades where college is not required--- those  workers just  have to pursue a whole lot of technical training which they must continue  updating over time.

My relatively newly-built home has proven, since I've lived in it,  to be constructed by a crew of unskilled and unprofessional construction  laborers........to my disgust and dismay and expense.. 

A shortage of skilled carpentry,  plumbing, HVAC  and other types of skilled labor exists BIG TIME!!  This has been documented and written about extensively in the media. And you can ask any homebuilder if he has enough good workers.

  The experienced guys who knew their trades dropped out  of the workforce during the housing recession years ago and are too old to do much these days.

Homebuilders and homeowners in need of repairs and service  deal with this skilled labor shortage every day. 

The high-tech industry also needs more and better-trained workers.

I know that my specific specialized degree from a certain college enabled me to launch a good career with plenty of advancement, but I gave it up  after a good long run and launched an entirely different career in an unrelated field-----so........the outcome would not have matched predictions when I was first entering college and getting that prestigious degree in a specialized field.

I have a close relative who  graduated from a  relatively small Virginia college and wound up with a law degree from prestigious Georgetown University.  Where she attended undergrad college meant nothing.

I have another young and   exceptionally brilliant relative from California who could have attended any prestigious California university, but whose dream was to  be in the political field.  He already had worked  before college  as an intern or assistant  for and with some major politicians both in California and Washington, DC.

He's now a political science undergrad at Georgetown University --and I'm not joking that someday  he just might run for President of the United States.  That's a bold statement, but like I said, I'm not joking.  

  If I could tell you his name, I would.  (But I'm too old to be his campaign manager and he's still too young to run for office---LOL)  I would vote for him in a heartbeat if I'm still alive and he still wants to be in that field of work.

I don't know whether his university will be instrumental in  meeting his goals  He's  certainly going to college in the right town for politics, but his personal drive and ambition will probably count for more -- just as they would for any young person.