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If you can't afford college...

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
then don't friggin' go, or go to a college you can afford! Seriously, the dumbest and most irresponsible thing is to buy the thing you can’t afford and then complain, after you’ve already purchased it, that you can’t afford it.

Does a tradesman buy a million dollar house? NO
Does a hamburger flipper buy a Mercedes? NO

They buy the house or car within their budget. Why should college be any different?

http://www.theblaze.com/podcasts/this-is-very-simple-if-you-cant-afford-college-dont-go-to-college/
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Common Sense. Maybe they need to start teaching that in schools these days. Duh. :bonk:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
then don't friggin' go, or go to a college you can afford! Seriously, the dumbest and most irresponsible thing is to buy the thing you can’t afford and then complain, after you’ve already purchased it, that you can’t afford it.

Does a tradesman buy a million dollar house? NO
Does a hamburger flipper buy a Mercedes? NO

They buy the house or car within their budget. Why should college be any different?

http://www.theblaze.com/podcasts/this-is-very-simple-if-you-cant-afford-college-dont-go-to-college/

As someone who councils high school kids on college all the time, I can tell you all that if the student is smart, earns good enough grades, gets good ACT/SAT test stores, then that kid will get most/all of his/her college paid for via scholarships.

Period.

Now a "B" student, that kid is going to pay.

And a "C" student probably should consider any option except going to college.

We send too many kids to college. Over 30% nationally go to college. Europe barely sends 20%. Now I believe we are vastly superior to Europe but sending 50% more to college than the Europeans simply produces a lot of worthless degrees in Medieval Story Telling, Women's Studies and Underwater Basket Weaving. It also raises expectations beyond reason and our entitled youth seem to believe they deserve that which they have not earned. Cut the % of kids we send to college and I guarantee you will see costs drop too.
 

mla2ofus

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Agreed, a college education still falls under the supply and demand law.
Mike
 

Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
As someone who councils high school kids on college all the time, I can tell you all that if the student is smart, earns good enough grades, gets good ACT/SAT test stores, then that kid will get most/all of his/her college paid for via scholarships.

Period.

Now a "B" student, that kid is going to pay.

And a "C" student probably should consider any option except going to college.

We send too many kids to college. Over 30% nationally go to college. Europe barely sends 20%. Now I believe we are vastly superior to Europe but sending 50% more to college than the Europeans simply produces a lot of worthless degrees in Medieval Story Telling, Women's Studies and Underwater Basket Weaving. It also raises expectations beyond reason and our entitled youth seem to believe they deserve that which they have not earned. Cut the % of kids we send to college and I guarantee you will see costs drop too.
Bob, be sure to let them know about the benefits of trade schools: better employment opportunities, generally higher wages, better physical and emotional health (really!), and much better job security. That last is really important; when high tech are being laid off, mechanics, plumbers, and such are still going to have steady work.

College is overrated. And this from someone who spent too much time, effort and money attending one! Some of it was great, but that really only happened when I stopped trying to get a degree and started taking classes in things that interested me without regard to where they lead, educationally. As a result I hold no degree but flatter myself that my store of general knowledge is far better than average. Of course that comes with the downside of being considered a know-it-all. :w00t2:
 

Catavenger

New member
SUPER Site Supporter
Bob, be sure to let them know about the benefits of trade schools: better employment opportunities, generally higher wages, better physical and emotional health (really!), and much better job security. That last is really important; when high tech are being laid off, mechanics, plumbers, and such are still going to have steady work.

College is overrated. And this from someone who spent too much time, effort and money attending one! Some of it was great, but that really only happened when I stopped trying to get a degree and started taking classes in things that interested me without regard to where they lead, educationally. As a result I hold no degree but flatter myself that my store of general knowledge is far better than average. Of course that comes with the downside of being considered a know-it-all. :w00t2:

The people with a college degree will end up often end up 50 grand or more in debt and make less money than a plumber.
They will have a heart attack while being yelled at by a boss and pushing paper around.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
This is why I chose to do my 2 years of college through distant ed. Yes we had a class of 8 at our site and it was tough keeping focused to a speaker and a computer screen but we managed. Doing it this way i was able to live at home and work part time while I was in college. Basically all of my wages went towards paying for my schooling. I happened to be working in the field i was studying so when I graduated I had a full time job lined up and no school debt.

My cousin on the other hand was basically a professional student for 10+ yrs and eventually amassed enough courses to get a doctrine of criminal psychology and walked away with over 200k in student loans and a tech job at Adobe not even working in her field making not much more than minimum wage.

Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Bob, be sure to let them know about the benefits of trade schools: better employment opportunities, generally higher wages, better physical and emotional health (really!), and much better job security. That last is really important; when high tech are being laid off, mechanics, plumbers, and such are still going to have steady work.

College is overrated. And this from someone who spent too much time, effort and money attending one! Some of it was great, but that really only happened when I stopped trying to get a degree and started taking classes in things that interested me without regard to where they lead, educationally. As a result I hold no degree but flatter myself that my store of general knowledge is far better than average. Of course that comes with the downside of being considered a know-it-all. :w00t2:

My Dad used to say they can take away your job, but not your trade. If you know a trade, you will always be working somewhere if you want to.

For me, that advice was 100% correct. Finish one large project, lay off day came and onto the next one. Never spent much time loafing as they call it when you are laid off.

The best money by far was the nukes. Not even close. They could rarely man them to the level they wanted so overtime was golden and usually double and in some cases triple time. I just loved triple time or 3 inch as the slang goes.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
So many good comments.

Yes I push trade schools and/or military. Of course for the top students I push college.

My cousin on the other hand was basically a professional student for 10+ yrs and eventually amassed enough courses to get a doctrine of criminal psychology and walked away with over 200k in student loans and a tech job at Adobe not even working in her field making not much more than minimum wage.

This is a student/parent issue. Kids make bad choices, parents enable those bad choices. The government makes it too easy to take out student loans. So easy loans, kids who are not mature enough to make reasonable/practical choices and parents who allow those bad choices to be made are just a recipe for financial disaster ... add all that to an unreasonable 'entitlement' mentality and these kids who made these bad choices don't believe they should be forced to live with the consequences of their bad choices (debt) :hammer:
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
Bob, be sure to let them know about the benefits of trade schools: better employment opportunities, generally higher wages, better physical and emotional health (really!), and much better job security. That last is really important; when high tech are being laid off, mechanics, plumbers, and such are still going to have steady work.

College is overrated. And this from someone who spent too much time, effort and money attending one! Some of it was great, but that really only happened when I stopped trying to get a degree and started taking classes in things that interested me without regard to where they lead, educationally. As a result I hold no degree but flatter myself that my store of general knowledge is far better than average. Of course that comes with the downside of being considered a know-it-all. :w00t2:
good point I'm a tradesman and make pretty good money. what you have to remember collage will keep you out of the workforce for 3 to 4 years, sometimes longer. Then there are the campus parties. My daughter is working while going through collage no time to play, as she also works full time for the national guard she makes me proud.
 

mla2ofus

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Sonowtrac, your daughter makes us all proud of her!! I love to hear stories like this and the one I saw in the news about the teen boys who volunteered to be pallbearers for a deceased veteran who had no friends or family.
Mike
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
My kid knew he was not college material.

Went to local community technology college - MTEK. Took non-degree related courses. Learned manual machine, cn machining, autocad, mastercam, and programming toolpaths, went on to learning welding, getting a job through the school at a hitech fab shop doing DOD and nuclear work, learned how to TIG monel and Ti as well as most grades of SS an aluminum.

Was earning money the entire time and now at 28 is down in West Palm fabricating parts for exotic and race cars.

Owes nobody nothing. And is having a blast making money and teaching others how to do what he does.

Even took in a heroin junky and helped turn the guy's life around.

So much for degrees.
 

jpr62902

Jeanclaude Spam Banhammer
SUPER Site Supporter
My kid knew he was not college material.

Went to local community technology college - MTEK. Took non-degree related courses. Learned manual machine, cn machining, autocad, mastercam, and programming toolpaths, went on to learning welding, getting a job through the school at a hitech fab shop doing DOD and nuclear work, learned how to TIG monel and Ti as well as most grades of SS an aluminum.

Was earning money the entire time and now at 28 is down in West Palm fabricating parts for exotic and race cars.

Owes nobody nothing. And is having a blast making money and teaching others how to do what he does.

Even took in a heroin junky and helped turn the guy's life around.

So much for degrees.

Kid must have great parents, too. You should very proud. :thumb:
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Well, moral of the story seems one can make real good money in the trades, IF, they are willing to work, maybe play a little traveling music and get the reputation that you suck up every minute of overtime that's available.

That chapter from the playbook worked well for me all those years. :biggrin:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well, moral of the story seems one can make real good money in the trades, IF, they are willing to work...

I think there are several morals to this story.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
  • Trades are a great way to make a living if you are willing to work
  • College is affordable to everyone who is a superior student
  • Everything good in life comes to those who put forth the effort in either their education or skilled labor
  • We send too many kids to college and those kids believe they are entitled to a better life just because they breathe air in and out
  • Parents are often just as stupid as their kids and teach their kids they are entitled to a 'better life' even if the kids actually don't earn it
  • Many people will toil away aimlessly and never learn the 3rd point on this list.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
My son Ty finally got his life in order and got his degree from UNOH in Diesel Tech.
That's why he now owns his own successful towing service partnership and is making good money because of that.
 
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