Did you pay for your own education?

[xxkcxx]

Perhaps I simply misread some of the sentiments expressed in this thread. It seemed like some were suggesting that those who graduate college lacking debt are also necessarily lacking in character. I just wanted to put it out there that some us went through these same character-building struggles a bit earlier in life in order to (at least partially) avoid them later. That's all.

Yes, but you still paid your own way.

I think the point of the thread is about people who had every aspect of their college experience (from tuition to housing to food to entertainment to spring break vacations) handed to them by their parents for getting straight Ds (it's still passing! )

 

[Bedhead]

The majority of tuition is covered by financial aid and scholarships. Parents pay the rest. Don't think I don't appreciate it or slack off either (lectured by 2 generations since I was little).

It's interesting that this thread was made. From what I've seen, if kids here had to pay there way they'd either a) not be here, and flipping burgers (or something similar) or b) be acting entirely different in regards to amount of time spent partying & studying.

Very interesting how people choose to lead their lives depending on whos 'paying' for it...

 

[Kilgore]

I don't know if it's displaced anger, or just jealousy, but I find it obnoxious when people get a free ride. Perhaps because it's just so insidious, that there exists these quantum gaps of privelage that seem so random. I mean do these students appreciate it, or do they really appreciate it? Because I want them to really, really appreciate it.. y'know? Every single penny.

If it was just money, that would be one thing. It's not. This money is tied to something pricess. Direction. You know, parents who encourage those extra-cirriculars, attend your sporting matches and challenge you to be successful. Yep, there's that too. What a package.

Much respect for those who took care of their own tuition, books, living expenses, travel, and entertainment while in school. I give even more respect to those who did so without any parental guidance or shoes to fill. Forging your own path on your own tab.. there's something to be said for that.

Yes 100% of my college tuition, books, and other expenses was paid by the state university. Not to mention the extra doe... part of which went to the local strip clubs... gotta put those girls through college too.... This is prolly cause I graduated from a private college prep school and had good grades... meh. Hopefully I'll get more grants and scholarships when I start on my masters.

I donno if I could have graduated with honors if I had worked at the same time. I spent entire fucking weekends sitting at home reading fucking textbooks... same goes for weekdays... meh.

 

[Lysis]

I think some people are taking the OP's post out of context. I believe he is basically targeting people who get a free ride and take school and their situation for granted. I think people who pay their own way and need to find money on their own to pay for school take it much more seriously.

I see it in my classes where people won't STFU and it's annoying as hell. I do not think this applies to people who have worked their asses off for scholarships and grants. I think the OP is talking about people who get a free ride from mommy and daddy.

 

[Cyc]

There seems to be a lot of people who got grants and scholarships for post-secondary. Was I the only person who got C's in high school, but discovered a love for education after a few years of figuring out life as an adult?

I was in no way equipped to handle College or University at the age of 18 or 19.. or 20... or 21 lol.

When I went to school, it was a total rediscovery of education for me. I loved it in my first 3 years of a technology degree, and I love it now as a Biology student. I just find it strange that the government and charities are willing to fund promising young students whose parents steered them in the right direction, but completely ignore self-propelled scholars from unlikely backgrounds.

 

[Bedhead]

I think the point of the thread is about people who had every aspect of their college experience (from tuition to housing to food to entertainment to spring break vacations) handed to them by their parents for getting straight Ds (it's still passing! )

Unfortunately, that's the majority of kids. All it takes is a look at the average class (pick one) gpa. That, and the % kids on academic probation.

Value of a dollar has long been lost my friend...

On a side note, my roommates actually about to lose his scholarship if he doesn't get his gpa up this semester. His gpa last semester was too low... and I know for a fact his course load wasn't that heavy.

 

[Jackal]

My country paid for my education:D


(through milking the eu for subsidies)


Now that I live in the UK, when I went to begin a degree ,last year, I had to pay £4000 up front of my own money. That's pushing $7000 dollars.

Unsurprisingly, I think all levels of education should be as close to free as possible. It's not difficult for any school to accept their future pupils on academic potential alone - and then apply a means test to ensure that the rich pay more and those who have finite resources pay a sum in proportion to that.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

Does it really bother everyone if someone's parents pay for college?

I guess I just find this a bit confusing. I mean, I have friends who paid their own way, friends who got scholarships/financial aid to cover the expense, and then I have friends who's parents are well off and can pay for tuition, or had an account set up by a grandparent that covered their education.

Most of them still work hard in college, go to all their classes, study, get good grades, but don't pay for college because by luck their parents are able to do it for them. Is this still seen as obnoxious? I mean, should they not take the help from their parents and instead take out loans to pay for it themselves?

 

[Bedhead]

I guess I just find this a bit confusing. I mean, I have friends who paid their own way, friends who got scholarships/financial aid to cover the expense, and then I have friends who's parents are well off and can pay for tuition, or had an account set up by a grandparent that covered their education.

Most of them still work hard in college...

Good for them. What the OP is saying is that it bothers him that people who get a free ride (i.e. parents pay) reallydon't appreciate it, and its evident by their study habits and/or behavior.

I mean the avg. freshmen gpa is what? Like 2.0 - 2.6 ? You think all those freshmen would be trying harder if they had to pay for their education? Guran-fucking-teed they would. I even knew (yea, "knew", cuz he got kicked out) a kid who actually missed 2 of his finals 'cuz he mixed up what days they were on. How stupid is that? But I bet your ass if he was paying for his education himself he sure as hell would've known exactly when his finals were.

 

[Cyc]

Does it really bother everyone if someone's parents pay for college?

I guess I just find this a bit confusing. I mean, I have friends who paid their own way, friends who got scholarships/financial aid to cover the expense, and then I have friends who's parents are well off and can pay for tuition, or had an account set up by a grandparent that covered their education.

Most of them still work hard in college, go to all their classes, study, get good grades, but don't pay for college because by luck their parents are able to do it for them. Is this still seen as obnoxious? I mean, should they not take the help from their parents and instead take out loans to pay for it themselves?

You make it sound like it's this rare occurrence, that only the tail end of students are that lucky. I think it's a bit more pervasive than you think, and no, these GPA averages don't lie. There are a lot of people getting bad marks.

Come on, someone has to speak up. Is the silver spoon in your mouths preventing you from fessing up? I know you're out there.

 

[Kilgore]

There seems to be a lot of people who got grants and scholarships for post-secondary. Was I the only person who got C's in high school, but discovered a love for education after a few years of figuring out life as an adult?

I was in no way equipped to handle College or University at the age of 18 or 19.. or 20... or 21 lol.

Donno but most of the kids in my school were A or B students. I had C's during elementary and part of middle school (That was in public school). Then I got switched to a private college prep school where I started getting good grades. The school cost was actually 10k a year but they give most kids scholarships so my parents paid only around 2500 a year for me.

Our college counselor was good at presenting us to colleges/universities so pretty much everyone got scholarships. I got one friend that got a full ride to Washu... that's $44,000 a fucking YEAR. 44k..... Jesus, lol. The guy was a national merit finalist though... so yea. That smart mother fucking cocksucker, son of a bitch...

When I went to school, it was a total rediscovery of education for me. I loved it in my first 3 years of a technology degree, and I love it now as a Biology student. I just find it strange that the government and charities are willing to fund promising young students whose parents steered them in the right direction, but completely ignore self-propelled scholars from unlikely backgrounds.

When you say self propelled do you mean students that do bad in school at first before being able to focus on their goals? Because I think that when you are a senior in HS, the colleges provide a lot of scholarships to students so that they will be enticed to stay at the college during their entire education for a degree. All of my scholarships/grants were renewed or replaced with different ones which kept all my tuition covered for 4 years of college. But I had to take a minimum 12 credits each semester (full time). So I took around 12 to 16 credits each semester. And I had to maintain a 3.0 average.

Oh and I had 12 credits from AP classes that I took in high school. That took a semester off of my college duration. I'm basically forcing my cousin to take as many AP classes as she can, that chick is gonna be a fucking doctor, chyea. Damn my whole family is in medicine or science, heh.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

Freshman GPAs are low but there are a lot of other reasons for that-- I would say not being prepared for the shock of college is the biggest factor. Friends of mine who got As in high school and worked hard but not super hard got bad grades freshman year thinking they could pull the same shit they pulled in high school in college and get away with it did horribly freshman year (some stepped up and some didn't). That's not necessarily pointing at kids who decided to just party it up, but kids who just didn’t realize how much time/effort you have to put in in comparison to high school.

There are kids who just don’t give a fuck about school no matter who’s paying for it, like the ones you mentioned. And yes, I would say it’s a general rule that people paying for their own education (not talking about scholarships or financial aid here) out of their own pocket try harder in university, but I think that’s an occurrence more likely to be found in grad school, where people are going to school because they want to be there, than undergrad (which is all I can address as I’m just a sophomore/junior completing my undergrad).

I can see a lot of people posting here saying they paid for undergrad themselves, but this is something I rarely see among my peers at university. I would say kids who pay for undergrad entirely at a major university (with tuition being 10,000 and up) themselves are an EXCEPTIONALLY motivated bunch who are going to do well in well school no matter what. Paying for grad school yourself is one thing, but to be ready to take on a huge loan for undergrad (when some schools are now $55,000 a year to attend) alone at 19 is someone who’s education is REALLY important to them. But I really just don’t see this that often…. Maybe I’m just hanging out with the wrong people, but the ones I see paying for their own education are the ones at community college where it’s much cheaper, or at cheap state universities like me, who are taking a low course load and school is not their primary vocation (I only go part time).

On the flip side, it's also actually unusual for me to run across someone whose education is ENTIRELY paid for by their parents. Most students I run into are mixed; they got some scholarships for their talent/grades, some financial aid, maybe are doing some work study at school and that $ goes to their parents to put towards tuition, and their parents are backing up the rest. In that case, I would say it’s entirely dependent on the student as to how motivated they are.


Anyway, I don’t think I did a very good job of responding in this post, sorry guys

 

[Cyc]

I go to a University in Canada. Every University is subsidized by the government by about 70%. Each full-time course costs about $1,200 out of pocket for a student. A full course load is 5 courses. So that means for one teacher to teach a class of 300 students, that the College will be collecting over $360,000 in tuition for that year for one course. If you take an entire group of 300 students, they will pay over 1.5 million dollars in tuition per year; tuition that is heavily subsidized. It confuses the hell out of me, because I can't fathom where all that money could possibly go to when professors are going on strike for better wages and benefits.

Perhaps someone could explain this to me.

 

[Kilgore]

It confuses the hell out of me, because I can't fathom where all that money could possibly go to when professors are going on strike for better wages and benefits.

Perhaps someone could explain this to me.

Building facilities, updating equipment. My university science complex is gonna get around 10 million for renovations and for new equipment mostly for the chemistry labs. This is while we have a hiring freeze.

Washu near me is currently expanding its campus too. That 44k a year for undergrads and over 66k a year for grads is going towards building that campus, updating the research facilities where a single fucking electron microscope can cost over 100k. Not to mention the biomedical engineering department which sucks in millions, heh. Research ain't cheap, neither is expansion.

 

[AmorRoark]

You make it sound like it's this rare occurrence, that only the tail end of students are that lucky. I think it's a bit more pervasive than you think, and no, these GPA averages don't lie. There are a lot of people getting bad marks.

Come on, someone has to speak up. Is the silver spoon in your mouths preventing you from fessing up? I know you're out there.

People probably aren't responding due to your condescending tone more than so-called 'silver spoon' prohibiting them.

My parents paid for my undergrad. I graduated with a 3.75 GPA so I don't really fit the demographic you're asking for I guess. My mom pays for my tuition at law school. I pay for my living expenses through loans. I know I'm extremely lucky. My mom lost her job this winter so I'm not so sure if she'll be able to continue paying my tuition. If not I'll just take out more loans. I'm already a bit uncomfortable with her paying my tuition as it is. She's the best.

I agree with you about how valuable direction from parents can be. I've taken their direction seriously all my life and feel pretty successful in my various pursuits because of it.

 

[Cyc]

Donno but most of the kids in my school were A or B students. I had C's during elementary and part of middle school (That was in public school). Then I got switched to a private college prep school where I started getting good grades. The school cost was actually 10k a year but they give most kids scholarships so my parents paid only around 2500 a year for me.

Our college counselor was good at presenting us to colleges/universities so pretty much everyone got scholarships. I got one friend that got a full ride to Washu... that's $44,000 a fucking YEAR. 44k..... Jesus, lol. The guy was a national merit finalist though... so yea. That smart mother fucking cocksucker, son of a bitch...

It's not too far of a stretch to say that everyone got scholarships because your parents had money. Sure, there are a couple steps in-between, but I don't think I'm taking too much of a leap, am I? Certainly there are a lot of smart kids going to prep school. Smart people make money, have kids, and those kids are going to have both nature and nurture on their side. The cycle continues.

When you say self propelled do you mean students that do bad in school at first before being able to focus on their goals? Because I think that when you are a senior in HS, the colleges provide a lot of scholarships to students so that they will be enticed to stay at the college during their entire education for a degree. All of my scholarships/grants were renewed or replaced with different ones which kept all my tuition covered for 4 years of college. But I had to take a minimum 12 credits each semester (full time). So I took around 12 to 16 credits each semester. And I had to maintain a 3.0 average.

Oh and I had 12 credits from AP classes that I took in high school. That took a semester off of my college duration. I'm basically forcing my cousin to take as many AP classes as she can, that chick is gonna be a fucking doctor, chyea. Damn my whole family is in medicine or science, heh.

I'm not sure where you live, so your credit system doesn't mean much. To me, a credit is a course and you can only take 5-6 of those a year, maximum.

To clarify my point, I was just saying that people who want to attend College or University after learning things the hard way have already missed the boat for grants and scholarships. Yes, you can still take out loans, but that's pretty much it. I wasn't a 'C' student in high school because I couldn't pull off 'A's'. I simply didn't apply myself because I didn't care, and nobody bothered to take time to drill into my head the importance of education. When the light bulb finally did go off, it was too late to catch the gravy train.

I was simply lamenting that the Canadian government doesn't have a safety net to catch those who come to this realization a bit later in life.

 

[Kilgore]

It's not too far of a stretch to say that everyone got scholarships because your parents had money. Sure, there are a couple steps in-between, but I don't think I'm taking too much of a leap, am I? Certainly there are a lot of smart kids going to prep school. Smart people make money, have kids, and those kids are going to have both nature and nurture on their side. The cycle continues.

I know plenty of people that aren't rich and received full rides. I got a friend that is a millionaire, was a national merit semi finalist but doesn't get any financial aid cause he can literally donate a building to a university, lol.

I'm not sure where you live, so your credit system doesn't mean much. To me, a credit is a course and you can only take 5-6 of those a year, maximum.

12 credits is around 4 classes. Thats full time. So that's 4 classes a semester or 8 classes a year.

To clarify my point, I was just saying that people who want to attend College or University after learning things the hard way have already missed the boat for grants and scholarships. Yes, you can still take out loans, but that's pretty much it. I wasn't a 'C' student in high school because I couldn't pull off 'A's'. I simply didn't apply myself because I didn't care, and nobody bothered to take time to drill into my head the importance of education. When the light bulb finally did go off, it was too late to catch the gravy train.

I was simply lamenting that the Canadian government doesn't have a safety net to catch those who come to this realization a bit later in life.

The US government doesn't have a safety net either. My parent's didn't even push that hard. They just sent me to a different school and that's about it.

 

[Tomer]

I got a free ride, not scholarship related, and yea, I took it for granted. I'm not ashamed to say that. School has always been a joke to me. For those of you who worked your way through school, I applaud you.

But, for me, I couldn't wait to leave and see what it's like to be on my own. I love to party, and even after 2 years, I was sick of that, as well. School is/was just a bore to me.

 

[eon_blue]

I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape when they hear about someone else's tuition having been paid for by their parent's, grandparent's, etc. Why the hell do you care anyway? Smells of jealousy.

I had a part of my education paid for by my parent's, but with the economy in it's current state, I've opted to take out loans for the rest. I know they'll help me pay them off when they can, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. One day I'll pay it forward with my children.

More power to you if you pay your own way, but I see no difference really. I hope that one day I'm successful enough to be able to afford to put my children through whatever school they want to attend. Honestly, as a parent I would feel obligated to do so.

I have a close friend who is a graphic design major and her computer recently broke, and she's in desperate need of a new one. Considering her major, it's a necessity. Her father told her he didn't feel this way however, expects her to pay for a new one (she goes to school full-time and has a min. wage part time job), while he takes a vaction to the Greek islands a month later. THAT is fucked up. It's not as though she is asking for her dad to buy her a fucking playstation, she's his daughter and she needs this tool to help her through her education.

Denying your children an education and/or the tools to complete their education when you're more than able to do so is a pitiful act.

 

[InTherapy82]

Some people need a lot more time than others to study. Sure, it's wonderful if u can work 4 jobs and do school full time. Not everyone is capable of doing that. Good for u if u can. I can't. I can work a few hours w/ a 12 hr course load. But I need a LOT of time to focus on my work. Re write paper. Make sure everything is perfect so that I get great recommendations for later work. It's a full time job and I can't do 2 full time jobs + sleep + eat + pay bills + I have a partner. I'm really happy for the people that can.

I didn't write the above to put down the person who wrote this thread. Not at all. My parents didn't give me a penny. Hell, I don't even really know my dad anymore. Just that some people here think its wonderful if u can work full time, do volunteer work, do student government, and a million other shit and do a full course load and i u can't u are somewhat worse than them. I CAN"T. Don't have the brains. but want to get an education. And will find any way to do really well and that means focusing only on my studies when I go to school.

This was my answer to Transcendence for a kind of a condescending tone.



On a different note, w/ the current economy it's not like a college degree, especially just a Bachelor, is gonna be likely to land u a good job anyways. These days the worth of a BS/BA degree is like that of a high school degree in the past. Unless it's nursing, engineering etc.