Official CCS Random Thoughts Thread

[brett05]

So last night we told our kids about the allergy. My oldest daughter was a champ and immediately wanted to throw out every peanut in the house and never eat them again. I thought she'd have a small tear, but nada, zip. So happy.

Got the Upper GI results for my youngest and it came back clean.

Just have to get her on some amoxicillian to kill the pylori and then allergy tests in two weeks. Pretty happy now that we know.

EDIT: And we started last night with reading the label together on the ice cream

 

[Unannounced Fart]

So my eldest child will be starting college this upcoming fall, and she's starting to receive acceptance letters. I can't believe how much the cost of education is these days. The cost for 4 years of school will be about $110,000 at the lowest end, and over $240,000 at the highest end. Of course, her favorites are the more expensive private ones. Man, I really hope she'll be able to find a job upon graduation. The stories I hear about college grads not being able to land jobs is pretty disheartening.

 

[Tjodalv]

So my eldest child will be starting college this upcoming fall, and she's starting to receive acceptance letters. I can't believe how much the cost of education is these days. The cost for 4 years of school will be about $110,000 at the lowest end, and over $240,000 at the highest end. Of course, her favorites are the more expensive private ones. Man, I really hope she'll be able to find a job upon graduation. The stories I hear about college grads not being able to land jobs is pretty disheartening.

Ummm...where the **** is she getting accepted to, nothing but Ivy League schools? I mean, in-state tuition for public universities can be expensive but not ridiculous. And there are a lot more ways to get funding than most people realize:

Grants: As far as I can tell, everyone is eligible for Federal Pell grants. I can't recall exactly since it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure they give out 4K a year or so. You apply for these when going through student aid filing. There are also various other grants given out under specific requirements (age, drug addiction recovery [yeah...seriously], and tons of other things).

Scholarships: People seem to think that these either don't exist or simply fall out of trees into the laps of the recipients; they don't, you actually have to do leg work. She should talk to A) the head of her department; B) the dean of whatever school she majors at (not the dean of students, but he dean of the School of Music, or dean of the School of Political Science [for example]); and C) look up organizations that have a vested interest in her major and whether or not any of them may offer some sort of scholarships.

Working for the university in some function (tutor, book store, cafeteria, whatever) also provides partial tuition waivers.

Basically, I ended up spending about 8K out of pocket/in loans for my undergrad tuition; and obviously a bunch more for books and such (that's where they really rape you). I'm well aware that this isn't the norm by any means, but good decision making helps a lot in this process. Went to a state university, worked full time out of high school and got an "adult education" grant when I decided to go back to school, received two scholarships through an endowment for my primary subject (head of the department found those for me) and an additional one from an outside organization because I also studied something (other than my primary subject) that is largely dying out. Like I said, this is by no means typical, but there are many ways you can reduce costs if you spend the time searching for them.

 

[Ares]

Ummm...where the **** is she getting accepted to, nothing but Ivy League schools? I mean, in-state tuition for public universities can be expensive but not ridiculous. And there are a lot more ways to get funding than most people realize:

Grants: As far as I can tell, everyone is eligible for Federal Pell grants. I can't recall exactly since it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure they give out 4K a year or so. You apply for these when going through student aid filing. There are also various other grants given out under specific requirements (age, drug addiction recovery [yeah...seriously], and tons of other things).

Scholarships: People seem to think that these either don't exist or simply fall out of trees into the laps of the recipients; they don't, you actually have to do leg work. She should talk to A) the head of her department; B) the dean of whatever school she majors at (not the dean of students, but he dean of the School of Music, or dean of the School of Political Science [for example]); and C) look up organizations that have a vested interest in her major and whether or not any of them may offer some sort of scholarships.

Working for the university in some function (tutor, book store, cafeteria, whatever) also provides partial tuition waivers.

Basically, I ended up spending about 8K out of pocket/in loans for my undergrad tuition; and obviously a bunch more for books and such (that's where they really rape you). I'm well aware that this isn't the norm by any means, but good decision making helps a lot in this process. Went to a state university, worked full time out of high school and got an "adult education" grant when I decided to go back to school, received two scholarships through an endowment for my primary subject (head of the department found those for me) and an additional one from an outside organization because I also studied something (other than my primary subject) that is largely dying out. Like I said, this is by no means typical, but there are many ways you can reduce costs if you spend the time searching for them.

Keep in mind.... tuition prices just keep rising.... how long ago were you an undergrad?

UIUC cost me like 20-25k a year when I was there 2007-2011 and that was a State University.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Just tossing this out there, I went to UIUC for CS and my tuition estimate was around 33k per year (with room and board and stuff like that factored in). I did save on many of those costs (books and room and board for instance), but still had to pay around 16k in just tuition per year. They've raised the tuition since then about 2k. Depending on the person, public school can still reach near 100k in total costs, but you can definitely find ways to bring that number down.

All in all, I graduated and found a job (thanks Ares for being a bro in that regard), and paid off all my loans a couple weeks ago. There is hope for your kid yet. Finding a job is pretty key though. Majoring in something obscure may not help in that regard, but if you have skills that are applicable, you should be able to find a decent job somewhere.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Also something to consider...when my dad went to UIUC back in the 80s, his tuition was something like $500-600. Even accounting for inflation, that's a lot lower than what I had to pay 30 years later. Tuition costs keep rising and for the life of me I can't figure out where the heck it's going to...

 

[Ares]

Also something to consider...when my dad went to UIUC back in the 80s, his tuition was something like $500-600. Even accounting for inflation, that's a lot lower than what I had to pay 30 years later. Tuition costs keep rising and for the life of me I can't figure out where the heck it's going to...

Are you telling me inflation has not been like 5000% over the last 30 years? hmy:

 

[clonetrooper264]

Are you telling me inflation has not been like 5000% over the last 30 years? hmy:

According to the interwebz, $600 in 1980 is ~$2000 now. Since I paid like $16k in tuition, das definitely not just inflation. WHERE DOES THIS MONEY GO?!? I know it doesn't go into fixing the crap that's in Noyes 100 or Altgeld 314. :fist:

 

[KittiesKorner]

Are you guys sitting next to each other while posting to each other?

 

[clonetrooper264]

Are you guys sitting next to each other while posting to each other?

:gary:

 

[Urblock]

Are you guys sitting next to each other while posting to each other?

The boss thinks they're hard at work. Wonders why they keep laughing all the time.

 

[brett05]

So my eldest child will be starting college this upcoming fall, and she's starting to receive acceptance letters. I can't believe how much the cost of education is these days. The cost for 4 years of school will be about $110,000 at the lowest end, and over $240,000 at the highest end. Of course, her favorites are the more expensive private ones. Man, I really hope she'll be able to find a job upon graduation. The stories I hear about college grads not being able to land jobs is pretty disheartening.

pay the $1 and get the app scholly. It was featured on Shark Tank and looks to be super easy to use. The guy got Laurie and Damon as Sharks.

 

[brett05]

Keep in mind.... tuition prices just keep rising.... how long ago were you an undergrad?

UIUC cost me like 20-25k a year when I was there 2007-2011 and that was a State University.

UIUC was $10K/yr tuition and private Room and Board for me in 1991

 

[Unannounced Fart]

Ummm...where the **** is she getting accepted to, nothing but Ivy League schools? I mean, in-state tuition for public universities can be expensive but not ridiculous. And there are a lot more ways to get funding than most people realize:

Grants: As far as I can tell, everyone is eligible for Federal Pell grants. I can't recall exactly since it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure they give out 4K a year or so. You apply for these when going through student aid filing. There are also various other grants given out under specific requirements (age, drug addiction recovery [yeah...seriously], and tons of other things).

Scholarships: People seem to think that these either don't exist or simply fall out of trees into the laps of the recipients; they don't, you actually have to do leg work. She should talk to A) the head of her department; B) the dean of whatever school she majors at (not the dean of students, but he dean of the School of Music, or dean of the School of Political Science [for example]); and C) look up organizations that have a vested interest in her major and whether or not any of them may offer some sort of scholarships.

Working for the university in some function (tutor, book store, cafeteria, whatever) also provides partial tuition waivers.

Basically, I ended up spending about 8K out of pocket/in loans for my undergrad tuition; and obviously a bunch more for books and such (that's where they really rape you). I'm well aware that this isn't the norm by any means, but good decision making helps a lot in this process. Went to a state university, worked full time out of high school and got an "adult education" grant when I decided to go back to school, received two scholarships through an endowment for my primary subject (head of the department found those for me) and an additional one from an outside organization because I also studied something (other than my primary subject) that is largely dying out. Like I said, this is by no means typical, but there are many ways you can reduce costs if you spend the time searching for them.

She's applying to a handful of private schools, but most of the applications are to the University of California (UC) schools, which is public and in-state. Tuition, room and board, books, fees, etc. are easily over $100k for four years for the UC schools (private schools are double that amount). She has been getting some scholarships, but most of them are for the private schools, so we're still looking at a huge chunk of change here. And you're right, I've been helping her with scholarship applications, and it is very time consuming... I can see how people may just give up looking for and applying for scholarships. Anyhow, thanks for those tips, I will look into some of those you mentioned.

 

[Desperado34]

Sup

 

[KittiesKorner]

I have $14,000 left on my student loans. I have been doing the minimum payment for years but am thinking I will kill that ****** where it sleeps with some principal soon

 

[clonetrooper264]

I have $14,000 left on my student loans. I have been doing the minimum payment for years but am thinking I will kill that ****** where it sleeps with some principal soon

Good idea

 

[KittiesKorner]

I just made my will and willed it all to my battle axe and realized I better not leave her in debt.

 

[Desperado34]

Sup

 

[KittiesKorner]

My bro and I live in very different worlds. But he's still a cool bro