Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[Blank_0101]

So in your opinion, how much does a state school cost a year?

I did the junior college (Austin community college) route as I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, then jumped after I got my associates and transferred to UNT. I'm glad I did this as I learned a lot more about me I feel than if I had just applied and went off to a university somewhere.

I think ACC classes we're between $250-$400 and UNT is like $700-$1000 I need to check the my finance page. My parents paid for it fyi.

I do know student loans are expensive and I'm lucky, but If my parents hadn't paid I'd have done loans just because I rather have a job in line with my education rather than dig ditches or something.

 

[CL400Peavey]

I'm not trying to get on a pedestal, but I do try to motivate some of my younger peers who have this viewpoint... there are so many public and private grant and loan programs that a properly motivated person can get a nice chunk for free via grants/scholarships, and fill the rest in with loans. I know personally, when I was 18, I would have just said "f*ck it".. but luckily my dad secured me a bunch of loans and sent me off to college. Which brings us to your next point...



Again, I'm gonna sound like a dick for this, but if you spent $80,000 on an education in Chinese dialects or some weird liberal art, its gonna be hard to recoup. Same if you pick the same generic business/advertising/communications majors that 99% of people at my university seemed to be in, you're now 1 of a million in a hella competitive market. Some strategy in picking your major goes a long way here to actually securing a statistically available and well paying job. Too many of us took it to heart when our parents said "you can be anything you dream of!" No, you still need a specialty thats in demand and pays.





Any investment is a risk, especially any investment thats at the mercy of the market. The simple concept of buying low and selling high comes in here... during the bubble in the 90s, houses were at an all-time high. If you bought a house in '95 and flipped it in '00, you would have made a bundle. But on a 30 year investment, you don't buy at the highest price hoping it'll just keep going up. If you ask me, now is still a good time to buy, if you treat it like an investment and do the proper research. If you run the numbers on a house, and your bottom line return is better than 4% compounding interest on a standard IRA, you're doing well. Always going to be more risk when you add more potential reward.

I am in whole hearted agreement. It will always come down to personal responsibility, and actually going out and getting what you want. But you cant blanket statement either side of it.

And yes investments are always a risk. You have to have some level of finacial security to start down that road though. The more secure you are the bigger risks/rewards you can take on. And the the looses hurt less.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

On the flip side Penn State is the most expensive state school in the country but having it on my wife's resume has gotten her a lot further than if she would have went to a smaller cheaper school.

 

[CL400Peavey]

george mason, school down the street from my highschool, for in state costs 7k a year. if you do 2 years at community college (which is way less than that) and get put into mason after your grades stay up, youre looking at maybe 25K for a BA/BS from a very good state school.

you dont need to spend 100K for college. plenty do and thats fine, but that is somebody's choice. nobody is forced to spend 6 figures for a diploma.

And that isnt bad as far as tuition goes. But lets look at it as a whole. Someone making $10 an hour full time effectively has a ~$16k a year take home. Lets say you get $2k in grants and such. So school costs you $5k. That leaves you with $11k a year to live off of. Is that possible in your area?

 

[Blank_0101]

Bryce, Wwhat do you want with a job, you're young and got your health...
View attachment 446787

Will you subsidize my youthful shenanigans Uncle beer money?

 

[Blank_0101]

There's always the option also of the gi bill!

Also you can say go to trade school, get a job paying better than otherwise and use that to pay for your degree.

Or go into a field or find a job that helps pay for school. Ikea helps with tuition for instance. Also you can become a nurse assistant/CNA and get major tuition aid if you focus in healthcare.

 

[Kaa]

I spent more on shrubbery than I did on tuition.

 

[Korladis]

I can dig that.



This too.

I would really like to move somewhere that has 2-3 bedrooms and some space around the house. Issue is to rent that you are looking at 3-4 times what the cost of the mortgage is. But buying requires you to have a sizeable down payment (in this area banks dont fuuck around as there are a ton of foreclosures), and you are taking a huge risk that it may not be worth as much as you paid for it when you sell it.

So do I continue to save up till I hit that down payment, and then risk loosing my shirt of a piece of property that doesnt gain any value. Or do I continue to rent, and not have to worry about saving up the down payment?

It greatly changes living conditions when you are not actively trying to save every extra penny just so you can move to continue to dump all your money in to a house.

Yeah. That's the thing. Sure, maybe over my entire lifespan I would pay less if I bought a house. But buying requires me to save up for a down payment, and let's just face facts. I'm never going to get there. That's madness.

Also, in my family, we don't tend to buy and resell. That's just not our mindset. Things are bought to keep. Hence, even people in the older generation didn't buy houses until they were sure they found somewhere they wanted to live for the rest of their lives. I suppose we're old fashioned that way.

Myself, I'm not going to be able to afford that down payment. Not here, not ever. And before anyone says "just move," well, that's not really a possibility for me right now, for a number of reasons. Even if it was, why would I want to uproot myself, go somewhere else, and then tie myself to some place I didn't want to live in by buying a house there?

So in your opinion, how much does a state school cost a year?

Yeah... college costs aren't the same everywhere. Here in CA, where the government has gutted higher education at every opportunity, because we decided that lower taxes were more important a few decades ago, it's very expensive. Of the places I applied to, I got into UCSC and Humboldt State. UCSC was closer, so I went with that. I'm not catastrophically in debt like some of my friends who owe $30,000, but by taking five years instead of the four I was lucky that my parents had saved up for, I got myself somewhat into debt. Because I believed the "oh, go to college, and you'll get a good job, especially if you go to a good school" stuff fed to me as a high schooler, that turned out to be a couple decades out of date. Yeah, I was young and naive. Oh well.

What is, of course, most infuriating to me, is that back when my grandparents and even when my parents went to the UC, it was free. Well, besides housing and textbooks. Because the intent was that it should actually be public.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

Most forward thinking countries offer free secondary education and find it bizarre we have to pay for it here in America, let alone the fact that the government shaging profits off of it instead of helping citizens educate themselves. Right now nothing deters colleges from arbitrarily raising their tuition and they'll continue to do so until they have a reason not to. I'm glad Elizabeth Warren is taking a strong stance on reducing the interest rates on student loans and trying to create some revolution in how education loans work.

PS at the university I currently work at, undergrad tuition for room and board is up to $64k a year. Granted it's one of the top universities in the country at what they do, but jesus...

 

[beebassdude]

I looked up what current rates are at the state school I went to. Currently $16,000 a year. So in two years you are looking at $32k in just tuition. Pretty hard to swing with other expenses out of pocket as a student.

That is a middle of the road school. Double or quadruple that a year for places like MSU or UoM.

so get a degree from a middle of the road school. honestly, your degree means little in the grand scheme of the things. as long as you have a BA/BS from somewhere youre good to go. unless youre some top flight lawyer or doctor that needs to have yale or harvard on your resume, your college is whatever. i went to a music conservatory and work in project management for defense contracting. employers just want to see "hey this dude went to school for 4 years and got his degree". nobody looks and resumes and goes "oh what kinda lame school is that, NEXT!"

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

When my parents kicked me out of the house I didn't really have the option to transfer because I had missed any kind of deadline, plus it would have been difficult because my major and the classes I was taking were pretty innovative at the time. I was taking 18+ credits a semester and working 60+ hours a week. I had no legal way of declaring financial independence despite being kicked out of my house and cut off from my family. I was unable to get any kind of subsidized loan and ended up having to pay the rest of my schooling off with private loans with 8%+ interest rates, and even getting approved for those was an adventure and a half. I agree that if you have a perfect plan and execute it well you can get a college education at a moderately low cost, but plans are rarely executed perfectly and there are some big advantages to graduating from a bigger, well known school.

 

[CL400Peavey]

so get a degree from a middle of the road school. honestly, your degree means little in the grand scheme of the things. as long as you have a BA/BS from somewhere youre good to go. unless youre some top flight lawyer or doctor that needs to have yale or harvard on your resume, your college is whatever. i went to a music conservatory and work in project management for defense contracting. employers just want to see "hey this dude went to school for 4 years and got his degree". nobody looks and resumes and goes "oh what kinda lame school is that, NEXT!"

That is a middle of the road university at $16k a year. Even the community colleges here are going to run you $5-6k a year for full time.

 

[CL400Peavey]

When my parents kicked me out of the house I didn't really have the option to transfer because I had missed any kind of deadline, plus it would have been difficult because my major and the classes I was taking were pretty innovative at the time. I was taking 18+ credits a semester and working 60+ hours a week. I had no legal way of declaring financial independence despite being kicked out of my house and cut off from my family. I was unable to get any kind of subsidized loan and ended up having to pay the rest of my schooling off with private loans with 8%+ interest rates, and even getting approved for those was an adventure and a half. I agree that if you have a perfect plan and execute it well you can get a college education at a moderately low cost, but plans are rarely executed perfectly and there are some big advantages to graduating from a bigger, well known school.

I couldnt get FA to save my life. I was still a dependent of my parents so I could maintain health insurance. My dad made enough that I was not eligible for anything meaningful. Came down to it that even though I applied for as many grants as I could, most of my tuition was paid out of pocket. So I like you worked a poopie ton. It all worked out in the end, but was monumental in effort to get it all done.

 

[Blank_0101]

I spent more on shrubbery than I did on tuition.

Were you a Gardner?

Yeah. That's the thing. Sure, maybe over my entire lifespan I would pay less if I bought a house. But buying requires me to save up for a down payment, and let's just face facts. I'm never going to get there. That's madness.

Also, in my family, we don't tend to buy and resell. That's just not our mindset. Things are bought to keep. Hence, even people in the older generation didn't buy houses until they were sure they found somewhere they wanted to live for the rest of their lives. I suppose we're old fashioned that way.

Myself, I'm not going to be able to afford that down payment. Not here, not ever. And before anyone says "just move," well, that's not really a possibility for me right now, for a number of reasons. Even if it was, why would I want to uproot myself, go somewhere else, and then tie myself to some place I didn't want to live in by buying a house there?


Yeah... college costs aren't the same everywhere. Here in CA, where the government has gutted higher education at every opportunity, because we decided that lower taxes were more important a few decades ago, it's very expensive. Of the places I applied to, I got into UCSC and Humboldt State. UCSC was closer, so I went with that. I'm not catastrophically in debt like some of my friends who owe $30,000, but by taking five years instead of the four I was lucky that my parents had saved up for, I got myself somewhat into debt. Because I believed the "oh, go to college, and you'll get a good job, especially if you go to a good school" stuff fed to me as a high schooler, that turned out to be a couple decades out of date. Yeah, I was young and naive. Oh well.

What is, of course, most infuriating to me, is that back when my grandparents and even when my parents went to the UC, it was free. Well, besides housing and textbooks. Because the intent was that it should actually be public.

What do you do for a living exactly? I know California and San Francisco are expensive and all, but I have family there that never went to school and they got houses and stuff.

 

[The_Janitor]

All of this school talk is rather timely. I'm looking at business school right now. Never in a thousand years would have thought that would be something I'd do, but I sort of stumbled/climbed the ladder into it and I'm finding that I'm pretty good at it and enjoy a lot of the aspects of the business in the Pro Audio world. If I was working in any other field I think I'd be much less interested.

I'm very lucky that the company I work for gave me this opportunity, basically having no formal education or experience. But here I am - I started in the warehouse 8 years ago and now I'm in high-level meetings with the executives. I figure having the business degree will give me a bit more legitimacy - something I can point to to say "GIVE ME MORE MONEY". I already have the benefit of experience, hopefully the degree will help my upward mobility. Also - the wife and I have ideas for our own side businesses, so I figure the things that I learn could also be useful outside of a corporate job.

I'll most likely be doing the associate's degree at the local tech college, then transferring to a small UW branch to finish the Bachelors and Masters (if I decide to go that far). I have all of the general ed credits that I'll need so hopefully I can get it done relatively quickly. We've got a little money saved up, will be looking into grants, scholarships, loans, handouts from my employer, whatever can help defer the cost a little bit.

 

[Blank_0101]

I'll be doing masters or higher I imagine after a bit I imagine. I like school

 

[beebassdude]

And that isnt bad as far as tuition goes. But lets look at it as a whole. Someone making $10 an hour full time effectively has a ~$16k a year take home. Lets say you get $2k in grants and such. So school costs you $5k. That leaves you with $11k a year to live off of. Is that possible in your area?

my first job out of college was a front desk bitch position at a bank. even that i was making 30k a year getting coffee for douchebags, i got the job through a temp agency.

my wife has like 16k in college debt that we still pay, right now shes paying like 80 bucks a month. not a big deal, even for someone making less money. itll take a little longer but the better jobs you get, more money you make, easier debt becomes. such is life.

if you want free college, join a black metal band and move to finland.

 

[Squanch72]

I'll be doing masters or higher I imagine after a bit I imagine. I like school

I had a bit of separation anxiety after I finally got my degree. Like I miss school.

 

[Lazarus.Bird]

if you want free college, join a black metal band and move to finland.

Haha, not horrible advice.

 

[beebassdude]

I'll be doing masters or higher I imagine after a bit I imagine. I like school

you couldnt pay me to go back to school. i have a few certs i need to get for my job (PMP is my goal by end of the year), aside from that a masters degree makes me want to stab my own eyes out.