How much money is to much and how stupid are you?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by eilla05, Sep 28, 2010.

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  1. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Has your friend told you why she wants that specific school?
     
  2. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    I asked she said she didnt care for the local community college and that they told her it would take 4 years to complete the associates (which I think she misunderstood anyway). I have asked her time and time again why that school.... no real answer. I know she said she did like that the classes were only 11 weeks in length, but to that I said you can find a community college with quarter terms and have the same thing..

    I think it is just that she has spoke with someone at the college and is sucked in. She is said to start on the 18th of Oct.
     
  3. I am totally insensitive if I think at this point, based on what you've said, that she's got what's coming to her? Either that, or, you've completely misrepresented this woman.
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Oh my gosh! $30K for an AA? Your assessment of your friend is correct. Why not just go to a JC and get in and out for around $3K? $30K is a little more than I am paying to earn a doctorate!! :eek: Grab your friend, by the hair if necessary, and save her from this terrible mistake!
     
  5. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Now that sounds like a plan! Did you ever ask how she planned on repaying the money or how much she expects to make wiht her $30K associated degree?
     
  6. threedogs

    threedogs New Member

    Try this: Go to FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid and click on Student Aid on the Web. Another window will pop-up: click on Repaying Your Loans on the left, then Repayment Plans and Calculators. Under Standard Repayment, there's a link for a Repayment plan calculator. $30,000 will be $345.24 a month to repay. If she goes on to a Bachelors, she needs to figure that projected amount, too. Oh, make her read the fine print on the bottom, too:

    Note 1: This is an estimated monthly repayment amount for the first two years of the term and total loan payment. The monthly repayment amount will generally increase every two years, based on the gradation factor in the graduated repayment rules.

    Then, if that doesn't convince her, find out what type of job she thinks she'll get when she graduates. Do a search on Indeed.com for that job. You'll leave depressed, because EVERYONE is having a tough time getting jobs, as we all know.

    If this STILL doesn't convince her, try to get her to read some of the horror stories about people who cannot repay student loans. This page has a lot of easy-to-read info:

    The Student Loans Scheme: a Gateway Drug to Debt Slavery

    I found a really, really good blog that one woman started to share her & others' horror stories about their own student loan hell. Can't find it right now, but I did find this article:

    College Students This Is Your Future: High Unemployment And Student Loan Hell

    Quote from article:
    The New York Times recently profiled Cortney Munna - a recent college
    graduate who has not been able to get a "good job" and who now finds herself in student loan hell. She
    recently told the New York Times that she would be more than glad to give back her education if she could
    just get out of all this debt....

    "I don’t want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would
    happily give back."

    In recent years, millions of young college graduates have found that the "great education" that they thought
    they were getting actually doesn't get them very far at all in the real world.

    In fact, they often find themselves taking jobs where they work right next to other people their age who never
    even went to college.

    So a lot of young college graduates find themselves wishing that they could just "return" their education and get
    all that money back.

    But there is no walking away from student loan debt.

    The truth is that federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts.

    Basically, once you get into student loan hell there is no escape.

    So now we have hundreds of thousands of college graduates that can't get good jobs and that have brutal student
    loan payments that they can't possibly handle.
     
  7. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    This is a very good idea.
     
  8. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    You might also tell her that she has to repay the student loan somehow and she can't declare bankruptcy on it. A student loan can easily also screw up her credit rating should she miss a payment - this can really screw up ones life.

    Maybe someone at Daymar told her how their degree would change the world for her and guarantee her great jobs, fame and fortune.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2010
  9. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    I actually did ask her that- how she plans to pay them back but apparently they have income based payment plans now.. She lives in a small town in Kentucky (about 30,000 people) so im guessing she wont be getting a job with her degree anytime soon and if she does she will be lucky to make 25k per year. If that is the case her monthly payments would only be about 25 a month. Ill pass along all those links though! Maybe seeing/hearing it from someone other than me might work!
     
  10. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    I'm pretty sure that the income-based repayment is for federal loans only. If she is using any private loans, she could be up the proverbial creek.
     
  11. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    But what amount of interest will be paid on the loan - I used an on-line calculator* and found that paying off a 30K loan at 6% interest with a $25 monthly payment would take 100 years to pay off with total interest paid of $9,941,057.97

    * How Long Will it Take to Pay Off My Loan Calculator
     
  12. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Just put it this way: How would you like a free new car? Then go to a cheaper school instead, and you'll have plenty of money leftover to buy a new car.
     
  13. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    same problem, different friend. <sigh>
    There *is a reason she likes this school, maybe she doesn't want to tell you. It could be something else, like NOT liking the other options. Maybe it's a cool name of a class she hopes to take. Maybe they made it all seem so simple for her. Maybe she thinks your ideas for earning a degree require too much work? *I have had friends tell me this about my degree and the method I earned it. Anyway, you need to take yourself out of the problem. Tell her she needs to talk with a third party. Someone in the field she hopes to enter - a REAL LIVE person. (who didn't graduate from her choice school). They will be able to help her sort this out. She needs a mentor. And seriously, you need to explain to her that college advisors are not there to give career advice, they are there to sell and enroll you in the program they work for. Stress to her if she won't listen to you, at least don't listen to the advisor.
     
  14. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    If she's thinking of getting a job with her CJ degree she may want to check local law enforcement guidelines, as I've heard some departments will only accept RA credits. Remember reading about a student who paid 35k+ for a CJ AS from ITT Tech and in the end it was not acceptable for the department he was looking at trying to get into.
     
  15. litlnemo

    litlnemo New Member

    I had this situation with a friend recently (not Daymar, but a particular for-profit school with a poor reputation). He was going to study CJ too. The reasons he gave me for wanting to go to that school instead of the very good public community college nearby were basically: "The books are included, as is a gun (!), and that isn't included at the CC, so the for-profit school is cheaper" and "They seem to really want me to go there -- they are bending over backwards to get me to attend. The people at the CC seem as if they aren't trying so hard to get me to attend."

    I had to sit down and do the math to show him that, unless his textbooks and the gun are several thousand dollars each, he would be spending thousands and thousands more to go to the for-profit school (and come out of it with only an AA and credits unlikely to transfer elsewhere).

    And about the folks at the for-profit school being so friendly and helpful? That is because they are SALESPEOPLE. Compared to government employees at the public CC, of course they seem friendlier. They are trying to sell. Their job depends on it. The CC folks don't earn commission if you enroll.

    In this case, my friend saw the light and enrolled at the CC the next day. He is almost done with his program there, I think, and so far I don't think it has cost him anything out-of-pocket. (He had some veteran and worker retraining grants, if I understand correctly.)

    In your case, it might be similar stuff -- the people at Daymar are sweet-talking her and making her feel like they want her there and that she is smart for choosing them. Whereas you telling her that she is making a mistake, even though you are right, is making her feel stupid, and she doesn't like that feeling, so she's sticking with the folks who make her feel smart.
     
  16. BlueMason

    BlueMason Audaces fortuna juvat

    A fool and "their" money are soon parted...
     
  17. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    As another wise poster stated "A fool and their money are soon parted". I just don't understand this logic, especially when you have given her viable options. I just find it idiotic, sorry.

    A single mom with kids, wants to spend 30K on a AA degree? What the hell is wrong with people? This person is just going to dig herself deeper into the hole.

    Abner
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2010
  18. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    I agree. And worse yet she said she plans to get her Bachelors degree with them as well. So were talking another 30k for that.

    I tried again last night and she is still dead set on going there...so not much else I can do. I emailed her all the links someone posted previously and even that did not seem to phase her.
     
  19. threedogs

    threedogs New Member

    I agree w/what Cookderosa said: you've tried all you can - you might have to just let go and take yourself out of the picture. She might not listen to anyone, and you'll just make yourself sick.

    I have a niece I dearly love, who was going through some hard times. Problem was, no matter what I said, she'd go ahead and make some really bad choices in her life. There was nothing I could do, except get ulcers over it (we live many miles apart, so our contact would be through email and phone). To remain sane, I just had to step back.

    What is your friend going to do if she CAN'T get work after all of this? She has kids to support! She will have reached her limit for federal aid & won't be able to get training for something that would actually lead to a job... this is what has almost happened to me.

    I made some poor decisions about my education, and took out loans as well (I actually made poor decisions in my life apart from my education, but that's a whole 'nuther story). Fortunately, it's not too late for me, and I think I can salvage my degree plan with something that will actually lead to paying work (I hope), but it's frightening. I only wish that the stupid community college I went to had presented more information about real jobs and how likely it would be to obtain them after graduating, not just something they were trying to push because of grant money.

    I was in a program for women who are going back to school after being away for a long time. It was great. It helped me learn how to study again, and I made some great friends there. But did they actually give me advice on what jobs were more practical today? No way! I now realize that this area where I live has more medical related jobs that anything else. Now, it doesn't mean everyone should do something in that field, but you would think that a local community college would want to assist their students and give them guidance in this area! Their funding (for the program) was in the social sciences, so they tried to steer everyone in that field (as in Social Worker). Well, we have a lot of homeless in the city where the school is, along with a bad drug problem. However, my opinion is leading people to a job that has little growth and poor pay (in this area) is downright despicable!

    I was the 'techie' of my class, (In the land of the blind, the one-eyed monster is king! :cool:), so I tried to share the results of my research to others there. But it still has taken me a long, long time to really line up my skills with a career (a practical one) that might actually take me out of poverty-land, along with something I can do with my health issues (now that I'm almost at retirement age). Am I pissed at that school? You bet I am - but I also realize that much of the blame lays on my own shoulders - took me awhile to realize this, and it might take your friend awhile, too.

    I'll get off of my soap-box; I really wish I could put some of my older-but wiser experience into your friend's brain, along with letting her know that she is NOT to trust the advice of people at the school. I am so fed up with these colleges who do not have the students' best interest at heart, whether they are for-profit or, supposedly, [sic] non-profit! Arrghh!!
     
  20. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Did you mention the car?!

    "So you're saying you don't want a free new car? Why not attend the cheaper college, and give the car to me instead? Or use the money you'd save to build 20 clean water wells in Africa? Or ..."
     

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