Susie Orman

[suesinfl]

Jun 15, 2011 14:56:35 GMT -5 @wrongsideof30 said:

My husband works full time and is going to school part time and it SUCKS. The most he can handle is 2 classes a semester in the fall and winter. 4 classes a year. Maybe 5 if he takes a spring or summer class. It's going to take him forever to get his degree at this speed. I wish he would've went full time straight out of highschool. I'd gladly take on the $40k in students loans over this.

This is me. I just finished an AA and it took me almost 4 years of going PT and working FT and being a single parent. It was not easy, but it can be done. I was able to transfer 66 credits towards my BA which starts in the fall. I expect that it will be another 4 years (hopefully not quite that long), to finish. But I will finish and that's all that counts.

[bring in the new year]

On the student loans, it's one thing to make them nondischargeable for real universities, community colleges and yes, tech schools. I agree with not making it too easy to walk away.

But there was a Frontline on the for profit schools and there's a big difference. Most of them collect almost all of their tuition from federal backed loans (95% as versus 60% or lower for nonprofit schools). A lot of them put most of their development money into cold calling and web ads versus faculty. And there were horror stories. Three girls had gone in for nursing and racked up $50-$60k in debt for what they thought would be an accepted degree. You know - one where they could be hired as nurses?

Except their labor and delivery class was a few hours in a maternity ward talking to new mothers and none of their classes involved hands on training in hospitals. They couldn't even get hired as an LPN. So after what was basically fraud, they're still stuck with the student loans which they can't discharge and the school has been paid.

And that wasn't the only story where people were told to get the loans and use them for everything under the sun and pay more for the "convenience" of an on line school, only to discover they weren't any more employable than they had been the day they took the first class.

Frontline pointed out that if the girls had gotten into community college, it would have cost them in CA I think less than $20k for a job that would lead to an RN.

What annoys me most is good tech schools and community colleges are exactly what we need more of and instead the money that should be going to them is being siphoned off to pay investors on Wall Street.

[Cookies Galore]

Jun 14, 2011 16:19:05 GMT -5 pepper112765 said:

Jun 14, 2011 11:54:54 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Oh - well then. I'm sure I'm totally mistaken and that all the averages listed for all beauticians is totally wrong. Clearly they are all multi-millionaires. Sorry - I retract. Every person that has every gone to beauty school has paid back their student loan, and actually paid double because they were so rich they didn't know what to do with all the money.

Beauty school is not really that expensive is it?

Jean Madeline Aveda Institute (school in my area) is $14,000 a year just for tuition; I believe it's a two-year program. It is (in my opinion) a really good beauty school, though that doesn't necessarily mean the business is particularly easy. Two friends went there, I've had my hair done by them with great results, and I got to a "for real" Jean Madeline salon and get great service. But still, $14,000 a year is more than my undergrad tuition was.
My two friends also had different career trajectories. The one is a total hair master with a big following around town. The other is working as a home aid for an elderly man and doing hair on the side.

[Deleted]

I got one thing to say to Susie "You GO, GIRLFRIEND"...