3 ms·

"Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this

by n0us 11y ago

"Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this degree as he goes, with help from an internship program with the U.S. Navy." Smart move. Maybe he will pay it all down some day. In this thread there are a lot of people saying you shouldn't take out a lot of loans to get a degree like journalism, and you shouldn't. I agree that is the type of degree that I would encourage someone to get as a second major, and/or from a state school. Part of the problem here is that all of these people's parents grew up in a different time period where having a technical major was less important, schools were much cheaper, and it was easier to find jobs in general. Combine this with the utter lack of skilled and proper advising for freshmen coming into college. You get there and you are 18 years old, have little concept of money and underdeveloped judgement skills. Then you go to your advisor who is a scatter-brained English professor with books all over his office. Advising for him is just one of those things you have to do as a professor but he isn't really there to advise and has no idea what to tell you, or his 100 other advisees. So then he asks you what you like and you tell him you like writing. There you go, major in journalism. Even then, some people might want to sign up for CS or Business but they lose the class signup lottery because those departments are under funded and don't have enough sections. Then they lose again for the next 3 semesters and are forced to declare a major in classes that they already have experience in. There is no point where they explain the value of a degree to you and it can be difficult to understand for most people until they are 2 or 3 years in and suddenly realize that they are stuck in this path and can't go back to change majors because it would take more school and they can't take on more debt. You can't drop out and start over later because then you have to start paying those loans and don't have a degree at all. tl;dr; it isn't just these kids making bad decisions, it is a dysfunctional system that leads people down paths that are convenient for the school, not necessarily for the students.

JPKab 11y ago
"Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this degree as he goes, with help from an internship program with the U.S. Navy." So his mother and father, who both work for the Navy on the taxpayer's dime, got their son connected with an internship program for the Navy on the taxpayer's dime. I have no doubt that this was 100% through merit, and had nothing to do with both of them having jobs there. The Navy has another paid-internship and training program for college graduates with no job: it's called ENLISTING.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > The Navy has another paid-internship and training program for college graduates with no job: it's called ENLISTING. The Navy (and other services are similar) actually has lots of non-uniformed internship programs for current students ; I suspect the biggest advantage of having family in the military is that they are likely to be aware of these things.
Throwaway12141 11y ago
> "Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this degree as he goes, with help from an internship program with the U.S. Navy." ... or he could have just driven 40 minutes north and gotten a CS degree at George Mason University, which is a far, far better program than Mary Washington. OR if out of state tuition is not an issue, he could have driven another 30 minutes further and gotten a CS degree at U Maryland, which hovers in the top 15. Both of which are basically the same price as Mary Washington. Is it worth mentioning that the Navy has close connections to both schools? Particularly GMU. Indeed of nearby schools, the following are all superior to Mary Washington in CS and cost about the same: GMU, U Maryland, Virginia Tech, UVA, ODU, VCU. So one son decided to blow $200K on a journalism degree, and his parents helped him. Now the other son, already $60K in the hole, is going back to school, and has picked the worst of several options to get a computer science degree. And no doubt his parents are helping him again. One wonders if the problem is the parents.
- cpursley 11y ago
  There's another option that's even cheaper. My training to enter software development was less than $1,000 (various books and online courses + plus lots of hours behind the keyboard). While that might not provide a deep CS background, its enough to become a competent developer to build real things and obtain a job. And if someone feels like they still need that CS degree, do so after entering the field and pay tuition out of pocket along the way.
- randycupertino 11y ago
  "One wonders if the problem is the parents." Agreed- no reason the starving artist underemployed son couldn't come home and go back to school for something he could actually get a job in, like nursing. There are 1 year accelerated BSN programs for people with bachelors in other subjects.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > So one son decided to blow $200K on a journalism degree $129,000, not $200K. $189K is the combined amount of the two sons. (And "blow" largely because he got a journalism degree, apparently, for what appears to be a goal of an acting career, which is just mind-bogglingly weird, and not particularly because of the $ amount.)

by n0us 11y ago

JPKab 11y ago

"Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this degree as he goes, with help from an internship program with the U.S. Navy." So his mother and father, who both work for the Navy on the taxpayer's dime, got their son connected with an internship program for the Navy on the taxpayer's dime. I have no doubt that this was 100% through merit, and had nothing to do with both of them having jobs there. The Navy has another paid-internship and training program for college graduates with no job: it's called ENLISTING.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> The Navy has another paid-internship and training program for college graduates with no job: it's called ENLISTING. The Navy (and other services are similar) actually has lots of non-uniformed internship programs for current students ; I suspect the biggest advantage of having family in the military is that they are likely to be aware of these things.

Throwaway12141 11y ago

> "Sean is now pursuing another bachelor's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. He is paying for this degree as he goes, with help from an internship program with the U.S. Navy." ... or he could have just driven 40 minutes north and gotten a CS degree at George Mason University, which is a far, far better program than Mary Washington. OR if out of state tuition is not an issue, he could have driven another 30 minutes further and gotten a CS degree at U Maryland, which hovers in the top 15. Both of which are basically the same price as Mary Washington. Is it worth mentioning that the Navy has close connections to both schools? Particularly GMU. Indeed of nearby schools, the following are all superior to Mary Washington in CS and cost about the same: GMU, U Maryland, Virginia Tech, UVA, ODU, VCU. So one son decided to blow $200K on a journalism degree, and his parents helped him. Now the other son, already $60K in the hole, is going back to school, and has picked the worst of several options to get a computer science degree. And no doubt his parents are helping him again. One wonders if the problem is the parents.

cpursley 11y ago
There's another option that's even cheaper. My training to enter software development was less than $1,000 (various books and online courses + plus lots of hours behind the keyboard). While that might not provide a deep CS background, its enough to become a competent developer to build real things and obtain a job. And if someone feels like they still need that CS degree, do so after entering the field and pay tuition out of pocket along the way.
randycupertino 11y ago
"One wonders if the problem is the parents." Agreed- no reason the starving artist underemployed son couldn't come home and go back to school for something he could actually get a job in, like nursing. There are 1 year accelerated BSN programs for people with bachelors in other subjects.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> So one son decided to blow $200K on a journalism degree $129,000, not $200K. $189K is the combined amount of the two sons. (And "blow" largely because he got a journalism degree, apparently, for what appears to be a goal of an acting career, which is just mind-bogglingly weird, and not particularly because of the $ amount.)