4 ms·

- Lying about where you grew up - Being ashamed of free school lunch - Being embarrassed and made fun of for wearing the same sorts of clothes every day - Not w

by babesh 9y ago

- Lying about where you grew up - Being ashamed of free school lunch - Being embarrassed and made fun of for wearing the same sorts of clothes every day - Not wearing a coat in winter because you are embarrassed wearing the same coat for years - Only ordering an appetizer over lunch at a job interview - The soles of my $10 sneakers came off in P.E. - Not playing any of the video games your coworkers played growing up - Being extremely conservative with a little money once you have it, buying the cheapest ice cream, beans, etc... - No prom, school dances, girl friends, etc... even the poor girls don't like you - Only considering the public university since private ones meant taking loans as much as your parents made in a year and even though your test scores are higher than the average at MIT - One family vacation in all the years growing up - Inferiority complex - Limited ambitions - Feeling you don't belong - Gaps in knowledge - Too much willingness to take up hardship On the other hand, - Making your own food from raw ingredients: hamburgers, pizza, french fries, etc... - Being amazed by foods that you were never aware of: pho, sushi, stromboli, bagels, sausages on a grill - Approaching new places and people with naivety - All knowledge gained and learned is well learnt and mostly self learnt

WalterBright 9y ago
I'm curious about the MIT thing. In the 70's, when I applied around, MIT and other top schools made it clear that if you were qualified to go there and accepted, they'd find a way to get the bill paid with some combination of scholarships, loans, and work.
- dsr_ 9y ago
  Nearly all schools say that. The result is that, before you are old enough to vote or drink, you are encouraged to take on a debt larger than the total amount of money your parents have ever made in five years, a debt which is not subject to bankruptcy laws. If you make it out the other side of college with a bachelor's degree in a STEM field and an average job, it will still take you 21 years to pay it off. https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/07/student-loan-expectations-myth-vs-reality https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/07/stude... If you don't feel that you can reasonably make a bet of that magnitude because your entire prior history tells you that it won't work -- that's entirely rational. But college costs are completely unreasonable... http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/08/us/colleges-tuition-outruns-inflation.html http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/08/us/colleges-tuition-outrun... ... and have been getting worse for the last 30 years.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    Private schools with huge endowments actually do cover tuition for people with lower incomes. For example, Princeton covers 100% of tuition and room & board for family income below $65,000: https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-princetons-aid-program-works https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-princetons-aid-... MIT doesn't lay the income levels out so clearly but has a similar program: http://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/types-of-aid/mit-scholarships http://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/types-of-aid/... Public schools with huge endowments are getting in on the game: https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-unveils-tuition-guarantee-michigan-students-need https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-unveils-tuition-guaran...
    - babesh 9y ago
      They started doing that relatively recently. Back then, it was a small grant, a job, and a large loan. Software didn't start outpacing other engineering professions' pay till the web boom. That was hindsight since I had the faintest clue what a major was. Choosing a major that results in a job versus one based on interests. Another decision was not to go to graduate school right afterwards. Poignant memory was of a professor asking if I was going to graduate school after I did well in a graduate school level course and saying no.
      - WalterBright 9y ago
        > Choosing a major that results in a job versus one based on interests. When I attended Caltech in the 70s, it was commonplace for people in AY (Astronomy) to double major. When asked, the reason was always "AY for fun, and ME/EE/Whatever for a job." I very much tilted my choice of classes towards what I thought would be most advantageous for my anticipated career. It never occurred to me that I was being deprived. It was just common sense. Ironically, my career wound up in a field that had little to do with my studies :-)
  - piker 9y ago
    > a debt which is not subject to bankruptcy laws ...and is completely forgiven if you die, make 25 years worth of payments (10 if you're in public interest), are permanently disabled; is only required to be repaid to the extent you have discretionary income and haven't asked to put in forbearance; and is at an extremely low, tax-deductible interest rate, not secured by any assets.
deleted 9y ago
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by babesh 9y ago

WalterBright 9y ago

I'm curious about the MIT thing. In the 70's, when I applied around, MIT and other top schools made it clear that if you were qualified to go there and accepted, they'd find a way to get the bill paid with some combination of scholarships, loans, and work.

dsr_ 9y ago
Nearly all schools say that. The result is that, before you are old enough to vote or drink, you are encouraged to take on a debt larger than the total amount of money your parents have ever made in five years, a debt which is not subject to bankruptcy laws. If you make it out the other side of college with a bachelor's degree in a STEM field and an average job, it will still take you 21 years to pay it off. https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/07/student-loan-expectations-myth-vs-reality https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/07/stude... If you don't feel that you can reasonably make a bet of that magnitude because your entire prior history tells you that it won't work -- that's entirely rational. But college costs are completely unreasonable... http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/08/us/colleges-tuition-outruns-inflation.html http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/08/us/colleges-tuition-outrun... ... and have been getting worse for the last 30 years.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Private schools with huge endowments actually do cover tuition for people with lower incomes. For example, Princeton covers 100% of tuition and room & board for family income below $65,000: https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-princetons-aid-program-works https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-princetons-aid-... MIT doesn't lay the income levels out so clearly but has a similar program: http://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/types-of-aid/mit-scholarships http://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/types-of-aid/... Public schools with huge endowments are getting in on the game: https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-unveils-tuition-guarantee-michigan-students-need https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-unveils-tuition-guaran...
  - babesh 9y ago
    They started doing that relatively recently. Back then, it was a small grant, a job, and a large loan. Software didn't start outpacing other engineering professions' pay till the web boom. That was hindsight since I had the faintest clue what a major was. Choosing a major that results in a job versus one based on interests. Another decision was not to go to graduate school right afterwards. Poignant memory was of a professor asking if I was going to graduate school after I did well in a graduate school level course and saying no.
    - WalterBright 9y ago
      > Choosing a major that results in a job versus one based on interests. When I attended Caltech in the 70s, it was commonplace for people in AY (Astronomy) to double major. When asked, the reason was always "AY for fun, and ME/EE/Whatever for a job." I very much tilted my choice of classes towards what I thought would be most advantageous for my anticipated career. It never occurred to me that I was being deprived. It was just common sense. Ironically, my career wound up in a field that had little to do with my studies :-)
- piker 9y ago
  > a debt which is not subject to bankruptcy laws ...and is completely forgiven if you die, make 25 years worth of payments (10 if you're in public interest), are permanently disabled; is only required to be repaid to the extent you have discretionary income and haven't asked to put in forbearance; and is at an extremely low, tax-deductible interest rate, not secured by any assets.

deleted 9y ago

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