4 ms·

> US-centric view of tertiary education being a risk due to large capital investment I can't help but think European perception is a little exaggerated here. Y

> US-centric view of tertiary education being a risk due to large capital investment I can't help but think European perception is a little exaggerated here. Yes, the live on campus and party at age 18/19 experience is expensive. But, getting a state school degree on a budget, and maybe a year of community college? You're looking at 10-30k. The bigger risk is opportunity cost since degrees start later and take longer.

alkonaut 3y ago
I partied for 5 years and got a masters and that cost me around $20k in loans (Of which zero was tuition, it was basically mostly the rent, books, food, and drinks). If given the choice I'd do it again of course. Even if what I ended up doing had nothing to do with what I studied I'd do it again. Even if you told me that if had started a developer job at 18 I'd now be making twice what I'm doing today at age 45, still do it.
- maccard 3y ago
  If you're 45 now, you studied probably in the late 90's? In many cities today, rent for 4-5 years is going to be 40k. I live in Edinburgh, where we have a large student population. Getting a room here is going to be the guts of £8000/year, before you've eaten anything.
  - alkonaut 3y ago
    Yes 1998-2003. Rent was sub $200 for most of that time, and tuition/fees $0. This was in a Swedish city of less than 100k people. Same rent now is still under $300-$350 I believe. I actively chose among smaller cities because I had no desire to pay $500/mo in e.g Stockholm as I would then need to work. The most expensive rent was a flat I shared in 2001 near Glasgow cathedral. About £300pp/mo I think it was (£900for a 3 bedroom). I lived on around $750/mo of which $300 was a govt grant and the rest was the loan. This felt pretty easy to live on, did not have to work weekends to make that work, though worked summers for some extra money for things like travel. If I were to do it again I’d definitely do the same: pick a university where I could keep costs such that I could drink on weekends instead of work.
- commonlisp94 3y ago
  What does this have to do with the discussion?
  - alkonaut 3y ago
    I tried to debunk the notion that university is always an expensive investment and can’t be relatively cheap both in living costs (if in a cheaper city) and tuition.

alkonaut 3y ago

I partied for 5 years and got a masters and that cost me around $20k in loans (Of which zero was tuition, it was basically mostly the rent, books, food, and drinks). If given the choice I'd do it again of course. Even if what I ended up doing had nothing to do with what I studied I'd do it again. Even if you told me that if had started a developer job at 18 I'd now be making twice what I'm doing today at age 45, still do it.

maccard 3y ago
If you're 45 now, you studied probably in the late 90's? In many cities today, rent for 4-5 years is going to be 40k. I live in Edinburgh, where we have a large student population. Getting a room here is going to be the guts of £8000/year, before you've eaten anything.
- alkonaut 3y ago
  Yes 1998-2003. Rent was sub $200 for most of that time, and tuition/fees $0. This was in a Swedish city of less than 100k people. Same rent now is still under $300-$350 I believe. I actively chose among smaller cities because I had no desire to pay $500/mo in e.g Stockholm as I would then need to work. The most expensive rent was a flat I shared in 2001 near Glasgow cathedral. About £300pp/mo I think it was (£900for a 3 bedroom). I lived on around $750/mo of which $300 was a govt grant and the rest was the loan. This felt pretty easy to live on, did not have to work weekends to make that work, though worked summers for some extra money for things like travel. If I were to do it again I’d definitely do the same: pick a university where I could keep costs such that I could drink on weekends instead of work.
commonlisp94 3y ago
What does this have to do with the discussion?
- alkonaut 3y ago
  I tried to debunk the notion that university is always an expensive investment and can’t be relatively cheap both in living costs (if in a cheaper city) and tuition.