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>>I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree That is very true for some degrees, but I laugh when potential C-S students say this. My first year of undergrad at well

>>I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree That is very true for some degrees, but I laugh when potential C-S students say this. My first year of undergrad at well performing state university, I took loans and worked at the schools IT support center, 7.50/hr. The following summer I worked as a "Application Development Intern" and made $10/hr. For the following three years I worked part-time at a local software consulting firm and made $15/hr and part-time as a C-S TA and made 10/hr. I paid off my debt 2 months after graduation and I got lots of great experience. My story is very typical of my C-S and IS major classmates. And now those same internships in my Alma mater's town are paying 17-18/hr. So when people say that can't afford to get a C-S degree I think they either don't know the score or want to be one of the "too cool for school" kids in the valley, but lack the proper reasoning (I don't use that term for people with good reasons).

balls187 12y ago
eh, not everyone will be successful, even with a CS degree. I know programs at many schools are hyper competitive, so that will weed out the ones that can't hack it, but College is expensive. That said, I liked the line from Rich Dad, Poor Dad that explained the difference between thinking "I can't afford it." and "How can I afford it?" The former just shuts off your thinking and accepts a situation. Granted the OP is taking a creative approach to the problem.
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  I'd argue that a person who is not going to be successful with a CS degree is probably also not going to be successful at starting a brand new accreditation system for higher education. Getting a programming job requires some hustle. Establishing a new foothold in the hyper-comeptitive landscape of high ed probably requires a whole lot more hustle.
Crito 12y ago
I would go so far as to say that even taking out student loans and not working through college could be reasonable for a CS student, provided that they were confident in their ability to graduate and prove their worth to employers. I didn't do that; I worked through my CS degree much like you describe, but had I instead taken on debt then proceeded to get the same job offers that I did in this timeline, then I would have had my student loans wiped out within two years of graduating. CS grad earning potential is good enough to make taking on student loan debt not entirely insane; which is more than can be said of many majors. (Of course that is assuming that I would have received those same offers, which is questionable if I did not have the work experience that got from working myself through college).
steveklabnik 12y ago
How long ago was this? It matters, a lot. Tuition doubled at my school while I was there. I ended up with ~$72k in debt. And it wasn't any Ivy-league school.
- Crito 12y ago
  While I was at university, I had a total of 18 months of 40-hours/week internships/co-ops. Those were at intern rates, but even so a year and a half of working took care of about $40k of expenses. I continued to work for some of those companies while I was in class, which covered the rest. It's not easy, but if you work hard you can at the very least keep your debt reasonable. (It is probably also worth mentioning that your debt was more than double the median student loan debt of people leaving college: ~$30k: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/student-loan-debt-median-income_n_3573683.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/student-loan-debt-m... Your school (and mine) was far more expensive than was necessary.)
  - will_work4tears 12y ago
    Let's be fair though. I knew one person, personally and closely, that went to school full time, worked a full time job and raised two girls (they weren't babies or toddlers though) and managed to get a 3.0+ GPA, but that doesn't mean everybody can do it. I tried (not the raising the girls bit), with a full time job and going to school full time and my grades plummeted for that semester (which caused me to have to retake a couple classes and delayed my graduation a semester). Even in a Mid-Missouri small town, making 7-8 bucks an hour working ~24 hours a week, it wasn't enough to survive, let alone survive AND pay "cash" for classes and books.
    - Crito 12y ago
      Aye, not everyone can do it. My backup plan, if dropping out appeared to be imminent, was to take on student loans. I think that for a CS major, taking on student loans isn't actually unreasonable, since CS majors have pretty decent earning potential. What you really want to avoid is taking on student loans, then dropping out. If you do that then you'll be left with little but debt to show for it. If you instead try to work your way through school, but still drop out, at least you won't be in debt. Dropping out is far less damaging if you don't take on student loans, which is why I made student loans my backup plan.

balls187 12y ago

eh, not everyone will be successful, even with a CS degree. I know programs at many schools are hyper competitive, so that will weed out the ones that can't hack it, but College is expensive. That said, I liked the line from Rich Dad, Poor Dad that explained the difference between thinking "I can't afford it." and "How can I afford it?" The former just shuts off your thinking and accepts a situation. Granted the OP is taking a creative approach to the problem.

snowwrestler 12y ago
I'd argue that a person who is not going to be successful with a CS degree is probably also not going to be successful at starting a brand new accreditation system for higher education. Getting a programming job requires some hustle. Establishing a new foothold in the hyper-comeptitive landscape of high ed probably requires a whole lot more hustle.

Crito 12y ago

I would go so far as to say that even taking out student loans and not working through college could be reasonable for a CS student, provided that they were confident in their ability to graduate and prove their worth to employers. I didn't do that; I worked through my CS degree much like you describe, but had I instead taken on debt then proceeded to get the same job offers that I did in this timeline, then I would have had my student loans wiped out within two years of graduating. CS grad earning potential is good enough to make taking on student loan debt not entirely insane; which is more than can be said of many majors. (Of course that is assuming that I would have received those same offers, which is questionable if I did not have the work experience that got from working myself through college).

steveklabnik 12y ago

How long ago was this? It matters, a lot. Tuition doubled at my school while I was there. I ended up with ~$72k in debt. And it wasn't any Ivy-league school.

Crito 12y ago
While I was at university, I had a total of 18 months of 40-hours/week internships/co-ops. Those were at intern rates, but even so a year and a half of working took care of about $40k of expenses. I continued to work for some of those companies while I was in class, which covered the rest. It's not easy, but if you work hard you can at the very least keep your debt reasonable. (It is probably also worth mentioning that your debt was more than double the median student loan debt of people leaving college: ~$30k: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/student-loan-debt-median-income_n_3573683.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/student-loan-debt-m... Your school (and mine) was far more expensive than was necessary.)
- will_work4tears 12y ago
  Let's be fair though. I knew one person, personally and closely, that went to school full time, worked a full time job and raised two girls (they weren't babies or toddlers though) and managed to get a 3.0+ GPA, but that doesn't mean everybody can do it. I tried (not the raising the girls bit), with a full time job and going to school full time and my grades plummeted for that semester (which caused me to have to retake a couple classes and delayed my graduation a semester). Even in a Mid-Missouri small town, making 7-8 bucks an hour working ~24 hours a week, it wasn't enough to survive, let alone survive AND pay "cash" for classes and books.
  - Crito 12y ago
    Aye, not everyone can do it. My backup plan, if dropping out appeared to be imminent, was to take on student loans. I think that for a CS major, taking on student loans isn't actually unreasonable, since CS majors have pretty decent earning potential. What you really want to avoid is taking on student loans, then dropping out. If you do that then you'll be left with little but debt to show for it. If you instead try to work your way through school, but still drop out, at least you won't be in debt. Dropping out is far less damaging if you don't take on student loans, which is why I made student loans my backup plan.