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117 votes
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US Supreme Court strikes down race-based admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina
85 votes -
The red US state brain drain isn’t coming. It’s happening right now.
77 votes -
US President Joe Biden is still trying to forgive student debt in ‘a very direct confrontation’ with US Supreme Court, expert says
59 votes -
Study of elite US college admissions data suggests being very rich is its own qualification
55 votes -
At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin
52 votes -
How do you feel about student loan forgiveness?
The debate is coming back up because of new talks around student loan forgiveness in the US. I was on the fence about it until I did some extra research for a comment I posted last week. I am...
The debate is coming back up because of new talks around student loan forgiveness in the US. I was on the fence about it until I did some extra research for a comment I posted last week.
I am including the comment I posted last week that was from a discussion about whether general education classes should be required for a college degree, but the part about the societal value of a college graduate to the US is relevant.
Higher education is an interesting thing to put a price on because while some classes can provide economic benefits to people who get a higher education, many classes provide more of a societal benefit.
A history class doesn't help an engineer make a jet turbine, but it can help them be an informed voter. College campuses mix people of different races, genders, origins, and socioeconomic classes with each other. The general education courses expose students to different concepts that can help them in their civic lives.
College graduates also have many economic benefits to society. On average, college graduates pay much more in taxes than they take in government benefits over their lifetimes. High school graduates also contribute, but only a modest gain where college graduates contribute 4-5x what they take. Governments invest $28,000 per college student on average but gain $335,000 in net monetary benefit over their lifetime.
I get that many people are opposed to courses that don't directly apply to a career because they have to pay a lot of money out of pocket when the course may only provide a benefit to society. Why can't the government provide loan forgiveness to anyone who graduates? It would take pressure off students and still provide a net benefit to society over having them not graduate.
50 votes -
More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses
48 votes -
Stanford University president resigns over manipulated research, will retract at least three papers
47 votes -
Why this math professor objects to diversity statements
46 votes -
US federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Harvard, challenging legacy admissions preference
45 votes -
I just made my last ever student loan payment!
I'm throwing myself a little party here -- digital drinks on me! Yes, I know my loans weren't accruing interest on account of COVID-19, but long before that all started I'd been aggressively...
I'm throwing myself a little party here -- digital drinks on me!
Yes, I know my loans weren't accruing interest on account of COVID-19, but long before that all started I'd been aggressively paying them down because I wanted them GONE. And now they ARE! (Or, they will be once the payment clears, which for some unknown reason takes my loan servicer like two full weeks).
The quarantine actually helped me accelerate payments. I rolled over what I was saving in gas money and not eating out into my loan payments. Also, as a teacher I only get paid during the school year, but I have the option to reduce my regular paychecks and roll the difference into a lump sum that gets paid out at the beginning of the summer. I choose this option so that my budgeting is consistent year-round (rather than me having to squirrel away my own nest egg for the summer from my other paychecks). The payoff amount on my loan would have been done around August had I kept with my regular schedule of payments, so I went ahead and treated myself to making the final payment in full, now, as I had the money for it upfront.
I cannot tell you how good it feels to finally be free of them. I paid off my undergrad loans in under 10 years and felt super proud of myself, only to immediately have to turn around and start the process all over again for grad school. Months after I finished my undergrad loan payments I was again accepting tens of thousands of dollars in debt so that I could get a master's degree to qualify myself for a job that I'd already been doing for years. It was not a great feeling, nor something I was very happy about, but you do what you have to do, right?
BUT NOW IT'S OVER. NO MORE STUDENT LOANS. I'VE WON THAT AMERICAN MILLENNIAL BOSS FIGHT.
It honestly feels like I just got a big raise, as, come August, once my timeline for paying the loans is done, all the money that I was putting towards them is now mine to do whatever I want with. I'm not saying this to gloat (and I know that I'm financially very privileged even in light of my debt), but simply because I'm reveling in the feeling of being out from under the suffocating thumb of a difficult financial pressure, and it feels wonderful.
EDIT: If anyone's wanting to join in my festivities remotely, participating is easy! All you need to do is pour yourself a tasty drink of your choosing, grab a delicious snack you love, and throw Carly Rae Jepsen's discography on shuffle.
43 votes -
"The university campus is rapidly becoming a locus of infantilizing social control that any independent-minded student should seek to escape"
42 votes -
How to drive a stake through your own good heart
41 votes -
What does any of this have to do with physics?
41 votes -
The importance of handwriting is becoming better understood
39 votes -
Students invent quieter leaf blower
37 votes -
After writing an anti-Israel letter, Harvard students are doxxed
36 votes -
Why AI detectors think the US Constitution was written by AI
35 votes -
A Black professor trapped in anti-racist hell
35 votes -
The Biden-Harris administration's US student debt relief plan
35 votes -
How the US is destroying young people’s future | Scott Galloway
32 votes -
Israel-Hamas war becomes flashpoint on US college campuses
32 votes -
Canada bet big on immigration. Now it’s hitting the brakes.
31 votes -
UBC student flies to school from Calgary (because Vancouver is that unaffordable to live in)
31 votes -
The myth of the unemployed US college grad
31 votes -
Research samples collected over decades at Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet were destroyed when a freezer malfunctioned during the Christmas holidays
30 votes -
The misguided war on the SAT
30 votes -
Canada announces cap on international students for next two years
29 votes -
Toxic posts on economist job website traced to users from elite universities
29 votes -
Is a degree worth it?
29 votes -
Abortion laws are driving academics out of some US states—and keeping others from coming
29 votes -
I signed up to write college essays for rich kids. I found cheating is more complicated than I thought.
29 votes -
Relative financial burden imposed on university students by housing cost in Germany steadily increasing. About a third of all students close to poverty line. How does this compare to your region?
The latest iteration of a study regarding the cost of student housing in Germany found, that rent prices for students have risen to a germany-wide average of 479€. Three years ago the average was...
The latest iteration of a study regarding the cost of student housing in Germany found, that rent prices for students have risen to a germany-wide average of 479€. Three years ago the average was just 391€. In Munich the average cost for student housing has risen to no less than 760€. This is more than double than the housing-cost covered by BAföG, a public program providing financial support to students from low-income families. [1]
Statistically, more than a third of students in Germany are at risk of poverty at the moment, meaning they have less than 60% of the country's mean income available. [2] [3]
Also with regards to Munich specifically, the number of designated student housing facilities has not grown significantly or even dropped over the past few years, while the number of students has been steadily increasing. This means that more and more students have to look for rooms in shared apartments on the city's highly competitive housing market. Statistically, these students are those that live close to the poverty line particularly often.
I realize that the cost of high-quality higher education in Germany is not as majorly fucked as for example in the USA, but still the financial burden on students is steadily increasing due to housing cost. How does this compare to where you're from? How is student housing organized in your city, how much does it cost relative to the mean income, and do you experience similar trends in your region?
Sources (german), besides in-person conversations and experiences:
[1] https://cms.moses-mendelssohn-institut.de/uploads/24_03_19_Wohnkosten_Studierende_804a7b53ef.pdf
[2] https://www.spiegel.de/start/statistisches-bundesamt-mehr-als-ein-drittel-der-studierenden-lebt-unter-der-armutsgrenze-a-460cb19f-8a62-43ab-8b52-652814234250
[3] https://youtu.be/UVaY8SCtjwg28 votes -
US President Biden can probably forgive student debt even if SCOTUS rules against him
28 votes -
Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research – it should be free
28 votes -
‘America is under attack’: Inside the anti-D.E.I. crusade
27 votes -
Faculty member fatally shot in University of North Carolina building
27 votes -
My students cheated... a lot
27 votes -
After a year of rising tensions, protesters tear down Confederate statue on UNC campus
27 votes -
What is a math department worth?
25 votes -
'Not of faculty quality': How Penn mistreated Katalin Karikó, the Nobel Prize winner of 2023
25 votes -
I just got accepted to do a Master's degree!
I'm dead excited, and I just wanted to share somewhere! Since graduating from my Bachelor's I've been working in IT support, and it's slowly killing me. Progression is slow, the work is boring,...
I'm dead excited, and I just wanted to share somewhere!
Since graduating from my Bachelor's I've been working in IT support, and it's slowly killing me. Progression is slow, the work is boring, and at the end of the day all I have to show for my efforts is (hopefully) a slightly lower number of open tickets than at the start. It all feels incredibly pointless, and like I'm not making a difference in peoples' lives.I decided earlier this year to start looking into possible Master's degree programs, to help me enter a different field, and I'm happy to say that from next September I'll be returning to my alma mater to study Linguistics and English Language Teaching. From there, I'm hoping to go into teaching English as a foreign language, first abroad, and then to immigrants and refugees back here in the UK.
I'm super excited, and also a little nervous. I coasted through my Bachelor's and the past few years of my working life, so it'll be a shock to the system to have a proper workload again. I've got to get through the next 8 months or so first, but that will be easier knowing that I have something different and exciting waiting for me at the end of this particular career path. I'm desperately saving up as much money as I can to cover my living expenses for the year (I don't intend to work during my degree), which is another thing to feel nervous about.
But right now, I'm mostly just ecstatic, and wanted to share! In the interest of discussion, I'd love to hear about your experiences studying a Master's degree, and whether or not it helped you in your life after graduation.
25 votes -
Students at Brown just secured a vote on divestment. What happens next?
24 votes -
New College: How Ron DeSantis is forcing Florida brain drain by targeting an LGBTQ+ campus
24 votes -
Protesters unaffiliated with CCNY, Columbia made up nearly half of arrests: police
23 votes -
How Chinese students experience America
23 votes -
Inventing the perfect US college applicant – For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait
23 votes -
California grad students won a historic strike. UC San Diego is striking back with misconduct allegations and arrests.
23 votes -
My college students are not ok
23 votes