<p>MehGreek:</p>
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<p>Are the questions about a student who is CURRENTLY enrolled or WILL BE enrolled at UMN-Twin Cities in Fall 2010? Or are they questions concerning a student who will/may be applying to UMN in the 2010-11 school year?</p>
<p>MehGreek wrote:</p>
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<p>All I can say is that at the directional state U that I teach at, the vast, vast majority of students receiving federal FA (including those on Pell grants) are NOT “sucking the system for all they can” and most of them are from poor families that are NOT on welfare. </p>
<p>These students need and deserve their federal FA money from the federal government in order to pay for college, earn their degree, and BREAK the cycle you are complaining about. And yes, I say the ones with Pell grants “deserve” their Pell grants: The Pell and other FA is what allows the student to pay the tuition bills AND their rent AND their food (and frequently support their kid(s)) while working (frequently full-time) at a minimum wage job to cover all the things the Pell doesn’t pay for.</p>
<p>MehGreek wrote:</p>
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<p>I’m glad that you found out about the PSEO option for your kids.</p>
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<p>But I can’t help but notice: You have no problems with other folk’s hard-earned state tax dollars being spent on the PSEO program that allows you to send your HS kid to a private liberal arts college, which likely charges its own full-pay students somewhere between $30K and $40K for tuition. How much does the state reimburse the college for each courses a high school student takes there? Multiply by the number of courses typically completed and by the number of students participating in the program, and I bet you get a pretty decent chunk of change. Might it be better for the local school system to invest that chunk of change in making improvements that * all * their students would benefit from?</p>
<p>^^Conversely, the same state could use those PSEO dollars to grant scholarships to high school graduates to be used at college…</p>
<p>–"Are the questions about a student who is CURRENTLY enrolled or WILL BE enrolled at UMN-Twin Cities in Fall 2010? Or are they questions concerning a student who will/may be applying to UMN in the 2010-11 school year? "</p>
<p>He is an incoming freshman ths fall in the College Of Sciene and Engineering (formerly IT), Civil Engineering Program…</p>
<p>I haven’t thought through all the details, by my changes would recognize that higher ed produces both public and private benefits. The public universities should be highly subsidized so that they are both better and more affordable than they are now. Continuing need-based formulas to maximize accessibility for the lower SES strata would make perfect sense</p>
<p>But we should recognize that private universities are selling a product–arguably even a luxury good–and I can find no compelling philosophical reason why it should be subsidized. So no Pell grants or subsidized student loans to them. They are free to price and market their product however they want. Scholarships for need, merit, race, oboe skill–all fair game. I’ll bet the rate of price inflation would moderate.</p>
<p>–"But I can’t help but notice: You have no problems with other folk’s hard-earned state tax dollars being spent on the PSEO program that allows you to send your HS kid to a private liberal arts college, which likely charges its own full-pay students somewhere between $30K and $40K for tuition. How much does the state reimburse the college for each courses a high school student takes there? Multiply by the number of courses typically completed and by the number of students participating in the program, and I bet you get a pretty decent chunk of change. Might it be better for the local school system to invest that chunk of change in making improvements that all their students would benefit from? "</p>
<p>Ummmmmmmm, those would include OUR tax dollars, too? I don’t know any one of my familly members, including extended family, that has ever taken welfare besides my dad with Alzheimer’s who was in a care center for 2 years and on Medicaid and my getting free cheese back in the early 1980s. My mom wouldn’t even take welfare while raising 5 kids alone on minimum wage. We simply aren’t system abusers. After all the taxes paid in with minimal used by my dad and my free cheese, I really don’t feel bad they are in PSEO.</p>
<p>When our high school cuts ALL of the AP classes out of the curriculum and the boys have taken all the upper level “challenging” classes available…what other options would you suggest??? I fully agree with you that the local school system should make wiser investments in their own offerings, but they are busy “negotiating” whether or not teachers should have a 2nd evening of parent-teacher conferences, cut ANOTHER day off the school year, etc. I don’t think they have time to deal with minor details like curriculum offerings as it correlates with student retention. I’m just sayin’…</p>
<p>I really like Post #37!</p>
<p>QUICK “EASY” QUESTION THAT SOMEONE WILL KNOW OFF THE TOP OF THEIR HEAD…
I need to talk to a REAL person in the FA office at U of MN Twin Cities. The general “One Stop” number is staffed by people who may know about “everything” (therefore One Stop) but I have face-to-face been given incorrect information that made our financial aid worse. I need a contact person to talk to as we work through our situation…how do I get to a REAL financial aid person???
Thanks for the info!</p>
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<p>You can ask the person on the phone to escalate the call to a manager. </p>
<p>If you would like to PM me your situation, maybe I can give you some guidance (I am an FAO in real life).</p>
<p>NOTE: I SUPPORT SCHOOL TEACHERS WHO ARE DOING A GOOD JOB WITH THE KIDS’ BEST INTEREST AT HEART AND RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO THEM. No flaming, please…</p>
<p>One option for our school system that was taken off the table as quickly as it was put on was shutting down as the ISD school, opening a charter school, and hiring quality teachers. We have issues with many slacking and/or lame duck teachers. I can’t say that I don’t think that is a marvelous idea. Get that union out of there and hire the teachers who want to TEACH.</p>
<p>Robin, I TOTALLY agree that the kids who need the assistance as a leg up and break the cycle SHOULD have it. My beef is with the system suckers, the upper-middle and upper class finding loopholes or downright being fraudulent, and the fact that my kid can not take the financial responsibility for his own college education…we are forced to. He is an adult, I can’t see his college info (had he not signed for our access) but I must pay the bill??? That is NOT the real world…</p>
<p>I did not mean to dis the kids who needed to break the cycle. I was one of those kids. I aged out of foster system, went to LPN school for a semester, got B’s with little study, played too much pool, forced out of school because nurses shouldn’t be so good at shooting pool (quitting is better on transcript, they said, than getting tossed), worked 2-3 jobs at a time, drank myself silly for 5 years (no illegal drugs, I’m proud to say), then simply up and went to college for a BS because I needed to get a life. That is the hard road, breaking the cycle, learning along the way, etc etc etc. I’m proud to say I broke that cycle of abuse and have solid sons who are becoming solid, responsible citizens. </p>
<p>So I will not ever dis a kid or their family who are using the help as they are given the opportunity. Please don’t take my comments the wrong way, I admit I’m a tad annoyed right now… :-)</p>
<p>I read in today’s paper that the federal government is no longer going to be offering loans to certain ‘for-profit’ schools where the graduates will likely not earn enough from their education to pay back the loans. This is an idea that could be carried over to the ‘not-for-profit’ colleges and universities also. </p>
<p>The student’s should really be thinking of this on their own, but I keep thinking of that NYU student (in another thread) who took on hundreds of thousands in loans getting a degree in something that would never translate into a job. She was working now as a photographer’s assistant (something for which she didn’t need a degree) and was defaulting on her loans.</p>