<p>Robyrm, you are mistaken. MIT’s financial aid- even for kids who are Pell recipients- is significantly more loan vs. grant oriented than its peer institutions. They make no bones about it; they expect every kid to have skin in the game. If there is a kid there getting a free ride, they’ve been lucky enough to find an outside organization to pay the parents/kids share which would have been given in loans.</p>
<p>I am not aware of any need based aid from MIT that does not have a self-help component (a nice euphemism for “kid has to get a job”.) And indeed- jobs are available to anyone on campus who wants one, whether the kid has need or not. They range from the typical library jobs to the computer 24/7 help desk, to research opportunities in a professors lab.</p>
<p>You are of course entitled to give your money where you wish- but this thread is filled with a lot of half truths and non-truths. A kid who graduated from MIT who has never had a paying job is beyond an anomaly… especially one who had financial need.</p>
<p>How did he eat? How did he buy his books? How did he travel back and forth from school? Even the most generous need-based packages for kids from truly impoverished families (I’m talking villages in Nepal or Africa) require work study jobs to augment the grants.</p>
<p>This story smells like a ■■■■■. You should revisit MIT’s aid policies- even a kid getting a “free ride” has component comprised of loans, work-study, and self-help. (i.e. summer employment).</p>
<p>blossom – I can assure you that I am not a ■■■■■!</p>
<p>He told me personally that his full ride paid for everything – tuition, room, board, books, and travel back home. He also bragged that he had money left over at the end of each semester that he pocketed. Since I am totally unfamiliar with financial aid (our D does not qualify for any), I didn’t question what he told me.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add a few additional thoughts. I have to agree with robyrm2. He did not take advantage of opportunities available to him while going to MIT. Their Office of Minority Education has numerous programs to ensure the success of these students. He told his mother that he was expected to participate in internships during the summer. I would imagine that there are many places willing to sponsor an MIT student. He chose not to do a summer internship. An internship could have provided opportunities for future employment after graduation, especially since it can be difficult finding a job with a BS in biology. According to statistics from the 2010 MIT Student Summer Experience Survey, only 7.2% of sophomores, 2.6% of juniors, and 7% of seniors chose to take the summer off. 90% of juniors participated in some type of summer internship. According to the survey, there were 20 different organizations or companies that hired biology majors for a summer internship.</p>
<p>He was also expected to work part-time during the school year as part of his financial aid package. He somehow managed to avoid doing that too.</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)</p>
<p>Beginning in 2008-09 MIT will waive tuition and replace loans with grants to cover expenses outside tuition for all students whose families earn less than $75,000 a year.</p>
<p>This was the year we significant reduced our donation… and began donating to schools where there was a more reasonable application of our hard earned, and happily donated, money.</p>
<p>I beg to differ. I think MANY kids who attend MIT, get ROTC scholarships are incredibly grateful. That doesnt mean I agree with no loan policies, but to say the MIT kids do not appreciate is a broad over generalization, and ime, generally wrong.</p>
<p>Yes, they are grateful and they repay their debts. They are paying for their educations.<br>
I did not say that all kids do not appreciate. I said all kids should pay.</p>
<p>I think you are still mistaken about MIT’s aid policies robyrm2. I think MIT is to be applauded for these policies. The news article you posted says:
</p>
<p>But this doesn’t address all the other costs: room, board, travel, books, etc. The MIT financial aid office says:
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So it appears this student needed to generate (or borrow) at least $6300 as a freshman, rising to $9100 as a senior. The total over four years ($27,900) is a very significant “skin in the game”</p>
<p>Okay, so not to belabor… but below is the 2008-2009 MIT news announcement. This was the year I stopped reading. Forgive my trespasses. I still think, however, 28,000 is nothing for an MIT education. </p>
<p>The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced its financial aid program for 2008-2009. Increases in financial aid will make it possible for a larger fraction of MIT students to have their tuition and fees completely covered.</p>
<p>Under the new plan, which will take effect in the 2008-2009 academic year:</p>
<p>A student whose career goal is to be an officer in the military can get a free education leading to that goal at the military service academy.</p>
<p>How is that conceptually different from a student whose career goal is to work in some area after graduation from a university which prepares him/her to work in that area?</p>
<p>Robyrm, as you yourself have posted, the only way a kid can graduate debt free is by working a UROP- and not a once time deal, but ever single semester while enrolled. That would have given this young man 4 years of work experience.</p>
<p>I’m still sniffing ■■■■■. I don’t know how the numbers could possibly work here. I’d love one documented example of a low income kid who graduated from MIT EITHER without having worked every single semester to cover his/her self-help portion, OR with hefty loans, both in the parents name and the kids. It’s just not possible when you do the math. And most of the low income kids I know who graduated from MIT worked every semester AND every summer. Fortunately, the jobs are there for the kids who take advantage of them.</p>
<p>So something isn’t quite straight with this story. And Robyrm, again, you should send your money where you wish- but 28K isn’t the same as free- which you continue to claim is the cost of an MIT education for a low income student. You may have paid more than 28K for your kids education- but 28K is hardly free. Your facts are just incorrect.</p>
<p>Most of the outrage in this thread comes from the fact that the student was receiving aid at the time and therefore everyone else feels the need to tell him what to do.</p>
<p>I really do agree with this philosophy and it is why there really should be a stop to financial aid and government funding of schools. If only the students who could afford to pay for their education were allowed to go to college then no one would feel outraged at some slacker for sitting around on his parents couch.</p>
<p>After all he only wasted his parents money and not the money of taxpayers and donors.</p>
<p>Nope. What my roommate meant was an actual situation where 60% of his freshman bio sequence classmates actually getting Ds or Fs and being pointedly told to consider other majors as a result. Only 40% in his class were able to continue on as bio majors. </p>
<p>A CS major friend at a school comparable to Tufts experienced an intro CS course where around half of his class flunked and were harshly told by their Prof to consider other majors as a result. </p>
<p>I’ve heard of similar situations with friends who were engineering majors. Heck…I’ve even gotten a taste of it when around 30% of the classmates in one of my intro CS courses for majors flunked. </p>
<p>Guess what…those same friends felt that meant my intro CS class was “too easy” because the flunkout rate was “soo low”.</p>
<p>Governments funded public schools and offered financial aid because they realized that a better educated population would be economically more productive, resulting in a larger and richer economy paying higher tax revenues, while using less in the way of welfare-type services, compared to the situation where only those from the 10% richest families could consider going to post-secondary education.</p>
<p>Of course, such policies of subsidizing post-secondary education have side-effects, such as reducing the economic incentives to keep costs down and encouraging some marginal students to go to post-secondary education when they are not (at least not yet) ready.</p>
<p>My nephew has a fine degree for a good school. Did not get the scholarship e oped (eg Rhodes/Fulbright type) so is sitting home doing nothing. Waste. Total waste.</p>
<p>If he didn’t take advantage of his opportunities (internships and whatever else he has the opportunity to partake in), then what would he really put on his application? Yes, he has a degree from a good school and maybe that would mean something since you don’t typically include your GPA on your resume. But there are students out there from less prestigious schools who have work/internship experiences and other stories to tell, so what are the chances of him getting a good job? I do think there may be an issue with depression. He also may be trying to apply and just not getting calls - so rather than admit that he’s been rejected from 100 applications, he’d rather pretend he wasn’t trying. There are so many different possibilities for how this turned out the way that it did.</p>
<p>I do think the parents should give him a timeline for getting a job and moving out. Even if the job doesn’t relate to his major, he has to learn what it’s like to work sometime. Maybe then he’d try a little harder to put his major to use so he doesn’t end up at Burger King. I would also talk to him about therapy - because if it is depression, things will only get worse if he doesn’t begin to address these problems and no timeline or threats will help.</p>
<p>Same here. I couldn’t get a job in my field right out of college. First I worked as a substitute teacher while living at home. After several months, I got a job working days as a secretary and also worked at night as a hostess in a Mexican food restaurant, which enabled me to get an apartment with a friend. What I did not do is sit on my parents’ couch doing nothing, refusing to help out around the house, and being disrespectful to them. After about a year or so, I got a job in my field. The economy really did stink at that time.</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but it sounds like because of his background he sounds like he has entitlement issues. He needs counseling to tell him to get up off his #^$ and get a job. You think he is stressed and anxious and needs help? He’s Never worked! he is lazy. Can you counsel that? He barely graduated so it doesn’t seem like he worked too hard. Does MIT like to keep the numbers up? Will they pass students just so they can keep their grad rates high? (meaning they graduate, not that they get great gpa’s)</p>
<p>RENT is what I would do, and plan to do for my kiddies. They’ll get a reasonable period depending on their major and economy to get a serious job. They will then pay rent to me or move out. While they are job hunting they better be working somewhere at some part-time job or they’ll be out sooner. I sure hope mom is not giving him money to play with and a car and gas…at the very least she should not do that. It can be tough, SHE may need counseling on how to be tough on him, for him.</p>
<p>There are jobs out there. Some kind of job to bring $ in, not a dream job, but no reason to sit home. Spring is coming, the landscapers and home improvement stores are hiring. Home Depot hires a ton for spring. It’s a job he can do while he looks, and then the resume won’t be totally empty.</p>
<p>I don’t think anybody should get the whole 4 years free. Hopefully he has student loans and hopefully mom won’t pay those. If he is working and she chooses to, that is ok. If he sits home then the loans, if any, should be on him. Every student who is on financial aid should have some skin in the game and have some subsidized loans. The idea of college is to get a higher paying job, so the loans should not be a problem. The students needs to choose majors that will make them employable. It disgusts me as a taxpayer to have paid the tuition (state and federal aid) of students who waste it. Also, while MIT may not meet need for every cent, there are probably other programs for the smart/poor such as state grants and possibly other grants that not every student at MIT can qualify for so they can’t promise them.</p>
<p>My D graduated magna cum laude from a Top 20 school last May. She feels completely and utterly like a “loser.” I say she is far from it … when she didn’t get a job after she graduated, she took a job that she could get. She has some irons in the fire in her job search, but still no professional job. But … she stayed in Nashville, lives on her own, supports herself, and works 40 hours a week at Starbucks. She has an amazing work ethic; she became the first Coffee Master at her store. It never crossed her mind for a second to come home and park it on our sofa. </p>