Fifth Avenue Forum

I wonder how bad enrollment is that they're allowing life-sentenced prisoners in the program? It's one thing for a pot distribution charge or failure to pay child support, but murder?

The thing is our enrollment is actually somewhat selective for a, *sigh*, Tier IV school. Because we can choose candidates from all over the country our pool is much larger. Our cohorts are better populated than if they were only pulling from Minnesota.

This is strictly a PR move and I don't think they thought it through when they aligned with that advocacy group. I can't even figure out how to spin this to make it seem good. The only people that benefit are the inmate, who will be enriched but can't have a law license or clients, and the advocacy group who got their names in the media.

It was Tier III when I went there but they somehow took two Tier III schools, merged them, and became a Tier IV school. It's really not well run.

This is from April - but still interesting ("Republicans hate Pitt" - related):

https://www.witf.org/2022/04/18/pitt-fe ... on-breaks/

This is from April - but still interesting ("Republicans hate Pitt" - related):

https://www.witf.org/2022/04/18/pitt-fe ... on-breaks/

That's not what was said.

I said that as a PSU grad. I found the student body to be majority republican but that was in the 1980's sense when I went there.

Hey @tifosi77, if you don't have a CCW permit, it just got easier to obtain.

Yup, already in the works. One of the better stores in Burbank just opened a new (huge) location today, and the expansion includes more CCW training classes. Rules had loosened up a little in LA County earlier this year, and I was waiting for the initial crush to slow down before getting in the queue.

I don't really have plans on making it a routine, but it wouldn't hurt to get the training.

Columbia U. likely fudged ranking data:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... -rankings/

Columbia University will skip the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges this year, university officials announced, as they review data that had been questioned by a professor at the school.

“Columbia leaders take these questions seriously, and we immediately embarked on a review of our data collection and submissions process,” the university’s provost, Mary Boyce, wrote Thursday.

In light of that work underway, the university will not submit to U.S. News this year, Boyce wrote: The deadline was Friday, and given the analysis required to review the data, they could not complete the careful work needed by that time.

In February, a professor of mathematics at Columbia, Michael Thaddeus, raised questions about data the Ivy League university had submitted for the ranking of national colleges. Columbia had risen to number two nationally, tied with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I'm going to divert the practical part of the loan forgiveness discussion over to this thread so it doesn't get bogged down and lost in the PDT.

I found out I was incorrect, my wife actually has over $10k in forgivable loans. So I do have a stake in this after all.

I also noticed that Pennsylvania is one of the 13 states that does charge income tax on loan forgiveness. That's kind of a weird one for me because the $10k I might be forgiven under the Biden Bucks program doesn't really do anything for me because I'm having my loans eventually forgiven by PSLF. I wonder if my PSLF forgiveness will be taxable in PA as well. If not I'll have to do some algebra and figure out which path is actually best for me.

As a reminder, if you made payments to forgivable loans during the COVID forbearance you can have that refunded and then $10k of it forgiven. Useful if your balance was under $10k at any point.

*edit*

PSLF is not taxable in PA:

Gov. Wolf took action by encouraging the Department of Revenue to revisit prior guidance on loan forgiveness to make sure that Pennsylvania residents benefitting from student loan forgiveness programs such as PSLF and SLRN are not surprised by a tax bill from the state.
https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/go ... %20Program.

@dodint If you ask for a refund for a loan that was completely paid off, would you have to pay interest for the date it was paid off until now?

Qualifying loans had no interest during the forbearance period, so, no. March 2020 to December 2022. You would not be able to receive a refunded payment for anything before March 2020.

Thanks

Apparently Dear Old State announced a $500 tuition increase.... on July 22. Well after loans were secured. Waived for families making under $75k. The rest of us just have 5 bills sitting around waiting to be spent I guess.

Found this out when my kid asked me why his account still said he owed $500.

Only 500? You sure they're wasn't a glitch and it's 5,000?

I think @obhave asked something about this...

Some clarifications about student loan relief came out today. For the $125k earning threshold, it is AGI and you may use the lower of your 2020 or 2021 returns.

I think @obhave asked something about this...

Some clarifications about student loan relief came out today. For the $125k earning threshold, it is AGI and you may use the lower of your 2020 or 2021 returns.

Local MAGA school board that ran against CRT launched inquiry into what it would cost to install cameras into all district classrooms. Stated goal is to be able to record lectures for students out long term with COVID or other illnesses to watch.

Forgive me if I don't believe that's not the actual reason you're looking into it..... since there's already Teams for that.

Local MAGA school board that ran against CRT launched inquiry into what it would cost to install cameras into all district classrooms. Stated goal is to be able to record lectures for students out long term with COVID or other illnesses to watch.

Forgive me if I don't believe that's not the actual reason you're looking into it..... since there's already Teams for that.

lol, I'm sure the teachers would be thrilled about that. That is 100% for them, not the students.

I'm assuming the teachers are unionized up there, so that probably won't happen.

Should attach a camera to him to see what he says in the car when no one is around.

So had a good news/bad news situation with PSU today. My kid is a Sophomore and texted me that his student loans were about $2300 short. Last time this happened it was due to a late tuition increase so I was like- wtaf. Turns out PSU charges Juniors and Seniors higher tuition than Freshmen and Sophomores, which I think is BS but what do I know.

Anyway the extra was because he started school with enough college in high school and AP credits that he is actually a 1st semester Junior, not a 2nd semester Sophomore. So either we make it up with him graduating in 3-1/2 years or he can go the full 4 and get a double major. So it all works out. I was flipping about the extra money, though.

So had a good news/bad news situation with PSU today. My kid is a Sophomore and texted me that his student loans were about $2300 short. Last time this happened it was due to a late tuition increase so I was like- wtaf. Turns out PSU charges Juniors and Seniors higher tuition than Freshmen and Sophomores, which I think is BS but what do I know.

Anyway the extra was because he started school with enough college in high school and AP credits that he is actually a 1st semester Junior, not a 2nd semester Sophomore. So either we make it up with him graduating in 3-1/2 years or he can go the full 4 and get a double major. So it all works out. I was flipping about the extra money, though.

What a racket. I'm sure if you read all the fine print it was right in front of your face, but just pure BS in how universities are coercing students into paying money they don't have.

Sometimes somebody's choice of university comes down to the cost of it all, but who is evaluating year 3's cost? You're evaluating the costs the university publishes, which I'm sure in PSU's case is freshman year. And kids aren't going to want to go through the hassle of transferring, so once you get them in the door...hook, line and sinker.

Teacher Appreciation Week has yielded my wife about $250 in gift cards (mostly Dunkin and Starbucks), flowers, mugs, about 5 lbs of candy, and we still have two more days. She's had catered breakfasts and lunches all week too. My wife has been an administrator and really didn't get gifts, so this has been pretty cool. Christmas was ridiculous too.

Nice… I’ve had years close to that, but was in a wealthy area. In a new school this year and not expecting much.

In my 2 years teaching, I received one gift. One of my students was in a second hand shop, she saw a teddy bear with a penguins uniform, skates, and a hockey stick. She thought of me, bought it and gave it to me for Christmas. I still have it.

Beyond that, not a damn thing. I must have been a bad teacher.

I know it's a small gift, but my daughter picked out a custom notebook for her teacher on Shutterfly.