Education talk

[RonnieFranchise]

Mrs. Franchise got turned down for advanced standing in the UND Masters Program. They don't tell you why but I assume primarily because her undergrad degree is 22 years old. Most programs specify that it must be within 5 for advance standing, NoDak did not have that requirement. Allegedly.

That was going to be 36 credits, now she will have more options for schools but it will take at least 60. Meh, it's only money. And time. But mostly money. And as soon as she gets out our oldest will start undergrad.

We'll discuss more when she gets through the "they think I am stupid" phase.

[tjand72]

Any suggestions for an online masters program for education? I stress online because of current employment and location limitations. Clarion looks like it has some quality online offerings. I'm sure there are lots of out-of-state options as well, but I'd rather stay "local" to western PA if possible.

[Nuge]

Cal U

[RonnieFranchise]

Any suggestions for an online masters program for education? I stress online because of current employment and location limitations. Clarion looks like it has some quality online offerings. I'm sure there are lots of out-of-state options as well, but I'd rather stay "local" to western PA if possible.

I don't, but what we did to find the social work ones was go to the accreditation body's website and they had a listing.

I know there was a discussion above about online programs being stigmatized vs classroom, but it really does open things up to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend a program. My wife locally would be down to Pitt and YSU. When I got my MBA I drove a similar distance nights and Saturdays, but it was just the two of us then. With a job and 3 kids and their baggage, plus me being on the road at least a week a month, it's just not feasible for her to drive at least 45 minutes each way.

Now we have to get her in somewhere and figure out how to pay for it.... after UND didn't work out for advance standing, we stated looking at regular programs and have it to Tennessee, Louisville, Boise State, Arizona State and Edinboro as affordable and accredited.

[count2infinity]

I think the stigma of online vs classroom is quickly disappearing with more and more universities (actual, physical universities) are offering online degrees. For many majors it makes a ton of sense to do online work if it's possible.

[dodint]

Source of the post Hopefully I'll hear back sooner than later, hate having things hanging out there in limbo.

*twiddle*

[grunthy]

I think the stigma of online vs classroom is quickly disappearing with more and more universities (actual, physical universities) are offering online degrees. For many majors it makes a ton of sense to do online work if it's possible.

There is diffinitly a difference between a University of Phoenix online degree and a Penn State online degree, because as you said actual physical universities.

[Pavel Bure]

I think the stigma of online vs classroom is quickly disappearing with more and more universities (actual, physical universities) are offering online degrees. For many majors it makes a ton of sense to do online work if it's possible.

There is diffinitly a difference between a University of Phoenix online degree and a Penn State online degree, because as you said actual physical universities.

I currently work for a rather large for-profit university. It could be very good but they're caught up in the record profits of 2010ish and getting back there. Even though those profits were garnered from "alleged" purposely misleading recruitment practices. They came very close to doing the right thing and putting focus directly on the student but with the dire straights the industry is in that approach seems to have been scrapped for a more, "throw it against the wall" mentality.

The classes themselves are actually pretty solid and would be what you expect from a state school or other universities. I should clarify that two of those classes are required and designed to teach a student how to do well in college. Which is quite silly. The actual core and gen ends though very good. The grading on the other hand can be described as, "well you did the work you should pass." For the most part.

It could be very good and give students an option that really fits with their life but the whole for-profit side encroaches a bit too much.

[Freddy Rumsen]

This is on point.

[count2infinity]

Hindsight is 20/20. I went to a private university my first two years of undergrad and wracked up a massive amount of debt before transferring to a state school because of it. If I had to do it over again, I would go the route that the person tweeting above suggested. However, the issue here is that you're dealing with 17 and 18 year olds when they make the decision on where they're going to college. They have zero idea how the real world works. They see an opportunity to go to a new city, new state, new area. Study at a great institution. They get loans to pay for it, and don't think about it again until they are on their way out the door with a diploma. The onus is on 17 and 18 year olds? C'mon. The parents, schools, and loans companies are to blame here. Not the kids.

[grunthy]

Blame is on everyone. At 17 and 18 you should know enough not to put yourself in ridiculous debt.

[count2infinity]

There are a very very tiny fraction of 17 and 18 year olds that think that far ahead. If you were one of them, good for you. The issue is the large majority don't think that far ahead because they haven't been given the proper tools to think that far ahead. They haven't got the slightest idea how a loan works. They sure as hell don't know how much their paying because they just fill out the FAFSA, the school contacts the federal loans corporations and says "hey! this kid needs $30,000 for the year! Send it over." and the loan corporation says "cool... it's on its way!" I know you didn't have to go through this process, nobody as your college was paid for, but for the large majority of people who have to actually pay for college, most of the loan business is done behind closed doors or parents are signing off on things. Again, hindsight is 20/20 and if I had to go back and do it differently I would, as would most people that get into student loan debt trouble.

[grunthy]

Maybe 17/18 year olds should pay attention more and it wouldn't happen as much. They still have blame. Do corporations take advantage of them? Yes. Corporations take advantage of a lot of people. If they didn't pay attention to finances they just got their first lesson in it through their student loan debt. Everyone shares blame, some more than others.

[count2infinity]

Now I know you have family in the education community, so you may have heard from them; however when I taught 17 and 18 year olds as a person in my lower/mid 20's I could not believe how profoundly dumb all them were about how the real world works. And I often thought to myself "was I that dumb?" The answer is yes. We were all that dumb. Student loans are very much predatory and I find it difficult to place the blame on kids that don't have any idea what's going on until it's too late.

[RonnieFranchise]

For 17/18 year olds it's the responsibility of parents/guardians/guidance counselors/advisers to make sure the students understand ramifications of the financial choices they're making. My parents did and college was never among the issues in my financial problems. Granted they did pay for some of it.

Predatory student loans are a problem for sure but cost control in Higher Ed seems terrible right now. The price of mediocre private schools even in Western PA today is astronomical and far outpacing inflation. I understand nobody pays sticker price but I don't know how some of these institutions survive. State System schools ain't cheap either.

[dodint]

Source of the post If I had to do it over again, I would go the route that the person tweeting above suggested.

This is the route I had always planned and wanted to do, but my parents made me go to SVC when I was accepted. I knew I wasn't ready for college, but I went, and lasted one year. Then I went to WCCC and got an AAS and moved on to finish my bachelors and first masters later in life. I suppose if there were anything I could do over again I would either not enroll at SVC or forego my senior year of high school and went straight to SVC when I still let me parents control all facets of my life. The combination of being forced to go to SVC right out of high school combined with the freedom of being an adult murdered my chances of success. Should've listened to myself. That and I never should've majored in business, what a waste.

TL;DR: I should've trusted my instinct at 17 instead of letting a pair of 40 year olds decide for me.

[dodint]

My wife is taking Physics II at UW-L as a visiting student. It's her last prerequisite before applying for her DPT. It cost almost $2,000 for her to go to this 4 credit course. One of the fees on her bill was a "$50 textbook rental fee." Given that she rented her book from Amazon and was never offered a textbook from the college, she asked if it could be removed from her bill. Obviously she was told no, and that "it helps keep the bookstore available."

Now, shouldn't the heavily marked up textbooks do that? Or maybe some of the other $1,950 which is mostly tuition?

Bookstores are useless for everything but low volume books written by the professors. Campuses are bloated. Sky is blue, etc.

[columbia]

On the bright side, that's $50 less in taxes dollars going to the university.

[dodint]

That's actually comforting.

Except the $250 million that Walker took from the University of Wisconsin system was used to fund the Milwaukee Bucks new arena.

Walker approved a state budget that slashed a quarter of a billion dollars from the University of Wisconsin, then followed that up by signing a bill that calls for taxpayers to pay for half the $500-million cost of a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. The action was taken under threat from NBA officials that, if it wasn’t done, they would relocate the team to Seattle or Las Vegas. The New York Times’ Michael Powell characterized it as a classic “arena-shakedown…right out of the professional sports owner handbook.” He called its timing “inauspicious.”

“It is difficult to think of a clearer illustration of a politician’s comically misplaced priorities,” Jordan Weissman wrote at Slate. Although the state is supposed to pay $250 million for the arena, once interest on the bonds is factored in, taxpayers will end up paying closer to $400 million, noted Weissman.

- http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/ ... ews=857224

[columbia]

That's because he's a serious doosh bag.

[columbia]

Local teacher creates "Gentleman's Club" to teach students life lessons

http://m.wtoc.com/wtoc/db_350145/conten ... d=tZUn6O4L

[MWB]

Too bad that it needs to be done, but kudos to the teacher for doing it.

[RonnieFranchise]

So, after being rejected for Advance Standing at North Dakota, Mrs. Franchise has been accepted for her MSSW at University of Louisville. After a couple months of her moping around thinking she is not smart enough, it's a load off her mind and I'm really proud of her. She is strongly leaning towards accepting it because they will allow her to specialize in Gerontology. Her other choice is Boise State, which is a Generalist/no specialization program- however it would end up being $15k ($42k vs $27k) cheaper. Louisville does seem to have more opportunity for scholarships, but that cost difference is not insignificant. Louisville also has a more prestigious program- but in PA I'm not sure hiring managers know that.

What kind of drives me nuts is- these schools take whatever time they want to consider you, then Louisville gave her 2 weeks to accept (the 25th) or be wait listed. Boise State deadline to apply is tomorrow, I'm pretty sure they're not going to turn a decision around in 10 days. But, she's going to make some phone calls and see what they say. They have been calling to walk her through the process and make sure she knows about their program, so as far as contact and interest from the school- Boise State has shown more, no contest and based on that I'd have to think she'll get in. Acceptance letter is the only time she's even heard from Louisville. So there are lots of considerations that factor in to her decision.

Also, I got her a box full of Louisville stuff assuming she would jump at their offer- might have to return that for some Boise State Broncos gear.

This is all online, not considering moving to Idaho, although we did get our teenager going about that possibility. This is good practice for when the real fun begins soon with him figuring out where he wants to go.

[count2infinity]

I'm sure there's a contact in the paperwork. I'm sure you could call and ask for more time and they'd give it to you. I know some people in my program that did that as they had school visits planned for after the date they needed to accept by, so an extension was granted to them. I'm sure if you need more time they'll give you more time.

[RonnieFranchise]

I'm sure there's a contact in the paperwork. I'm sure you could call and ask for more time and they'd give it to you. I know some people in my program that did that as they had school visits planned for after the date they needed to accept by, so an extension was granted to them. I'm sure if you need more time they'll give you more time.

Yeah, she is calling today anyway to ask them more about the specialization, I'll tell her to check into a possible extension. Thanks!