Students

[Provost Harrison]

It's a lunch that's free at the point of use...

[Dauphin]

That's a pretty ass-backwards way of doing it..

It's not very well designed in terms of incentivisation for worthwhile degrees, but it does vaguely resemble a loan secured against personal future earnings. If you don't get the earnings, the lender (the taxpayer) loses out in a no fault default.

[Dauphin]

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Haha, not only did you miss the point of my comment, you manage to raise a storm of ire with the tangent. Well played.

[Hauldren Collider]

Try minimum wage at a grocery store?

And then slightly above minimum wage programming for defense contractors

I'm quite proud of the work I've done. I searched for, applied to and got those jobs myself and my bosses told me I did a good job. I'm not interested in Asher's approval to feel good about my accomplishments though.

[Hauldren Collider]

Haha, not only did you miss the point of my comment, you manage to raise a storm of ire with the tangent. Well played.

Sorry for missing the point, but it was Asher that decided to turn it into "Hauldren Collider is a self-centered privileged punk" thread.

[Dauphin]

A modest troll.

[Asher]

His point there you missed as well.

You should've rightfully known that somebody who is getting a "free lunch" education from daddy and says there is no "free lunch" when poor students merely want what you have would raise the ire of many people.

[giblets]

It's understandable. After HC gets his "free lunch" education it's in his interest to not have to pay taxes so that others can have free lunches.

[Al B. Sure!]

His point there you missed as well.

You should've rightfully known that somebody who is getting a "free lunch" education from daddy and says there is no "free lunch" when poor students merely want what you have would raise the ire of many people.

Just so it's clear to everyone, in the US, we do have federal support for education beyond just the subsidized Stafford loans. The Pell Grant pays for around a quarter to a half of tuition of students who demonstrate financial need.

My college education was partially financed through a Pell Grant.

My parents paid not one penny to my college education but the government paid a bit what with the Pell Grant and subsidized loans.

[Al B. Sure!]

Here's some info on the Pell Grants

For 2006-07, the maximum Pell Grant was $4,050; for 2007-08, it was $4,310; for 2008-09, it was $4,731; for 2009-10, it was $5,350 plus an optional summer disbursement of $2,675; and for 2010-11, it is $5,550. Starting in 2012, the maximum grant will be tied to annual increases in the Consumer Price Index.

Because of the rise of tuition and other college and university fees, Pell Grants do not cover as many credit hours as they used to. In 1990, a grant covered 60% of a student's costs; in 2006, a grant covered about 30% of a student's costs.[2]

To qualify for a Pell Grant, a student must demonstrate financial need. The amount of the award is based on the Expected Family Contribution, derived from the information on the FAFSA form. In the 2005-06 school year, students with family incomes of less than $20,000 accounted for 57% of Pell Grant recipients—35% attended public two-year colleges, and 42% attended public four-year colleges.[3]

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study found that during the 1999-2000 school year, students from families making less than $41,000 accounted for 90% of Pell Grant recipients.[4]

[Krill]

It's not very well designed in terms of incentivisation for worthwhile degrees, but it does vaguely resemble a loan secured against personal future earnings. If you don't get the earnings, the lender (the taxpayer) loses out in a no fault default.

The irony is that if you leave the country after getting the degree, the tax payer gets nothing as well.So not only is it mostly a political move to piss off more people, and lose money, it also adds greater losses on top of this through extra bureaucracy. Oh, and loss of political capital when the student finance body ****s up the loans.

[Jon Miller]

My parents paid for plane trips to/from home, for me to live at home the two summers that I did, and for me to have a laptop when I arrived. In addition, I often got gifts of pants/shirts/etc, I didn't buy many of my own clothes (but I also wore a lot of my clothes from 8th grade and on, I continued to into graduate school, I think that all of my clothes from highschool I have gotten rid of though).

I had Pell Grants the first 2 or 3 years.

JM

[Asher]

That's a start.

But the post-secondary education system should not have to rely on grants, scholarships, etc to PARTIALLY fund education for CERTAIN people.

The US should be a meritocracy. That's kind of the idea behind the American Dream, is it not?

If you're a good student, you should be able to get a good post-secondary education if you so choose. It's terrible that intelligent people put their talents to waste working menial jobs just because their parents were poor and they need to support their family.

[DaShi]

If we didn't do that, where would all the Asians and Indians get an education and work?

[Jon Miller]

I agree. It is a waste of human capital.

JM