Our family qualifies for zero financial aid, despite my making a vwey modest salary and having to spend half of it on the family’s extra medical bills (not covered by insurance). What kills us is that we are not in debt…go figure…
As a result, not only are we spending retirement savings on private college tuition for the kids (at a time when I could be laid off at any minute, and when my spouse has been out of work for years), but there are virtually no jobs available on campus for them to help pay for it because they are all earmarked for students on financial aid.
By contrast, my daughter’s roommate in college last year, daughter of African immigrants, gets aid, received summer school coaching and pre-teaching at the college (not open to students like my daughter) before her freshman year (along with a bunch of other entering freshman from disadvantaged backgrounds) to help her manage the difficult course curriculum at their Ivy. Not only was it easier for her to get into the school, but it will be less burdensome for her parents to keep her there. She’s a perfectly affable kid, but not in the same league academically as mine. Of course, I am probably just an overly doting mama and a tad envious!
What upsets me is that either my spouse and I will face an impoverished old age to keep the kid in school (I try to have faith that I will be able to work until I am 90 as I love my kids and education is our highest priority) or the kids will have to take on so much debt that they will have to choose their future professions based chiefly on making enough money to pay off huge loans. Given the insecure job market, nobody has any security these days, but nobody in my family is mercenary and I don’t want them becoming so.
By contrast, my English nieces whined about the expense of college in the UK (a few thousand a year), but graduated virtually debt free. One is now a pediatrician, the other a barrister, and they make little money but are very useful and love their work, and do not have to worry about paying back hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education. If they have children after they marry, they will be able to afford to stay home and raise them properly for the early years, as they will not have huge student loan payments to meet. They, like my kids, were stellar students and also creative and altruistic,
In the old days, all of them would have received merit scholarships (as the British ones did).
One of my kids has actually got a merit scholarship, but it only covers less than a third of the cost of her college.
You may ask why not send them to state schools? Well, both are quiet, somewhat introverted and deterred by the gigantic anomic state school they got into (one with a free ride). With less challenging course, less interesting peers, and a much more oppressively heavy drinking social culture.
What bothers me is the social engineering that now seems to drive the attitude towards who should pay tuition and how much. Interesting that recent immigrants get more money than children whose ancestors fought in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and others since. That wouldn’t bother me if the process were based on relative academic merit. If it were purely meritocratic, most of the scholarships these days would likely go to Asian students anyway, and perhaps my kids would get them also. But certainly that would not be as unfair as a good student getting nothing, and a less good student getting a generous aid package because of ethnic status.
I don’t want to sound whiney. My spouse and I had three children despite being in difficult career and financial straits, because we love children. We have scrimped and saved for years to be able to send them to good schools. This is not (hopefully) a “Poor me” howl.
But I am staggered by the burden of debt that many middle class kids are going to graduate with at a time when many cannot even find jobs and end up living at home, doing partttime supermarket checker work. And by the insanity of colleges recommending to parents that the parents take out mortgages on their homes to pay for kids’ colleges. At a time when anyone over 40 who gets laid off (as any of us are vulnerable to being these days) will likely never work again, this seems like a recipe for future homelessness.
For the record, I received generous scholarship and loan aid that made it possible for me to stay at my college after my dad was laid off (got a life threatening illness requiring surgery and he recovered completely, but his company felt he would not project the right image after that). No one in my college’s FInancial Aid office would have considered asking an unemployed middle aged man to refinance his house to pay college tuition. Even back then, they knew that over 40 you are dead meat, unless already employed. And I received the highest award in my entering class in grad school (meritocratic), without which I could never have entered a low paying but useful profession like the ministry.
source: http://artemisretriever.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-you-are-about-to-go-broke-paying.html
Finding a good job can be pretty troublesome. Especially when you have high expectations.
Here are some tips that helped me land the job of my dreams:
* You need to have a professional written resume. If you are not an expert, you could consider hiring one.
* Think about all the jobs you are qualified for. This may lead to discovering additional jobs you could land.
* Don’t neglect any source of jobs : internet, newspaper, radio and other media. Ask your friends that have similar jobs if there may be an opening in their company.
* You need to be proactive about this. Don’t just email them, make sure to call the HR department to have them confirm your resume.
Finding a job is pretty much a job in itself and it’s all about how well can you market your abilities.
Comment by Find Local Jobs Listed — November 5, 2009 at 6:45 am