[Novalug] The farce of the cost of college

Jameson C. Burt jameson_novalug@coost.com
Sat Jun 6 20:07:35 EDT 2015


In the 1970's, my father said I could go to an expensive undergraduate school 
with no graduate school support;
or I could go to Montana State University six blocks away 
and an expensive graduate school.
My summer work as a dishwasher paid for my $160 per quarter tuition.
In most quarters/semesters of my college days, 
I took all statistics, mathematics, and physical sciences courses.
That amount of math-based courses (145 college credits) 
leaves the mind permanently mathematically mature.

In contrast, I just finished paying 
   1/4 MILLION DOLLARS 
for my dauther's education at a private university.
She never programmed once in any of her courses, not even in her two statistics courses.
However, in the Fairfax school system, 
she got a lot of Java and html programming in MIDDLE SCHOOL.
She still hasn't gotten a job.

You can work through most college courses (social sciences, business, ...)
without prerequisites as if they were high school courses.
Technical skills most people will never get except under the stress of a college technical course.
While this is true of mathematics, many people still excel in computing without a college's help.
Indeed, my German Lehrmeister's daughter in Germany excelled in self-taught computing, 
though she could get no computing job under the strict social structure of Germany.

A student shouldn't spend egregiously for college,
as public universities suffice. 
I lament that hardly any state supports students as states supported them 
in the 1950's through 1970's.
State's have substituted goals that passed 
real cost-benefit analyses and their effect on GDP
with goals grounded in ideals transmitted from mind to mind without their eyes and ears
-- voodoo economics dissociated from the working world.

In college as elsewhere, choose your own working axioms
-- each set of axioms creates a different person.
If you merely accept the foundations of others, 
of your church, of your family, you limit yourself.
You should be your own "moral agent", rather than being obedient only to others' axioms/morals. 
You might choose axioms from the 100-odd virtues (see Wikipedia), 
which are short cuts to decision making.
Here are some worthy axioms,
a1. Do that which is DIFFICULT (taught in Japanese elementary school morals classes)
a2. ENDURE (otherwise known as persevere and fortitude)
b.  Get sufficient SLEEP, else your mind can hardly think
c.  Be over ZEALOUS in your activities (enthusiasm)
d.  DETACHMENT (don't let others yank on your emotions to gain 
    your motivation and biases for their causes);
e.  The number one sin is to be BORING (Christopher Hitchins); 
    "bring out the best in others" (motto of Ethical Society)
f.  Be intolerant of the intolerant; otherwise be TOLERANT

Don't be deceived by others' confidence.
The most confident and consistent are those who echo thoughts 
in their heads and between the heads of those in their group,
without observation through their own eyes and ears.
As a Sufi instructed,
   A neighbor came to Nasrudin, asking to borrow his donkey.
   "It is on loan," the teacher replied.
   At that moment, the donkey brayed loudly inside the stable.
   "But I can hear it bray over there."
   "Whom do you believe," asked Nasrudin, "me or a donkey."



On Sat, Jun 06, 2015 at 12:58:04PM -0400, Bryan J Smith via Novalug wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 12:48 AM, jerry w via Novalug
> <novalug@firemountain.net> wrote:
> > One point, grad students, high school students and others not so lucky
> > /fortunate to pay exhorbinent college fees,
> 
> Sorry, pet peeve of mine ...
> 
> Most public colleges and universities with in-state tuition rates are
> still very affordable.
> 
> And with the exception of a very select few, sparsely populated
> states, I really have never seen a state system that didn't offer
> several options for an accredited degree in most fields, often with at
> least one listed in a top 100 ranking.  I've certainly worked with my
> share of outstanding professionals who went to a state college and/or
> university.
> 
> Sure, if you cannot live at home, it also likely means shacking up
> with 1-2 other people to save on living expenses, but it's still quite
> doable.  I lived at home and went to the nearby college, and my wife
> shacked up with 2 other people at all times.  Being 2 years older, I
> was able to help her out financially once I got my first, salaried
> job.
> 
> We really must be doing a very poor job of steering our young adults
> towards affordable education options these days, or at least
> emphasizing the wrong things.  Then again, assumptions are often
> self-inflicted too, and tend to be perpetual and proliferated,
> becoming circular.
> 
> E.g., the Vice President's recent comments at Yale are a perfect example.
> 
> I'm sure most everyone at Yale defaults to believing a Porsche is
> better than a Corvette.  Doesn't matter what review after review says
> (especially even from Porsche owners at those magazines) about the
> typical Porsche having far more of a cheap plastic interior than a
> Corvette now (let alone in the higher package options), or the
> handling and technology in a typical Corvette these days (reading tire
> temperature and various touring, sport and track options) ... even
> when it's from Top Gear UK, or even Consumer Reports, who typically
> bashes US cars for reliability and resale (where the Corvette has been
> the huge exception).  The view persists regardless, even if and when
> you remove the sticker price (but definitely if you leave it).
> 
> Besides, and this is my favorite part, which goes to the heart of the
> matter, views like ...
> 
> "It's what old people drive, and I'm a young student with parents who
> can afford college" -- or worse yet -- want to appear that way (very
> common).  "I don't want to be driving something that middle aged
> Americans buy once they get the kids out of college to reward
> themselves."
> 
> Kinda says everything to me, and how we've "programmed" our kids to
> focus on exclusivity, instead of practicality.
> 
> That said ...
> 
> Totally agree on most of the other view.  It's the unsung,
> underprivileged technologists who had to work and make their own that
> produce some of the best, and most innovative, new works.  As several
> top Microsoft execs originally almost 20 years ago, pretty much
> showing their folly, repeated, they could not believe the top CS and
> Engineering majors would choose to release their work for free, and
> that's why commercial software is better, and more innovative.  But
> their viewpoint is largely from a business perspective.
> 
> In fact, in Gates 1975 "Most of you steal your software" letter, the
> alleged first letter against software piracy, he failed to mention his
> friends just "stole back" the modified code that Gates himself stole
> from them in the first place.  In other words, open source has always
> been the innovator, today as in the '70s, and it's only the GPL and
> similar licenses that have cut off the "free lunch" that has always
> existed for commercial interests, on the back of innovative, open
> source development.
> 

-- 
Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L   Fairfax, Virginia, USA
jameson@coost.com       http://www.coost.com
(202) 690-0380 (work)



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