Re: OT:Am I that old? LOL

On Dec 21, 1:02 pm, DeeAa <aephei...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 21 joulu, 14:39, dv...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I also spent some time growing up in Greece in the 70's.  Higher
education was totally free, but the catch was, you were competing
against everyone else in the country through national board exams to
see who gets in.  There were only a limited number of seats available,
so not everyone could go to university.

I think it's criminal how in the US you have to mortgage you future
before you even get out of college.  I have colleagues (in their 40's)
who are still paying off college loans.

Well, here too you have to have a very good average from highschool to
be able to select where to study, and then there are the admission
exams as well. BUT everybody gets to some school anyway. I think it's
even mandatory to apply to more than two lines of study, like both a
university and a college.

I for one worked 3 years trying to get into university...I skipped
much or most of high school playing in bands etc, so my grades
sucked...and even though I took the entrance exams three times and got
perfect scores, I still couldn't get in. I studied free courses while
working at a music store, and hard work paid off - I got aquainted
with the faculty staff, and finally worked my way in, probably by some
sort of an arrangement from their part as I did so well on all the
free courses. But it was funny all my classmates had like 95% averages
while mine were like 66 or so :-) but there wasn't anything else I
wanted to do.

Ended up working as a lecturer there before I relocated back to my
hometown.

Still, the student benefits aren't _that_ hot. I mean, studying is
free and they pay most of the rent, but if you want a car etc. you
either need to work while you study or take a government loan. Most
people take a loan and pay it off for like 20 years because it's dirt
cheap. Me, I worked at music stores and such, never took a loan.
Bought a car when I inherited some money etc.

But it's like my students...they're mostly like 18-19 and they
constantly bitch how the government pays so little...they'd get free
apartments like 2 miles from the center, but no, they must have fancy
downtown apartment buildings instead of student housing, also many
want nice cars and newest iPhones etc...so no wonder government money
isn't enough. And then they skip classes because they have evening
shifts at work etc. OR just because they've been partying in
nightclubs and then they constantly bitch about having so little
benefits and having to take some loan money, government not supporting
their lifestyles enough...

Cheers,

Dee

I teach at a medium sized college. Still paying the debt I accumulated
getting the Ph.D. Most came from getting the B. Sc. in Canada. I wish
the grad stipends were then what they are now. I could have blown away
those loans as a grad student and not having to deal with it while
making peanuts as new hire faculty, but now having to pay the real
costs for food, housing, transportation and all the rest.

I think most students are what they have always been, and the really
good ones are still there...and it's not just a matter of getting
straight A's, but the dedication...it's still there. Govt. policies
are discriminating against the better students though. No Child Left
Behind is a joke, simply because in life people get left behind, and
it's going to center on not giving the same effort the people who do
succeed give. Setting up tests where the achievement of the average
high school student is good enough, especially relative to an
overachiever, is ridiculous. Lets the average kid think they are doing
OK I suppose, but when the the hammer drops, they get squashed!

The reality is that while not every person who overachieves is going
to make it with respect to some goal, a corresponding reality is the
fact that none of the people who don't overachieve will make it. So
while making the effort is no guarantee of success, not making the
effort is a guarantee of failure. Testing only really makes a
difference when it really does identify that top 2% and meaningfully
reveals that difference to everyone.

A nice perquisite to making the effort is that even if you fail at the
one goal, you have prequalified yourself for a lot of alternate
choices...at least nicer ones than working at WalMart!
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT:Am I that old? LOL
    ... against everyone else in the country through national board exams to ... either need to work while you study or take a government loan. ... Bought a car when I inherited some money etc. ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • Re: England Summer "Performance Squad"
    ... up for the purpose, or the appeals committees. ... The exams would only need two weeks holiday at most, taking the days off when the exams arose not as a block. ... Student poverty is a principal reason ...
    (uk.sport.cricket)
  • RE: Minimum Exam Score Calculator
    ... they had to average on the next 3 exams.) ... Example -- let's say a student participates in the following class XYZ: ... I'll enter "90" in cell A1 ... Final AVG Score: 90 ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions)
  • Re: partial discovery -- what happens to motions?
    ... student wrote: ... my education. ... "The meaning of the term "educational loan" used in the statute lies at ... entered into in these cases between the debtors and the colleges, ...
    (misc.legal)
  • RE: Creating expressions
    ... I'm not sure about the "renewed more than twice by the same student" part. ... Loan Date ... Microsoft Access Support ... Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026? ...
    (microsoft.public.access.queries)
Loading