Saving Money And Paying Bills Are "Conservative Values"?

[Gailete]

College was one of the greatest things in my life. I was 1600 miles from home AND in a different country -- yes folks ,Canada is a different country not the 51st state! I traveled to college and back on Greyhaound buses. I doubt any student would be both willing to do that or be taking so little stuff to college that you could handle it yourself when needed. Thankfully we were then allowed to store stuff at college during summer vacations.

I went from being a straight A student to pretty much a B student, partly because of all the work I was doing to pay my way, but also the wonderful opportunities that came my way. I went out for pizza for the first time ever in college (this was the mid-70's so not actually quite so strange). Our school was only had about 300 in the student body my freshman year and because I worked in the library I knew everybody at the end of the year. Our college at times received free tickets to perfromances at the Center for the Arts and I was able to see several world renowned Ballet troups, Music concerts there along with the performances put on by the music studeants there. I was learning and seeing things all the time. It was a Christian school so I was surrounded my missionary kids who had grown up all over the world, and at one point got to go for 7 weeks one summer to Colombia to help missionaries there. If any of you have heard of Ben Hepner the opera singer, I went to school with him for a year and also knew the author of The Shack. I took a walk down memory lane last night and saw the old college on Google and wanted to find the place that I laid three bricks in the gym when it was being built and I helped with the sidewalk while they were installing it. I guess what I'm saying is I let my grades slip (especially since my mom couldn't punish me by denying me access to the library for not getting A grades) to experience absolutely everything I could. And I took it all in with absolute gusto!

I too, did not go into what I had trained for, but I wouldn't exchange that experience for anything. Funny, my college moved to Calgary and was assimilated into a university there and now my old college is part of the university nursing school. It was while there that I loved to talk to the students that were also nurses and wanted so much to be a nurse. In my 30's I finally went to nursing school here in my close by city. So that time there had prepped me well for life.

I'm not sure if kids can get the type of experience I did when a student when they go to universities that are bigger that most small towns or cities. I hear hubby talking about his college years and shudder.

[Singuy]

It seems like no matter what thread we start, we always end up talking about colleges..lol

[disneysteve]

It seems like no matter what thread we start, we always end up talking about colleges..lol

LOL Well at least this thread actually was about college from the start. The original post focused on student loans and whether or not encouraging everyone to get an education was a Liberal policy. And if repaying those loans was a Conservative value.

[Singuy]

Well since we are on the topic about critical thinking.

I was under the impression that college IS a vocational school. I didn't think the university focused on critical thinking at all. I received a lot of critical thinking style education from elementary school and up however.

Perhaps the classes I took were not focused on critical thinking because they assumed you already have the ability to critically think. That's pretty much what the SAT was for. Just look at the math section on the SAT. It's never a straight forward math problem. It's usually about Sally sitting to the left of Jim holding an ice cream cone while Pete is to the right of Jim...which of the kids is eating a sandwich....And you have the reading comprehension in which they make you read the entire article and give the article a correct title..these are all critically thinking type questions.

[TexasHusker]

I looked back at my final semester of undergraduate studies, and my classes were as follows:

English Syntax
International Marketing
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (entire semester)
Shakespeare
Golf (1 hour PE credit)
1 hour interdisciplinary studies - Machiavelli's The Prince

My undergrad was a BA in English. Three weeks later, I was working in a hospital marketing department.

Six months later, I was the general manager of a hotel.

[Nutria]

My undergrad was a BA in English. Three weeks later, I was working in a hospital marketing department.

Six months later, I was the general manager of a hotel.

My undergrad was in Computer Science. I was guilted into working for the family business, but a year later was a computer programmer. Been one ever since.

I did take a Junior level English class on Shakespeare, though, as an elective instead of an easier 100 or 200 level course, because I thought it was Good For Me.

[Singuy]

My best friend got a 1510/1600 on his SAT, barely did any homework in college nor did he go to classes much. Ended up with a 3.6 gpa, a 32 on his MCat without studying, and a 99% on the Pcat without cracking open a book. He was specifically trained in critical thinking in Canada since elementary school (their gifted program). We went to IB together and I'm sure that helped in HS as well.

He perhaps is the best critical thinker I know since I met him in 9th grade. I honestly think I didn't learn a thing from college besides how to socialize. I just needed the grades for Pharm school. My critical thinking skills, like my friend..didn't improve one bit from going to classes.

I also know many coworkers with a Pharm D degree who can't think outside of a box if a gun was pointed at them. When a small problem arise that is foreign to them, they make a gigantic deal out of it and just literally freeze..because they don't know what to do..and this is with 6-8 years of higher education. I believe either you learned it young, or don't have it at all..like speaking a 2nd language without an accent...

[Nutria]

We went to IB together and I'm sure that helped in HS as well.

IB?

My critical thinking skills, like my friend..didn't improve one bit from going to classes.

Hopefully it exposed you to new ideas...

I also know many coworkers with a Pharm D degree who can't think outside of a box if a gun was pointed at them. When a small problem arise that is foreign to them, they make a gigantic deal out of it and just literally freeze..because they don't know what to do..and this is with 6-8 years of higher education.

This is because college is now vo-tech.

I believe either you learned it young, or don't have it at all..like speaking a 2nd language without an accent...

Or were born with it.

[Singuy]

IB: international baccalaureate magnet program

Basically it's 2 years of pre-IB and 2 years of IB in HS. After 4 years of advanced learning and taking this massive board..we each get an IB diploma which gave us 28 college credit hours and 100% state tuition coverage x 4 years.

[Like2Plan]

The article which I referenced above offered a survey of unemployment rates for college graduates (which the majority of folks got wrong).

Unemployment rates were 2.4% for folks with a college degree.

From the article:
"There is some evidence that having a college degree doesn’t guarantee a good job, but the alternative is much worse. Young people who have earned a college degree have substantially lower unemployment rates than those who haven’t. Since 2000, young college graduates, on average, have an unemployment rate that is 5.5 percentage points lower than those of nongraduates. And this gap typically widens during recessions; it expanded to 10 percentage points at the depths of the Great Recession."

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/03/upshot/up-college-unemployment-quiz.html?_r=1

The article also noted that "A typical college graduate can expect to make over half a million dollars more than a nongraduate over a lifetime."
(I actually seen the estimate to be higher in the past).

[Gailete]

Two weeks after I graduated, I was working at Arby's. Rose to be an asst. manager making a nickle an hour more than the other 'girls' for the next year. And I fully supported myself on the wages I got there and actually saved up money so when I had a job interview near NYC I had the money fly out and back!

[FLA]

Did you get the job???

[TexasHusker]

Two weeks after I graduated, I was working at Arby's. Rose to be an asst. manager making a nickle an hour more than the other 'girls' for the next year. And I fully supported myself on the wages I got there and actually saved up money so when I had a job interview near NYC I had the money fly out and back!

I presume spelling wasn't a part of your college curriculum.

[Nutria]

I presume spelling wasn't a part of your college curriculum.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Liberal is student loans? Conservative is paying them back? I've found that both liberal and conservatives don't pay back loans and both borrow. I've also found that both liberals and conservatives walk away from homes in foreclosures. I don't think that financial awareness is a liberal/conservative thing.