Greetings from Ponte Verda, FL. My name is Taryn, and I'm a rising senior at MIT working at a site called MakingItCount. I've read College Misery in the past and came back to it today only to see that pretty much every post is a flashback. I understand that since I'm still a student I'm not allowed, but I think a student's perspective may be refreshing. Hell, at least it's not a damn flashback.My post would be about what causes college students the most misery in college--student loans. Half of the post will be about how college loans are so shitty on multiple levels. The other half will be about the student loan app released this morning that enables students and parents to use purely objective data in order to not get screwed by loans down the line. In short, I present a means to an end of students' biggest misery. Can I send you a link of it so that you can check it out yourself?
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Some details have been anonymized. But not by much.
Are we supposed to grant permission or was there supposed to be a link at the bottom of that post?
ReplyDeleteAh, I love hiatus time!
ReplyDeleteIn response to the request of this post: someone needs a little audience awareness. If you read this blog, you'd see it's about how students and administrators cause faculty and staff misery... Aside from a very few students, posting info about a student loan app here seems as useful as selling high heels at a rodeo.
You've got to know the territory.
Delete("The Music Man")
Unless your app actually pays off student loans, I don't think it's going to solve much misery.
ReplyDeleteI call shenanigans.
@Taryn: I used to have a friend who had a house on the beach in Ponte Verda. His son attended the Florida School for the Deaf in St. Augustine. Please say "Hi" to him if you see him? And ask him to send me another bottle of bourbon. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMIT? The MIT? That's real academic weight, as Gore Vidal would say.
ReplyDeleteNah, student loans...how about instead you give us a short essay on the following topic: how does it happen that in the USA higher education is not funded by the state and free to students? (As it is in Germany, Brazil, China and almost any country I'm aware of.) Are you aware that the near-universal need for "student loans" for college is an American problem? (You may include examples of other countries, if you find them.)
Will your app help me pay off my ridiculously large student loan, the one I pay each month for the privilege of being a disrespected college professor?
ReplyDeleteTaryn, I'd like to know if the Misery is at MIT. As a "rising senior" (whatever that means), have you seen snowflakes who don't do the work and then grub for grades? Do MIT students generally do the assigned reading? Is there an underground cheating network?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the interwebs a "Rising Senior" is someone who is between their Junior and Senior years.
ReplyDeleteGuess I deserve the "Let Me Google That For You" treatment. Thanks for not doing that.
DeleteWe always called this status being an "incoming" sophomore or senior or whatever. Which reminded me of Radar on M.A.S.H. calling "Incoming!" just before a helicopter appeared.
A "rising" senior makes me think of something rising in my gorge.
Well, at least she's polite, though she's having some problems with can vs. may.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'd think that a rising MIT senior could get a better summer job and/or internship than this (at least I'd expect her to be working on the technical side of the site, rather than writing publicity. Isn't that what Harvard liberal arts majors are for?)
When I hear students grousing about the cost of books and how much they have to borrow to pay tuition, I always have to stop myself from asking to see their cell phones (always more updated than mine), to inquire about how much they shell out monthly for data (none of it ever used to do research for MY class) and cable, how much they've spent on the ink I see covering various parts of their bodies, how many Benjamins they consume in drink every weekend. Don't think I didn't notice that the student who "couldn't afford" the book for my class showed up with a new tattoo the very next week and always had to sit near an outlet to power up his tablet. Student misery over college costs? I'm over it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear students grousing about the cost of books and how much they have to borrow to pay tuition, I always have to stop myself from asking to see their cell phones (always more updated than mine), to inquire about how much they shell out monthly for data (none of it ever used to do research for MY class) and cable, how much they've spent on the ink I see covering various parts of their bodies, how many Benjamins they consume in drink every weekend. Don't think I didn't notice that the student who "couldn't afford" the book for my class showed up with a new tattoo the very next week and always had to sit near an outlet to power up his tablet. Student misery over college costs? I'm over it.
ReplyDelete