Student loans and wine tasting

Good food for thought.

But you're going to destroy humanities programs this way.

 

Yeah. Again, a lot of schools are running rackets. Especially MBA and law schools.

 

Working as intended.

 

The other day I was at my parents' place. My aunt was there, too, telling me about how my cousin who lives down South is in college trying to figure out what to do with her life.

"She wants to be a writer," my aunt said.

I told her that it's not always a great idea to just want to be a "writer," and that she should develop an expertise in an area or two and then write about it.

My dad pipes up: "If she wants to be a writer, she should major in English!"

I cringe that I used to have to listen to his advice.

 

If your cousin wants to be a writer, she might as well major in English.

 

But not just English.

I guess I look at writing as a vehicle for conveying knowledge, not so much as a stand-alone skill.

 

I'll go with that. Double major or minor in something more practical.

But looking at writing as a vehicle for conveying knowledge is king of like looking at a hammer as a tool to fix your car.

 

If I were hiring, I would want to know that the candidate had studied other interests other than just "writing" or "journalism" in general. Now, I understand a lot of us are generalists and have to be generalists, but I think there is a problem with level of expertise in journalism. I'm not sure if she wants to write fiction (then definitely she should have another major) or journalism, but if it's journalism, I think my dad's advice is ridiculous.

Of course, it's the same advice he gave to me once upon a time. And my dumbass followed it.

 

There already is a performance-based clause in student aid. I could see it go up to 2.5, but not up to 3.0.

What should happen is that schools that offer federal grants and loans should have a work-study program, and work study should be mandatory before you can take out loans.

I did work study in college and got $5,000 a year for easy part-time work.

I don't think there should be a requirement based on what major you go into. At that point, if you can't get a job after college because of your major, it was your fault to study that field.

 

Even understanding that a lot of these "work" study programs involve sitting at the library front desk and ... studying, I don't like this idea because it disadvantages lower-economic class students by cutting into their study time as compared to upper-class students.

 

You have to come in below 2.0 for two consecutive semesters to lose your financial aid. With grade inflation, that's almost impossible (though I managed it).

 

I managed it once too, but got my aid back. You really have to try to slack off to do what I did.