The Bobcat Nation

When I graduated from MSU roughly 20 years ago I left with $12,000 (and that was pretty much a max situation) in depth. During my college career I took jobs during the school year and summer, receaved grants and also managed to land some scholarships here and there. After graduating making payments on the loans were tough at times but as inflation and wages rose it got a little easier. I paid off my college debt some years back, but looking back I not sure, how much more money I could have afforded to pay much more in dept payment. Ten years ago I hired a young women who just graduated from MSU in the same program as I, and in talking with her she graduated with over $40,000 in depth, she also worked, and recieved Grants. I was pretty much blown away. Just today I read that nation wide most graduates with $20,000 in dept, and I was very enchoraged. Now granted Architecture is a 5 year curiculum compaired so one would imagine that a typical Architecture grad would have on average 20% (for Griz fans 5 is 20% more than 4 ). Which made me wonder how does the $20,000 number stack up against MSU grads.

MC: I think you mean "debt"...not "depth"... I guess spelling is just a UM thing anyway...

btw, Wait until you have two kids in College (even though one is on an athletic scholarship) then you will REALLY know what "debt" is!!

info197176 wrote:btw, Wait until you have two kids in College (even though one is on an athletic scholarship) then you will REALLY know what "debt" is!!

Or, "depth", depending on your heart condition when you see the tuition bill!!!

Hate to point it out but 5 is 25% more than 4. I guess the architecture curriculum didn't involve much math...

When you get older and you look at what your kids decided to do you could get pissed at their decisions or thank God they had some wisdom and life turned out as it did: My oldest turned down an appointment to Annapolis and there's no telling what may have happened had he been commissioned as a Marine--he fishes every day and it doesn't seem like a waste of a chemical engineering degree; my second chose Georgia Southern over Princeton and South Carolina (I'd still be paying for the Ivy League degree long after I'm dead and gone and he wouldn't have the joy of knowing he made his father proud by beating a disgusting team in a title game), my third chose the College of Charleston over a Georgia school thereby throwing away the Georgia HOPE scholarship but she met a great kid in the Boston Red Sox organization and eventually became a pharmacist anyway.

My last two children live and die for the weekends they get to spend in and around the Bobcat activities in Bozo. None of my children would have had any of these opportunities without my MSU education and the opportunities that education afforded me--and the "debt" I incurred was minimal in comparison to the benefits derived thereof. Almost ten years ago when I last taught Career Exploration courses to middle school school children, the data for medical graduates and their student loan debt was over 350k before they earned a penny from their degree. Our kids from the Montana University system schools are getting an excellent education with excellent opportunities for bargain prices.

PortlandCat wrote:Hate to point it out but 5 is 25% more than 4. I guess the architecture curriculum didn't involve much math...

Stats isn't math...Stats are evil.

But the data can always be manipulated in such a manner as to lead to further research, or like we do in my profession, to justify our hypothesis and findings

PortlandCat wrote:Hate to point it out but 5 is 25% more than 4. I guess the architecture curriculum didn't involve much math...

And yet if asked 4 is 80% of 5.

Cat Grad wrote:When you get older and you look at what your kids decided to do you could get pissed at their decisions or thank God they had some wisdom and life turned out as it did: My oldest turned down an appointment to Annapolis and there's no telling what may have happened had he been commissioned as a Marine--he fishes every day and it doesn't seem like a waste of a chemical engineering degree; my second chose Georgia Southern over Princeton and South Carolina (I'd still be paying for the Ivy League degree long after I'm dead and gone and he wouldn't have the joy of knowing he made his father proud by beating a disgusting team in a title game), my third chose the College of Charleston over a Georgia school thereby throwing away the Georgia HOPE scholarship but she met a great kid in the Boston Red Sox organization and eventually became a pharmacist anyway.

My last two children live and die for the weekends they get to spend in and around the Bobcat activities in Bozo. None of my children would have had any of these opportunities without my MSU education and the opportunities that education afforded me--and the "debt" I incurred was minimal in comparison to the benefits derived thereof. Almost ten years ago when I last taught Career Exploration courses to middle school school children, the data for medical graduates and their student loan debt was over 350k before they earned a penny from their degree. Our kids from the Montana University system schools are getting an excellent education with excellent opportunities for bargain prices.

Very well said, Cat Grad.