One of the problems is that any degree in anything can get you most jobs. It is when a person has a major in French Poetry and expects to get a job in French Poetry. Outside of academia, those jobs simply don't exist, especially if they get a PhD in any of these things. Wife has a social work masters degree but never went into the field, worked at Travelers for 25+ years.
yeah i'm paying $35kish total a year for my 2 kids to go to private grade school. and that's considered cheap. i do fine, but am hardly overflowing with expendable income.
I already told my boys this: we have set aside some amount of money for you, not a lot. I work at Pellissippi State, so if you go to a state college you get half off of tuition. There are the Hope scholarships and the Tennessee Promise. Do well in High School and apply for a ton of grants and scholarships. You have a place to live and sleep and eat as long as are you are in school, free of charge. Get a general liberal arts degree, and if you then want to specialize, that is when you go to a specific school and get a specific degree, otherwise just get a good solid education. If they do all of this, they should come out as close to debt free as possible. if they want to go to Davidson for four years and then harvard law, they are welcome to it, but it will be either full ride scholarship or on their own dime.
reminds me of discussion with my once 17 yr old about school and he pulled a step brothers “I just figured I’d work in the family business”. Son that’s my job. There isn’t a family business.
Which isn’t necessarily rational at all, essentially just a status thing. Now it’s not the same everywhere obviously, in Memphis or Montgomery you might not have as good public options but in Nashville, Knoxville or Birmingham for example the typical student doesn’t get much of anything out of those types of private schools they couldn’t get from whatever public school they’re zoned for. And 90% of the students are going to state schools or private schools that aren’t very difficult to get into anyway.
Youd be surprised at how some families handle this stuff. Families who spend 35k/yr in HS. When the 18+ yr old student needs money to pay, their HH income from their parents doesn’t matter as they are an adult and not supported by that income. I wouldn’t do it that way, but it happens. First, I wouldn’t pay for private school and second, that’s a lot of pressure on a kid. Some will respond and make it happen but kinda risky for those who don’t.
actually why we moved from Memphis as we became pregnant was for public school reasons. I do disagree on the prep private schools have. MBA kids basically have a college schedule starting in 9th grade, often on campus till evening doing something. I think generally they are more ready to move on. My son had a 4.0 last year and I don’t recall seeing him study, whereas I know some private school kids and they have to work harder, as he would if he was there. But you are also correct in where some go to college. Friend paid 4 years of MBA and then 40k for freaking ole miss. If I were to ever pay that for HS, ain’t no way my son is going to ole miss. He can get that done in public school just the same.
Sure it’s hard if you’re in AP or honors/advanced classes but if you’re just taking all the regular stuff you can basically skate by. I think it is harder to make an A but not necessarily materially more difficult than public school in terms of the hours required. Obviously no two places are the same, my anecdotal experience is based on Knoxville private vs public and friends I’ve had that went to Nashville private schools.
By every account I've heard over the years growing up in Nashville MBA is more rigorous than actual college. Guys I knew from MBA would tell me UT was a [uck fay]ing joke of a cakewalk academically compared to MBA. Hell, I just went to a public school in Williamson County and I thought my AP/Honors classes I took in HS were far more difficult than any 100 or 200 level course I took at UT.
I told my son that he had 4 years to get his degree. Any longer and he pays. And I don't pay for C's and below.
You can't not claim your parents for FAFSA unless you are married or over a certain age. It also doesn't factor in number of siblings or divorce. So I was evaluated off of 4 parents that contributed nothing and had 5 other kids.
At UT within the Haslam Business School you could not advance towards graduation with any grade lower than a C. Not exactly sure if that grading policy is universal at UT with every program they offer. C-/D = F
Yup, universal policy of UT business school required everyone to have a 2.5 GPA at minimum in order to even graduate. You had to get at least a C in every business class you took at UT to get the credit hours even if it wasn't specifically a class tied to your major. You don't start business school at UT until sophomore year, so your freshman year when you are taking 100 level general education classes you only had to get a D to get those credits. But by sophomore year you knew you had to get a C or better in every business class. You also had to get like 9/12 hours of random electives. Technically if you made a C- or D in one of those business classes you could count that as one of your elective credits, but you were not given the three hour credit towards advancing through the Haslam Business School. Also if you failed accounting one semester, then retook it and aced it your GPA for that class credit would be an average of the F and A (aka a "C"). At least this was the universal policy of UT's business school as of 6 years ago when I finished undergrad. Doubt it has changed.
