College is a Crackhead

[Sagiquarius]

So I just received a letter from my college asking me for money. This is funny. After I spent about a hundred thousand dollars in financial aid and loans for a degree at their prestigious institution they have the audacity to turn around and ask me for more money. My god the nerve, my money will continue to ensure that student from families of modets means can get a degree that makes a difference...the Fordham degree. Pfft, this is the same degree that about a hundred employers have seen on my resume and said "sorry your not for us". Big difference

I feel like sending this letter back to the prsident of the University with one of my overdue bills attached to it and asking for his help.

Unbelieveable. It reminds of this crackhead I used to see. I would see this guy EVERY week like clockwork and he was always beggin for money. "Hey man just a dollar, a quarter help a brother out...I need something to eat". And I would always feel bad for him because my grandmother would never give him money. Finally one day I learned the reason why. I saw him with the fattest roll of 20 and 100 dollar bills you've ever seen in your life.

So here's your quote for the day college is a crackhead begging for the money you don't have while their pockets are already stuffed.

[WeirdBrake]

I f***ing dare my law school, the University of Pittsburgh, to ask me for an alumni donation down the line. I f***ing dare them.

[Sagiquarius]

Oh they will believe you me. They'll send you a letter on pretty paper and give you sentimental horse crap about how your donation can do this and that for the institution that afforded you the education you're so proud of. Yadda yadda yadda. Oh and this is the best they put the amount donated by each graduating class on the side of the letter....somehow your class always donates the least...funny how that works

[WeirdBrake]

Yeah, I'll send them a check. As soon as I'm done writing my sympathy letter to O.J.

[Tbone]

Originally posted by Sagiquarius

So here's your quote for the day college is a crackhead begging for the money you don't have while their pockets are already stuffed.

LOL :D

[gluegun]

I used to work as a fundraiser for my university. I give back to them every year like clockwork now. Keep in mind that part of your education was subsidized by alumni donations. It is your turn to give to the next generation. *cue Circle Of Life song*

[Skyblade]

I used to work for the UCSB annual fund where you call alumni and parents of students and ask them for money. Now everytime they call me I start laughing.
I sucked at that job. If someone was not convinced I was just like "OK, maybe next year!"

[kimmer23]

yeah like 1 month after you graduate they start sending those alumni letters asking for donations. screw that....i didnt get any financial aid. my parents and i paid for it all from savings and credit cards.

[gluegun]

I'm not talking about financial aid. No matter which school you went to your tuition rate was less than the actual cost of your education. The difference is made up by donations.

[paiger81]

See, this is why I loved my college. It was a branch of Texas A&M University. My loans are minimal compared to most, and I love giving $$ to the college because I've seen where the money goes. It's not like I'm giving $$$ or anything, but the call at the beginning of every semester so I give about $75-$100 a year, all of which is tax deductible.

And, yes, college is way more expensive. What you are paying for books is only about 40% of what it actually costs for universities to buy the books.

[natbumpo]

I'm with Gluegun. First, I always verify that my donation is going to help kids attend college and not towards a new building, a community outreach program or some other bullshit. But, if it is going to help kids go to college, it is well worth it because that was the only way I could go.

[maxwell78]

Yeah the donation letters drive me nuts, but the ones that get me are the credit card offers, the life insurance offers...oh and the "planned giving" letter. This one really drives me nuts. It's like them saying...Just in case you die, we want to make sure we get our cut of your estate. What estate!?! I'm 25 and live with my effing parents because the degree I got from this wonderful state university of ours isn't worth the paper it's printed on!

Okay, I'm done. :D

Then again, I'm a total hypocrite. I joined the Alumni Association (it was cheap) just because I wanted the official Alumni Association Member luggage tag. haha.

[WeirdBrake]

Sorry, gluegun, but my school is just gonna have to make do without any donations from me. For starters, law school is an extraordinarily wasteful enterprise. Everything from the courses to the textbooks to the number of years it takes to complete.... it's a sham. It doesn't have to be this way. But hey, society says I have to pay for it if I want to go into this field. So I've got to deal with it. But I don't have to like it, and I DON'T have to give an alumni donation. If I want to give to a worthy cause, I'll find a worthy cause. There are plenty-- cancer research, AIDS research, orgs that fight poverty or child abuse or racism. I'm not giving money to the friggin' University of Pittsburgh School of Law. If they're so desperate for money, they can stop re-printing new editions of the same damn law textbooks.

[kimmer23]

If I want to give to a worthy cause, I'll find a worthy cause. There are plenty-- cancer research, AIDS research, orgs that fight poverty or child abuse or racism. I'm not giving money to the friggin' University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

i agree with ya 100% there WB.

[shimmer728]

If I had any money, I'd love to donate it to prospective students who can't afford college. I'd rather not donate it to a Big 10 university that would probably use the contribution to buy new football uniforms.

[pash]

Yeah, f' that. I paid $120,000 for my college education (minus a few thousand in scholarships) and I can guarantee you I did not get our money's worth - in fact we had one of the highest paid college Presidents in the country. My friends and I even have a saying about the whole experience that is probably too offensive to write here. My school does not deserve a penny of my money - I think they are making enough money off of the markup they have now, regardless of any subsidation.

[gluegun]

Good Lord. Where did you go to school Pash?

[WeirdBrake]

My friends and I even have a saying about the whole experience that is probably too offensive to write here.

As a moderator, I give you permission to write it out here.

[Sagiquarius]

I'm with you guys if I'm going to give moeny to the next generation it'll be to them directly. I'll meet them in the school's cafeteria while they're trying to decide between cereal or peaches for dinner and I'll give it to them then because the fact is that I've been in bad neighborhoods all my life and the university is still the biggest pimp I've seen.

[Sesamebabe]

"I'm 25 and live with my effing parents because the degree I got from this wonderful state university of ours isn't worth the paper it's printed on!"


I can't agree with this statement more! My $100,000 didn't really get me much except a big fat student loan payment every month!
If any of you saw my rant in the "What a bachelors degree can do for you", you'd know why I refuse to donate through those annual fundraisers. You can view the story here because it is too long to re-write:

http://www.quarterlifecrisis.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6959&perpage=15&pagenumber=3

When my student loans are paid off I might be interested in putting together a yearly scholarship for a specific student base. Or, if my husbands business gets sold for some big bucks we want to offer the school 10 mil for a new building, but there is a catch. They need to name the building "The UndergroundHipHop.com Building" and nothing else. The reason for this stipluation is because I went to enter an entrepreneurship contest for my husbands business at our university (I helped him start it, do the marketing, wrote the business plan etc.) and it has been extremely successful in growth since 1997. I went to drop off our submission and you know what the professor says to me? He says "I wish Hip Hop would die like disco.". Well, I understand if underground hip hop is not your genre of music, but outwatrdly crapping on a powerful art form AND our main source of income to my face was uncalled for - he was sooo condescending!!!!! I want to shove the success of this business in their face so bad because they truly feel that hip hop is so below them ...

NOTE TO PROFESSOR: Hip hop (particularly the underground genre which is what we deal in) will NOT die like disco because it is an art form driven by soci-economic forces. As long as there is poverty, oppression, and racism, there will be hip hop. Wonder if they will turn down that money with such a requirment lol....

[maxwell78]

A professor outwardly condescending? *gasp* No! I'll believe it when I see it! ;)

[Sesamebabe]

Yes, I know, most professors are - but I was no longer a student and this was for a supposedly "professional competition" for university graduates.

It was innapropriate and uncalled for - I was pretty pissed off about the situation. Someday that professor will rue the day when he did not get in on the ground floor of my husbands business lol....

[WeirdBrake]

you know what the professor says to me? He says "I wish Hip Hop would die like disco."

You know what they say. Opinions are like a$$holes. Everybody's got one, and some are more full of sh*t than others.

[wordsmith]

I will absolutely donate money to my college. I will designate it to go toward the Thorson Scholarship, which is the scholarship I most directly benefitted from, one that goes to academically excelling students from rural, low income backgrounds who don't have the financial means for a private school education. Or I will designate it to go specifically toward a permanent choral rehearsal space, since they have one of the premier a capella touring choirs in the nation, and don't see the need to give them a place to practice.

I will do all this once my costly, prestigious degree helps me obtain a job that pays more than $23K a year. Right now, I need a handout more than my college does.

[panjandrum]

this is the wrong thread to be reading while taking a break from finals cramming, yes? yes.

[NoFuture]

Originally posted by paiger81

And, yes, college is way more expensive. What you are paying for books is only about 40% of what it actually costs for universities to buy the books.

Not really. The life cycle of a college textbook: Bought new for $150 (soft cover) ---> sold back to bookstore for $15-$25 ---> bought used for $100 ---> sold back for $10 -----> bought used for $100.

And so on until the next edition is published. It's a scam.

And, yeah, my college is getting a goddamn cent from me, either. It was a crappy school, my education was a joke and I will withhold any and all contributions. My association with that shithole ended the day I graduated. It's a form of natural selection. I hope my LACK of donation makes so some poor kid CAN'T go there and hopefully he'll find someplace better, someplace where the alumni treasure their education and their experience so much they wanted to give something back. Then he'll get the money he needs to attend a university that's not a total joke. And godspeed to him.

[paiger81]

Not really. The life cycle of a college textbook: Bought new for $150 (soft cover) ---> sold back to bookstore for $15-$25 ---> bought used for $100 ---> sold back for $10 -----> bought used for $100.

Not really. The actual cost for the "new" $150 soft cover is more likely around $300 per book, when the college buys it from the vendor, so your school still loses money. I worked in the college bookstore during college.

[NoFuture]

Originally posted by paiger81


I worked in the college bookstore during college.

So did I. And I bought my textbooks NEW from discount online vendors and saved a bundle because my school's book mark-up was such a scam that it made me sick.

[Sesamebabe]

I also thought the book buy back program was a ridiculous and scam, and guess what, not only was it a scam, it was a conspiracy. In highschool I was part of the National Honor Society and since we were a non-profit group, we would resell used books and only make a marginal profit so we could cover operating expenses. I thought this idea would work great in college as well and I was so tired of being ripped off by the book store. So I went to Student Government to propose my idea and they said, sorry - my university has a contract with Barnes and Noble and they won't allow any other resellers on campus (university was getting kick backs as well). So screw the book stores, they really do have it out for the students and it is ridiculous what they charge for used books after only paying out 10 bucks to some poor college kid to take it back.

My senior year I just didn't buy any books - I rented them out from the university library. Man, if I knew how much money I could have saved when I was a freishman by doing that!!!!!