I about did a spit take when I saw that scholarships shaved off 90% of her tuition. Really? Really?

KatjaMouse: I about did a spit take when I saw that scholarships shaved off 90% of her tuition. Really? Really?

Plus those scholarships are socialist. A real American wouldn't need handouts.

KatjaMouse: I about did a spit take when I saw that scholarships shaved off 90% of her tuition. Really? Really?

According to NPSAS, 5% of students got scholarships in the 2007-2008 school year, and the average scholarship amount was $2,500. Getting 90% scholarships, even piecemeal, is an incredibly unlikely phenomenon these days unless you're literally a national-level student, someone in the top fraction of the top 1% in scholastic or sports performance.

It wasn't always like this. My dad went to the University of Pennsylvania (the unsung Ivy League school, without pesky stuff like "a sports team anyone gives a shiat about") on a free ride, then went to Berkeley for free, thanks to his scholarships. It used to be that if you were a very good student, you had the chance to get your education paid for. That is, generously, a 1 in 10,000 chance today. It used to be that if you went to school in-state in a public university, it was a dirt cheap education. That's not the case today.

That sounds like a great story until you realize that not everyone can get a scholarship like that, they only give out a certain number of them. Even if it's 100% true, it's anecdotal and not typical.

birchman: That sounds like a great story until you realize that not everyone can get a scholarship like that, they only give out a certain number of them. Even if it's 100% true, it's anecdotal and not typical.

No, don't you see? Everybody should work as hard as this girl. Then they'll give those merit-based scholarships to all of them. Because the amount of money budgeted to scholarships is directly proportional to how hard students are working.

Or it could be that this is just the latest piece of evidence that "conservatives" are farking morons.

Edsel: birchman: That sounds like a great story until you realize that not everyone can get a scholarship like that, they only give out a certain number of them. Even if it's 100% true, it's anecdotal and not typical.

No, don't you see? Everybody should work as hard as this girl. Then they'll give those merit-based scholarships to all of them. Because the amount of money budgeted to scholarships is directly proportional to how hard students are working.

Or it could be that this is just the latest piece of evidence that "conservatives" are farking morons.

Right. Just like there's enough money for EVERYONE to be rich if they really want to be. *facepalm*

Your blog sucks. And so does your writing style.

Quasar:

I mean, it's nice that you're so stalwart but you kinda sound like you're missing the point.

Well, she's addressing her point and the point of many of these "53%ers". They want to be martyrs.

KatjaMouse: I about did a spit take when I saw that scholarships shaved off 90% of her tuition. Really? Really?

That's not really THAT shocking for a state school. I mean if you take 12 classes a semester, $200 a credit hour your only talking $4800 a year.

I had scholarships pay for 90% of my college education! Did anyone ever help me out? NO!

What if he/she/the disembodied piece of paper with hands is telling the truth, but lying about where the money came from?

FTA:

We're susceptible to self-serving bias, which means that we want to attribute our successes to internal or personal factors, even when external factors, like family support, economics, and privilege actually play a major role in those successes.

I think that self-serving bias is most apparent in the OWSers themselves. They want to attribute their failures to Wall Street, politicians, or the wealthy even when personal factors such as laziness, irresponsibility, or stupid decision making actually play the predominant role in those failures.

The sign writer belongs to the Craig T Nelson School Of Reality Denial. "I had 90% of my education paid for me, but did anyone help me or hand anything to me? No!"

Let every university hand out as many sports scholarships as they want, as long as they also provide a matching academic scholarship to a person of opposite gender. Get rid of title 9.

This has little to do with that pathetic blog. Just thought Id throw it out there.

Well yeah, if everyone can get a scholarship, then they made a bad decision not to do so.

brap: Someone misrepresenting themselves on Facebook?!?!?

Say it ain't so!

I think you are on to something here sir. IT may have perpetuated itself out into other forms of media and political debate.

Remember kids, it'll the luck of outside factors that will get you ahead in life. Keep believing that.

Wyalt Derp: Well yeah, if everyone can get a scholarship, then they made a bad decision not to do so.

Most states offer scholarships to anybody based on high school performance.

Umm there are people out there that think it's real? It's some anonymous person holding a piece of paper. And people believe it?

EWreckedSean: Remember kids, it'll the luck of outside factors that will get you ahead in life. Keep believing that.

...because it has been proven with statistics, and compiled in a fun way. And you SHOULD believe reality.



Oh, sorry, did I break your naive world-view?

Jackpot777: [i.imgur.com image 640x474]

The sign writer belongs to the Craig T Nelson School Of Reality Denial. "I had 90% of my education paid for me, but did anyone help me or hand anything to me? No!"

confused... this person still is part of the 99%... dumbass?

EWreckedSean: Remember kids, it'll the luck of outside factors that will get you ahead in life. Keep believing that.

Remember kids, hard work is the ONLY way to get ahead in life, and nobody ever got ahead by luck, inheritance or exploiting the system. That's why rich people are inherently better.

Time after time, I have paid my dues. While committing no crime, I have done my sentence. Yes, it's fair to assume that I have made a few bad mistakes. And yet, in spite of my share of sand being kicked in my face, I've pulled through.


I AM THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIENDS

keylock71: Whatever...

Seems like an awful lot of effort to try and disprove some anonymous Facebook picture.

I'll be honest it irritated me a bit too, and I'm in the "boot-strappy" crowd. Mostly because taking a huge scholarship from the state is a nice perk but it isn't really an argument for how hard you work, it just means the taxpayers subsidized your debt.

LordJiro: EWreckedSean: Remember kids, it'll the luck of outside factors that will get you ahead in life. Keep believing that.

Remember kids, hard work is the ONLY way to get ahead in life, and nobody ever got ahead by luck, inheritance or exploiting the system. That's why rich people are inherently better.

Life isn't fair. There will always be people with more advantages and less advantages to you. Only you can get you past the hand you are dealt. You can sit around and cry about the unfairness or do something to better yourself. The woe is me argument gets you no where in life.

birchman: That sounds like a great story until you realize that not everyone can get a scholarship like that, they only give out a certain number of them. Even if it's 100% true, it's anecdotal and not typical.

Not typical but not necessarily uncommon, either. If you have any business going to a 4-year school whatsoever you're probably getting at least a small grant. Admittedly 90% sounds pretty uncommon, but somewhere between 5 and 20% is what I'd call normal for everyone who didn't spend their high-school years drunk off their ass.

If you did _well_ in high school (top 10% or so) and you select a moderately cheap school, getting in almost entirely free is a distinct probability. I had a couple offers by schools to pay for three years right off the bat without even looking at external scholarships. Didn't actually go to those schools because I did have external help and was damned well going to take advantage of it since I'm not some sort of self-flagellating asshole, but anyone asserting that it never happens just wasn't paying attention to financing when doing their applications. The conditionals on third-party scholarships aren't even generally that onerous if they've got an academic basis-- basically keep your grades up so you don't make the sponsors look lie assholes.

Generally speaking you shouldn't come out of undergrad with more debt than buying a decent automobile would produce. 20k$ or so. And you should have avoided the non-federal debt that can't be deferred if you can't pick up a job. Now, obviously there's an issue with people going into undergrad not being able to do the math here, but that's a problem with our secondary education, not the university system.

//Also worth noting that there are plenty of prep/community colleges that provide a more than sufficient education for most jobs and have near-100% transferable credits to public universities all over the country. You young people need to appreciate that shiat, because those didn't exist in the 90s and were only barely getting their shiat together in the early '00s.

Wait wait wait....both the facebook picture AND the blog are full of fail!? This can mean only one thing...fark politics tab!

/also applying washington state numbers to the rest of the country is strange