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The Last Word


Bazza

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Re: The Last Word

 

The rest of my department thinks I'm nuts for giving essay exams to my 101 class. As long as take breaks before I feel like I have to get out the chainsaw, I do ok. Of course, the exam scores tend to have an insanely large spread. I think last year one midterm ranged from 100 down to 2.

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Re: The Last Word

 

I got extra credit on a programming assignment in high school (UCSD pascal, so it's been a LONG time ago) because I included a well-documented subroutine that let my Rock-Paper-Scissors program cheat every so often.

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Re: The Last Word

 

The rest of my department thinks I'm nuts for giving essay exams to my 101 class. As long as take breaks before I feel like I have to get out the chainsaw' date=' I do ok. Of course, the exam scores tend to have an insanely large spread. I think last year one midterm ranged from 100 down to 2.[/quote']

I always hated essay tests . . .

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Re: The Last Word

 

Yeah' date=' I've had teachers bend standards for creative responses. Can't really remember anything offhand, except for the psych professor who'd quiz us on her in-class tangents, and give extra credit for correct answers.[/quote']

I got a barely passing grade for a quiz once due to smart aleck responses. I think it was for a Classical Art class.

 

And my history professors usually liked my off hand comments in essays as long as I included the facts as well.

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Re: The Last Word

 

When grading exams, one really does look hard for the right answers. Combing through a page of panicked scrawl looking for points to give is an aggravating task. It's that, more than anything else, that triggers the "You're all f***ing morons! You all deserve Fs!" wrath that makes me put down the papers and walk away from the pile for a little while.

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Re: The Last Word

 

Oh, I was/am an expert test-taker also. I am keenly aware of how few opportunities one gets to use that outside of academia. But if I'd figured out a way to bottle it and sell it, I would be a rich, rich man.

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Re: The Last Word

 

Astonishing nowadays but true: I got out of college + grad school with less than $4500 in student loan to repay, and that I incurred only in my final year when I fell afoul of an on-the-books-but-not-previously-enforced rule on how long one could receive scholarship money.

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Re: The Last Word

 

Oh, I wasn't that great a student. I pulled a 3.25 GPA (I think), and coasted a lot of courses.

 

And I wasn't abjectly poor, at least not as far as the financial aid people were concerned. That I couldn't pull $5000 out of thin air didn't concern them overly, nor did the fact that my older sisters' going to college severely impacted my parents' potential to help me out. When you fill out a FAFSA, there's an assumption that your parents WILL help you through college; I hate that.

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Re: The Last Word

 

$1500 from undergrad. My dad was pissed at the amount of money the bank charged as fees to process my student loan first semester freshman year, so we told the college that we weren't taking any more out. They found me another academic scholarship to cover $1000 (I had to write a nice thank you letter every year to the sponsor), and my parents and I had to cover the rest.

 

$17500 from the grad school. Everyone was getting them, and, well, we wanted cool things too. Felt bad about it, so we didn't get another. Good thing too.

 

I got both debts, and the credit card debt in the divorce. She got the car and the dog. (is it any wonder I live in Nashville and work in the music industry?)

 

Fortunately, I got a nice job and have paid it all off. Took some time, and some help from my sugar mama covering the rest of my expenses. :eg:

 

Guy I went to grad school with had over $100,000 worth of college debt (private school, wealthy family) and was wracking up $17500 a year while he was in grad school. You think us chemists would be better at math. "Hmmm, I'm going to pay how much a month for all these loans?:eek:"

 

D

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Re: The Last Word

 

Oh, I wasn't that great a student. I pulled a 3.25 GPA (I think), and coasted a lot of courses.

 

And I wasn't abjectly poor, at least not as far as the financial aid people were concerned. That I couldn't pull $5000 out of thin air didn't concern them overly, nor did the fact that my older sisters' going to college severely impacted my parents' potential to help me out. When you fill out a FAFSA, there's an assumption that your parents WILL help you through college; I hate that.

 

I picked undergrad based strictly on the amount of money they threw at me. That it was a good school was nice. That my family was po' (we were so po' we couldn't afford the other letters) helped.

 

D

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Re: The Last Word

 

I'm actually starting to think that a lot of the debt problem with my generation has a lot more to do with college than we think. It goes beyond student loans.

 

Think about it: when you're in college, you have precious little income, and you need to eat, buy books, pay for classes, pay for somewhere to live, etc. So what do you do? You BORROW! If there are no parents to borrow from, there's a handy credit card, or a student loan you can sign up for, or SOMEONE willing to lend you more money than a person should have to borrow from another.

 

So then, you get out of college, you need a place to live, stuff to eat, clothes for the job interviews. Is it even going to occur to you to take the lower-end job to live off mac & cheese for a few months while you build up capital? Why should it? You've already borrowed up to your neck; why not borrow MORE?

 

It teaches us a habit of treating money as something you'll have someday, rather than keeping it close at hand and only spending it when you have it. This gets one into a rather complicated pattern of making it a habit to whip out the credit card, spend anything that DOES come your way (because who knows how long it'll be before THAT happens again?), and borrow more than you pay back.

 

I'm sure a lot of people can escape this trap, and in the end, those who don't only have themselves to blame. But it's easier to understand, from that standpoint.

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Re: The Last Word

 

It teaches us a habit of treating money as something you'll have someday, rather than keeping it close at hand and only spending it when you have it. This gets one into a rather complicated pattern of making it a habit to whip out the credit card, spend anything that DOES come your way (because who knows how long it'll be before THAT happens again?), and borrow more than you pay back.

 

I'm sure a lot of people can escape this trap, and in the end, those who don't only have themselves to blame. But it's easier to understand, from that standpoint.

 

 

I think you're spot on.

 

D

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Re: The Last Word

 

Of course, that doesn't make it any easier to BE one of the Indebted Generation. :(

 

(Josh and I are slowly, painfully pulling ourselves up out of it. We paid off his car last October, we'll have my car paid off in November, and the unsecured loan we've never missed a payment on should be gone by this time next year. Our credit cards will be obliterated soon after, then we can look into the mortgage thing.)

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Re: The Last Word

 

Well, there's lots of deep-in-debt folks who never went to college, too. I certainly managed to avoid my parents' ... less than completely wonderful ... financial acumen. They went to college, but AFAIK didn't incur debt in the process.

 

It took 60-70 years, but banks have managed to shake the overwhelmingly negative image they and their services acquired in the Depression, both of banks and of being in debt. They've even managed to obscure the fact that they deserve that image more now than ever before.

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