College in the USA

I know college in the USA is verry expensive, so it must not be affordable for everybody. Does anyone know what percentage of the population has a college degree in the USA?

Also, what percentage of youre income do you pay as taxes?

In the Netherlands it is about 50%, which I think is verry much.

Nationmaster.com is awesome for statistics. They list the United States as 30% for the tax rate and Netherlands at 42.3%. We still end up paying though or doing without needed services such as health care and education.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/tax_tot_tax_wed_sin_wor

Looks like the U.S. is doing pretty well in producing college graduates, but others are catching up and passing us by.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/051700-01.htm

The graduation rate in Norway, Britain, and the Netherlands has surpassed the United States's 33 percent, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which pooled data from its 29 democratic countries and 16 nonmember countries.

college to me is a waste of time. and i didnt learn anything. it wasnt that expensive. ($7,000 a yr) (in state uni)

im going to a fitness institute instead.

uni was a waste of my time too I wish I'd never gone, it just was an irritation. It was 23% good 5% whatever and 72% stoopid. But I imagine if I had been on a more appropriate course, it would have been better. Also if I had teachers who didn't say 'duhhhhhhhhhhhh okay' at the beginning and end of every single sentence and sometimes in the middle of sentences

There are federal, state, and private grants and scholarships in the U.S. Also, there is a huge difference in tuition rates between public and private institutions. Where I live, in Florida, you can go to a public university for free if you made good grades in high school, or if you excelled in a sport. Or, if you goofed off in high school and want a second chance, you can go to a public community college for a year (around $1000 for books and tuition for the first year), and if you do well there, then you can get grants and scholarships for a bachelors degree at a university. If you want to go to graduate school, there are lots of fellowships, grants, and scholarships available if you did well in undergrad; and especially if you're published. The system isn't perfect, but basically anyone, no matter how poor, can afford to go to a public college in this state - the only problem is that a lot of people aren't aware of all of the financial aid options.

Sounds like everyone has a chance in the USA. I thought it was more expensive and only for rich kids.

And about college being a waste of time, I guess it is for most part. But it also is what you make of it. In the end, all that counts is that piece of paper called a diploma.

yeah - I agree it is what you make of it. I pretty much goofed off my freshman year thinking this is SOOO easy I don't even have to try. I carried just over a 3.0 once I got more serious and figured out what I wanted to do (it kept changing) my courses got harder and I wish I had done better freshman year when I just missed graduating with honors. At any rate, I KNOW I wouldn't have the job I have now without my degree. And I'd probably be lucky to be making half as much at any job. So college is definitely not a waste of time. Where I went it was about $10,000 a year - it was a private school. Most state schools here only run a couple thousand dollars a year though.

I hated college! By hate, I mean, that I didn't much like it. I went to a HUGE university (40,000 students) and had a full scholarship. PHep! Because of my scholarship, I was limited in what I could do...I had the opportunity for an internship with the Late Late Show with Craig Kilbourn - I mean, I was told directly that I was granted the internship and was ready to start given I enrolled in a few courses at a Los Angeles college while interning. Well, since I had no other way to really pay for college (family made too much for financial aid and family was unwilling to help), I couldn't give up my scholarship and the school would not let me take a year off and continue receiving the scholarship when I returned. So, I continued going to a school where the students spent the majority of time partying. I'm sorry, but, don't put me in a situation where my grade depends on the ability of these imbiciles to focus. I had a graduate student teaching assistant "hit' on me and make vulger comments after class.

Everywhere you look - mirror images of gap/abercrombie&fitch/urban outfitters manequins. Girls driving luxury SUV's with vanity plates stating that they are "daddy's girl..." blah, blah. Oh, if daddy only knew what "Joe Jock" did with his cock in the back seat...

The liberal crowd all smoked pot while eating dead cow burgers. The only high I ever got in college was from second hand smoke at a "young democratic socialists" meeting.

It really frustrated me...how is an employer really going to know who is more qualified....someone who spent five years working within social services or somone who spent five years at a university. Textbooks are shallow. I learned more history from Howard Zinn than all the $500 spent on texts. I learned more about psychology providing services to an SMI population.

I don't believe someone's ability can be determined based on a degree. Unfortunately, society does.

very well put madre.

Yeah you are dead on Madre!

Girls driving luxury SUV's with vanity plates stating that they are "daddy's girl..." blah, blah. Oh, if daddy only knew what "Joe Jock" did with his cock in the back seat...

 

I don't believe someone's ability can be determined based on a degree. Unfortunately, society does.

Tell me about it. Try getting a decent job without at least a bachelor's degree. Just f'rinstance, I recently submitted my resumé for a position that I had *thought* required a BA in Business Administration or a minimum of three years' experience in office administration. I re-read the job posting later to realize that they wanted the degree and the experience. My 23+ years in administrative work was worthless.

That piece of paper can make all the difference in some fields, you don't even necessarily need to be searching for a job in your field of study.

I love college. I love class (when I go ) and I love meeting people who know more than I do and are willing to teach me. I think I just love knowledge!

But I HATE tuition.....it just keeps going up! Like veganmadre was saying, I'm in a position where my parents make too much money for me to qualify for aid, or at least very much aid, but the total cost is still too much for them to pay on their own. And the cost is rapidly rising! It's been going up 10-13% per year since I started 3 years ago. And don't even get me started on textbooks; how is it possible for one book to cost $200 or more!?

My parents grew up poor and worked their way up, and they always tell me that college is a privelege and not something everyone can go to....but I know in my high school it was a highly touted statistic that over 99% of my graduating class went directly to a 4yr. university. (I believe we had the highest percentage in the state actually). Anyway, so where I come from practically everyone is college educated, and that makes the job market even tougher.

Oh, and for me, working my pathetic minimum wage job and claiming 0 dependents (my parents still claim me so I can't claim myself), I give 24% of each gross paycheck in taxes.

Hey Veggymeggy, have you looked on half.com or amazon.com for books? A lot of times you can get books for very cheap on there. Also a lot of professors will let you use an older edition of the book, and you can usually get those on half.com or amazon.com for a few dollars each

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I don't think that because there is a lot of suffering in the world that nobody should discuss or complain about their own problems. I know that people should have things in perspective, and should realise that they are lucky etc, but I am sure that madre knows that her situation is no way as bad as kids in sweat shops, I don't think she was trying to say that it is.

There's tens of millions of kids working in sweat shops in 3rd world countries, and you're complaining about getting a full scholarship to college in the USA...

My critique of the university system has nothing to do with sweat shops - unless you consider that the food service at my university was run by Sodexho-Marriott who actually has/had ties to sweatshop labor.

I don't think that because there is a lot of suffering in the world that nobody should discuss or complain about their own problems. I know that people should have things in perspective, and should realise that they are lucky etc, but I am sure that madre knows that her situation is no way as bad as kids in sweat shops, I don't think she was trying to say that it is.

Thanks Richard!!!! He articulates it better than I.

There is still to much complaining from people, and it sure is needed to put things into perspective. But there will ALWAYS be someone who is worse of than you. This puting in perspective is good and needs to be done in a good way, not by hypocritical people like it is the case in The Netherlands. In the Netherlands there are ambasadors of charity foundations whom tell people to donate money to that charity becouse people there have it so much worse than them. Those amasadors make videos to show people how bad the situation is there, but whilst making that video they accomodate theirselves in 5 star hotels. They could have given that money to that charity, and have stayed in a cheaper hotel. Also they mostly eat meat, which wastes a lot of calories in the transfer from vegetable to meat and therefore isn't solving world hunger.

About College in the USA:

Next week there is a meeting which I will be attending. Then I will hear if, when and how I can participate in an international exchange program. The chance is slim that I will go on an exchange program, but I am hoping I will.

Good luck gym-hater! I went on a short exchange to Mexico when I was 17, and it was the best experience of my life. I hope to do it again before I graduate college, maybe to Europe or a South American country....anyway, good luck!!!!

I got accepted to the exchange program!! Now I still have to take care of a lot of paperwork, but if everything goes as planed I am going.

Congratulations!!!

Thank you

Yeah Congrats. So are you coming to college in the US? If so where?

If everything goes as planned, I will go to Wisonsin for 1 semester. I will go there september 2006.

There will be a fridge in my room and a microwave in the building, so I guess I will survive. Are there a lot of vegan microwave meals available at the supermarkets in the USA? In the Netherlands I can only find vegetarian ones.