Money Matters - Part 11

Quick note. My DS was accepted at UMass Lowell in mechanical engineering! Now he's in the range of nationally recognized engineering schools. This one is only half an hour from home, and it's a state school.

Great news- congrats!

Doing the happy dance here for DS, Rosemary!!!

That's really great news, Rosemary. Good to have some options to consider...

Wow, good news!

Thank you so much! I'm now one third relieved.

This is the school DS was waiting for. Now if he goes somewhere else, its by choice and because we can afford the offer. We certainly won't just go by the ratings.

I went to a school meeting about college transitions to ask questions, but they cancelled it as I was on the way there. So I paid for a seminar on Sunday to learn more about colleges and social issues for techie kids (I refuse to say geeky because he's not!) The other main place where I collect data is the track banquet in a week. Some of these parents have first-hand knowledge of the engineering schools.

So far, I have found many campus visits to be pretty misleading if you want to know more than just how the college is marketing its image. There's just so much hype!

Congrats!

"...college is marketing its image. There's just so much hype! "" Boy , that figures.
My DD and friends were very off put of one school because they require a PE class first semester, and as they toured, the class was playing badminton. Details matter!

It's really remarkable how what starts as a stupid requirement can morph into something else. Case in point, DS could not get a handle on languages to save his life, but he needed it to qualify for the state colleges, whereas the private enginering schools for high prices don't care. We also wanted him to know how to write well, figuring he might not get that in engineering school. So now that he's gotten past the block, he's a more well-rounded person.

Engineers generally do not communicate well and, specifically, are horrible writers. Now your son can relax - until the fun starts in Sep! Tell him to sleep now. ^_^

many engineers i have worked are straight out strange - although i have always got along with them and actually got a kick out of them, even the prima donnas

Yes, I've worked with some strange ones. More of them in academia.

Dilbert first book was pretty dang funny if you've worked with engineers. Specifically, I loved the line, to the effect, Most girls don't want to DATE engineers but do want to Marry them. They're dependable and can often fix things around the house!
My BIL is classic - technically brilliant, interpersonally dim, though well meaning.

The only foreign language training that seems to matter around here is Spanish in the trades or Arabic, for NSA.

PhDs are the worst. Downright dangerous. I used to tell them that 'usefulness' varies inversely as the cube of the number of degrees held. Also referred to them as Gnostics.

" interpersonally dim" ROTFL

I never understood the foreign language requirements either. I struggled with my Spanish classes as an undergrad and had to take a summer school class in order to meet that language requirement for graduation. After getting my B.A. in English I looked into several MFA programs for creative writing but for some reason being fluent in at least one foreign language was a prerequisite for admittance. It was so frustrating that in order to hone my skills in English I had to become a master of Spanish first!

Well, we're getting into the territory of what kind of education is really good and useful to any particular person/ job. I read a really good discussion of the question of why many places expect for example, a cop to go to at least community school and pass a literature class as part of an AA..
"Quoth the officer, Nevermore drive without your seatbelt" ??
Why music? Why PE and all the sports? We have our own athletic fields that are very expensive.(recalling the Gitmo soccer)

I personally felt that studying French forced more awareness of verb tenses and grammar in both languages.

America could do a whole lot to improve Apprenticeships. I don't think we'd politically give up on the Every student is a potential doctor lawyer engineer thing. or the Keep em in school so they can't run the streets thing. Our public high school gets insane on tardiness and absence, but throws their hands up at the high percent of freshman who are failing classes.

Thought Trump was taking care of that.

Sally... I'd give a lot to find a good cooper, pref. within a hundred miles. The remaining few who have learned the skill all work for the wine/bourbon industries. A good coopered bucket for garden use would outlast the last 15-20 I have bought made of plastic (fossil-fuel based) or thin and cheap galv. steel.

I have really wonderful buckets made out of recycled rubber - tires, I think. Nothing damages them and they don't get damage from frozen water. I don't remember where I bought them. :(

Memory, when I raised horses, our feed buckets were made from rubber. Hard to find anymore!

I was lucky to get three of varying sizes.
I have a black rubber water bowl on the front porch for the gray strays - it works out great. If it freezes I bring it in and fill it with hot water while I feed and then refill it with lukewarm and put it back out. I know that the water draws other cats and critters and I have to work hard at not allowing any more cats to join the outside posse - but water is hard to find sometimes and how could I let something go thirsty?

When I had babies, I was looking for rubber bowls for them!

Back to the education issue. In spite of the hardships it imposes, I still generally think a liberal arts education with all its problems, is the best way to insure we have a thinking public, and therefore a democracy. My only real complaint about language requirements is that there's a one size fits all requirement too. We don't all develop our abilities at the same time. That goes for math, too, since that is also a language.

Also since we don't know the future, a strong foundation of skills is a good thing. I believe what you know is less important than learning how to know things.

I think humanities is an indispensable part of education, but majors in liberal arts is a problem. It is why we cannot compete. It should come as no shock that liberal arts majors cannot find jobs. That was the gripe of most of the Occupy fools. They had majors in psych, philosophy, sociology, gender studies, etc., and were demanding jobs! Get real. You must be practical in your decision-making.

Anthropology majors are sought by banking and business, sociologists can become urban planner, psychology majors who stop at the BS can become probation officers or crisis workers...I think the key is how you sell your credentials. But, we're in a very tough economy with huge underemployment and unemployment.

I agree with Victor, that young people have to learn to be practical. I had the opportunity to discuss this point with some high school seniors who were moaning about the kids trying to get interviews at Princeton when they weren't even intellectual kids. That was the seque into telling me about their own choices. In my opinion, there just isn't enough guidance for this generation of kids to help them make reasonable decisions. In the end, they still have to decide for themselves, meaning they make and learn from mistakes.

There may still not be enough guidance for kids today, but there is MUCH more today than when I was in HS. We had one guidance counselor for the whole school and would get one scheduled appt with him. Mine messed me up in that he told me to use the wrong form for state aid and it caused me all kinds of heartburn in freshman year when I could least afford to deal with crap like that. Today kids have the internet with instant answers as to work stats, demographics, feedback about schools, jobs, etc. I would have killed for that.

and how many of my generation took that aptitude test and were told to become forest rangers? Or was it just me? I should have listened to the second choice that said computer science ( in 1976)

When I first looked at ayankee cats answer, I thought it was Rosemary saying she was lucky ot get "three of varying sizes" ROFL

LOL, Sally... mine said "keypunch" (1958) because of manual dexterity.

To me the problem is that this generation has is too much information. Not enough time learning about how to just be who they are. They need help to sort it all out. The demands are much higher than when i was a kid.

And the confusion--holy cow! Recently 60 kids showed up at a little tiny birthday party for my DD's friend. The easy communications and apps to tell the intruders if the police have been called to a house party...HOly cow! There are so many things cluttering their heads.

Def true.

Why am I not surprised??

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KILLER_TATTOO_UNEMPLOYMENT_BENEFITS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-

27 straight days of gas price increases and counting...

Re victors link--If the government would just put more public records on a website, I bet there'd be plenty of people having fun cross checking these lists--who's in jail VS who's getting unemployment, -- We're hearing a lot (it seems) of these cases where somebody just needs to run one list against another. amd doesn't.

Then that would give rise to a new class of unionized government worker. List Cross-checkers, local 426.

Here's another for the cross-checker.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2012/03/dc-pays-almost-700k-dead-patients-health-care/338541

Ironic that the same day GM announces a halt in production of the Volt, with a layoff of 1300, the car is awarded European car of the year! Given the Euro model of cost/value/subsidy, it is a dubious honor at best.

Looked into getting a geothermal system installed. Way too $$. Would not pay for itself. Better suited if you have a furnace and forced air heating system.

No worries Victor, North Dakota will soon make us completely energy independant!!

We are burning North Dakota to generate electricity?

I read a long story in New Yorker magazine about the ND oil boom. Then this morning on the radio I heard more discussion, about breakthroughs in horizontal drilling and fracking techniques , getting good output from ND and PA.

Geothermal energy is really cool. How far down would you have had to dig, Victor? Our house has ledge and an aquafer pretty high up. Considering how little sun we get some years, solar hardly seems to cut it.

How much of the badlands and national parks might we be sacrificing with horizonal drilling and fracking? I doubt anyone really knows how this newer technology will affect a region.