On 8/27/2019 8:59 AM, Wade Gattett wrote:
On 8/27/19 8:39 AM, Frank wrote:
On 8/27/2019 8:32 AM, Bill wrote:
An idea I had concerningÂ* Student Loans:

Pretty simple really, wonder why I haven't heard of it before...
A lot of big universities have very large financial endowments that
they are pretty proud of.Â* Why not primarily provide student loans by
requiring students to take out loans mostly sourced by the endowments
of the institutions where they attend.

I'm fairly certain you would see things "tighten up" all over. There
would be a serious concern over student success and "good" choices of
majors. Many majors would probably disappear over night.

What do you think?

Bill

Anything is better than federal student loans.Â* The lose money supply
just gets gobbled up by the universities.

When I was in grad school back in theÂ* 60's, I took out a student loan
that I used to buy my first new car- a VW Beetle. Paid the loan back on
time after graduation when I got my first real job.

Why is it so hard for the current crop of entitled, special,
helicopter-parented kids to pay their loans back?

Too bad Tony Soprano and Don Corleone are gone. Put either of them in
charge of the Student Loan program and the debt would be cleaned up in
18 months ;-)

I grew up in the same time frame. I see today that a BS chemist starts
at about $40,000 but tuition alone at the U of Delaware, where I went,
is now $52,000. When I was there tuition was about $1,000 for 4 years
with a starting salary of $6,000. I made enough money on summer jobs to
pay for my education and still pocket a few hundred. Grad school was
paid for with a teaching assistantship. Pretty hard to do this today.

But, college today would be a lot cheaper without the influx of money
and students. It's a matter of supply and demand and universities are
examples of unbridled capitalism.

Frank wrote:
Grad school was paid for with a teaching
assistantship.Â* Pretty hard to do this today.


I know I left out the earlier part of Frank's paragraph.
I just wanted to mention that departments are staffing the
majority of their teaching position with graduate teaching
assistantships. For a large department, maybe 2/3 of the courses
are taught that way. That translates into there not being very
many real academic positions available to students who do earn a
terminal degree (like a PhD). Having witnessed it firsthand, it's
really disrespectful. It's mostly about the $$$.... I guess this
is a separate, but admittedly widespread problem (think Walmart).

On 8/27/2019 1:43 PM, Bill wrote:
Frank wrote:
Grad school was paid for with a teaching
assistantship.Â* Pretty hard to do this today.


I know I left out the earlier part of Frank's paragraph.
I just wanted to mention that departments are staffing the
majority of their teaching position with graduate teaching
assistantships. For a large department, maybe 2/3 of the courses are
taught that way. That translates into there not being very many real
academic positions available to students who do earn a terminal degree
(like a PhD). Having witnessed it firsthand, it's really disrespectful.
It's mostly about the $$$.... I guess this is a separate, but admittedly
widespread problem (think Walmart).

That is interesting. My assistantship had me teaching labs which was
mostly just babysitting. Courses were taught by professors but my last
year, when I had a fellowship, they wanted me to teach undergrad organic
chemistry but I turned them down because it meant no extra money.

This was a private school but thinking back at U of Del. there were
graduate students teaching more courses.

Frank wrote:
On 8/27/2019 1:43 PM, Bill wrote:
Frank wrote:
Grad school was paid for with a teaching
assistantship.Â* Pretty hard to do this today.


I know I left out the earlier part of Frank's paragraph.
I just wanted to mention that departments are staffing the
majority of their teaching position with graduate teaching
assistantships. For a large department, maybe 2/3 of the
courses are taught that way. That translates into there not
being very many real academic positions available to students
who do earn a terminal degree (like a PhD). Having witnessed it
firsthand, it's really disrespectful. It's mostly about the
$$$.... I guess this is a separate, but admittedly widespread
problem (think Walmart).

That is interesting.Â* My assistantship had me teaching labs which
was mostly just babysitting.Â* Courses were taught by professors
but my last year, when I had a fellowship, they wanted me to
teach undergrad organic chemistry but I turned them down because
it meant no extra money.

This was a private school but thinking back at U of Del. there
were graduate students teaching more courses.

The problem is most-present in departments that have very high
teaching loads, like English and Math. It has become an
"epidemic" problem since the mid to late 90's. In departments
like History, there often isn't enough teaching to be done to
give teaching assistantships. Graduate students are more likely
to be graders for regular faculty in the department, for
instance, or run labs for them, as in your case.

These days you would be smart to choose to teach the organic
chemistry class you mentioned--so that you could talk about it in
your job interviews. 2 candidates, one with demonstrated teaching
experience, one without: One has a distinct advantage.

On 8/27/2019 7:16 PM, Bill wrote:
Frank wrote:
On 8/27/2019 1:43 PM, Bill wrote:
Frank wrote:
Grad school was paid for with a teaching
assistantship.Â* Pretty hard to do this today.


I know I left out the earlier part of Frank's paragraph.
I just wanted to mention that departments are staffing the
majority of their teaching position with graduate teaching
assistantships. For a large department, maybe 2/3 of the courses are
taught that way. That translates into there not being very many real
academic positions available to students who do earn a terminal
degree (like a PhD). Having witnessed it firsthand, it's really
disrespectful. It's mostly about the $$$.... I guess this is a
separate, but admittedly widespread problem (think Walmart).

That is interesting.Â* My assistantship had me teaching labs which was
mostly just babysitting.Â* Courses were taught by professors but my
last year, when I had a fellowship, they wanted me to teach undergrad
organic chemistry but I turned them down because it meant no extra money.

This was a private school but thinking back at U of Del. there were
graduate students teaching more courses.

The problem is most-present in departments that have very high teaching
loads, like English and Math.Â* It has become an "epidemic" problem since
the mid to late 90's.Â*Â* In departments like History, there often isn't
enough teaching to be done to give teaching assistantships. Graduate
students are more likely to be graders for regular faculty in the
department, for instance, or run labs for them, as in your case.

These days you would be smart to choose to teach the organic chemistry
class you mentioned--so that you could talk about it in your job
interviews. 2 candidates, one with demonstrated teaching experience, one
without: One has a distinct advantage.

I thought about it but jobs were plentiful at the time. I actually
wrapped it up a couple of months before graduation so teaching would
have held me up.