25 years old and deep in debt

[The Brain]

Americans are obsessed with certifications. That's whack.

[Monoriu]

I was in student government in college; (I fell in with the wrong crowd  ).  One of our representatives addressed the board of trustees in order to ask that tuition be raised no more than the rate of inflation.  The meeting went:

Student Government Representative:  Hardship!  Students at risk!  Longstanding debt!
Board of Trustees:  Look, a student, how precious.     Can he do tricks?

Best of luck, student activists!

I once served a committee responsible for higher education funding.  Members were drawn from many different countries, including the US, the UK etc.  It was our practice to meet student union representatives every year.  They sent a long list of grievances to us before the meeting.  But the day before the meeting, their no.1 concern became the language for communication.  They insisted in speaking Cantonese.  We insisted in speaking English. 

On the day of the meeting, we deliberately asked all the UK and US members to sit in the front row.  None of the students dared to speak a word of Chinese in such a set-up.  And their English sucked, not surprisingly as student union representatives tended to be bummers.  So here they were, sitting in front of the people who made decisions on funding, but were unable to actually say anything for fear of exposing the already exposed fact that their English sucked.  They quickly left.

[Ideologue]

In Sweden you can work at a nuclear plant as long as you have a high school diploma, and it's working out great.

[The Brain]

In Sweden you can work at a nuclear plant as long as you have a high school diploma, and it's working out great.

You admire our purity.

[Savonarola]

I once served a committee responsible for higher education funding.  Members were drawn from many different countries, including the US, the UK etc.  It was our practice to meet student union representatives every year.  They sent a long list of grievances to us before the meeting.  But the day before the meeting, their no.1 concern became the language for communication.  They insisted in speaking Cantonese.  We insisted in speaking English. 

On the day of the meeting, we deliberately asked all the UK and US members to sit in the front row.  None of the students dared to speak a word of Chinese in such a set-up.  And their English sucked, not surprisingly as student union representatives tended to be bummers.  So here they were, sitting in front of the people who made decisions on funding, but were unable to actually say anything for fear of exposing the already exposed fact that their English sucked.  They quickly left.

The representative who addressed the board at my university spoke English as his first language and it turned out every bit as humiliating for him.

[Ideologue]

In Sweden you can work at a nuclear plant as long as you have a high school diploma, and it's working out great.

You admire our purity.

You know I do.

[Barrister]

I was in student government in college; (I fell in with the wrong crowd  ).  One of our representatives addressed the board of trustees in order to ask that tuition be raised no more than the rate of inflation.  The meeting went:

Student Government Representative:  Hardship!  Students at risk!  Longstanding debt!
Board of Trustees:  Look, a student, how precious.     Can he do tricks?

Best of luck, student activists!

I was in student government too.  It was actually kind of fun.  Nobody in law school cared less what happened in the wider student government, so I got the position by acclamation.  But you walk in there as a 3rd year law student is to feel like you're a foot taller than all the undergrad reps.

I quickly fell in with the President, who was a very pragmatic sort (and is now a Conservative MP), who went about such atypical student government projects as trying to renovate our student-owned businesses, instead of picking quixotic battles with administration that we'd never win.  Our unofficial "opposition" came from the Grad student reps, who were as crunchy and lefty as you'd expect.

Ah, good times.

[MadImmortalMan]

In Sweden you can work at a nuclear plant as long as you have a high school diploma, and it's working out great.

You admire our purity.

It helps to have decent high schools. 

[Admiral Yi]

Student protests about the cost of higher education are incredibly naive.

"You mean you would prefer to pay less?  We had never considered the possibility.  Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

[Valmy]

Student protests about the cost of higher education are incredibly naive.

"You mean you would prefer to pay less?  We had never considered the possibility.  Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

Not at public schools.  Political pressure can be exerted.

[Ideologue]

Student protests about the cost of higher education are incredibly naive.

"You mean you would prefer to pay less?  We had never considered the possibility.  Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

"You mean you might actually get angry and wise enough stop taking out massive loans to buy us Mercedes-Benzes, nice houses, hookers, and blow?  Uh-oh."

[Admiral Yi]

"You mean you might actually get angry and wise enough stop taking out massive loans to buy us Mercedes-Benzes, nice houses, hookers, and blow?  Uh-oh."

Yet you never see enrolled students, or prospective students, articulating that threat or carrying it out.

[Ideologue]

Not entirely true.  Law schools are collapsing, in minor part because of people finally recognizing the sunk cost fallacy as such.  But it is true that most trapped in the situation do try to see it through (whether it makes objective sense or not is immaterial).  However, such protests, along with agitprop, do make those who have not yet mortgaged their lives for credentials think twice.  That is the value of such exercises--and that is why they may have some benefit even for those within the system, who are otherwise powerless.

[Admiral Yi]

And have you seen state governments respond to the fall in law school enrollment by upping funding for public law schools?

[Barrister]

Student protests about the cost of higher education are incredibly naive.

"You mean you would prefer to pay less?  We had never considered the possibility.  Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

Well it did work in Quebec...