I could never be coordinated enough produce seven on a Friday. But here’s three:
1) If you ever wondered how someone like me ended up in the Legion of Mary, yeah, it’s about how you’d think. Don’t be fooled by that lovely little picture Sarah R. stuck up, I pray nothing but plastic these days. Unblessed at that, which horrifies the gallant rosary-maker I thanked the other week, but I tell you right now there is a rosary permanently stuck in the track of the seat of my truck. Yes. With the cheerios crumbs and the hardened mass you secretly hope is just gum, but maybe it isn’t. It’s all I can do to pray the thing; keeping it from falling out of my pocket and into the netherworld where no blessed objects belong is beyond my ability.
2) I don’t care what the nice guy at the Newman Society says, $20,000 a year for college tuition is not “affordable”. Put me firmly in the camp with Msgr. Pope, on the question of “Are We Unjust to Require College Degrees As Often As We Do?” Yes. We are unjust. It is a mockery to post “degree required” positions for jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the cost of student loans.
3) I am having massive fun today hitting the “share” button in Google reader. I made a little sidebar here on the blog that shows my favorite google-read posts. If you are like me and never, ever, actually visit your favorite blogs (because you read everything in RSS), but weirdly you want to know what things other people wrote that I think are worth reading, I think the link to my Google Reader Shared Posts page is here. Which in theory you could subscribe to. I have to test and see if that works. (Update: Yes! It works!)
It is a mockery to post “degree required” positions for jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the cost of student loans.
I think the issue is more that colleges are overcharging. And for what? Tuition has skyrocketed in the past 30 years. I paid $5,000 in-state tuition and fees for grad school in 1990. It now costs $66,000 for two years. I highly doubt that the University of Texas has gotten 13 times better since I got my MBA in 1992. My undergrad has gone up by about five times, but again, is not five times better. There is, however, a nice new recreation center with an outdoor pool. And there is a Diversity Officer.
Yes. Way more amenities at USC (my alma mater) than there were back in the ’90’s when normal people could still afford to pay full price.
SuperHusband & I were discussing this last night, and another thing we thought is that schools have no incentive to discourage poor decision-making. They aren’t the ones stuck holding the loans, so it is pure revenue for them to encourage bunches of art and anthropology majors.
Meanwhile, parents at USC are intentionally separated from their freshman children while the kids register for classes . . . meaning the person who is paying for the school is specifically prevented from making sure the student chooses worthwhile courses.