115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

[BassAle]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I do. The first two years tech, or community college should be mandatory and free. After that you're on your own. Right now High School prepares you for nothing but a huge debt.

trade school or 2 year community college should be part of "free" public education.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

trade school or 2 year community college should be part of "free" public education.

My high school would allow students to take college courses at a local public college or university if they signed up for it. Very few people ever did that, but the majority were the guys who went to the local tech college, getting a free head start on the automotive repair courses. I can only recall two people who went to local colleges/universities for classical liberal arts education. Students at that time were limited to two courses per term.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

CC also has to cull the herd. If you want to be an engineer and flub the courses, you have to be directed somewhere else.

Way way back when, there was this thing called the Kuder Aptitude Test that was given in HS. For me, it was dead on.

Trouble was I went with choice #4 (Math) instead of #2 (Accounting).

Give that to HS students and save everyone a lot of grief and wasted time and $$

I couldn't agree more.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

My high school would allow students to take college courses at a local public college or university if they signed up for it. Very few people ever did that, but the majority were the guys who went to the local tech college, getting a free head start on the automotive repair courses. I can only recall two people who went to local colleges/universities for classical liberal arts education. Students at that time were limited to two courses per term.

Exactly. By the time each of our three girls enrolled at the U of M, they already had at least 1.5 years worth of college credits completed, free of charge, all courtesy of the local high school program coupled with the local community college. That was a lot of money that we saved.

 

[burd]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Exactly. By the time each of our three girls enrolled at the U of M, they already had at least 1.5 years worth of college credits completed, free of charge, all courtesy of the local high school program coupled with the local community college. That was a lot of money that we saved.

I have three girls also who spent a good deal of their last HS years at a local junior college. They were not able to transfer many credits to the colleges they attended (just as they were able to claim only a few AP credits), but it was still very good for them. The junior college classes weren't rigorous, but it got them into a different environment and I think it significantly reduced senioritis for them.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Exactly. By the time each of our three girls enrolled at the U of M, they already had at least 1.5 years worth of college credits completed, free of charge, all courtesy of the local high school program coupled with the local community college. That was a lot of money that we saved.

That didn't work out for my kids. However, my oldest did take French all the way through high school and passed the University of Minnesota requirements whatever they were to get college credit for it. And she was in band. And band was free at the college she went to and it counted as credits toward her degree. So, she saved a buttload of money on college that way.

 

[Handyman]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Exactly. By the time each of our three girls enrolled at the U of M, they already had at least 1.5 years worth of college credits completed, free of charge, all courtesy of the local high school program coupled with the local community college. That was a lot of money that we saved.

Easily my biggest mistake was not doing that...a friend of mine had a year and a half done before HS graduation.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I had about a full year done thanks to college in the schools and AP.

As someone who hires a ton of grads, I firmly believe we have way too many kids at college, college is way overpriced. Many of these kids just don’t belong there

 

[St. Clown]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I had about a full year done thanks to college in the schools and AP.

As someone who hires a ton of grads, I firmly believe we have way too many kids at college, college is way overpriced. Many of these kids just don’t belong there

Adjusting for inflation, SCSU's tuition has almost doubled in 1995 dollars since I started there.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I had about a full year done thanks to college in the schools and AP.

As someone who hires a ton of grads, I firmly believe we have way too many kids at college, college is way overpriced. Many of these kids just don’t belong there

I think one of the biggest assets the State of Minnesota has is its community and technical college system. I really believe it should be a priority of the state, and of the K-12 system to be pushing kids in that direction, as opposed to enrolling at a place like the U of M, or even SCSU or Mankato. For those kids who quickly discover that "college isn't for me" due to its difficulty or expense, or whatever, if they are at a community college they will still have a chance. Instead of studying to move on to a University after a year or two, they can turn to studying for a trade.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

CC also has to cull the herd. If you want to be an engineer and flub the courses, you have to be directed somewhere else.

Way way back when, there was this thing called the Kuder Aptitude Test that was given in HS. For me, it was dead on.

Trouble was I went with choice #4 (Math) instead of #2 (Accounting).

Give that to HS students and save everyone a lot of grief and wasted time and $$

Agreed. People who want to do engineering but can't quite cut it can easily become another invaluable resource becoming a designer/drafter. That's often a very lucrative position given that you only need two years of trade school, at most.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Exactly. By the time each of our three girls enrolled at the U of M,

I always knew you were secretly a gopher fan who made smart decisions!

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Easily my biggest mistake was not doing that...a friend of mine had a year and a half done before HS graduation.

The best and worst thing I ever did was take AP courses. I started out as a junior and was taking chemical engineering and advanced chemistry courses my freshman year. They don't teach you how to learn in AP courses. They actually teach you the material. In college, the professor would tell you what you had to learn and then you would have to learn it. I didn't grasp this concept until my sophomore year. Took me until my final year to get my grades back up.

All of it would have worked out too if it weren't for one bad bit of advice from an advisor. Told me I needed organic chemistry for chemical engineering coursework, which was a crock of ****. Would have completed both degrees in three years.

 

[burd]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I always knew you were secretly a gopher fan who made smart decisions!

No, it's just that it's so easy for NoDaks to excel when they go to Minnie. It's like playing basketball among short people.

 

[Handyman]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

I think one of the biggest assets the State of Minnesota has is its community and technical college system. I really believe it should be a priority of the state, and of the K-12 system to be pushing kids in that direction, as opposed to enrolling at a place like the U of M, or even SCSU or Mankato. For those kids who quickly discover that "college isn't for me" due to its difficulty or expense, or whatever, if they are at a community college they will still have a chance. Instead of studying to move on to a University after a year or two, they can turn to studying for a trade.

As a person who works in said system I completely agree. My school is one of the top CCs in the country but the State's cuts are killing us.

 

[Handyman]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

No, it's just that it's so easy for NoDaks to excel when they go to Minnie. It's like playing basketball among short people.

So what is your excuse then for living in Wisconsin? Love the smell of bad cheese and awful beer? Deer fetish?

 

[trixR4kids]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

The best and worst thing I ever did was take AP courses. I started out as a junior and was taking chemical engineering and advanced chemistry courses my freshman year. They don't teach you how to learn in AP courses. They actually teach you the material. In college, the professor would tell you what you had to learn and then you would have to learn it. I didn't grasp this concept until my sophomore year. Took me until my final year to get my grades back up.

All of it would have worked out too if it weren't for one bad bit of advice from an advisor. Told me I needed organic chemistry for chemical engineering coursework, which was a crock of ****. Would have completed both degrees in three years.

This is rings true, I actually retook calc 1 my freshman year despite having passed the AP course mostly so I could inflate my grades. I think I got a B+ because at the college level they teach it all really quickly (and in this prof's case, terribly), focus on the more difficult parts (like we had to memorize a proof for no apparent reason), and weighted the final heavily (which I prob did good but not great on). But my second semester I was taking the intermediate econ courses that used higher calculus than that and it was pretty intense, I think I might've gotten a C+ and my grades took a hit.

You're dead on though, AP courses were kind of a catch 22 as they'd save money but then you'd be thrown into difficult college classes faster than everyone else who did those freshman year and had time to adjust to college life.

 

[burd]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

So what is your excuse then for living in Wisconsin? Love the smell of bad cheese and awful beer? Deer fetish?

You've never had all three together, have you?

 

[BassAle]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

My high school would allow students to take college courses at a local public college or university if they signed up for it. Very few people ever did that, but the majority were the guys who went to the local tech college, getting a free head start on the automotive repair courses. I can only recall two people who went to local colleges/universities for classical liberal arts education. Students at that time were limited to two courses per term.

I took two college computer science courses when I was in high school, through a distance learning program (this was before online courses, the state of Maine had a "interactive television" distance learning program where rural communities had classrooms setup with a video conferencing system -- which at the time was probably point to point microwave based -- definitely not internet). My high school paid the cost of the course. It was really beneficial since there is no way a rural Maine school in 90s was going to offer computer science as part of the curriculum.

 

[trixR4kids]

Re: 115th Congress - Fantastik! Try to remember we vote in November.

Awful beer? Their microbreweries aren't as abundant as MN's but Central Waters, Sprecher, and New Glarus all have good stuff. I'm sure there are smaller ones I don't know about that are good too.