being respectful of teen posters

Paying for College
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<p>California does not have standardized course numbering, but does have [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) to make it easy for CC students to find which courses they need to cover prerequisites for their desired major at UCs and CSUs.</p>

<p>You can add Florida to the list of states that do have standardized course numbering between various public schools.</p>

<p>Of course, these arrangements may not help students coming from schools other than those listed in the articulation agreements, although there is a partial multistate listing at <a href=“http://www.transfer.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.transfer.org</a> .</p>

<p>Private schools that take few transfer students, or where transferred courses come from scattered sources (as opposed to a small number of previous colleges being heavily represented) tend to require individual evaluation (the same goes for public schools when the previous college is not in an existing articulation agreement).</p>

<p>With respect to credit for dual enrollment courses, private schools have economic incentive to minimize such credit for incoming frosh, while public schools have economic incentive to grant credit generously.</p>

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<p>Is that always true? Just a question to ponder. If your revenue generating courses are the large, freshman lectures, how is it a financial incentive for even public schools to bring in students only for the smaller, seminar-type or lab-heavy classes that juniors and seniors take?</p>

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<p>One student I know changed his major at least once. This set him back a bit, but since that extra time was spent living at home and attending a CC, the cost was much less than spending that extra time finding out what he wanted at 4 year college. By the time he did transfer, he was extremely focused and did very well.</p>

<p>However, I have also known of some students who I agree with their desire to leave home, a narrow community, or a situation that did not support their interests. They were better off at a 4 year college even at the higher cost.</p>

<p>Some 4 year colleges have satellite programs and online programs, which gives students more opportunities to finish the degree. </p>

<p>It is really an individual choice.</p>

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<p>Most public universities have predominantly in-state students who, even if paying list price, are explicitly heavily subsidized for tuition. Even the lower cost frosh level courses may not pay for themselves with in-state tuition (and if there are state or campus based financial aid grants or scholarships, the revenue is less). Note that some popular frosh-level courses like chemistry do have labs.</p>

<p>In addition, the public universities’ missions are typically to educate as many capable state residents as possible; the fewer the courses students need to graduate, the more space the campus has for additional students.</p>

<p>Note that some states encourage students to take the frosh and sophomore level courses at even lower cost community colleges and then transfer into the universities as juniors.</p>

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<p>Yes, exactly! Thanks for this post.
And especially some adults being harsh to int’l students. That’s just not fair.</p>

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<p>Have you read the Terms of Service? Here are the pertinent two sections:</p>

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<p>If you feel that a poster is not following these rules, you can click on “Report Problem Post.”</p>

<p>Threads tend to wander all over the place. If a poster comes up with a question totally off-topic, we will ask that they start a new thread. Otherwise, there is a good bit of leeway for the direction the conversation takes.</p>

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<p>But what if reality is harsh, and there is no way to say it any less harshly?</p>

<p>E.g. is it better to let the student and parents know that taking $100,000+ in student loan debt to attend a “dream school” will likely result in a nightmare while the student is creating a college application list, or say nothing while the student attends such a school, later to drop out after running out of money, with no degree and lots of debt?</p>

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<p>Nobody is saying we should avoid harsh realities, just couch them in gentler terms. Remember that the information is going to be both shocking and very upsetting to the poster, who is a teenager. They need to hear it, but we can try to be understanding about the fact that the reality is crushing their “dreams”.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the info, MaineLonghorn, I will follow up on that suggestion.</p>

<p>What I am suggesting is that everybody make a conscious effort to retract their claws when responding to a youth poster. Here are some examples of the sort of thing that bothers me. I’m paraphrasing.</p>

<p>“If your parents’ income is … they should have done such-and-so (e.g. 529 investment amounts).” Positive approach: Your parents may have made a 529 investment, and may be willing to reassure you about this; have you tried asking them? [Note, many youth posters may not even know what a 529 investment is, or how it works; some parents may not even know.]</p>

<p>“You should have talked with your parents earlier about…” Positive approach: it’s never too late to talk to your parents about…</p>

<p>“Judging from the financial information you have posted, I think it’s likely your parents can afford…” Sorry, I can’t find a positive way of expressing this.</p>

<p>I realize that some youth posters have a thick skin and can handle a lot. But (a) <em>I’m</em> offended by some of what I have read on the forum. And (b) let’s suppose the youth poster accepts the responders’ advice to start a dialogue about finances with his parents, and begins by showing his parents his CC thread; it would be a shame if the tone of any of the responses in the thread put the parents on the defensive about their finances or financial savvy.</p>

<p>Note, it doesn’t bother me when an adult poster talks to a youth poster about the dangers of getting in deep debt. That’s not what my plea is about.</p>

<p>Regarding tangents – every forum has its own level of tolerance of tangents. Judging from the tangents I’ve seen on this thread, I guess CC has a very high level of tolerance of tangents. Wow!</p>

<p>It’s not that the tangents aren’t interesting. It’s just that they make it hard for people with limited internet time to participate or find what they need.</p>

<p>I would like to request that new threads be made for the tangents in this particular case at least. Just post a link to your new thread.</p>

<p>If there’s more people want to say on the topic of etiquette when responding to a youth poster’s thread … I look forward to reading it! If people feel done with this topic, let’s let the thread die a happy death. Thanks, everyone!</p>

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<p>If people with " limited internet time" would read the stickies listed first on the pertinent threads, time spent on locating applicable information would be cut in half.
( as would the time of the experienced posters who patiently explain things to students who don’t want to take the time to read through things that are not relevant to them,* this minute.)*</p>

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<p>I confess, the person with limited internet time that I was thinking of was me! There were so many tangential posts in this thread that I found it taking more time than I had available to pick through them to find the posts that were related to my original contribution.</p>