Jobless grads rap Sallie Mae over loan fee

amtc · February 4, 2012, 10:44am

I get that she is underemployed but sometimes as an adult you need to switch gears. Maybe I’m wrong but it would seem to me that she should use her Russian fluency in pursuing a job or even tutor kids or executives in the language for extra cash. Whining rarely looks attractive, taking responsibility and doing what’s necessary does looks attractive.

vlines · February 4, 2012, 10:49am

YES, I did!!! Because I was appalled at the advice he was getting from some. My instruction to my son has always been “You must go to college, you can choose what ever career you want, but you need to make sure that your career choice will support the way of life you would like to live in”. In other words, you will not be living here forever, and I am not supporting you forever.

So when he started talking about different majors, we did get out the want ads, and look up available jobs on the government website to see both the availability of jobs, and the salaries.

Now, that was his Junior year in HS, 2011. He will be graduating 2016 from college. So much CAN change in that time. And that is scary! Planning and evaluating can only go so far.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 10:52am

I’m not familiar with this term. Please clarify.

I Googled it to no avail. Is it someone you love, who doesn’t love you back?

mncollegemom · February 4, 2012, 10:55am

Another thing about this woman, unless I am confusing her with someone else that is ripping on student loans, she skipped the country and is now living in Russia with no intention of paying back this loan.

I also agree that if after a year of searching for a job, perhaps it’s time to look for another career. I know interpreters around here make $50+/hour and are in HIGH demand. She could easily have paid back those loans with that kind of money.

Again, we don’t have the full story. Maybe she had a 2.0 gpa and can’t get interviews, who knows?

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 11:47am

And the statistical significance of your kids is zero.

There are a wide variety of backgrounds of high-school and college
kids. Some kids are privileged and some kids come from horrid home
environments. Some kids have parents that know the college game and
the employment game. Some kids have parents with connections so that
they won’t have to worry about employment. Most kids do not have these
resources.

I agree that putting your name out there and complaining impedes
career opportunities but people are somewhat functions of their
environment. I could ask why people pay so much for houses and cars or
why people kept their money on the stock market through market crashes
or why they have kids when they can’t afford them or why they drink
alcohol or smoke cigarettes or don’t watch their weight or why they
don’t exercise five hours a week or why they waste time watching
television. But people do what they do based a lot on their
experiences and environment. And something that I can see in a second
may be impossible for others to see.

So you as a parent read help-wanted ads for your son. That’s a little
different from your son reading help-wanted ads though, correct? It
seems that there are a lot of parents here that provide usable advice
to their kids. That’s nice to have. But not everyone has it.

I don’t see how you can ensure that your career choice will support
your life. You could major in engineering and the jobs might not be
there when you get out or you might not be able to handle the program.

You could go into nursing and get an injury that would make it
difficult to lift patients.

You could pick some specialty area that gets obsoleted through
technology. I remember the accountants that worked on huge sheets of
paper to prepare general ledger reports. They were basically doing
spreadsheets on paper. Then the personal computer and Visicalc came
along and far fewer of those guys were needed.

Non sequitur (play /nɒnˈsɛkwɪtər/) is Latin for “it does not follow.”
It is most often used as a noun to describe illogical statements.

According to the NYTimes article linked in post #13, she visited
the offices of Sallie Mae two days ago to hold a press conference.

“On Thursday morning, wearing a cap and gown and accompanied by Molly
Katchpole, 22, the nanny who started the Bank of America petition,
Ms. Gray visited the Washington offices of Sallie Mae to hold a news
conference and deliver the petition, which had attracted 77,000
signatures.”

– NY Times

That would seem to me to be inconsistent with fleeing the country.

She lists a 3.5 GPA for her MA.

[Stefanie</a> Gray | LinkedIn](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/stefaniegray]Stefanie”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/stefaniegray)

I think that it’s pretty hard to get into a Masters program with
a 2.0 GPA but you can look up the minimum requirements at Hunter
College if you wish.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 11:52am

I’m well acquainted with the term “non-sequitur.”

I asked about the term you wrote - “non requiter” -

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 11:56am

A typographical error (often shortened to typo) is a mistake made in, originally, the manual type-setting (typography) of printed material, or more recently, the typing process. The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger,[1] but usually excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors. Before the arrival of printing, the “copyist’s mistake” or “scribal error” was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters.

The term fat finger, often in combination with “fat-finger syndrome”, is used as slang to refer to the invocation of a unwanted secondary action due to (a) one’s finger being bigger than the envisioned touch zone, or (b) accidental inaccuracy in the fine motor movements of one’s extremities. In general terms, for example, pressing a different button than expected on a touchscreen, or hitting two adjacent keys on a keyboard in a single keystroke during data entry (for example, buckled instead of bucked due to the adjacency of the L key to the K key on many keyboards). Especially in light of the trend in e.g. mobile phones always getting smaller, the etymology for the fat finger term may root in the fact that users with naturally-grown big fingers, as well as obese users, are one of the first groups to run into problems of this miniaturization.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 11:59am

^^^
Nice story. Generally when people make typos it isn’t two letters in the same word, and generally the incorrect letters are at least somewhere close on the keyboard to the correct letters. You must have pretty “fat fingers” to hit “e” when you meant to hit “u”.

But you’re great with cut and paste from wikipedia.

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 12:15pm

I do long replies in emacs and the default mode doesn’t have a spell-checker in it. Short posts get spell-checked by Firefox. My home office is in the basement and I’m a few feet from a very large window. The basement isn’t heated and it’s a bit chilly in New Hampshire today. I do have big fingers though - my tennis grip size is 4 5/8 with an overgrip. 4 5/8s is the biggest grip size in standard tennis racquets - you can, of course, go bigger with a custom mold.

In general, I don’t comment on usage or typos or text-speak because it’s considered childish when the meaning is fairly obvious.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 12:15pm

Yeah, right.

Requiter Sequitur. Almost identical.

I’m going with this one. And that’s giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you are going to lecture people on their posts, you should at least use the correct words.

younghoss · February 4, 2012, 12:20pm

I can answer the Q posed to me in post 17 for me. Whether or not I searched help wanted ads before I went to college(BC assumes I went to college) is completely irrelevent. I am not the subject of the article. I get the feeling the woman in the article saw college as job training. That’s ok. But she has entered a field that needs a min of 7 yrs experience. It really isn’t job difficulty because of a “hot or not” field. I do not begrudge her choosing this field. My perspective would be her choosing this field, then complaining about difficulty finding work immediately. It isn’t a case where employment had been immediate, but unexpectedly “the bottom fell out” suddenly while she was in school. IMO, it isn’t fair to close one’s eyes, jump into a puddle, then complain about wet feet.
I strongly agree this student did a lot of things right(post 19). But if one chooses to not look at hiring requirements before one does the studies, then complains about few job opportunities- shows me there was a key step left out.

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 12:35pm

You didn’t answer the question.

Irrelevant. The question was about reasonableness.

Then why get a BA and an MA?

The certificate was clearly about job-training.

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This seems to be an interesting field - especially if you have some programming or database skills.

It seems to me that there are jobs out there in this field so I don’t think
that it’s a bad choice.

Well, the bottom fell out on a lot of people and it’s been out for a few
years. She hid in graduate school, and completed a certificate program while
working some number of full and part-time jobs in related and unrelated
areas. I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to complain about the lousy
job market because it is a lousy job market.

mncollegemom · February 4, 2012, 12:37pm

BC–I disagree that high school kids these days don’t have some inclination of employment rates for intended careers. The information is just too easy to access for them not to have SOME idea. Add to that, college placement offices and the major declaration process at most schools and a student would have to be a complete idiot NOT to have a clue about employment rates.

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 12:44pm

You’re wrong, here’s the proof.

There are actually three pages of google search results where
I use the term.

You’re acting in a childish fashion.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 12:52pm

^^^^A little defensive aren’t we? I guess spell check was working those days.

Hilarious. In an attempt to negate someone’s argument you reached into your polemical quiver and pulled out a pile of rhetorical gibberish, which you label a ”typo.” And you resort to personal attacks when someone points out your error in a manner you don’t like.

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 12:54pm

I am thinking of majoring in applied physics as the title
suggests. but i am kind of clueless about what kind of job i would be
able to do in the future if i did. i have always been attracted to
physics as a student, particularly mechanics. i am applying to
caltech, stanford, berkeley and uchicago (association with fermilab
being my main motivator for applying here). anyways, i wont probably
get into caltech or stanford. inshaAllah either berkeley or uchicago
might just somehow work out. but then again scholarship would be a
problem. so i would also like to know, if anyone can tell me, how good
berkeley and uchicago are for undergraduate physics. i am also willing
to switch applied physics for theoretical physics. berkeley
application deadline is looming and you have to select the major when
applying and i think it is binding. and can you minor in computer
science while majoring in physics at berkeley and the other
universities stated above? you cant minor in something like
aeronautical engineering while majoring in physics or can you? there
is no option of selecting a minor in the application form of
berkeley. so a quick reply would be appreciated.

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1245245-applied-physics-major-prospects-job-opportunities.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1245245-applied-physics-major-prospects-job-opportunities.html</a>

I like genetics, and would like to be a genetic engineer/researcher,
but it seems as though research careers are down the tubes (except for
pharmacology). What do you suggest I do instead? Become a computer
scientist (programmer/software engineer), since that will be at least
kind of close as to what I would do as a researcher? Become an
engineer (I would most likely pick electrical) because they also use
method’s similar to a researchers? Become a pharmacist, since it still
has to do with science? Become a genetic counselor? Become an
accountant because that has the best career prospects? What should I
do?

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1272109-i-like-genetics-but-will-lead-job.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1272109-i-like-genetics-but-will-lead-job.html</a>

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to double major in some
earth-science and some business degree. I am more interested in the
industry side of geology (mining, oil, ect.). Would a business degree
add to a geology degree? What about advanced education like a MBA?

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1283930-geology-business.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1283930-geology-business.html</a>

I’ve run into a fair number of College Confidential posts in the College Majors
forums where high-school kids don’t seem to have any clue about employability
at the current time let alone four or five years down the road. Most high-school
kids don’t know what a lot of jobs are like - what you do day in and day out;
the stress levels, the work hours, etc. Employability can fall off a cliff too.

One third of children and teens are overweight or obese. It is really, really
easy to find information on diet and exercise. Why can’t these kids get in
shape?

We have high-school and college students on College Confidential that
don’t have a feel for employment rates. Presumably the students on
College Confidential do not fall into the “idiot” category.

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 12:57pm

I play defense and offense.

But one typo vs three pages of correct spelling - I think that the statistics show whether or not I can spell the term correctly or not. Check out all of the posts. I’d say at least half of the links that I provided are long enough so that I used emacs to write the posts.

You’re being childish.

bovertine · February 4, 2012, 1:01pm

^^^
Good grief, you’re insecure.

But I guess that’s a childish statement.

When all else fails, repeat yourself. It’s a pleasant refuge when you don’t know what you’re talking about. I bet I could locate an abundance of posts where you inanely do that. But I’m done with your nonsense.

mncollegemom · February 4, 2012, 1:09pm

BC—the light comes on—you are 18…every parent here knows what that means now…

BCEagle91 · February 4, 2012, 1:10pm

Far fromit.

Yes, it is.

You’re being childish.

Jobless grads rap Sallie Mae over loan fee

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