exactly, that is the common viewpoint, which is why I was asking for clarification of the uncommon viewpoint above referenced…
The only “less common” ones I have heard before is a) people worry about PE /Abet connection too much b) some top schools don’t bother with ABET (Stanford, I believe?) so it can’t be that important
Also some people seem to think you aren’t allowed to go to engineering MA w/o undergrad in engineering which isn’t entirely true from my research. (though a hard path!).
I don’t think unionizing and fighting for better wages is at all to blame, and making them out to be the ones who brought this on themselves is unfair. It is the 
administration and those who voted red (or didn’t vote blue) that put this series of nightmares into play who should carry all the blame, not the grad students fighting for a living wage.
Im not trying to be political, just relaying what a professor (who is certainly a Democrat) told me about what they are doing right now, because they simply don’t have the budget for the grad student assistants that they would have used in previous years.
I only work at an R2. But since the pandemic, our college has been cutting salaries and benefits for employees. (Don’t even get me started on trying to understand how employee salaries were frozen for 3 years and benefits cut, then we got 1% raises finally last year, but now they threaten cutting more because they want to take out over 30 million from the budget but hey, the president of the university got a 500k a year plus salary increase in 2023 while we got 1% and benefits cut.)
I feel this so hard! Our LAC has frozen salaries. They patted themselves so hard on the back when giving us a slight increase while somehow expanding administrators. Even with the tiny bump of maybe 1%, a freeze in the context of an increase in the COL is effectively a pay cut. It’s infuriating. I think we have some administrators who really care and want the institution and the employees to thrive. And then others who seem to create work to justify their own positions and advance their careers.
As a local, Shish is a great place!
My husband’s LAC didn’t renew his contract. It ends in June. He has been there 9 years. They made a big round of cuts about 1.5 years ago. And now they are probably closing his campus.
I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope all are doing ok.I have a lot of academic friends whose careers have been affected in the last few years. Some left academia in advance of cuts, others because of cuts. I fear that coming to our campus…and really any of the LACs that aren’t tippy top given the trends and the current attacks on higher ed. I wish you all the best weathering the storm.
Well, C25 and I took off at 11pm on Thursday, flew “baby’s first red eye”, had “baby’s first breakfast burrito” in DTW, got into ROC at 9:20, drove around a bit and noted the giant piles of snow in every large parking lot, despite the day seeming pretty clear and warm. Did the campus tour of RIT at 2pm, dorm tour at 3:30, “exit through the gift shop with the 10% coupon only good today!”, and the kid wanted a few pieces of swag because they were pretty dang happy and ready to commit. Then we went over to my aunt’s house where we were going to sleep, and she had arranged for there to be pizza & wings and whoever could come over to do so, and see me and re-meet C25, and the kid was like “yeah, I like this nearby family, even I don’t really know them that well” (afterwards, they didn’t say this in the middle of socializing). So, I feel good that there’s nearby support in case something goes really wrong, and C25 feels like this is a good choice, and has realized that they really do want to go “away” to college. Then we turned right around and flew home on Saturday, and by the end of the night, we were so forgetful of things that we had a literal Three Stooges moment on a train, and then my husband picked us up and we came home right after midnight “it’s a 4 day trip now!!!”
So, basically, C25 and I had a most fun “road trip” type of experience, and the college choice got made, and the last minute rejection from UW-Seattle has been put in the bucket of “well, I’m glad I didn’t do a lot of research for comparison purposes”. And we both feel pretty good about the whole process.
I think I’m scheduled to put the deposit in tomorrow, cuz we’re both so short on sleep, we feel like we shouldn’t make any big moves and have things to click on to make sure we actually did it, and reading comprehension, and all that. But tomorrow, after school, we’re gonna sit down and fill in the forms and get it done!
Feels good to be “decided” now.
Wow- great story, and great ending. Wonderful news. 
That’s a nice outcome. And a great story. What a good feeling that must be for you all.
RIT seems like a pretty special place. It was one of the first places D25 and I visited. Beyond the curriculum, the maker spaces and Global Village just made it seem like a fun place to be. My husband was ready to enroll. lol.
D25 had a great experience at the Hunsaker scholarship weekend at Redlands. She thinks her interview went well and will find out by Friday if she is selected. Her dad and I also had a fun weekend in Redlands. We are both alums and the men’s basketball team made it to the D3 Elite Eight on Saturday night. We went to an alumni watch party at a restaurant in Redlands and reconnected with many friends from our college days.
@illneversaynever At the Chancellor’s Reception in Los Angeles today, they announced that everyone got into their first choice major.
Thank you for looping me into this! Yippee!
D25 may have already found a roommate. Going so fast! As she is in an LLC/Multicultural scholars program they have to live in a certain dorm with fellow scholars. She did the online roommate matching and seems she has found another student who has basically most of the same answers for her questions and they have been talking. It’s still early but she seems excited to know that she was at least brave enough to reach out.
If your business plan can’t handle paying your employees reasonable wages, then you need a different business plan, or to go out of business.
That goes equally for academic labs.
I have had an uber driver supplementing what he makes in a lab at Cal. Pretty sure it’s not optimal to be driving evenings after working all day but he said he needed it to make ends meet.
My D said “thanks but no thanks” to her safety school tonight. We had a moment of “are we sure?!” —and we were. (Needed to do that to open up a housing spot for another accepted student).
Everything suddenly feels a lot more real.
Reality is starting to creep in here too. D25’s top choice doesn’t seem to tie housing options to the date you pay the deposit. I mean, I’m ready to pay it. The odds of her going anywhere else feel slim. This is the only college she’s actually seemed really excited about. But I don’t think D25 is ready for it to feel real. I think she wants to make the now last as long as possible. She doesn’t want to think about housing or roommates yet. Just senior milestones.
We’re still waiting for a few decisions (hopefully this week) and I think two more accepted students visits. My D23 was decided by March 1, I think S25 is going to be April 30.