Thinking about asking the Registrar Office for my tuition and finding an apartment in New York City

Parents Forum
1

<p>Please hear me out.</p>

<p>I love entrepreneurship. I love web development and programming. I love to solve problems using the web. I started programming when I was 13 years old and haven’t stopped since. </p>

<p>I’m currently a freshman who majors in Computer Science (Surprise!).</p>

<p>Over the summer, I’ll be attending a web development bootcamp in (see Dev Bootcamp, App Academy, Hack Reactor). In short, a web development bootcamp is a 9-12-week intensive training program (8-11 hours a day, 5 days a week, and tons of homework ) that gives its students the skill set of a junior web developer. The program that I’m attending also boasts an average starting salary of over 100,000 dollars for over 95 percent its graduates.</p>

<p>By the end of my 4 years in college, we will have shelled out over 100,000 dollars in tuition. The programs mentioned above range from 0-20,000 to attend. </p>

<p>My mother is totally ambivalent to me attending the bootcamp. She just sees it as me trying to find a shortcut through life.</p>

<p>She called me up and put her co-worker on the phone to tell me how much of a bad idea what I want to do is. My mother also told me today that she is “mad and almost embarrassed for me” because “everyone else is chasing a degree” but me.</p>

<p>I’ve begged her to see it from my perspective. I explained to her that I am more than willing to attend college part-time and be a full-time web developer. What’s the problem with that? Why can’t we both be happy?</p>

<p>I can feel myself losing patience now. I have pleaded in every way. The last thing for me to do is to ask the college for the tuition back, get out of here, and carve my life out. When I ask my college for a refund, will it give the money to my parents, or hand me a check with my tuition?</p>

<p>What are your thoughts?</p>

2

<p>I am not aware of any college which will refund tuition “just because”. If your parents purchased tuition insurance, then there is a third party prepared to refund a portion based on the circumstances of your withdrawal (mostly medical). And some colleges will refund a small portion if you leave before the semester is over.</p>

<p>If you do some research (like figuring out that colleges don’t hand kids back a check, like you’re returning a pair of shoes at Macy’s) perhaps you can come up with a rational presentation for your parents. But right now you sound like a petulant teenager ( I mean no disrespect. I love teenagers.)</p>

<p>You need a plan, and you don’t have one. Web bootcamp is not a Bachelor’s degree- so start there. Come up with a plan which allows you to be working in the field you love while you are getting a BA. Your parents don’t want you moving back home 8 years from now when your job has moved to Mumbai or the Dominican Republic and pays $3 an hour, and you don’t have a degree nor any other fungible skills besides web development.</p>

<p>Think of all the kids with certificates in E-commerce in 2001 when the tech bubble burst. You could wallpaper your bathroom with the certificate- but they weren’t worth much beyond that.</p>

3

<p>The money is your mother’s property. If you were to somehow able to be able to take a refund and access the money you would be guilty of fraud, felony larceny, etc. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA.</p>

<p>If you feel like you need to start out on your own, without a degree, in a very competitive market (not a good idea), do it honestly.</p>

<p>Furthermore, I would be very skeptical about the average starting salary and placement percentage figures. They seem exceedingly high for coders with 3 months training. Entry level coders are a dime a dozen these days. There is not much I can see that would put you ahead of so many.</p>

<p>Finally, living in NYC is not cheap by any stretch. 100K per year is not a great NYC salary. </p>

4

<p>If you are currently a Freshman, then your semester, quarter or school year will soon be coming to a close.
I am assuming that your question is really if you should send in your tuition for next Fall?</p>

<p>Perhaps you can go through the bootcamp with some arrangement that would please both you and your parents – maybe taking a minimum of 12 units to retain your student status, but working (if you find a job) as a programmer simultaneously. Maybe you let them know that you will reimburse them for your tuition if they are still unhappy with your choice. Try to come up with a plan that is agreeable to both parties.</p>

<p>If you really will be making the 100K per year that you think, than when you are financially independent, you can either continue as a part-time student working toward your degree, paying your own way, or postpone the degree until a time when it makes more sense for you. A degree is not the only key to success, but it is the most recognizable one.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for your response and advice, blossom.</p>

<p>“But right now you sound like a petulant teenager”</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>“You need a plan, and you don’t have one. Web bootcamp is not a Bachelor’s degree- so start there. Come up with a plan which allows you to be working in the field you love while you are getting a BA.”</p>

<p>I stated above that I offered to attend school part time while working.</p>

<p>“Your parents don’t want you moving back home 8 years from now when your job has moved to Mumbai or the Dominican Republic and pays $3 an hour, and you don’t have a degree nor any other fungible skills besides web development.”</p>

<p>You’ve made a huge assumption about the type of jobs bootcamp graduates get. The bootcamps are funded by startups and companies including Google, Twitter, and Facebook. These companies send representatives to the bootcamp to scoop up new talent because they trust what has been taught to the students.</p>

6

<p>Can you please clarify what you mean by “refund”? Your freshman year is just about over and you did attend all year, I assume, and have received a year full of credits, yes? If you mean a refund of that money, that would be impossible - like eating at restaurant A and after finishing, asking for your money back because you really would rather go to restaurant B… If you mean next year’s money, it is highly unlikely that any of that has been paid to the registrar yet… So, I’m unclear what money you mean… @Angebracht</p>

7

<p>Dreadpirit:</p>

<p>“The money is your mother’s property. If you were to somehow able to be able to take a refund and access the money you would be guilty of fraud, felony larceny, etc. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA.”</p>

<p>Are you trying to scare me? I don’t plan to steal any money or finagle my tuition from the school. I want to honestly take the tuition back as the student. I want to know if that’s possible.</p>

<p>“If you feel like you need to start out on your own, without a degree, in a very competitive market (not a good idea), do it honestly.”</p>

<p>Right now, America’s universities only supplies 41% of the demand for web developers!</p>

<p>“Finally, living in NYC is not cheap by any stretch. 100K per year is not a great NYC salary.”</p>

<p>I’m 19, Deadpirit. The only responsibility I would have is myself. 100K per year would be an amzing start for me while I find my way.</p>

8

<p>It is May 1. No, you can not get a refund for this semester’s tuition. Period.</p>

9

<p>Your school is not going to refund the money for the semester to you in May. It’s just not going to happen. </p>

10

<p>Tell you what, you are much braver than I was last year. Man with the type of confidence you have at your age I don’t really see a reason for you not to follow your heart. Your mom is just inhibiting you and wants you to be just another average joe.</p>

11

<p>“If you are currently a Freshman, then your semester, quarter or school year will soon be coming to a close.
I am assuming that your question is really if you should send in your tuition for next Fall?”</p>

<p>Yes. This question applies to next fall.</p>

<p>“Perhaps you can go through the bootcamp with some arrangement that would please both you and your parents – maybe taking a minimum of 12 units to retain your student status, but working (if you find a job) as a programmer simultaneously. Maybe you let them know that you will reimburse them for your tuition if they are still unhappy with your choice. Try to come up with a plan that is agreeable to both parties.”</p>

<p>Exactly! I’m trying to get my parents to see that I want them to be happy as well! I will DEFINITELY go through college and get my credits. As it’s currently set up now, I am already reimbursing my parents for tuition (With interest, too. I’m cool with this. It was easier to borrow from them than from a bank. ). It’s making me think a little. Do they want me to stay in college so that they make more money off of me? </p>

<p>“If you really will be making the 100K per year that you think, than when you are financially independent, you can either continue as a part-time student working toward your degree, paying your own way, or postpone the degree until a time when it makes more sense for you. A degree is not the only key to success, but it is the most recognizable one.”</p>

<p>I wish my parents and friends understood your final sentence – actually, your whole answer. </p>

<p>Thanks for the understanding, hop! I’ll keep persisting to find a way to please both parties.</p>

12

<p>I’m confused- do you want to not enroll in college in the fall and not pay tuition, or have your parents pay tuition and assume you are going to be there, then you will ask for a refund and not attend?</p>

<p>It’s too early to have paid fall tuition already. </p>

13

<p>Pennylane2011:</p>

<p>The latter. </p>

14

<p>OP, the above poster was not referring to you stealing from the school; the poster was saying that you would be stealing from your family, unless it was your money that was paid to your college. If the tuition was paid by your family, then any refund should go to them–not to you.</p>

<p>What about continuing in school ( no education is ever wasted–there must be some topics you would like t learn about, programming related or otherwise) while also working to save up the money for the boot camp, so that you can pay for it by yourself? or do the bootcamps you are interested in offer any form of financial aid that you could qualify for? The bootcamps are not going to disappear-- and maybe you could give yourself a goal of saving up enough money to go next summer. A year seems like forever when you are young, but it really isn’t a long period of time.</p>

<p>What could you do to make money? With your skills, could you program on the side? Or work in some other area that you also enjoy? My son reffed soccer games in college and earned a lot of money-- the rate varied from $25 to $70 per game, depending on the level. He registered as a ref with some local leagues and was able to control his own schedule. And on tournament weekends (and there are a lot of those) he would often work up to 8 games.
What would you enjoy doing that would be lucrative?</p>

15

<p>I hire for a living.</p>

<p>Whatever labor shortage there is right now for the bootcamp skills will be short term. Any skills which can be taught in 12 weeks-- hopefully you’ve taken enough economics to understand “low barrier to entry” in the field-- that shortage will go away once other people see how easy it is to command a 100k salary. So the labor glut reduces the salaries-- the companies pocket the difference-- and the market goes back to equilibrium.</p>

<p>I think it’s great you’ve found your passion, but hear your parents out on what they object to.</p>

<p>And guess what- my radiologist works in India. All the US doctors who think their skill set is so technical and so unique and so highly trained that they can never be outsourced- guess again. Indian radiologists make 40K per year- good for them- leaving US radiologists who are holding 200K worth of med school loans holding the bag. If a job doesn’t require physically touching someone- some company, some where (and Google will probably lead the pack) will figure out how to move it to a cheaper location.</p>

<p>A friends company has lawyers working in Warsaw and Costa Rica. They work New York or Hong Kong hours so nobody knows where they are. They make 20% of what a lawyer makes in London or Hong Kong- plus the office space costs nothing. who’d have thunk it.</p>

16

<p>I am a little confused about the numbers. Is it the development bootcamp that will cost you between 0 and $20,000? If your mom is opposed to you attending, is this what you are trying to raise funds to pay for? Also wondering if you have spoken to recent grads of this “bootcamp” to ascertain that the salaries they claim graduates attain has some basis in fact.</p>

<p>Sounds to me that you are chomping at the bit to get out in the working world and make some money. I think that is commendable, but you need to think it through and make sure this is the right move. Personally, I would have no problem with a child of mine coming to me and telling me he/she wanted to work part time and go to school part time. But that is me and your family may have different expectations. Since you appear to need the financial support of your mother to make this happen, you need to focus your efforts on convincing her this is the right move. AND you have to keep your promise that you will get your degree. </p>

<p>And no, the college you are attending is not going to refund any tuition payments made by your mom to you. But you should know that!</p>

17

<p>How would your parents feel if they paid tuition thinking you were in school and then you somehow took it and did something else? Think of the long term consequences of this. </p>

18

<p>If this boot camp is so wonderful, how about if you apply for JOBS and pay your own way. If you land a job where you can support yourself in NYC, you can just start in December when the fall term ends. Problem solved.</p>

19

<p>?? If they are 0 to 20k, why not do the one that costs 0?</p>

<p>Is this Ruby on Rails or what?</p>

<p>Are you sure those salaries will apply to someone with no work experience and no degree? I don’t think so. Maybe after some experience, sure.</p>

20

<p>I’ll take the other side of this…not everybody wants/needs college…and some of the best qualified folks in that area are coders…especially coders like this kid who love the business…there was a piece in the Times in March about Google hiring employees with <em>no</em> college at all…just coding experience. Is this right for everybody? Nope. Could it be right for 5% of kids like this? Yup. And could he try a year of it and see what happens? And as for financial security/job confidence…I know a <em>bunch</em> of college graduates right now working at Panera Bread and Caribous Coffees…</p>