That is for a private University and not a state University and a prestigious private Univeristy to boot.

yup. and if it weren't for her father's willingness to spoil his family to no end, she'd be up shit creek without a paddle.

from what i hear, she's not really all that good at school, either.

but instead of planning ahead and using that college education and funds expended, it is currently going to waste.

the job market these days is harsh. you want a good job when you get out of college, you start looking a few years early, get something locked down before you leave.

but, she's better than me because she's going to college and seems to firmly believe that she will be handed a job when she graduates. and, she also believes that magically because of this education she will never be unemployed.

instead, daddy's going to buy her a nice apartment in nyc and fund her every whim. and probably start paying back the student loans she did take out.

and we won't start on mom or sis.

if someone came up to me and said "here's a $200k loan. you have 5 years to do something with it". well... the possibilities are endless, using that income and nothing else. and hell, even throw in the cost of living.

some people are raised correctly, to plan ahead, etc. but this country seems to breed a lot of "daddy buy-me's", who wouldn't last 10 minutes in the real world. it's unfortunate. what if something did happen to dad?

congratulations, you work at wal-mart for the rest of your life.

have to give props to that guy tho. he pretty much lives like ass because he gives everything to his family. not many out there that would do that.

where i started my college education, was about $4k/year, not including living expenses or books. i lived off campus.

it was a good school, with pretty high academic standards. but it is a state school.

I too attended State University...L.A. State...really not a great campus.

Name a country with higher tuitions :P

Bullshit.. United Nations worldwide statistics show that the United States, PER CAPITA, is about AVERAGE for educational opportunities and educational longevity for an industrialized country...

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demograph.../education.htm

Spain, the UK, Norway, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Greece, France, Finland, Denmark, Canada and Australia all have either the same or BETTER educational longevity than the US, per capita. Sorry my dear, you are incorrect.

Yes, apparently they don't believe that Insurance and HMO's exist. In fact, they should tune in to CNN tonight.. They're doing a report on the DREADFUL state of health care in the United States. No wait, CNN MIGHT be a liberal news station. But wait, US news was supposed to be more FAIR than everyone else. Well, what a catch 22 THAT is!! ;)

Shhh you're just jealous cause USA ROCKS WE ARE SMART! :Graucho

And neither theking or miss Furious_Female have actually said whether or not they READ the Patriot act, the direct link to the act itself that I posted. I'm waiting for them to tell me what a wonderful idea it is!

Ok, shushing. I'm awed and amazed :P

The US has lost its way in public education. We're not keeping up.

On the other hand the US has more top universities than any other nation in the world. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Cal Tech,
Brown, Cornell, Stanford, University of Chicago. I could go on. So could you. There are few other places in the world I would have wanted to go for my education. Oxford or Cambridge would be good choices.

These schools are businesses with huge endowments and hence great staffs. They can afford the best equipment and have the largest research grants. American scientists dominate the nobel prize in physics and medicine.

So yup, we have more McDonald's employees than any nation in the world and more scientists too.

Too many bombs. Not enough books.

Simple enough really.

Interesting thesis. So you think that spending 4% of a $10 trillion economy on military hardware is lowering public school educational standards, Joe?

With tuitions rising more and more every year, though, it's harder for the average guy to access a post-secondary education. That's not isolated to the States, either.. it's happening in Canada and other countries. But it's VERY naive to say that America is the BEST when it comes to that, because they're not. Yes they have more top schools, but it's a bigger country too. Glad to see you aren't so busy tooting the US horn that you can't admit to the truth, Colin :)

And I wasn't referring to YOU being naive, Colin.. Far from it.. you aren't so blinded by "patriotism" that you overlook the facts in your face :)

Well it's not just the bombs themselves but the cost associated with dropping them on foreigners. How much is all this warmongering costing Colin? If it were my tax dollars I'd rather see more money spent on education and less on imperialism.

I think, LadyMischief, that some of the same factors that lead to American strength with its large number of top schools also leads to American weakness in its public school system.

The main factor being a large population. As population increases wealth tends to spread out. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. For starters, the wealthy get wealthier because they earn more interest on their money (investments, CDs, stock market etc). The more unchecked the system of capitalism is, the greater this wealth inequality becomes. With everything else equal, more people added to the economy increases inequality. More money added to the economy increases inequality.

We all know the poor get the shaft in education. The bottom line is that education in America is very unequal and it becomes more unequal in time.

In 1997, there were 144,000 tax returns filed with the IRS that showed over $1million in adjusted gross income. Contrast this with the 32 million families making less than $20,000 a year.

If all is left the same policy-wise, if population and wealth continue to increase in the US, income inequality will continue to increase. More people will end up poor and more people will end up wealthy. However the number of poor will increase much faster than the number of wealthy. This would tend to create a cognitive elite and a great college system at the highest levels and keep the American Nobel prizes coming however it will also create a decreasing overall average in performance as the increasing number of poor bring down the average.

That assumes a lot. That policy doesn't change, that there is not a revolution in the education system, and that business law stays relatively the same as a few examples.

The most populous countries in the world are generally poor.
Despite this handicap, the US is a notable exception with one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world. A two centuries old brand of capitalism, vast social capital, early urbanization and industrialization, and stability have certainly helped.

All that "warmongering" helped make the US economy large. ;-)

Absolutely, I'm not debating that America is AMONG the top in the world, I DO debate the blind statement that America is *THE BEST* when it is simply not the full truth. :)

And now it's maknig the US debt large! :)

The US debt relative to the size of its economy is average among G7 nations. It's about 61% right now I think. This is less than it was in the mid-1990s. It's also considerably less than Canada's was just 6 years ago. Interestingly, Canada has reduced its debt to just 37% in those few years.

The US has had similar waves of higher and lower debt in the past. It was once in excess of 100% (like Italy's and Japan's is today). It reached a low of 35% in the late 1970's (and then increased to 50% under Reagan).

The US debt was over 50% from 1943 until 1963.

The US economy is 45 times larger than that of the 20th largest economy. That's why its debt seems that much higher. Many nations have similar debt to the US compared to its size.

Yes but the continued dip into far-from endless pockets to cover the cost of war certainly isn't going to help :)

The facts you bring attention to can be interpreted in many different ways. There is always positive and negative reinforcement in every notion. Having different opinions doesn't make either right or wrong. We also aren't speaking of things that are in effect, but proposals that have many phases to pass through, before it's time to panic. My argument is not whether or not the Patriot Act II is fair and justified, my statement is to be thankful for what we do have.

As far as America having the best educational opportunities, it is true. The US has the best facilities on earth. However, there is food for every bird, but mother nature doesn't drop it in nests. It's out there and has to be attained on your own will to survive and climb up the food chain ladder.