Best Colleges for Skiing?

lolkl wrote

How can someone decide what they want to do for the rest of their life when they are 16? Most of the kids who are going to move on to college have to start the application process by 11th grade. ( Wow !...11th grade.... three toughest years of my life )
I would guess that if a person was to take a year or two off before college, get a job, go skiing and experience life outside of your parent's influence, they wouldn't choose the same thing they picked in High school.
I miss GSS.

Two schools of thought there, and not really being clearly presented here.

The MC2 method:  Get in there and get it done, don't waste time (you're a loser if you do), work your ass off, save like crazy and try to retire early.

Then there's the MBK method (that's me):  Fuck off, take your time, figure out what you want to do but NEVER get yourself in debt for school.  When you figure it out, do the goddamn best you can.  Get a good, low stress job that pays well and do all the things you want to do when you are young and can still do it.  Try to retire before you die and not fuck up the world too much in the process.

Get a good, low stress job that pays well and do all the things you want to do when you are young and can still do it.

There aren't that many Gym Teaching jobs and only one V.P. of the U.S.A.....

Oh well... and then there's the ski bum way:

JasonWx wrote

Get a good, low stress job that pays well and do all the things you want to do when you are young and can still do it.

There aren't that many Gym Teaching jobs and only one V.P. of the U.S.A.....

My job is really low stress and I make far more than I need to live.  Just gotta know how to work it

What do gym teachers make?

about 70K
state workers have a good gig

campgottagopee wrote

about 70K
state workers have a good gig

Teacher.  70k?  Depends on the school district but you ain't seeing anywhere near that until about 20 years in usually.

I'd say 40-50k on average.

My wife works for the city school district.  I guess they actually get a paid a little more in most cases.  She's right in the range I posted.  She also has a crippling amount of college debt.

On the plus side she has excellent benefits, a great retirement plan (that probably won't be pulled out from under her before she retires), and summers and holidays off.

I actually worked it out if she were to work the minimum hours for the job and she'd get paid more per hour than I do.

Teaching is NYS isn't a bad gig.  You won't be rich, but you'll have a lot of free time and be in a union.  What sucks is you need a masters degree, you have to deal with all the NYS bureaucratic BS, and it is kind of high stress (for most people).

I graduated high school in 1980. The gym teacher I had is still there. He makes 125k +...Sweetest gig in the world...
I check this out because I saw him get in BMW X5..

JasonWx wrote

I graduated high school in 1980. The gym teacher I had is still there. He makes 125k +...Sweetest gig in the world...
I check this out because I saw him get in BMW X5..

Don't doubt it.  But that's only after 35+ years.

My wife's district:

http://www.nctq.org/docs/Rochester_City-2014-2015_salary_schedule.pdf

Also consider that you could potentially have $300k+ of loans to start off with (Bachelors + Masters).

Doesn't seem to make sense if you ask me.

I'll never make 125k even after 35 years (I certainly won't work that long).  I started off a lot higher than a teacher does AND a masters is not a requirement.

Now if you are smart you could get your whole education for, I'm guessing, less than $40k.  That would probably mean CC up front, then state school, then getting the district to pay for your masters (which they do in a lot of cases).  You could easily make that much and work it off over 4 -5 years.

MikeK wrote

Two schools of thought there, and not really being clearly presented here.

The MC2 method:  Get in there and get it done, don't waste time (you're a loser if you do), work your ass off, save like crazy and try to retire early.

That's not really my method. But I do think that if you have a task, whether it's "empty the dishwasher", "graduate college" or "save enough money to retire", you should charge through it and not dawdle around. And it's not that people who dawdle around are losers (especially if the reason for dawdling is a job outside of school - that's not dawdling, that's working two jobs), it's just that there are efficient ways to do everything and people are better off when they're more efficient with what they do (otherwise, they're losing time and energy to inefficiency).

Then there's the MBK method (that's me):  Fuck off, take your time, figure out what you want to do but NEVER get yourself in debt for school.  When you figure it out, do the goddamn best you can.  Get a good, low stress job that pays well and do all the things you want to do when you are young and can still do it.  Try to retire before you die and not fuck up the world too much in the process.

This is actually closer to my plan than you realize. I also have a low stress job with decent pay and lots of time for extracurricular stuff (which, for me is 2-3 more jobs in the winter, but pure relaxation in the summer). But I combine it with a high savings rate by driving a shitty (but high mpg) car, living in a cheap-ish house, and not really buying clothes, home goods, or anything else besides food, beer, and gear.

Hopefully, this propels me to early retirement, but if it doesn't, trust me, I'm doing all the things I want to do while I'm young and still have energy (except for a couple of Europe or Japan ski trips I suppose I could go on if I didn't save as much). Working in a cube for 12 years sucks. But if I can stick it out for a few more, the freedom I get from not having to work will be much better than a Japan trip (even though I'd love to go there and sample that sweet, sweet pow this year).

Efficiency and the ability to stay on task are key. If you combine that with being able to identify the problems worth solving and not being afraid to jump in than you have a winning combination.

PeeTex wrote

Efficiency and the ability to stay on task are key. If you combine that with being able to identify the problems worth solving and not being afraid to jump in than you have a winning combination.

Yes. Efficiency and the ab....squirrel!

What was I saying?

raisingarizona wrote

PeeTex wrote

Efficiency and the ability to stay on task are key. If you combine that with being able to identify the problems worth solving and not being afraid to jump in than you have a winning combination.

Yes. Efficiency and the ab....squirrel!

What was I saying?

Ah - you suffer from the same thing I do...

MikeK wrote

JasonWx wrote

I graduated high school in 1980. The gym teacher I had is still there. He makes 125k +...Sweetest gig in the world...
I check this out because I saw him get in BMW X5..

Don't doubt it.  But that's only after 35+ years.

My wife's district:

http://www.nctq.org/docs/Rochester_City-2014-2015_salary_schedule.pdf

Also consider that you could potentially have $300k+ of loans to start off with (Bachelors + Masters).

Doesn't seem to make sense if you ask me.

I'll never make 125k even after 35 years (I certainly won't work that long).  I started off a lot higher than a teacher does AND a masters is not a requirement.

Now if you are smart you could get your whole education for, I'm guessing, less than $40k.  That would probably mean CC up front, then state school, then getting the district to pay for your masters (which they do in a lot of cases).  You could easily make that much and work it off over 4 -5 years.

Why would a teaching degree plus masters cost $300k.  There is absolutely no reason to go anywhere but a in state school for a teacher.  

My wife is a teacher.  She didn't start college until after we were married and I was working on my MBA.  We paid cash for her CC and BS and borrowed for grad school only because the interest rate was so low it was a good deal.  

My MBA was paid 80% by my company I was working for.  Not having student debt certainly has made our lives easier.

Coach Z wrote

Why would a teaching degree plus masters cost $300k.  There is absolutely no reason to go anywhere but a in state school for a teacher.  

My wife is a teacher.  She didn't start college until after we were married and I was working on my MBA.  We paid cash for her CC and BS and borrowed for grad school only because the interest rate was so low it was a good deal.  

My MBA was paid 80% by my company I was working for.  Not having student debt certainly has made our lives easier.

BINGO!  I never said YOU SHOULD spend that much.  I only said YOU COULD.  And even if with financial aid, unless you get huge sports or academic scholarships, you still are going to be paying a big portion of that.

Same goes for engineering, business, science, liberal arts, whatever...  Why would you?  It's been the whole point of what I've been trying to convey here.

I feel incredibly lucky that I was able to parlay a BA into a semi-decent career and a job I really like.  It's my sense that that is not easy to do now.

I loved college and took the stuff that appealed to me: economics, art, philosophy, and a ton of electives. Those electives hammer your GPA and right or wrong I didn't care. In the end no one has ever requested or seen my transcripts so maybe it didn't matter.

Sorry Mike I misread your post I quoted we do agree on this.

There are probably only a few cases where it pays to run up that debt.  Elite students in engineering at a MIT or other truly elite school.  Top notch MBA programs though I preferred going the night route where you can get my employer to pay for that.  Medical, dental or Vetinary top programs.  You need a big pay back in earnings to justify it and would really need to be a top 5% student as well.

Coach Z wrote

Sorry Mike I misread your post I quoted we do agree on this.

There are probably only a few cases where it pays to run up that debt.  Elite students in engineering at a MIT or other truly elite school.  Top notch MBA programs though I preferred going the night route where you can get my employer to pay for that.  Medical, dental or Vetinary top programs.  You need a big pay back in earnings to justify it and would really need to be a top 5% student as well.

My thoughts on this:

I don't disagree MIT is a great school but unless I had excellent high school credentials I'd save it as a grad school option.

Again I'd say 2 years at the best state or CC for what you think you will major in, then 2 years at a private Uni.  The two years at private depending on what kind of deals you can get after your first two years i.e. transfer scholarships, etc...  You may wind up worse off than out of high school, but highly unlikely if you apply yourself.  You'll also likely know more about what it is you actually want to focus on.  And if you aren't doing well and financials are tough, finish out the second 2 at a state school.

Then crush those two years at private Uni and shoot for your next two years and see where that takes you.  If you did well, shoot for MIT because you can probably get in and get good aid.  If you did meh, you can always hit up state school grad school like UB.

Also I'm not so sure about undergrad for Medical, Dental or Law.  I'd probably still recommend starting off small and working up.  Really it's your last 3 or 4 years that will define you, and if you prove yourself in your first four, you'll know exactly where to go.

Also there is another case to consider.  You kick ass in high school and you know what you want to do.

This is where I'd say go straight to the school you want, or whatever school gives you the best deal and hammer it.

My brother is a mechanical engineer too, and this is what he did.  He graduated salutatorian from high school, and was heavily involved in a robotics club since he was a freshman.

He wound up going to RIT and doing the combined bachelors/masters.  I don't know the exact details but I'm sure he had at least as good deal as I did transferring in, if not better, and hammered it out as quick as he could.

I also say this.  I went there and didn't do as rigorous a program as a combined degree and I was busting my ass.  He doesn't ski but if he did he wouldn't have had much time to do so in those 5 or 6 years (I think he did it in five with co-ops, which is what the normal bachelors is).

Anyway fact of the matter is he knew exactly what he wanted to do (he wasn't undecided), had the grades to get a fair bit of financial assistance off the bat, combined degrees (and worked) and came out with no debt.  He also had no life for that time.

My daughter's engineering adviser recommended that she applies to MIT for her ME. She likes the Boston so this would work out nice for her. It's also a one year program, that saves some money..