Weenie's World

“Her parents redecorated her bedroom soon after she left for college, as sure as everyone else in this town that Melissa Meyer would not be moving back. They took down the photos of Melissa meeting the Dalai Lama and laughing alongside Joe Biden, placing them in the closet. They packed away dozens of high school honor certificates — valedictorian, class president, outstanding chemistry student — and stored them in plastic boxes under the bed.

Melissa had always been too big for this town, her father liked to say. She was editor of the school newspaper, an intern in the U.S. Senate and the only student from Sentinel High School’s Class of 2005 to attend college on the East Coast. On her rare visits home from George Washington University, longtime friends liked to tease her: “Hey, Melissa, are you president yet?”

So, how to explain this? Each morning, Melissa wakes up in her old bedroom, scans the foreign decor and thinks: This is the guest room now. I am the guest. I am not supposed to be here.

She graduated magna cum laude from the GW Business School in May, applied for 30 jobs at some of the nation’s best-known companies, and it went nowhere. After visiting the campus career center and redesigning her résumé, she applied for 10 more jobs. Still nothing. The lease on her Foggy Bottom apartment expired in June. There was no place to go but home, with a collection of rejection letters and a haunting sense of betrayal. For 23 years, she had advanced down America’s path to success — perfect grades, a $200,000 college degree, a folder overstuffed with business cards — only to have it dead-end back where she started.

“What was the point?” she asks.”

“Amid loud student protests that roiled the UCLA campus, the UC Board of Regents this afternoon approved a 32% increase in student fees.

The fee hike of $2,500, or 32%, will come in two steps by next fall. That would bring the basic UC education fees to about $10,300, plus about another $1,000 for campus-based charges, for a total that would be about triple the UC cost a decade ago. Room, board and books can add another $16,000.”

California’s budget is a DISASTER and the shortfall the state needs to close is HUGE so I am not terribly surprised at this decision, but it still saddens me. Higher education should not be cost-prohibitive. Access & affordability (along with a great education, of course) should be the central tenet of a public university. What a set back for current & future UC students everywhere.

I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with student loan horror stories. Maybe a weird guilt from not having any students loans myself? A fear for my friends & peers who are scheduled to begin repayment around December, many of whom still do not have jobs?

And I truly believe any college that needs to advertise on television is a scam. End of story. Yeah I’m looking at you DeVry, University of Phoenix, Everest, ITT Tech, Bryman, Westwood… For-profit colleges sicken me - they prey on the poor and those who don’t know any better. They target the unemployed (airing commercial during the day time much?) and those who are just trying to do something good for themselves & their families. Until their graduation rates go up, subpar instruction actually teaches valuable skills, and mind-boggling tuition is lowered - or somebody tells me they are a for-profit university success and can show me they aren’t an exception - I will continue to hate hate hate for-profit schools.