Would you have had kids if you couldn't

Avatar for cindytree
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Would you have had kids if you couldn't
1589
Wed, 09-03-2003 - 3:31pm
Would you still have had children if you knew you might not be able to pay for their college education? I'm not talking about providing food and shelter and needs of minor children and paying bills in general. Just about paying their way through college.

I guess I'm still astounded at the attitude that surfaced at another thread implying that if they couldn't pay for college, they wouldn't have had children. Of course, I'm a lazy, selfish mom at home who isn't working while some of my kids are in school so maybe my opinion doesn't count. Maybe I SHOULD take up scrapbooking to make my existence more worthwhile! lol

In any case, it is an interesting question considering that, under that reasoning, Oprah Winfrey shouldn't have been born. Give me time and I can come up with a whole list of highly successful and respected people who have impacted us in positive ways that wouldn't have been born had their parents decided that because they couldn't pay for college, they wouldn't have children.

How has the college issue influenced your decision to have children, if at all? Do you think it is an important criteria in the decision?

Cindy

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 09-06-2003 - 10:58pm
You're both right. My error.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2002
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 1:50am
Well, I did do pretty well on the ACT (I think the overall score was 32? something like that....equivalent of 1450 for the SAT at that time). But also, I was actually a transfer student from a junior college and had done very well in all of the core classes needed for my biochem major. I heard later that a lot of universities really get interested in tranfer students who have clearly worked hard and effectively (I finished most of the lower division classes I needed in 1.5 years, still not a 4.0 GPA, something in the mid 3 range I think). That is one reason one I think that junior college can be a very reasonable way to go. In my case, junior college was a necessity because I had missed my junior year in high school (we moved to Spain that year). I had enough credits (and the right classes) to graduate from high school in spite of no junior year, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to be looked on very favorably by most universities I wanted to apply to.


I wonder about whether I could get in nowadays too :-). But I remember that even when I went, the two majors that were severely impacted where engineering and biochemistry. Engineering was even worse than biochem and it did take a perfect 4.0 GPA and great test scores to get in (I knew a couple of people who, even with that, where turned down for Berkeley). But of course, for all its great reputation, the fact is that any other UC campus would have given a very good education as well.

Laura

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 2:09am
Exactly, given those figures, the average from the 7 years (1994-2001) is 94%
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 1:43pm
Thanks for doing all that research. So I was slightly off, the average for the last three recorded years is about 97.5%, which is pretty damn high. I'd like to see anyone find any town in the country with higher percentages for kids going on to higher education. I think it would be a difficult thing to find. That's clearly much higher than the 75% that hank and Indy claimed.

Now if anyone is interested in an interesting article regarding who enlists in the military and why, rather then this petty witch hunt, there's a timely one in todays New York Times. It's in the "Week in Review" section, page 4. The gist of the article is how in Britain, traditionally the military was made up of the wealthy upper classes, as opposed to in America, where the opposite is true. The article states that the wealthy are virtually non existant in the US military. It goes on to say that things are changing in Britain, as more of the lower classes are looking for options when they don't have the means to go to college, which is the reason they gave for the US military being populated by people from lower socioeconomic groups.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 2:01pm
That is a gross misrepresentation of what I said.

YOUR OWN CITY reports 75% of its residents have an education of college degree or higher. I didn't "claim" it; I quoted your own city's census data as reported BY your own city ON your own city's website. If you have issues with the data, I highly suggest you take it up with your city's chamber of commerce and quit attributing to me that which is claimed as FACT by your own city.

Your city may have 94% of its high school graduates PLAN on attending college, but according to your own city's reported demographics, only 75% of the residents have a degree, leaving the other 25% without a degree.

Piss and moan about it all you want, but it's not MY claim; it's the reported facts by your own city.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 2:22pm
OH never mind .... long story

Edited 9/7/2003 4:39:47 PM ET by savcal


Edited 9/7/2003 4:41:08 PM ET by savcal

Avatar for taylormomma
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 2:34pm
<>

Yup, planning on going to college and going are two different things.

Here's an interesting statistic - for the most recent year stats I could find (2000), 100% of students at my local high school who sought admission to college were accepted. Not bad.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 5:12pm
Perhaps it's all the live in help (maids, gardners, nannies, etc) and their children that *drag* those numbers down. You know, the little people.

Susan

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 5:18pm
The fact is that there are HS graduates in Weston who do NOT go on to college and some who join the military. YOu claimed there were NONE. I called you on it and you went on a tear about how I was a liar and that I could not possibly know what I was talking about. In less than five minutes of google searching, I found your own school district's reports, which back up my assertion, not yours.

I don't give a crap about a NYT article that talks about the socioeconomic levels of Britain's military.

You were wrong in your facts and you were wrong in calling me a liar. Admit it.

Susan

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Sun, 09-07-2003 - 5:40pm
Oh yeah, over the last 3 years 2-4% of the students did not go on to college. Wow. Especially in light of the fact that roughly 8% of the student body are special ed students. What that means, Susan, is that even some children who are academically challenged and who have learning disabilities go on to college. I assume those who do not are those students who simply can't handle college, they don't have the mental ability to go. Yes Susan, you're right, 3 or 4 students per year aren't going to college, because they can't, not because they don't want to.

I teach in the schools, I see those students and there is no way they could go on to college, even though with lots and lots of one on one help they can graduate from high school.

So if you insist upon continuing your little campaign in some valient effort to prove me wrong, well, go ahead. You're only proving yourself wrong. Our town has one of the highest percentages of students going onto college in the country, period. And that is a fact.

You did lie. You never lived in my town like you insisted you did.

PS. Since you love to dig up facts and figures, let's see the figures where you live. What percentage of graduating seniors go on to college. You want to turn this into some kind of competition? Is that what this is about? You seem to want some kind of one upmanship. Go right ahead, those numbers please, I'll wait.





Edited 9/7/2003 5:55:20 PM ET by islimshady

Pages