Official Off Topic Thread

you guys don't have HECS? how in the hell does anyone ever make it to college? here the gov pays for our uni education and then once we're earning over $35k a small percentage each paycheck gets automatically taken out with your tax to pay it back.. never earn over $35k a year, never have to pay it back. and there's no interest on it. how much interest do you have to pay with student loan companies?
 
SilentRealm said:
you guys don't have HECS? how in the hell does anyone ever make it to college? here the gov pays for our uni education and then once we're earning over $35k a small percentage each paycheck gets automatically taken out with your tax to pay it back.. never earn over $35k a year, never have to pay it back. and there's no interest on it. how much interest do you have to pay with student loan companies?
Click to expand...

I was just having a conversation with an Aussie who mentioned that. That's a good system!

All of the money I have received from the government ($5000 for two semesters) has some sort of interest. I forget what percent, though.

For now I'm attending the cheapest state school in Indiana (Not even well known academically) and I'm still having a hard time getting a loan. In fact, I start school on Thursday and I don't even think the loan will go through in time to pay. And this is only for the first fucking semester! That's why I'm afraid I won't even be able to get enough money to finish school.

I want to attend a school in Illinois because their physics program is excellent, but all totaled it will cost me $35000 per year if I did manage to get in.:cry:

Sorry if it sounds like I'm bitching, but I have been so frustrated and angry over this recently. It has carried over into everything I do!
 
In Sweden you get just over 400USD (value of SEK of course) as student grants and then you can take student loans on top of that for a maximum of 775USD (but in SEK of course).
So in total you can get like 1200USD a month from the government.

It's not very much but then again the only thing we have to pay for here are literature and a small fee to the students' union. If you've saved some money and have parents who can chip in and you don't plan to live like a king, there should be no economical problems whatsoever.
 
so I'm listening to the new Evergrey disc... and some thoughts (not about the music, sorry :p)

1. A lot of people hated MMA.
2. Evergrey didn't apologize for MMA when it came out. They wanted to make that album.
3. Evergrey apologizes for MMA now (this can be viewed two ways, to be seen next).
4a. Evergrey sold out with MMA and now they've come to their senses with Torn, a return to "form" as it were. This is the general consensus prior to album release.
4b. Evergrey was genuine on MMA and the "return" is the selling out, to please fans.
5. Regardless of where you stand on 4, if you hated MMA, you'll probably hate Torn, unless you convince yourself the direction Evergey is headed is cool. It's not Recreation Day or SDT. It's not IC. This is another step down the path they started with their last album, backing up my position (I'm one of the 4b people). Ironically, the implication is that again, regardless of where you stand on 4, it's a moot point. You'll either like the new disc or you won't, but based on what I'm hearing, both 4a and 4b are false: 4a is blatantly false, and 4b is false because there is no "return" outside of Tom's words.

Me? I'm happy with Torn. :headbang:
 
Torn is good. It's not great, at least not for me yet. No track in particular stuck out very much but there were also no tracks that sounded weak. It's a solid effort and I'm sure I'll have more thoughts after a few more listens.
 
Another reason to do well in high school. Scholarships come nearly automatically.

My advice - apply for as many scholarships you can find and forget about the loans. Why start "life in the real world" fully in debt to somebody else?
 
ABQShredHead said:
Another reason to do well in high school. Scholarships come nearly automatically.

My advice - apply for as many scholarships you can find and forget about the loans. Why start "life in the real world" fully in debt to somebody else?
Click to expand...

This is a good, suggestion and one I actually just started looking into. I found a website (Meedley, check this one out) yesterday that has over a billion dollars in scholarships. I need to wait to sign up though, until I get my full school address.

I hope I can get enough to pay for a large portion of my tuition.:)
 
The 'scholarships come nearly automatically" from good grades in high school comment isn't entirely true. Nowadays, you need a lot more than good grades (i.e. extra curricular stuff, volunteer work, job experience, etc. etc.) Beyond that, you're rarely going to end up in a situation where it covers all or even most of the cost of education. I had extremely good grades, ACT/SAT scores, state testing scores, lots of extra curricular/volunteer/work experience and while I do get a fairly decent amount of aid every year in the form of scholarships, I'm still paying 1/2-2/3 of my education out of pocket and with loans (mostly loans unfortunately). Things also are leaning more and more towards need-based rather than merit-based. The flaw in that is that tax forms and pay stubs do not accurately reflect need in all cases.

Chris-Yeah, I signed up for that a couple years ago when first applying to college. I applied for a lot of I found through them and still do occasionally. I can't recall if I've ever gotten anything through one of their suggestions or not. Good resource though, for sure.
 
Bummer for that then. I got a scholarship to Texas Tech University based only on my ACT scores. This scholarship waived my out-of-state tuition costs, allowing me to pay, when I was a freshman, the in-state tuition of $10 per credit hour, rather than the out-of-state $120 or more per credit hour. I only had to submit an application to receive the scholarship. It covered my tuition and books and much of my room and board - yes, I stayed in the dorms my entire college career. But at least I didn't have to worry about psycho neighbors. And I got to play my guitar as loud as I wanted to.
 
SilentRealm said:
you guys don't have HECS? how in the hell does anyone ever make it to college? here the gov pays for our uni education and then once we're earning over $35k a small percentage each paycheck gets automatically taken out with your tax to pay it back.. never earn over $35k a year, never have to pay it back. and there's no interest on it. how much interest do you have to pay with student loan companies?
Click to expand...

There is "interest" on a HECS loan. It's just CPI though (around 4%? )

I should know, I earn more than the ~$35k limit :'(

Still, it's far better than anything the americans get offered
 
rockyracoon said:
Torn is good. It's not great, at least not for me yet. No track in particular stuck out very much but there were also no tracks that sounded weak. It's a solid effort and I'm sure I'll have more thoughts after a few more listens.
Click to expand...
I concur. I do want to note that Tom's vocal style has become less... well how should I say it? People who complain that he always uses the same articulation (which he did up until and partially including MMA), he doesn't on Torn.
 
noble savage said:
I was just having a conversation with an Aussie who mentioned that. That's a good system!

All of the money I have received from the government ($5000 for two semesters) has some sort of interest. I forget what percent, though.

For now I'm attending the cheapest state school in Indiana (Not even well known academically) and I'm still having a hard time getting a loan. In fact, I start school on Thursday and I don't even think the loan will go through in time to pay. And this is only for the first fucking semester! That's why I'm afraid I won't even be able to get enough money to finish school.

I want to attend a school in Illinois because their physics program is excellent, but all totaled it will cost me $35000 per year if I did manage to get in.:cry:

Sorry if it sounds like I'm bitching, but I have been so frustrated and angry over this recently. It has carried over into everything I do!
Click to expand...

you're allowed to bitch in that case.. i can understand the frustration.
 
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