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Duke Grad Student Secretly Lived In A Van To Escape Loan Debt
San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com ^ | Published 12:53 pm, Friday, June 7, 2013 | Mandi Woodruff, provided by Business Insider

Posted on 06/09/2013 1:47:23 PM PDT by thecodont

By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he'd dug himself into.

He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible –– English and History –– and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships.

"That was a wake-up call," he told Business Insider. "I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just getting kind of frantic."

Back then, student loans had yet to become the front page news they are today. Ilgunas could have simply deferred his loans or declared forbearance. He also could have asked his parents (who were more than willing to help) for a leg up. He could have thrown up his hands and gone to grad school until the job market bounced back.

Instead, he moved to Alaska and spent two years paying back every dime. And when he enrolled at Duke University for graduate school later, he lived out of his van to be sure he wouldn't have to take out loans again.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Duke-Grad-Student-Secretly-Lived-In-A-Van-To-4587684.php#ixzz2VkomCLBJ

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: academia; colleges; dukeuniv; studentdebt; universities
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To: Joe 6-pack

I personally know a guy who was an English PhD candidate at a top state school in the Southeast. Old school English type, not a modern politicized English major. As a result of this, he was seen as an extremist right winger, despite the fact that his politics are very much middle of the road.

He gave it up because he could see the writing on the wall, that the whole system of “English” at the college level was stacked against white males. Due to some personal success in the stock market, he was able to get a job as a stock analyst. He has been *very* successful in a relatively short amount of time, and his writing skills are an important part of the reason (along with the fact that he works his tail off).

The non-STEM university system in this country needs to be completely dismantled.


41 posted on 06/09/2013 6:17:53 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: 1rudeboy

See my story just above. This is much more recent, in the last 8-10 years.


42 posted on 06/09/2013 6:20:05 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: thecodont; faithhopecharity

While I agree with the issues you bring up regarding personal responsibility, the “system” wasn’t playing our young people as “marks” (in the carney worldview) at that time, either. Turning our young people into indentured servants to the government is not going to end well.

Colleges weren’t so insanely expensive, either.

There is lots of blame to go around.


43 posted on 06/09/2013 6:22:36 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: informavoracious
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss liberal arts. We need them to learn about our culture. In English you learn to communicate and construct logical arguments. History is important - if you don't learn it, you'll repeat it. In both of these majors, you learn there's nothing new under the sun, from Greek history to Greek plays, that human hubris and foibles have been with us from the beginning of time.

Totally in agreement with you here.

Why do you think Common Core wants to do away with literature and replace it with technical reading? Dumb them down until they don't remember what freedom was and destroy all vestiges of Western culture.

Hirsch's book Cultural Literacy (associated with Common Core?) came out in the mid 1980s.

Unfortunately the revisionist history being taught now is helping to destroy the culture as well.

Deconstructionism was already being taught in the English Department when I was a undergrad. :(

44 posted on 06/09/2013 6:24:16 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: Mr. K; popdonnelly

Unless I’ve missed something badly, Physics is *not* Liberal Arts according to most.


45 posted on 06/09/2013 6:24:44 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

I agree that it can’t end well for anybody to be indentured (or enslaved) to the government.
It also can’t end well if the way out is for that government to “forgive” the borrowers’ debts.

O had NO justification to seize and nationalize 99 percent of the student lending market in America. Except for political control of the American people, of course.

Having said all that, students need to be responsible and not run up huge debts (owed to anybody) at expensive colleges when they could get similar (and in some instances better) educations at far less costly schools. Again, a student can pay (in tuition fees) anything from $1400 to about $5o,ooo for each of the first two years. There are some pros and cons for each, with (for most students in most programs) neither being clearly superior ... It is similar to grocery shopping. I visited a famous Whole Paycheck grocery about 12 years ago and walked out when I noticed their prices, like carrots for Eight Dollars a Pound.

If I can afford to throw my money away needlessly at those high prices, find and dandy that’s my free choice.

If I cannot afford to throw my money away, then it is my responsibility to go buy my carrots down the street at the usual 39 cents a pound, instead.

What is NOT right is for me to run up a zillion dollar debt buying the eight dollar carrots, and then complain I am burdened by being in debt.

All my best,
fhc


46 posted on 06/09/2013 6:54:56 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (()
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To: faithhopecharity

Yes, it is a sad state of affairs....


47 posted on 06/09/2013 7:02:11 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved! -Ps80)
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To: thecodont; a fool in paradise

48 posted on 06/09/2013 7:05:37 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: thecodont

see 2007 post on this guy:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1917043/posts


49 posted on 06/09/2013 7:49:46 PM PDT by VA Voter
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To: FreedomPoster

one science elective


50 posted on 06/09/2013 7:54:00 PM PDT by Mr. K (There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and democrat talking points.)
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To: ansel12

The linked article has another link at the bottom which leads to a series of several dozen photos with captions.


51 posted on 06/09/2013 8:06:33 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: thecodont

Read his book last weekend. Enjoyed it very much. Good show.


52 posted on 06/09/2013 8:31:00 PM PDT by Conservative4Ever (I'm going Galt)
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To: Fai Mao
If done right a degree in History or English should be very marketable.

One of my daughters majored in English, and I was concerned whether she would be okay moneywise. She's done well, going the technical writer route after graduation. Pulling down well over six figure income plus benefits and bonuses. The jobs are out there.

53 posted on 06/09/2013 11:32:54 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: thecodont

54 posted on 06/10/2013 12:45:15 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: gaijin

You confuse skills with education. Liberal arts, when properly taught require people to write well, and analyze a vast amount of information and be able to filter what is and is not relevant. History is an excellent foundation for journalism, law, research, etc. What do you think Condoleeza Rice studied which led to her being a national security adviser to Bush I at such a young age? Hint: it wasn’t welding. What do you think foreign policy advisers and people who work at the state department studied? People who studied history are never suckered by flim-flam artists who posit incorrect time lines as “proof” for cause and effect. They also tend not to be ignorant goobers who don’t know who Churchill was and they know Brazil isn’t in Africa.


55 posted on 06/10/2013 1:50:25 AM PDT by gemoftheocean (...geez, this all seems so straight forward and logical to me...)
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To: VA Voter
I remember that thread back in 2007 - thanks for posting it.
56 posted on 06/10/2013 3:30:52 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: faithhopecharity
It isn't the knowledge, it is the brand.

Getting a MBA from Harvard as opposed to State U. Both have similar knowledge bases, Harvard will pay out well ahead of State.

Which is why we are very careful about hiring people who graduate from an on line for profit school.

57 posted on 06/10/2013 10:29:05 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: SkyPilot
Not free for a white married couple. We convinced our daughter to do two years at Penn State Hazleton and then finish up at main campus. This will alleviate the debt when she graduates.
58 posted on 06/10/2013 10:32:45 AM PDT by angcat
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To: thecodont

59 posted on 06/10/2013 10:33:29 AM PDT by Lazamataz ("AP" clearly stands for American Pravda. Our news media has become completely and proudly Soviet.)
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To: thecodont; a fool in paradise
The original Van Man, man!


60 posted on 06/10/2013 10:35:54 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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