Posted on 07/30/2023 1:02:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you ever thought of being a donor to your favorite college, or leaving an estate gift, I have one piece of advice: don't do it. This isn't out of a cold heart, or being ungenerous, but from practical concerns over university and college financial corruption.
The same thing applies to making political contributions: the money just goes into a swamp, and both must be starved (or drained). Donations, if any, must be highly structured, with donor controls and institutional reporting. In both cases, you have to think and act like a shareholder and owner.
Giving money to a university is like government taxation schemes: the money disappears in costs. Economist Robert Topel at the University of Chicago wrote the "white paper" on why your money never goes to what you think it does: it gets eaten up with bureaucratic overhead (his academic colleagues do not generally like his report).
The problem is so bad, as Topel shows mathematically, that the ratio of tax to any benefit is now over 250:1. In the case he analyzes, carbon taxation, which is among the Biden administration's "green energy" policy centerpieces, it takes over $250 of tax just to make $1 of carbon benefit, and even that is subject to a lot of imagination as to what the actual "benefit" is.
Back in the university setting, faculty and staff have grown exponentially to the point where, in some colleges, they outnumber the students. In the meantime, something else is going on that drains your donor dollars: university senior administration feeding at the endowment, tuition, and donor trough, and living luxury lifestyles.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Take out as much student loans as possible. They will eventually be forgiven. This is a near certainty.
A guy I know works as industry liaison for a trade school that teaches repair of farm, construction and mining vehicles.
They partner with John Deere, Caterpillar, Kubota, etc.
Most of their graduates start over $100k a year.
College is not necessary the way it is currently arranged; the non-STEM classes I took were just fluff.
I guess if you go to a big impersonal university, thatis good advice. If you went to an institution type of university, you know the funds are being well invested.
Everyone has a story.
I think there are are now many on-line courses where a motivated learner can become a master of knowledge in many topics.
Of course some practical experience in applying that knowledge is necessary to fully master any area.
Hi.
Stopped donating to VCU in 1998.
For a number of reasons.
5.56mm
If you like fixing things, going to a trade school to be a mechanic could lead a very satisfying career. I have a friend who was a total motorhead in high school. Went to tech school, then got involved with BMW. Haven’t talked with him in a decade, but last we did talk, he was really happy. Had a race car, and a project or two in addition to a couple top of the line Bimmers. Never wanted to be ‘in charge’, as he saw the attendant stress. Did a lot of traveling around the U.S. (not for everyone, admittedly) solving problems local dealers couldn’t figure out. He was very, very well compensated, and enjoyed his work immensely.
Yes. No K-12 school and no college should receive government money, since every K-12 school and college focuses on administration and ignores students. Proof: academic scores in America are lower today than 30 years ago.
Unfortunately, most college donations are ego driven to show off how well you have done.
You’d have to be a total idiot to donate money to your alma mater, or any university. Are you thanking them for raping you in tuition for learning a subject that in many cases could have been learned independently on the internet? Oh, but they are the “gate-keepers” to that piece of paper that allows you to apply for jobs.
The communist universities are the center of the forces who have worked tirelessly to destroy America for the last century+.
Yeah I haven’t been motivated to donate to my university which is probably less woke than many. I’ve watched their spending and am not impressed.
You PAID for the ‘service’. End.
I will continue supporting Hillsdale College.
We only donate to local charities, places we either have direct involvement or have personally visited and can be assured are fulfilling their stated mission with little/no overhead. There are many worthwhile options that fit this description.
I worked my way through 6 years of college, and I don’t remember the university “helping me out” ... they certainly made it clear I either paid or I had to leave campus. I’m supposed to feel some “loyalty” to such an organization? I haven’t given them a nickel since the day I graduated (and I missed graduation because I had to get to my new job early and start paying off my student loan). WHICH I DID. I got my degree and I paid for every penny of it, I owe the university NOTHING!
Universities use sports in order to lure donations.
I got my degree and I paid for every penny of it,
I owe the university NOTHING!
**********
So did I. I owed them nothing when I walked accross
the stage and was given my diploma.
Any Christian conservative who donates any money to a college (with rare exceptions such as Hillsdale) is basically paying for the hitman hired to kill him or her.
I would love to see conservatives of means buy up the failing colleges around the country and turn them into more Hillsdales, to give conservative kids a place to learn. Donate to those places instead.
I’ve never given a dime to my alma mater (uber woke Pitt) beyond what I paid to go to school there. Somehow their alumni association keeps finding me when I move, but I block the emails, texts and phone calls and trash the letters.
Tell them when they call. Let the phone canvaser know why you won’t support them. Be kind,but forceful. Word gets around. At least the phone caller might start thinking.
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