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Danielle Douglas-Gabriel writes in the Washington Post that Purdue University is partnering with Vemo Education, a Reston-based financial services firm, to create income-share agreements, or ISAs, that its students can tap to pay for tuition, room and board. In return, students would pay a percentage of their earnings after graduation for a set number of years, replenishing the fund for future investments.
Purdue president Mitch Daniels calls the contracts a constructive addition to today’s government loan programs and perhaps the only option for students and families who have low credit ratings and extra financial need. "From the student’s standpoint, ISAs assure a manageable payback amount, never more than the agreed portion of their incomes. Best of all, they shift the risk of career shortcomings from student to investor: If the graduate earns less than expected, it is the investors who are disappointed; if the student decides to go off to find himself in Nepal instead of working, the loss is entirely on the funding providers, who will presumably price that risk accordingly when offering their terms. This is true “debt-free” college."
However some observers worry that students pursuing profitable degrees in engineering or business would get better repayment terms than those studying to become nurses or teachers. "Income share agreements have the potential to create another option for students looking to pay for college while seeking assurances they will not be overwhelmed by future payments," says Robert Kelchen. "However, given the current generosity of federal income-based repayment programs and the likely hesitation of those who expect six-figure salaries to sign away a percentage of their income for years to come, the market for these programs may be somewhat limited."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bziman on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:46AM
By providing cheap loans at all, you're making it easier for people to go to college, even if perhaps they shouldn't. And you're also driving up the cost of college for everyone - because the more money that is available, the higher the costs. Regardless of intentions.
We should put a much stronger focus on trade schools and apprenticeships. Most people are NOT academically inclined. Many of my undergrad IT students were barely literate, but they got automatic admission into the local community college, and graduated (because the community college has extremely low standards), and then get automatically admitted to the public university where I taught. Many of them failed my classes, but would have passed another professor's class, because keeping enrollment (and revenue) up is a priority. I'm sure you can say "oh, you must not have been a good teacher", and maybe not. But on the first day of class, I gave a quiz that only tested the required prerequisites. And every student who failed that had a fair opportunity to drop the class, but most refused, because they couldn't have their education and career set back. None of them wanted to hear that perhaps engineering wasn't the right choice for them. Years later, I've had many come back and thank me for encouraging them to switch to things like graphic design or information systems.
But many of them shouldn't have been wasting money in college to begin with. There are many, many perfectly honorable, and even high paying jobs that do not require a degree. Here in Colorado, we're desperate for skilled laborers. You wait weeks for a plumber or electrician or mechanic or sprinkler technician. Each of which make on the order of $75 an hour, no college required! And if you need a carpenter or a general contractor, you're lucky if you can get one at all, if you have a job that's less than $100,000. Under a hundred grand, and you can't even get a call back. We NEED people who can do real work. We don't need more people with expensive, but basically meaningless college degrees.
I hope this all changes one day. Send more people to trade school. Only send people to college who are really into academics and who will become doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc. But two things will be required: turning off the loan spigot and more importantly, ending the stigma against skilled trades. We'll see.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:18AM
I sure get the idea there are a lot more engineers out there than needed, and a helluva lot less good mechanics.
If I had a do-over, I would have done my other passion and become a really good grease monkey, and not had to deal with management types. I know several really good independent auto mechanics and they are doing far better than I am. They are free to do the job right as they answer to the customer, not some manager whose loyalty is to maximize benefits to investors at the customer's expense.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @05:33AM
Oh how green the grass looks over the fence. Yes I'm so sure mechanics get to do as they please without some corporate suit who owns the chain of the dealership/service station that the mechanic works at having to drill him how to up-sell at every oil change....
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Wednesday December 02 2015, @08:00PM
I guess it depends on where you work. My town of around 700 has two independent garages, and both of them have waiting lists and do fairly well.
Interestingly, one of the reasons we have two mechanics is that some people patronize one-or-t'other due to family history; eg., my great-grandfather fought with-/stole from-/was robbed by- his great-grandfather, so I can't possibly use his garage, etc.
Small rural towns.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Thursday December 03 2015, @08:12AM
What I am seeing is this independent diesel mechanic who is helping me with the old Diesel van I just picked up. I envy his freedom to do a job right.
If I had not known this man, there was no way I was going to buy such a van - as I have a lot to learn on how to feed and take care of this beast.
I guess I am still full of resentment of having to be subordinate to the men of the suit that seemed only to look out for "number one". I guess I am kinda OCD on doing it right if I am going to do it at all. I did not enjoy the embarrassment of presenting half-assed work that merely "met spec", when I knew I could do much better. Why oh why do companies want the "A" student if they will not allow him to do an "A" job and use management techniques to enforce mediocre work?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Wednesday December 02 2015, @05:43AM
I would have done my other passion and become a really good grease monkey
i dunno, spending a lifetime managing engineering design flaws doesn't seem like much fun. when you are building something, you can at least rip out things that are badly designed and replace them with something sane.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday December 03 2015, @07:59AM
Yes, I often get miffed with existing designs and roll my own. Mostly with my own stuff. Showing initiative at the workplace was often viewed as a terrible time wasting activity.
Latest case: I am discovering this old diesel van I just bought has a lot of aging issues with its instrument panel. Although I am extremely impressed by the mechanical robustness of this beast, the prospect of trying to get all the idiot lights, gauges, and assorted controls to work properly again seems too much like an exercise in futility, and I will still end up with lacking instrumentation I really want..... so why not use an off-the-shelf HMI ( Human-Machine Interface ) touchscreen panel and build my own dashboard display?
Big deal... Off-the shelf HMI, Modbus interface via Arduino to I2C where I can acquire/control anything to my heart's content. Now, this one I can put all the diagnostics and whatever else I want right in the program, so things like a glow plug failing or engine temperature pyrometers not falling withing expected zones can be flagged and displayed on the main display as a pop-up. Otherwise, the HMI will look a lot like any other dashboard... speedometer, mileage, trip miles, tach, fuel gauge, oil pressure, oil temp, voltage, clock, etc. All GUI. All diagnostics available by merely touching the screen.
Being the HMI is a standard industrial display interface - modbus - compatible with SCADA, I can program this thingie to make all sorts of modal displays for handling out-of-bound conditions on sensors I normally do not think warrant continuous monitoring. As well as special situations involving maintenance modes or anti-theft functions. Why have OBD reader? Just touch the little icon on the screen and I get whatever sensor readings I want right on the dash display. Logged onto a USB stick if I want.
The mechanic I am working with is surprised I am taking this on. As far as I am concerned, the old Diesel van is so simple that all the HMI will really do is display information, not really control anything but an electric fuel pump I am having him put in to replace the old and leaky mechanical fuel pump originally on the engine. I also may like to manually shift the E40D transmission in a diagnostic mode. I will discover as I go along. I wanted to learn how to use a fancy GUI interface to my line of Arduino-compatible microcontroller boards anyway. I do hate to spend all that time developing something useless. So why not learn as I go on this old van, which I am falling in love with anyway.
I am for all practical purposes retired, so I can finally be creative.... to build my dream and do it right, regardless of how much time it takes. I know what I am doing is really outside the realm of big companies who have the money to pay another guy a hundred times my salary to hire managers to tell me I am taking too much time to do a job right and why don't I simply cut every corner and just put something out that looks good.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]