College Tuition Debate

[Ahmad Walid]

How come Admin is brother and I am Uncle? Does he sound young and vibrant and do I sound crusty and old lol, jk. Im just shy of 31. I guess that is Uncle territory...

Yeah do the networking but find smart people who work hard to do it with. This often means, find out those curve busters and go study with them if they oblige.

Lol. I didn't mean any disrespect. Hate to be a devil's advocate but my uncle is just a year younger then you. Lol. Your wisdom and knowledge made me think you were a lot older then your age. You are not old at all btw.

[Iqra]

Lol. I didn't mean any disrespect. Hate to be a devil's advocate but my uncle is just a year younger then you. Lol. Your wisdom and knowledge made me think you were a lot older then your age. You are not old at all btw.

Aww MashaAllah we have a lot of wise brothers around here! (okay not a lot but I'd say Barakzai and Admin Khan and a few others fall under that category for sure!)

[Talal]

if you guys are living in a country that has a good student loan program, take it !..take the loan even if you are loaded, cuz what ends up happening is that by the time you graduate more than half of is already written off

I borrowed $20,000 over the course of my degree even when I had the money...out of that close to $14,000 got written off by the government and the money i had to pay was interest free before graduation

[Ahmad Walid]

if you guys are living in a country that has a good student loan program, take it !..take the loan even if you are loaded, cuz what ends up happening is that by the time you graduate more than half of is already written off

I borrowed $20,000 over the course of my degree even when I had the money...out of that close to $14,000 got written off by the government and the money i had to pay was interest free before graduation

I will never take a loan and will never recommend it to anyone!

But how do you not pay any interest?

[Talal]

I will never take a loan and will never recommend it to anyone!

But how do you not pay any interest?

like i said it depends on the country, your institution and above all your program of study..for my engineering program, the government gave me two grants worth $7000 and these grants are available only to those who take the loan...so even though i had money i took the loan, because if you pay it off before you graduate you are not charged any interest on it

[Admin Khan]

I don't know about Canada, but in the USA if you hail from a low income family you can pretty much attend a tier 1 school and get paid for it. It's called FAFSA and TAP. There should be no need for a 'loan' unless if you wish to attend a private school, and spend the majority of your life paying off a loan. There are many state schools, which are just as good as private, if not better.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Admin is closer to the process than I am at this point so I have no idea what the loan rates are. They were ridiculously low in my era. There are many ways to avoid the loan system, which really ensnares many Americans as well into a life long struggle to get themselves out of debt. The issue with default on student loans is that it destroys your credit. Md Phd and basic science pathways within medicine can cause you to avoid this system. Engineering as Admin has noted is very scholarship based and if you are good then you can get throw with no loans.

If someone manages it the way Talal did where there is no riba on the loan then I take it that its not an issue.

Many mosques are now getting together well to do engineers and doctors and lawyers as well as business minded folks to put together scholarship opps for folks in the community that are competitive. The hilarious thing about these is that the corruption from the Arab states and Pakistan has translated into their system here. So the mosque leadership folks know that they are the ones that can afford to send their kids to the expensive SAT course and when they get 10 applicants they avoid doing what the Americans do which is to take into account extenuating circumstances.

So say if you have an Afghan kid whose parents are working two jobs each and they are religious enough to attend the mosque and even contribute out of their meagre resources and that kid has a 3.6 GPA and 1300 SAT scores versus one of the doctors kids who has 3.99 at the local country club affiliate private school and 1500 SAT... guess who gets the scholarship? loooool.

I think what happened is that these Pakistani folks remember the chaudry system back home and go: Hey man, Im the new chaudry here....

I think having observed this sickness after leaving home and going to school in cities where there were mosques, really is what makes me so acutely sensitive to the oligarchy aspect of Afghan affairs I see going on today.

It really perturbs me when the Khattak tribal leader's son who has family friendship with the Bhuttos and sharifs is able to come to Yale and the Afghan Banker's daughter gets the "merit" scholarship to cometo yale and Karzai's best friend's son transfers from a community college on a full ride here as well... yet the smart guy, whatever his beliefs are, in Afghanistan who is self taught and has made it to Kabul U gets shafted.

[Talal]

oo u guys are talking about college, i thought u guys meant university..cuz thats what college here means lol

[BarakzaiAbdali]

oo u guys are talking about college, i thought u guys meant university..cuz thats what college here means lol

In the US colleges are subsections of a University. So for instance, engineering college is a subsection of the university which may have a medical college, a liberal arts college etc.

[Talal]

^ yeah thats the same thing in canada..aight so i was right the first time

loans FTW, mooch off government