Houston is ranked as a city with one of the lowest student debt. I can’t help but wonder how UH is helping that statistic. Keep UH affordable!
https://cw39.com/news/money/houston-ranks-low-on-student-debt-in-new-wallethub-report/
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Ten or 15 years ago I was at a grocery store with my UH shirt on. A woman said to me “You went there? Its so expensive”
I was kind of shocked but then i saw how much tuition had gone up since I graduated. I’m not sure how we compare to others currently but I don’t think we’re considered the cheap option anymore.
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If I were a hairy young man starting all over today, I would probably begin at HCC, then study something more lucrative instead of education.
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I’m going through the process with my son. We have looked at 5 schools in Texas: UH, UNT, Sam Houston, SFA, and Texas State… The “all in” cost for each school was in the $27 - 29K per year range. That includes tuition, dorms, meal plans, etc.
My last semester of 18 engineering hours with labs and senior design was ~$4500 tuition… that was 2011
I would NOT recommend that for engineers because your GPA for all your basic courses doesn’t transfer over…
I graduated with a 3.24… but it was all engineering courses which is great, but if I’d had my 4.0 from all my basics I would’ve graduated Magna Cum Laude.
On the other hand, I missed Summa Cum Laude at Auburn strictly on the basis that I transferred in too many credit hours, and I regret nothing. I don’t think it’s mattered once.
I think there are few big advantages to starting at a four-year school:
- Students who transfer in from a CC can sometimes wind up getting jammed up by prerequisites and locked out of some upper division classes
- Internship/co-op opportunities are way, way better coming from a four-year school than a CC
- Scholarships are usually more available for Freshmen
On the other hand, students at CCs (or at least, at San Jac) often get more individualized instruction and attention from their instructors, since they’re hired to teach instead of research, and it’s obviously much cheaper. Also, if you’re like me and you’re not necessarily responsible or emotionally mature enough to handle college courses at 18, getting your early struggles out of the way at a CC sort of contains the damage they do to your academic record.
The rule of thumb I’ve given to HS students I’ve advised on this issue is that the way folks wind up with enormous debt at graduation is by taking out a bunch of private loans and changing their major a bunch and turning a four-year degree into 6-7. If they know what they want to do and they’re sure they can get in and out within four years, they should probably prefer a four-year, especially if they want to go into a competitive field, but if they’re in doubt about that at all, they should prefer a CC instead. Of course, at 18, I was perhaps a little overconfident in that, but…
Well I meant the hated commuters are saving money.
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Fair enough. Engineering is definitely a lucrative field and probably pays for itself within a year or two. Go ahead and take all the entry-level stuff and get season passes for football AND basketball.
BTW, a 4.0 average is summa cum laude. I only graduated magna cum laude.
I know… but if you average 4.0 from basics with 3.24 from engineering more than likely lands in Magna not Summa…
It pays well… I’ll tell you this; I’d take a paycut for not having to work almost every weeknight, summers off, all federal holidays off, spring break, fall break and Christmas brrak…
According to google, UH’s tuition is around $11K/year. If you can graduate in 4 that’s $44K. If you live, as UHLaw likes to put it, with mommy and daddy, that’s close to your expenses. If you live in the dorms with the required meal plan, as TravelingCoog posted, it’s around $27K/year, in 4 years that’s $108K. That’s a huge difference in price, and these are the students that these guys want to shut out of UH.
Noted. But I would like to point out that teachers don’t get paid for those holidays and summer. The contract stipulates the number of paid days. That means they don’t get paid [word added] to grade papers on the weekend, as many do.
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Yup… better not to look in the rearview mirror… lol
But they do get paid on a regular basis. It’s not like they don’t get a check while on break, right?
Correct. And this is what leads many to believe teachers get paid for sitting in front of the TV during summer.
When I first got a key to make trouble in a classroom, I had the option of spreading the paycheck across twelve months instead of ten. I wonder if the latter option is even available any more.