Or, the other way around, I'm sure that there are engineering or w/e grads who are unemployed or making minimum wage. There are just no guarantees. Being bright, motivated, and having the ability to communicate and present yourself well are probably going to be great assets in landing a job that pays decently. IF I were to have either of my kids attend college at 14, I would be involved in what classes they pick, for various reasons. Odds are I'd be involved if they were 18 as well, just because I've been to college and know some things they might not. Which doesn't mean I'd micromanage their choices, but I'd definitely want to discuss the pros/cons with a 14yo, and quite probably with an 18yo. I don't think I'd go to the level of calling what they're doing a "co-chosen" major. Of course, my kids aren't that old yet, so all of this is hypothetical, but I'm hoping to raise my kids to become independent adults, not my puppets.

I have not read the book, but a) there are people with history degrees who can support themselves financially (for one, there are jobs that basically just ask that the applicant has a college degree, any college degree), and b) if you want to become a history professor, wouldn't a history degree be the most logical choice before applying to grad school for a history PhD? Wouldn't other degrees be more likely to hinder their ability to move forward in post-graduate work? Basically, I think this is silliness. I wouldn't recommend a history degree to people who simply want w/e degree pays the most and don't have any particular interests, and it'd probably be best to combine it with at least some sort of minor that's more marketable, but still, it's not like all people who have history BS's are unemployed or making minimum wage.

I think both schools had physics as a 2 part sequence, but one had optics(?) in phys 1 but the other had it in phys 2? It's been a long time, and I never ended up taking phys 2, but anyway, it doesn't hurt to ask the colleges involved so you can be sure. Because even if there's a transfer agreement, these things can be an issue if you only take part of a sequence at a school.

Aside from whether one is weak or not, iirc some unis have a slightly different sequence for what's in phys 1 and phys 2, so you can't always take 1 at one school and 2 at another (this is my memory from about a dozen years ago, when I took phys 1 at the CC during summer 1, and for medical reasons did not take phys 2 during summer 2 as intended).

No, it's throwing away money before asking family for help or before qualifying for things like food stamps. That said, I keep forgetting about unemployment benefits. Last time DW lost a job, she'd worked there for 11 months, but because of timing, not 3 full quarters, so she didn't qualify for unemployment. Now she's had the same job for 5 years, so, she should qualify for unemployment. Unemployment should pay for all our needs - we shouldn't have to supplement it with savings until it runs out, because we can cut out a lot of expenses (rent is cheap, we have no car payment, etc).

So do we. Rode ui. We also call red cabbage rode kool, but I think the Germans call it Blaukraut (blue cabbage - but I'm not 100% sure), but we call red grapes blauwe druiven (blue grapes). Red cabbage is of course purple, unless you're doing science experiments with it with acids and bases (or, if you just cook it with a bunch of vinegar or w/e). Varies by onion. Some are more red, some more purple, most in between. Well, I guess I was thinking of the outside color. Once you cut them open they're purple or sometimes magenta-ish. Hope that helps.

Wait, would that be Baby Corn?

(((Maize's baby)))

Thanks. Exactly. The only thing they might not be happy about is that I haven't signed it (other than just my typed name), because I have no clue where our scanner is nor how to hook it up. That said, at the very least this gives me something to point to to say that I tried, i.e. if they're going to give me a hard time over it, it should at least buy me time. The stupid part is that the quarterly reports are meaningless. I and everybody else I know just write down some random grades because we don't know what on earth to write down anyway (I mean, really, what should I write down for PE for 2nd grade? Who cares?). I hear HSLDA is working with NY to possibly get rid of the quarterly reports, but that they're offering to give them portfolios upon request with a 2-week notice? Which would not be an improvement, though at least it'd be more meaningful (I don't want to be randomly asked for portfolios though - once at the end of the year I could get on board with, but them sending me a letter at random times? No).

Like, it'd be funny, if it didn't interfere with my ability to function.

Btw, the above is why I have meds, but the meds can be addictive, as well as cause memory issues if taken long term, so I try to not take them every day (I have some other meds I do take every day, but they still leave me with stuff like the above).

I faxed it. I hope they're going to be happy with it. They still haven't returned my call. Right. It gets pretty ridiculous at times, like "I could mail it to them, BUT I don't know if they need to receive it by x date, or if it needs to be post-marked by x date, and I don't know where the post office is, but I can look that up, but I know that we have envelopes and stamps, but I don't know where, and I could ask the post office if I could buy one envelope and a stamp, but I don't know if they sell individual envelopes, and I don't want to buy more than one because we have envelopes, and besides, will they think I'm stupid, and again, I don't know if they need to receive it today or if it needs to be postmarked by today, and if I go to the post office I might as well go to city hall, except there's no parking at city hall, and I'm really too frazzled to deal with dragging the kids around, and why did DW decide to go to work today when she's been working from home the vast majority of other days recently, and this shouldn't be this hard, I just suck, and" anyway, this obviously can go on much, much, longer, but I'll spare y'all.

Basically, there are too many "if-thens", which is what causes me to freeze.

I'm going to see if I can find some online faxing service. I think those exist. They have a fax number. They have not called back yet.

I tried to bribe myself, but it's too far to leave the kids home alone because this is the US, and there's no parking near it (well, there's a paid lot that may or may not be full), so, if it's full I'd have to park at DW's work, at which point it'd be a 20-30 min walk from there, i.e. if I leave now we could maybe make it barely in time. I don't know. Too hard.

Yeah, my stuff pales compared to your stuff. It's just that I knew what to do, had a routine, got things done, until we got evicted (technically - it's not like we were behind on payments or anything, the landlord just wanted to sell the place) and moved to a different school district. Since then, it's been a struggle, including some BS with the previous school district asking for stuff that wasn't legally required, but that's been sorted out now. Everything has been harder since the move.

They *never* answer their phone, btw. It's like, guys, aren't you *paid* to answer your phones?

Days in the past 9 months that I've sat paralyzed on the couch because of bureaucratic nonsense, instead of doing stuff with my kids: about a dozen, I think. :crying:

I'm feeling sad. I just can't get myself to drag my whining kids to city hall to hand in my quarterly reports. I tried calling them twice to ask if there is an email address I can send them to, but they didn't answer the phone. I left a message the second time. They close at 2:30. I hate bureaucratic nonsense.

What I need is "Financial Planning for People Married to Bipolar Aspies" or some such, aka: "Financial Planning For When Things Keep Blowing Up In Your Face".

Right, technically, we could have 3 of us in college at the same time if we plan things right. If Celery were to repeat a grade (possibly not a bad idea, because of his ASD and him being a mid-late August birthday anyway, and Broccoli were to graduate a year early (quite possible with the way things have been going), then they'd be only one year apart in when they start college, and I have 1 year FT left for undergrad, and then possibly grad school. The main thing is that a) if I wait until oldest and/or youngest is in college before I finish college, that delays my career, and b) it's harder to cashflow 3 people in college than 1.5-ish, and saving with a bipolar person in the household is uh, not easy. If I were to save up a substantial quantity of money for college for us, one possible scenario is that DW will lose her job and all those savings will be wiped out with me seeing nothing in return, kwim? Which is one reason I don't want to wait until the kids are in college before I start college - I really kind of want my degree sooner rather than later, because it makes me less vulnerable. It's an investment that can't be wiped out by financial misfortune/bad decisions.

Right, I thought something like that was likely to happen. Which might still mean it's worth it to basically work for free for those couple of years, since it'll add to my resume/work experience. Thus far, the most highly skilled/highest paying job I've had was just over 3 months as a truck driver, and my most recent job was when Celery was a 1yo. So, basically, my plan was to finish college while the kids are in high school, and then *start* my career. Now, I *could* wait until my youngest has (almost) graduated from college, but since my youngest will graduate high school when I'm about 43, starting my career at 41, or 43, is probably better than waiting until I'm 47, even if I'm essentially working for free for some time, right? Because if I wait to start my career at 47, I'll be Old (not that 41 or 43 or w/e would be young, but every year matters at that point). It'd give me a higher chance to get hired, and more time to get promoted, etc, so, in the end it'd work out better. (fwiw, I'm leaning towards maybe majoring in math and then possibly getting a master's in biostatistics, or something - things that pay decently)

Well, hurray for DW being 8 years older than me then. Our potential home value should be low though - if we buy, it'll probably cost $150k or less, and since we'd own it for 7 years or so tops before oldest goes to college, the equity in it will likely not be that great either. For the sake of argument, in all the calculators I used yesterday that asked about it, I said we had $20k in home equity (because we should qualify for VA home loan stuff, we shouldn't need to put much down if/when we buy).

Right, it's just that looking at what college would cost today is my best guess for 8 years from now - sure, college cost will go up, but our income will probably go up too. One big question I haven't even tried to figure out yet is what would happen if I were to get a job around the same time, and how that would affect EFC (for one, I have no idea how much I'd make - that would at least partially depend on whether I'll finish college before then and what major, etc). Also, buying a house, saving for retirement, and me finishing college are higher up the list than saving for college, especially if saving for college is a nebulous "save as much as you can" thing rather than a concrete number, and also, the more you save the higher your EFC becomes, doesn't it? Basically, if it were to look like we could cashflow $8k but the expected cost would be $12k, then there'd be an incentive to save... but with the numbers I'm seeing, it looks like we should be able to cashflow the cheapest options, and the other options are in la la land unless the kids get a scholarship or some decent paying job themselves, so, why bother? Transportation and books were items listed separately from room&board. At birth our income was close to zero. For most of my oldest's first 5 years we were below the poverty line, but, while it's maybe common for people to either save starting at birth or not at all, I figured it was still worth contemplating, since 7-8 years is still enough time to do *something* if we decide that's wise. Realistically though, it'll have to be a combination of cash-flowing, child contributing, and scholarships if the kid wants to go to a college outside of commuting distance, because buying a house and saving up for retirement would probably be better ideas. I'm not really sure what I expected from looking at the calculators... I guess I got intimidated by the threads about people being shocked at how clueless people are. P.S. some of these calculators asked how old the older parent is. Anyone know what's up with that?

No, the calculator specifically asked where the student would be living, and I checked "with parents". Other options included on campus and off campus and I think a fourth option I don't recall. They were literally just trying to include the cost of having a person living in our house, which, um, yeah, they're not free, but, it's a pretty random estimate that's unrelated to the size of the check I'd need to plan on writing. Which, I think for student loan borrowing options, the cost of attendance (which includes living expenses) is relevant, but having net price come out higher than tuition+fees for someone living at home does not make sense. Oh well. If they'd make these calculators less confusing, maybe more people would save up for college. I'm still confused as to which calculators included what costs. People with 11th-12th graders are going to be interested in the details. People with elementary school kids are just going to throw up their hands in confusion and say "w/e, it's still a looooong time from now, it'll just have to work out somehow". (Okay, I wasn't particularly planning on saving up anyway, but, I'm not sure how much the wiser I am now than I was before I did the calculators... college is expensive, okay, I already knew that. We should be able to afford our local U. Okay, I already knew that. Other Us might or might not offer decent need and or merit based aid, okay, I already knew that as well. Time to stick head back into the sand for about 6-7 years).