Financial News

[bigruss]

Oh, it wasn't clear to me that # of credits increased tuition. I'm a fan of the "11/12-to-18 credits is the same tuition" model.

It's not different if you take 12 credits one semester or 18 credits that semester, but when you accumulate more credits (aka your academic standing as a junior/senior) costs higher than as a freshman/sophomore. It's just hidden costs that most HS students won't see when applying and will be thinking they are paying much less than they will be.

[farmteam]

It's not different if you take 12 credits one semester or 18 credits that semester, but when you accumulate more credits (aka your academic standing as a junior/senior) costs higher than as a freshman/sophomore. It's just hidden costs that most HS students won't see when applying and will be thinking they are paying much less than they will be.

I'm still not exactly clear on this:

 

If that's on TOP of normal yearly tuition increases, that's shady.

 

If it's INSTEAD of normal yearly tuition increases, that's not shady, IMO.

[bigruss]

I'm still not exactly clear on this:

 

If that's on TOP of normal yearly tuition increases, that's shady.

 

If it's INSTEAD of normal yearly tuition increases, that's not shady, IMO.

It's both.

 

Michigan increases tuition annually across the board, and on top of that your tuition depends on how many credits you have.

[cabiness42]

If you choose to go to Michigan, you deserve whatever happens to you.

[Chisoxfn]

Good read on how college debt is about to be a bigger problem:

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bernanke-jus...stability-issue

 

 

 

This crap is just not sustainable. My generation and younger are putting themselves in so much debt with little hope of paying it off. My wife and I are at about $160k. I guess in 20 years it'll be nice to have that extra income to pay for a vacation home, or more likely to pay for a semester of my kids' college tuition.

One of the things I'm very thankful about is that my wife and I were able to graduate with no debt and find jobs right out of college. It is such a bad time to be a student, especially one that doesn't have a plan. I have quite a few friends that just thought jobs would get handed to them when they graduated. They went to expensive colleges and got less meaningful degrees and are now in a world of hurt thanks to the loans.

 

The hard part is, even those that went and got advanced degrees, a lot of good people are out of luck, just because of when they graduated. I swear, the one profession that is just crazy is law. Someone has to put an end to all of these small time crap law schools that pop up, charge students 100K per year, and really do nothing to help them get jobs. It should be a freaking crime. They are poaching on people who are trying to do something for themselves that don't come from a family of lawyers, promising hopes and dreams and delivering on nothing.

[Chisoxfn]

Actually dropping. 25% lower than it was per head a decade ago as of 2010, with continuing budget cuts since.

 

Again, state level link, but there's a national curve on it.

Funding might be down 25%, but costs are up well over 25% at most institutions.

[Chisoxfn]

Wow. The median starting law school salary was that low? I would have never in a million years ever guessed that. Most of the law schools out here (whether you are the best school in the country or the freaking worse (e.g., Thomas Jefferson school of Law in San Diego), you are going to end up paying almost 300K (including room/board) to get your degree.

 

If that meant I'm landing a job at 43K, holy hell, that is a long long long time before I can pay that thing off.

[StrangeSox]

The UC system, one of the greatest public university systems in the world, have had to slash budgets in recent years.

[Chisoxfn]

If you choose to go to Michigan, you deserve whatever happens to you.

It is a tremendous school.

[StrangeSox]

Wow. The median starting law school salary was that low? I would have never in a million years ever guessed that. Most of the law schools out here (whether you are the best school in the country or the freaking worse (e.g., Thomas Jefferson school of Law in San Diego), you are going to end up paying almost 300K (including room/board) to get your degree.

 

If that meant I'm landing a job at 43K, holy hell, that is a long long long time before I can pay that thing off.

 

Only something like 1/3 of ABA-accredited law school graduates actually land a job that requires an ABA-accredited law degree out of school. There's been a bunch of people in the blogosphere, both left and right and otherwise (e.g. Volokh, Paul Campos) documenting how expensive law school has become, how bad the prospects for graduates are and how much the colleges hide the true facts from prospective students.

[Chisoxfn]

The UC system, one of the greatest public university systems in the world, have had to slash budgets in recent years.

I know out here, when I do on campus recruiting for Deloitte, I'm always very surprised at how much the cost has increased in the past couple of years. Still, I could go to school for 4 years at under 40K. Which is a pretty big bargain. That wouldn't include room/board though.

 

I think my entire college tuition was less then 10K. Albeit I went to a state school and lived at home. That included the cost of books. However, cost/benefit was one of the things I considered in the decision making process. My school was very good at what I wanted to do (business/accounting) and all of the big 4 hire out of here. The problem is most students don't consider and/or know that sort of information.

[Jenksismyhero]

Only something like 1/3 of ABA-accredited law school graduates actually land a job that requires an ABA-accredited law degree out of school. There's been a bunch of people in the blogosphere, both left and right and otherwise (e.g. Volokh, Paul Campos) documenting how expensive law school has become, how bad the prospects for graduates are and how much the colleges hide the true facts from prospective students.

 

To be fair to the law schools, they're doing nothing different than colleges. I'm not sure it's their responsibility on applications to warn people that the job market sucks. The job market sucks for everything.

 

But I do have a problem with the entire law school curriculum. Frankly law school is unnecessary. A college pre-law program would be sufficient to prepare you, since what you learn is mostly a waste anyway. Unlike college you're not getting the social life experience to go along with the education. Med school makes sense - you learn medicine, you get placed into a residency program, then you find a job. Like teaching there's a hands-on portion to it. In law school it's just learn the law, the majority of which you will never, ever need to know and if you did you do what every lawyer does anyway - you research. There are no hands-on programs unless you're lucky enough to get a clerk gig.

[Chisoxfn]

Only something like 1/3 of ABA-accredited law school graduates actually land a job that requires an ABA-accredited law degree out of school. There's been a bunch of people in the blogosphere, both left and right and otherwise (e.g. Volokh, Paul Campos) documenting how expensive law school has become, how bad the prospects for graduates are and how much the colleges hide the true facts from prospective students.

I'll be honest, I'm surprised more people don't say, forget it. I'll study on my own, take the baby bar, and then take the big bar.

 

Note: I have no idea if this is allowable, but two of my lawyer friends indicated that you absolutely do not have to go to law school to become an attorney. And if I were a prospective employer, I'd be pretty damn impressed by someone who was able to achieve that certification independently. Maybe they don't land the top job, but they would be debt free and in a pretty good position.

[StrangeSox]

To be fair to the law schools, they're doing nothing different than colleges. I'm not sure it's their responsibility on applications to warn people that the job market sucks. The job market sucks for everything.

 

They're deliberately obscuring the facts, though. Like when they report the average debt-load for graduates, they only include the third year. Or when they report employment rates, they include law-school-funded clerk jobs paying $15/hour or less. Campos documented both of those recently.

[Jenksismyhero]

I know out here, when I do on campus recruiting for Deloitte, I'm always very surprised at how much the cost has increased in the past couple of years. Still, I could go to school for 4 years at under 40K. Which is a pretty big bargain. That wouldn't include room/board though.

 

I think my entire college tuition was less then 10K. Albeit I went to a state school and lived at home. That included the cost of books. However, cost/benefit was one of the things I considered in the decision making process. My school was very good at what I wanted to do (business/accounting) and all of the big 4 hire out of here. The problem is most students don't consider and/or know that sort of information.

 

I'm kicking myself for not listening to my parents. I had the option to go to U of I and stay at home. That would have cost like 7-8k a year max. Instead I went to Illinois Wesleyan, a private school in Bloomington that cost 30-35k a year. Luckily my parents paid the majority of it, but I still have debt for that.

 

[StrangeSox]

I'll be honest, I'm surprised more people don't say, forget it. I'll study on my own, take the baby bar, and then take the big bar.

 

Note: I have no idea if this is allowable, but two of my lawyer friends indicated that you absolutely do not have to go to law school to become an attorney. And if I were a prospective employer, I'd be pretty damn impressed by someone who was able to achieve that certification independently. Maybe they don't land the top job, but they would be debt free and in a pretty good position.

 

This is pretty limited. Most states require you to have an ABA-accredited JD to sit for the bar.

[Jenksismyhero]

They're deliberately obscuring the facts, though. Like when they report the average debt-load for graduates, they only include the third year. Or when they report employment rates, they include law-school-funded clerk jobs paying $15/hour or less. Campos documented both of those recently.

 

It's absolutely shady, but colleges and universities do the same thing.

[Chisoxfn]

They're deliberately obscuring the facts, though. Like when they report the average debt-load for graduates, they only include the third year. Or when they report employment rates, they include law-school-funded clerk jobs paying $15/hour or less. Campos documented both of those recently.

Yep. It is down right fraudelent. And it happens most often at the less accredited law-schools. They are able to poach on people who are aspiring to be the first "professional" in the family and dupe a lot of people into making decisions based upon inaccurate information/facts.

[StrangeSox]

It's absolutely shady, but colleges and universities do the same thing.

 

Here's an example from the NYSL who had a case against them dismissed earlier this year.

 

http://abovethelaw.com/2012/03/breaking-cl...hool-dismissed/

[Chisoxfn]

This is pretty limited. Most states require you to have an ABA-accredited JD to sit for the bar.

I thought if you didn't go to an accredited school, you then have to sit for the baby bar first. Passing that, "accredites" you so to speak and then you are eligible to sit for the full bar. I would assume if it works in California it would work that way in most other states (especially since they are known, along with New York, to have one of the hardest bar exams).

[StrangeSox]

Yep. It is down right fraudelent. And it happens most often at the less accredited law-schools. They are able to poach on people who are aspiring to be the first "professional" in the family and dupe a lot of people into making decisions based upon inaccurate information/facts.

It happens at schools like Rutgers too.

[StrangeSox]

I thought if you didn't go to an accredited school, you then have to sit for the baby bar first. Passing that, "accredites" you so to speak and then you are eligible to sit for the full bar. I would assume if it works in California it would work that way in most other states (especially since they are known, along with New York, to have one of the hardest bar exams).

 

California allows a non-JB backdoor, but they're one of the exceptions, not the norm. Jenks or others can comment more, but I think you have to have an ADA-accredited JD to sit in Illinois.

[farmteam]

California allows a non-JB backdoor, but they're one of the exceptions, not the norm. Jenks or others can comment more, but I think you have to have an ADA-accredited JD to sit in Illinois.

I know this was a typo, but it's still funny.

 

And California was the only state I was aware of that lets people without JD's sit for the bar; if there's any more than that, it can't be more than a few.

[Balta1701]

Getting close to the official "I told you so's" on this one.

A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives.

 

After 10 months of stitching together evidence on the firm’s demise, criminal investigators are concluding that chaos and porous risk controls at the firm, rather than fraud, allowed the money to disappear, according to people involved in the case.

 

The hurdles to building a criminal case were always high with MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy in October after a huge bet on European debt unnerved the market. But a lack of charges in the largest Wall Street blowup since 2008 is likely to fuel frustration with the government’s struggle to charge financial executives. Just a few individuals — none of them top Wall Street players — have been prosecuted for the risky acts that led to recent failures and billions of dollars in losses.

 

In the most telling indication yet that the MF Global investigation is winding down, federal authorities are seeking to interview the former chief of the firm, Jon S. Corzine, next month, according to the people involved in the case. Authorities hope that Mr. Corzine, who is expected to accept the invitation, will shed light on the actions of other employees at MF Global.

 

Those developments indicate that federal prosecutors do not expect to file criminal charges against the former New Jersey governor. Mr. Corzine has not yet received assurances that he is free from scrutiny, but two rounds of interviews with former employees and a review of thousands of documents have left prosecutors without a case against him, say the people involved in the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

 

While the government’s findings would remove the darkest cloud looming over Mr. Corzine — the threat of criminal charges — the former Goldman Sachs chief is not yet in the clear. A bankruptcy trustee on Wednesday joined customers’ lawsuits against Mr. Corzine, and regulators are still considering civil enforcement actions, which could cost him millions of dollars or ban him from working on Wall Street.

 

Mr. Corzine, in a bid to rebuild his image and engage his passion for trading, is weighing whether to start a hedge fund, according to people with knowledge of his plans. He is currently trading with his family’s wealth.

 

If he is successful as a hedge fund manager, it would be the latest career comeback for a man who was ousted from both the top seat at Goldman Sachs and the New Jersey governor’s mansion.

Corzine winding up starting a hedge fund would really be a beautiful denouement to this case. Really sums up what the current financial system is all about.

[mr_genius]

Deutsche Bank executive, high on bath salts, gets arrested.

 

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/08/21/...-on-bath-salts/

 

lol