Your view?

[Rick Law]

Every now and again, college/university/education is discussed by folks on this forum.  This is about a college girl who likely is not interested in EE.  But I am interested in your thoughts about this college girl.

* * * *
In a nutshell:
[Kim] blew through a $90,000 college fund on expensive clothes and a trip to Europe and now has no way to pay for her senior year, a predicament  she blames on her parents. 

She contacted “The Bert Show” after the school had just mailed her the tuition bill for her senior year, according to Yahoo's financial news website. She explained that she was short about $20,000 for her final two semesters.

She told “The Bert Show” that it was all her parents fault for not showing her how to manage her money.

In another call, the young woman said her parents told her there was nothing they could do for her because they didn’t have any money. She accused her father of being a “little bit of a jerk about it” after she told him she was broke.

“They’re not being honest with me, saying they don’t have it because my father has worked for like a million years and they have a retirement account,” Kim said.

[RL comment: in the USA, some of us don't have pension but have retirement accounts ("IRA" and/or 401K per tax laws).  Some have 401K/IRA to supplement their pension.  For more and more folks, their 401K will be their only retirement income.  401K/IRA cannot be touched until a certain age or penalty will apply ($ penalty, not jail).  I have no idea what is the father's situation, and I don't know if Kim realize that penalty may apply making the money very expensive to touch even if they are willing.]

She said her parents suggested she take out a loan with the credit union. “And I’m like, 'How am I supposed to do that?'” she said.

The next day Kim told the show she went down to the credit union after all to apply for a loan. She said the loan officer told her she would need her parents as co-signers because she didn’t work and didn’t have collateral.

Kim told the show her parents wouldn’t co-sign unless she got a part-time job.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll tell my parents I’ll be a stripper if they don’t co-sign,” the woman said.

In a fourth call to the station, Kim said her situation had improved. Her loan had been approved and she was looking for a job, as much as that pained her.

This originated from a radio show and reported on various news sites.   The above are paritial quotes from:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/19/college-student-blames-parents-after-blows-0g-college-fund/
* * * *
From the text I bold above, I suppose you gathered that I think she has no chance of success in life as she failed to take personal responsibility in her own life.  Instead, she sees fit to raid what her parent might have saved for their remaining years.

What do you think?  I am interested in your thoughts in part because my daughter is approaching college age.

Rick

[Mephitus]

I have a hard time with her as I was kicked out homeless by my parents on my 19th birthday (they are religious zealots). So had to learn money management the hard way. If she cant see the critical hole in her knowledge and then immediatly attempt to fix it through her own study, she has no reason to be attending college in the first place.

[retrolefty]

Stupid comes in all genders. 

[Richard Crowley]

Someone who is that remarkably clueless after 3 years of  "higher education" speaks very badly of the school.
Not to mention that her parents didn't do a terribly good job of supervising her adolescence, either.
I find it almost impossible to have any sympathy for people like that.  She will become a loyal Democrat entitlement leach.

[dr.diesel]

That brat can just deal with it, on her own.  I already feel sorry for the poor sap that gets conned into marrying her.

[AF6LJ]

I really don't think you really want to hear my thoughts on a spoiled brat BimBO who perhaps should not been allowed to attend college in the first place.

[jancumps]

I'd leave this to reality tv. Let's get on with electronics.

[Lightages]

Higher education for her is a waste of time and money. She needs to learn to be a human being first.

[apis]

We only have one (seemingly biased) side of the story... if this is even a real person. It's obviously presented in a way so we are supposed to think she is a spoiled brat.

[Richard Crowley]

We only have one (seemingly biased) side of the story... if this is even a real person. It's obviously presented in a way so we are supposed to think she is a spoiled brat.

She appears to be self-identifying as a spoiled brat.  Or at least she self-reports spoiled-brat-like behaivor.

[orbiter]

 Funny how she didn't need a 'real serious talk' on how to spend it!

[Rick Law]

I really don't think you really want to hear my thoughts on a spoiled brat BimBO who perhaps should not been allowed to attend college in the first place.

As I said, my kid is approaching college age.  I am aware when one forms a position based on one's experience alone without further input, one can indeed get extreme or inflexible and not realize it as extreme or as too inflexible to be practical.

So, I am genuinely interested in the view from forum members, yours included.  (But I read between the lines between BimBO and the rest.)

I am trying to discern if there is a perception that the parent is too inflexible (you get a part time job then we'll help) and if the daughter is "one of many" or "one in many"; or other thoughts I haven't even thought about.

[McBryce]

I think she'll succeed. She's a wreck at the moment, but with every call she had changed her ways and learnt something. Someone who learns and adapts always comes out good.

McBryce.

[Andy Watson]

Perhaps a year out at the University of Life would be best for her education, and for everybody else she meets.

[Richard Crowley]

If the parents had any decent understanding of their daughter's behavior patterns, they wouldn't have made their hard-earned money available to her to mis-use like that in the first place.

And both the parents and the bank requiring her to go out and get a job is simple Common Sense. She seems to display a very poor grasp of what it takes to survive in the Real World.

I can only think that the parents just sent her off to college in hopes of marrying her off to some poor sucker to get her out of the house.  I know that is a pretty jaded view, but from the brief data, it appears to be a rather catastrophic failure of BOTH parenting and formal education.

I heard a talk show recently discussing the matter of higher education vs. vocational education.  There was no dearth of people calling in with graduate degrees who make more money as plumbers or truck drivers than they did in their university-prepared area of study.  And no lack of college/uni grads who were finding it very difficult to land a job in their selected profession.

[AF6LJ]

Being female I find myself embarrassed for her, and for the rest of us females that she reflects badly upon. I also find it funny in this Karmic sort of way that she will be paying for that college education for a very long time, unless she finds a sugar daddy to pony up the money.

EDIT:
Does anybody know what she majored in???

[nctnico]

I am trying to discern if there is a perception that the parent is too inflexible (you get a part time job then we'll help) and if the daughter is "one of many" or "one in many"; or other thoughts I haven't even thought about.

IMHO getting a part time job is a good way to learn the value of money. I tell my own kids to get a part time job if they want to have more money to spend. Just pouring money into a bottomless pit doesn't seem right to me. At some points kids need to be smart enough to hold up their own pants but they will make mistakes anyway. There are just too many greedy bankers and insurance companies out there with traps for young players. Bottom line: be prepared to support your kids every now and then until you die 

[Mephitus]

Being female I find myself embarrassed for her, and for the rest of us females that she reflects badly upon. I also find it funny in this Karmic sort of way that she will be paying for that college education for a very long time, unless she finds a sugar daddy to pony up the money.

EDIT:
Does anybody know what she majored in???

I would be willing to gamble that she did "gender studies". 

[GreyWoolfe]

I read the story on Foxnews.com.  I was a bit saddened.  Ultimately, this isn't all on her.  We are a product of our environment.  As parents, it is our job and duty to properly train up our children.  I can't speak of the parents if they did or not and she just didn't take the life lessons taught by them to heart.  Something was certainly lacking somewhere.  That was a bit nervy that she expected her parents to give up their retirement and their comfort in their golden years for her.  The worse part of it is her airing her dirty laundry on the radio.  If my child did that to me, I would surely think twice about help of any kind.  I am also sure the tone she took with them wasn't appreciated.  I would have told her to go be a stripper, if she was good enough, she could earn the money in a few weeks.  I am glad to see that her parents took a strong stance and set conditions for help.  Anything freely given is rarely appreciated.  She started on the road of learning life lessons and I hope she continues to learn well.  For now, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and not refer to her as a Democrat entitlement leach.  Only time will tell if she will deserve that description.

[suicidaleggroll]

I am trying to discern if there is a perception that the parent is too inflexible (you get a part time job then we'll help)

Not at all, it's a very reasonable response in my opinion.

My parents had a rule before I went to college that they would only be able to pay for half.  I managed to cover my half with scholarships, and it was understood that if I screwed anything up and lost those scholarships, I would have to make up the difference.  I didn't, but if I had I would be in the same position as the girl in this story.  The difference is I would know it was my fault, without a doubt, and I would feel relieved if my parents were willing to cosign on a loan to cover the remainder of my tuition.  Asking me to get a part time job as part of the deal would only be reasonable.

The girl in this story sounds like a worthless waste of life.  You would think that after three years of higher education she might have grown and matured beyond the level of a 13 year old, but apparently she didn't.

[Richard Crowley]

I would be willing to gamble that she did "gender studies". 

   The talk-show host said almost exactly the same thing.  He proposed that any degree in "_____ Studies" should be discontinued as essentially useless in the Real World.

[McBryce]

Does anybody know what she majored in???

Nuclear physics?

McBryce.

[AF6LJ]

I would be willing to gamble that she did "gender studies". 

Now there is a career choice where the sky is the limit (if you get high). 

[EEVblog]

At college age the buck stops with you.

[CatalinaWOW]

You mention that you have a child about to go to university.  It is far more important that you have this conversation with her/him than with those of us on the forum.  If there is any disconnect between you, it might then be appropriate to go outside your family for discussion about who might be more correct. 

In my opinion the ideal situation is for you to be close enough to your kids you would have had this conversation (multiple times) and would have had few surprises because you have been influencing them for their entire lives.  Not everyone achieves this ideal.  I didn't.  But I got close enough that we survived the bumps and they have turned out pretty well in the end.