You think you're a slacker? Bow to the slacker king!

[DrewKaree]

So there I was, thinking what to do with my life and I realized....I passed up this opportunity YEARS ago! 

From the slacker king comes this nugget of info...read up and see if you passed up your calling, or if he's "giving you something to shoot for":  I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation 

And he's not really avoiding ANYTHING!

[tommy]

I wouldnt worry as long as your happy. 

[DrewKaree]

I wouldnt worry as long as your happy. 

Read that story once more. 

Take notice how much that dude pays for tuition.

Everyone who's gone to college, tell us how much you paid for a full courseload per year, and read YET AGAIN how much that dude's tuition costs.

My TAXES pay for slackers like this.  He's a 45 minute drive from me.  I feel like taking a drive and beating him so senseless he decides to get a JOB! (not really, for all you softies out there )

It's SO infuriating to see colossal wastes of the money taken from my check on a weekly basis and they're reported on as kitschy, kooky, spice-of-life stories, instead of the abhorrent waste of government spending that they are.

Happy?  If I had known this dude was gonna turn out to be such a sponge on the system, I'd have sought him out on one of my visits to his campus a few years back...he was just starting his career when I stopped having reasons to make the trips.  That might have made me happy!

[DrewKaree]

Oh, one more thing NOT reported in the story, and something you guys paying off college loans might also envy:

Last year, they decided to raise the tuition 15%, and people LOST.  THEIR.  MINDS!

If I lived in Carolina still and wanted to go to UNC, I'd have paid the equivalent of almost 3 years tuition at UWW.....PER YEAR!

[Bones]

My TAXES pay for slackers like this.

[Grasshopper]

Good luck to him I say. It's his life.

In any case, he's working part time and will eventually have to pay off the loan so he's not a total 'slacker'.

Who makes up the rules that say at a certain age you should get a job, get married etc.

I'd love to be a perpetual student.

[maraxle]

Take notice how much that dude pays for tuition.

He pays with loans and by waiting tables.  He'll have to pay the loans back eventually, and he pays taxes/social security/etc now, so what's the problem?  And if he has any unsubsidized loans, which he probably does, he's already accruing interest...

As a side note, I had more than the $30,000 worth of student loans that this guy has, and I graduated early.  Whether the benefits of private school were worth the payments now is debatable, but c'est la vie.

[nostrebor]

I think Drew's point is that he is attending a State subsidized school. He may be paying his tuition, but the State is picking up the difference between the real operational costs, and the credit hour costs charged to students. I would bet that as of this year, he is covering the costs himself, but that does not make up for the last 10.
 
I'm with Drew on this one...

[maraxle]

One student's impact on the operational budget of a 10,000 student state school is minimal at best.  Assuming this school is like most other state schools, the amount of operational funding it receives is a fixed cost.  Even if the enrollment changes slightly, they receive the same funding.  So this guy is the rounded off decimal point of some obscure calculation in making the budget.  Go check a few coin returns on some payphones (or video games) and you're bound to find more money than what this guy has cost taxpayers.

[DarkKobold]

I'm in my 6th year at Michigan State, however... I'm working for my tuition. I am also in Grad School.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Van Wylder jokes:
Wylder: "There are people that go to school for 12 years"
Dad: "Yeah, they are called doctors"

I'd also like to second the question.... Drew works?

[missioncontrol]

who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater. He's taken a full course load every semester except the current one, in which he's taking seven credits.

what happens when he runs out of classes to take???


and more important.........

Drew works???

[quarterback]

My TAXES pay for slackers like this.

[Grasshopper]

What I find depressing is the increasingly prevalent attitude that education should be regarded solely as a means of getting a better paid job. What happened to learning for learning's sake?

There are many intangible benefits to education, it's not just about the economy.

I believe there is generally a correlation between how civilised a society is, and how educated its people are.

[rchadd]

after 12 years out in the real world - i'd really love to go back to the cosy life at uni

...and all those young chicks 

[DrewKaree]

He's doing what students do.  He's just doing it more than others.  Do you really think that there should be a limit on how many classes any student should take?  "No, sorry, you're not allowed to continue your education.  You're not allowed to take any more classes; it infuriates Drew."

"Oh, sorry ma'am, I know you've decided to go back to school at age 42 because you realised that your B.A. from the English dept wasn't doing anything for your career, but we can't allow you to get another degree here, you've taken too many classes already."

What about continuing education classes that people take without being fully enrolled at a University?  Should we get rid of those as well?

What about community colleges where basically anybody can take classes?  Should we tell people that they're only allowed to take a certain number?  Would you also prohibit Johnny Lechner from taking classes there?  Should he be banned from ever taking any classes again in the U.S. because he's taken "too many"?

You're talking about options that have absolutely nothing to do with this story, and more to do with someone actually paying a reasonable amount for their education in those situations. 

It seems you missed the point in the story where even the SCHOOL SYSTEM of this bassackwards state has said "fine, go as long as you want, but reasonable amounts of time will apply, and you'll be penalized for it".  Did you happen to grasp the part where he took some classes TWICE because he didn't remember taking them?!

The cost of a college education in my state is RIDICULOUSLY low, and this dude is the LARGEST example of the drain on wallets in this state. 

Mission:
he got a letter essentially telling him exactly that!  "We have no more classes you can take!"......and yes, I work.

As smartly as possible, so it's not as hard as possible, to do as much as possible in the smallest amount of time possible.....so I end up doing as little as possible, getting the best results possible

Possible....possible.....it just rolls off the tongue...possible....imagine the possibilities of the word possible.

[Harry Potter]

Used to go out with a girl who started going to Uni in 1995 and is still there. What we call Professional Students down here. She reckons she'll finish in about 5 years, once they run out of courses. 

[quarterback]

You're talking about options that have absolutely nothing to do with this story, and more to do with someone actually paying a reasonable amount for their education in those situations.

[quarterback]

What I find depressing is the increasingly prevalent attitude that education should be regarded solely as a means of getting a better paid job. What happened to learning for learning's sake?

[DrewKaree]

Clearly you think what he's doing is completely wrong, right?
Clearly you think that he should be stopped, right?

Since you didn't answer any of the questions I posed in my first post, I'll ask again, Drew
(1) Do you think there should be a maximum number of classes that any one person is allowed to take at a school that is subsidized by taxpayer money?  Yes or no.

Not a maximum number of classes.  A time frame, after which, you are expected to pay a larger portion of your tuition, such as what was implemented.  It seems to have made the decision a little easier for him, hasn't it?  Your graduate classes and going back to school years later example are poor comparisons.  Beyond a reasonable time-frame, yes, there should be financial burdens he should be expected to shoulder.  I don't think what he's doing is wrong, I think he's using the system as it was set up to take advantage of the more-than-generous assistance the taxpayers of this state generally have no clue about.  The problem is that our school system is set up to foster this crap and there's little drawback to someone sponging off the people of my state for excessive amounts of time.

If he wants to go to school for ANOTHER twelve years, that's fine with me, but he should be footing a larger, MUCH larger, percentage of the bill than he already is.  As for him helping pay taxes for his schooling, here in WI, if he can demonstrate that he's a full time student, he'll get every dime back from the state that he paid in taxes each week, and I'd bet at the federal level, the same thing happens.