Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,127, Pain for College.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1127.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
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On this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Chris and Marcella about getting enough money to go to college.
Let's get started.
Which colleges are you applying to?
None.
I can't afford to go to college.
Even if I lived at home, tuition, fees, and books are just too expensive.
You could apply for financial aid.
I don't want to get a bunch of loans and be in debt for the next 10 to 20 years.
It's not worth it.
Loans aren't so bad, especially ones that are federally subsidized.
Apart from that, you could get need-based grants or work study.
I don't want to go into debt of any kind.
Community college tuition is much lower.
But who has the time?
I have to work full time to pay my bills.
Then think about a program that has a service commitment.
What do you mean?
There are teaching, military or community service programs that will forgive or pay off your loans if you work for the organization for a few years after graduating.
And be an indentured servant?
No thank you.
Okay, but most good jobs nowadays require a college degree.
Not if you really have talent.
Talent?
Yeah.
Haven't you seen me mime?
That's my ticket to a great career.
I'm happy to hear you have such a practical plan mapped out for your future.
Chris asks Marcella, which colleges are you applying to?
Which colleges are you trying to get into, are sending applications to?
Marcella says, none.
I can't afford to go to college.
Marcella says she can't afford to go to college, meaning she doesn't have any money.
She says, even if I lived at home, tuition fees and books are just too expensive.
Tuition T-U-I-T-I-O-N is the money that you pay to a school, including a college or a university, to be a student there.
It's the money you pay for your classes.
Usually American universities charge a certain amount of money for a full-time student which allows that student to take anywhere between three and five classes.
Of course, you want to take as many classes as possible to get the most from your money.
Not all colleges work that way.
Some colleges will charge you for each class you take, so it doesn't really make a difference.
But that's the idea of tuition.
It's money you pay to a school so that you can be a student there.
Chris says you could apply for financial aid.
Financial aid.
AID is money that is either given to a student by the college, an organization or the government, or money that is loaned to a student by a bank or the government to pay for the costs of being a student.
That would include tuition, living expenses, books, and so forth.
The national or federal government has a financial aid program that it uses to give money to students all over the country.
Each state also typically has a financial aid program.
So a student may be getting money from the federal government as well as the state government.
And, of course, individual universities also, will sometimes give students money, although most of the financial aid comes from either the federal or the state government, either in the form of what we call grants, G-R-A-N-T-S or loans.
A grant is money the government gives you and you don't have to pay it back.
It's like a gift.
Marcella says, I don't want to get a bunch of loans and be in debt for the next 10 to 20 years.
It's not worth it.
A loan L-O-A-N is, you probably know, money that someone gives you temporarily, with the idea that you will give that money back to the person.
To be in debt is D-E-B-T, notice the B is silent, means to owe money to other people or to a bank.
To be in debt means that you have to pay money back to people.
It means that you have loans, that is.
Marcella says she does not want to be in debt for the next 10 to 20 years.
She says it's not worth it.
It's not something that I think is a good idea for my future.
Chris says however, loans aren't so bad, meaning it's not that bad for you to get a loan especially, he continues, ones that are federally subsidized.
To be subsidized.
S-U-B-S-I-D-I-Z-E-D means to receive financial support from some other organization, especially from the government.
In federally subsidized loans, the government pays some of the interest on the loan.
Interest on a loan is money...
You pay to borrow the money.
It's like the price of the loan.
The federally subsidized loans are loans for which the US national or federal government will pay a certain amount of the interest on.
Chris says apart from that, meaning separate from that, You could get need-based grants or work study.
Something that is need-based.
B-A-S-E-D is something that depends upon how much money you make or have.
A need-based grant is money that the government gives you based upon how poor you are.
Work-study is a special program that again, the government often pays for, where you work, on the campus of the university or college.
You work when you are a student for the college, doing things like cleaning and working in the library and helping out in the offices.
That would be a work-study program. situation, and that's a kind of financial aid.
They only give those jobs to the students who need them.
Chris says put all of that together, meaning combine all of those things, and college can be affordable.
Something that is affordable A-F-F-O-R-D-A-B-L-E is something that is not too expensive.
It doesn't cost too much money.
You can pay for it.
You have enough money for it.
Marcella says, I don't want to go into debt of any kind.
Marcella doesn't want to have any loans is what she's saying.
Chris says you could go to a community college and transfer to a four-year university after two years.
Community college tuition is much lower.
A community college.
What we used to call a junior college in most states is a college that usually has only two years of schooling available.
Many times, community colleges will offer what's called an AA or an Associate of Arts degree, or an AS, an Associate of Science degree.
These are usually for specific kinds of jobs or things that don't require a four-year university degree, a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes people will study at community colleges to do all of their general education requirements before transferring or moving from the community college to a four-year college or university where they get their bachelor's degree.
This is very common in California, because the tuition at community colleges is cheaper than the tuition at four-year colleges, universities or universities that give bachelor's degrees.
It's quite common here in Los Angeles, for example, for international students to come over and study at a community college such as Santa Monica College, which is close to where I live.
And then after two years, after taking their general classes and improving their English, they transfer to either USC, the University of Southern California, or UCLA, the University of California, Los Angeles, or another university here in California.
When I say they take general education classes, I mean that they take classes that most universities require they take.
English classes, math classes, usually some sort of science and history classes.
Classes that are usually required by most universities in order to graduate with a four-year degree.
Marcella says, but who has the time?
I have to work full time to pay my bills.
Chris says, then think about a program that has a service commitment.
A service commitment is an agreement or a contract where you agree to work full at a certain kind of job when you finish your education, and by agreeing to do that, the government or an organization will give you money.
This is common, for example, for teachers, because there are many schools, especially in cities like los angeles, that need teachers.
The government may give you money to become a teacher, but you have to agree to work for one of the schools for a certain number of years.
If you don't, then you have to pay the money back to the government as a loan.
I got my teaching license back in Minnesota many years ago on one of these service commitment grants.
Although I didn't actually work long enough in the schools to meet the agreement, so I had to pay some of it back as a loan.
But that's not the point of the story.
The point of the story is that you can sometimes get money by signing one of these service agreements for certain kinds of jobs.
There aren't very many jobs that the government will do this for you.
Sometimes it does it for doctors.
They will pay the loans of doctors who agree to work in certain parts of the country that need doctors.
Marcella says, what do you mean?
And then Chris explains there are teaching, military or community service programs that will forgive or pay off your loans if you work for the organization for a few years after graduating.
Chris mentions the military.
The US military will also give you money to go to college, if you agree, of course, to go into the military for a certain number of years after.
The verb to forgive a loan refers to not requiring you to pay the loan back.
So if the government gives you a loan and forgives the loan, the government is saying you don't have to give us the money that we gave you for the loan.
To pay off a loan is to actually pay, usually a bank that has loaned you the money, the money that you owe.
But Marcella doesn't like this idea either.
She says, An indentured servant was a person who signs an agreement to work for for another person without getting paid for a certain amount of time.
We don't have indentured servants anymore.
It's not legal in the united states to have an indentured servant.
It was something that was more popular in the nineteenth century and before.
Wealthy families, for example, would pay immigrants to come and work on their farms or at their houses, and these workers would have to work for those people for a certain amount of time in order to, in effect, pay off the loan that the rich family gave the immigrants in order to come to the United States.
Chris says, okay, but most jobs nowadays require a college degree.
A degree is a document saying that you have completed certain requirements at the university.
Marcella says, not if you really have talent.
She's saying that not all jobs require a college degree if you have talent.
Chris says, talent?
Marcella says, yeah.
Haven't you seen me mime?
To mime M-I-M-E is to use your body and your face and your hands to show some action without actually saying anything.
Marcella thinks she has a talent for miming.
She says, that's my ticket to a great career.
Your ticket here refers to your path to success, the way that you're going to make a lot of money.
Chris says, I'm happy to hear you have such a practical plan mapped out for your future.
To map out something is to plan it, to know what all the details are of the plan that you are going to carry out.
We use this expression not just in talking about using a physical map to find out how to get from one place in the city to another, but more generally to refer to someone making detailed plans about his or her future.
Chris, of course, is being a little sarcastic here.
He's making a joke.
He doesn't think that trying to become a professional mime is a very good plan for Marcella.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Which colleges are you applying to?
None.
I can't afford to go to college.
Even if I lived at home, tuition, fees, and books are just too expensive.
You could apply for financial aid.
I don't want to get a bunch of loans and be in debt for the next 10 to 20 years.
It's not worth it.
Loans aren't so bad, especially ones that are federally subsidized.
Apart from that, you could get need-based grants or work-study.
Put all of that together and college can be affordable.
I don't want to go into debt of any kind.
You could go to a community college and transfer to a four-year university after two years.
Community college tuition is much lower.
But who has the time?
I have to work full time to pay my bills.
Then think about a program that has a service commitment.
What do you mean?
And be an indentured servant?
No, thank you.
Okay, but most good jobs nowadays require a college degree.
Talent?
Talent?
Yeah, haven't you seen me mime?
That's my ticket to a great career.
I'm happy to hear you have such a practical plan mapped out for your future.
We are all in debt to the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say for her wonderful scripts.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
