Letters

Christine Langhoff / Dorchester

Your piece caught our eye at the Gates Foundation. I’m not sure anyone has done a better job in a major print publication of capturing the plight of American college students, who aren’t what we think of as the “traditional” student. As you point out, for too long, postsecondary policies have been designed for the “traditional” student, a young person who is enrolled full time in a residential four-year college and is largely financially dependent on parents. Not surprisingly, this student is most likely to graduate. But the reality is our perception of the typical college student accounts for only about 25 percent of all students.

Marie Groark / US Program Advocacy, Gates Foundation, Seattle

I worked my way through college, taking classes at night and on weekends, until my last three semesters, when I attended full time. While a part-time student, it was tough to participate fully in college life and forge strong relationships with professors. My college was a leader in offering internships, but it wasn’t until I became a full-time student that I could get one. And, yet, I wouldn’t trade my days as a part-timer for anything. My classes were full of dedicated people who understood the value of an education. Many were finally getting the degree they’d wanted. I like to think they made me a better student. I’m sure they made me a better person.

Kate Nelson / Beverly

What’s in a Name? I think Zac Bissonnette misses a huge factor in calculating college debt (“Why I Won’t Have Any College Debt,” May 31): financial aid. When applying to college 10 years ago, I was accepted at UMass-Amherst and several private schools. The total package at UMass was far more expensive due to a very low financial-aid offer. Several years later, I earned my master’s degree at UMass-Boston in a two-year program. The debt I amassed in those two years was nearly double what I owed for my undergraduate degree at George Washington University, ranked one of the country’s most expensive schools. On paper, state universities may be more affordable; in practice the opposite is often true.

Conor Yunits / Brockton

I wish this story had been written 12 years ago, when I was a high school senior in New Hampshire and chose Northeastern over the University of New Hampshire. I’m now in year six of 25 paying off nearly $50,000 in undergraduate loans, half of which are from a private lender with variable interest rates. I valued my education at Northeastern -- I developed a career path from my co-op job as a student -- but I can only imagine what I could be doing with the extra $300 a month in loan payments if I’d chosen UNH.

Al Pica / Marblehead

No Shortcuts Although I sympathize with Kara Baskin’s husband and the Class of 2009 about a tough job market (Perspective, May 31), it sounds as if these newly minted graduates are bitter that they actually have to take an entry-level job, learn their craft, work hard, and eventually carve out a career like the rest of us did. Graduation is a time of angst when you have a degree but still no experience or credentials. Reality sets in that now the real work begins. The skills learned during this training -- critical thinking, data analysis, creative problem solving -- never become “obsolete.”

Terri Wheeler / Northbridge

Dover Digs I thoroughly enjoyed Charles P. Pierce’s swing at the Polo customer base in “Party on, Dover” (Pierced, May 31). Frankly, I can rarely force myself through Pierce’s bitter snippets, but this one was spot on with “Uncle Sockless” and “Great Aunt Hedgefund.” Perhaps we could use a bit more of this treatment in lieu of the cream-cheese-and-vanilla wedding announcements that run in the Globe.

Ian Bell / Mission Hill

Pierce neglected to add in his Dover commentary that there are more dogs than Democrats registered in the bucolic town!

Charley Lax / Dover

Pierce’s piece about Dover WASPs is bigoted -- and humorous. As a WASP, I actually don’t mind it. In fact, I think we are often too constrained as to what we say or write. May your readers expect an extended Polish joke or a piece satirizing/stereotyping Mexicans?

John W. Hare / Boston

The debate on the four-year-degree system continued online at boston.com. fuzzmeister wrote: The 4-year college system often produces people with a degree but no career direction. A more flexible, adaptive system of higher education, especially one with connections to real-world issues, benefits both learners and society.

aminet wrote: Just as easy credit allowed prices to be bid up on homes, it also allowed tuitions to soar. Degrees aren’t more valuable now than they were 10 or 15 years ago, yet somehow they cost a whole lot more. You can blame the federal government and the Federal Reserve’s credit policies for that.

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