Just read about this chick who hopes crowd funding will help her pay for law school at Pat Robertson's Regent University. She has refused all loans and is taking it on faith that random strangers will pay for her to become a lawyer...

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/07/23/christian-student-says-god-wants-you-to-pay-her-tuition-so-she-doesnt-have-to-take-out-loans/

I gotta say, this takes brass balls... which means she'll probably end up being a good lawyer.

She has a blog, too.

http://wewillnolongerbeinfants.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-just-dove-off-of-cliff.html

I'm enjoying a good chuckle over this as I ponder the $40,000 I still owe on loans I took out for the three degrees I don't really use.

Ouch, that's a lot of money, Knotty. I feel for you. I would still be paying on my loans if not for the money my mother left me.

Her attitude is similar to that of the urban kids I teach -- they figure that the worst they can hear is, "no."

Oh, it's not so bad. I'm actually about $6500 ahead on my loans and will have them paid off several years ahead of schedule if we manage to keep paying them as we have been. And when you think about it, for one bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, it's not that much money. I am just very grateful that my very sweet and generous husband is willing to help me pay for my education. He has benefited from having an educated wife this time, even if I haven't set the world on fire making money... (yet, at least)

I just think this girl is pretty ballsy. If she manages to pull this off, more power to her. I wouldn't have had the nerve to try it.

Here's her funding page, if anyone wants to donate. ;)

http://www.operationlawschool.com

My Master's degree alone was $32,000 for my public university. Tuition rates were rising so quickly at the time that my initial estimate of $16,000 doubled by the time I was through. On a beginning teacher's income, making loan payments was tough. I never qualified for any of the programs meant to help teachers, even though most of my career has been spent working with at-risk urban kids. If I hadn't been able to pay off the loan, I wouldn't have been able to buy a home. No home would have meant that a critical piece of my retirement planning would not have been in place.

It was such a relief to pay off that loan! It was one of the largest checks I've ever authorized. I think that only my home down payment was somewhat bigger.

I think I borrowed about $15,000 as an undergrad, then another $42,000 or so for grad school. When I consolidated the loans, it was roughly $57,000, most of which went to pay living expenses when I was in school because I was a graduate assistant and 80% of my tuition was discounted for 5 out of 6 semesters and summers. I actually got a pretty good deal on grad school.

It was a struggle to pay the loans at first, even though I opted for low payments that ballooned. Fortunately, when my husband went to Iraq, he got a temporary boost in pay, which I used to pay off a lot of debts. I started adding another $20 a month to my loan payments and over the past seven years, I've increased the amount steadily as we've been able to afford it. By the time the payments ballooned, we were already paying about that much anyway. We've been paying over $100 extra per month for about a year, which has paid off a lot of interest. We're finally seeing real progress every month.

I told my husband I wanted to try to get that loan paid off as soon as possible. Once it's done, it's done. Fortunately, he agrees with me. He is starting a new graduate program next month, but his will be paid for by the GI Bill and I think it will pay off well for him. He actually offered to let me use his tuition assistance, but I have no desire to earn another degree. Besides, he earned that entitlement and I want him to use it. He could have offered it to his brainwashed TBM daughters, had they not disowned him. Their loss. They have a wonderfully generous dad. Too bad they didn't inherit his kind spirit and intelligence.

And here's her "movie trailer"... geez! The comments are hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5QwGLy4_Jw

From her pics, it looks like she's had a pretty charmed life. Probably never heard the word no.

Oh and ah God couldn't have possibly called her by name. She apparently doesn't know that she'd have to be a Mo, go to the temple and find out what God has named her. She has no clue what her name is. Yeah, first things first.

She doesn't believe in school loans. Ok, then don't get any. You won't be a lawyer unless someone in your family dies and leaves you a ton of loot.

She'd pass out if she saw my step sons college bill to be an attorney.

I noticed that too. She seems to lack situational awareness and perspective. While she does have a lot of nerve, which good lawyers must have, she doesn't seem to be very introspective. And I completely agree about the lack of wisdom she's showing by going to a school founded by Pat Robertson. There are other, much better Christian schools out there.

I do so want to support her. Because what the world really needs is another Fundie Dingbat lawyer to work on undermining civil rights and progressive legislation.

Right.

Regents University (or its predececessor) also gave America Michele Bachmann.

No way would I give any of my hard-earned $ to go in that horrible Pat Robert$on's slimy pocket.

According to her blog, she states that "by law" she can not work more than 20 hours a week. What law? My grad school discouraged working an outside job during my student teaching semester, but they couldn't (and didn't) prevent me from doing it. Yeah, it was tough, but I did what I had to do.

Well, she may get her wish for funding from some kind-hearted souls, or she may get a tough lesson in reality. I wonder how she will interpret that?

Based on the vitriolic comments on YouTube, I dunno... not a single like vote was counted.

Apparently the heavens have proclaimed that she must have a car (requiring hefty monthly payments) too.

Regent is one of the sorriest law schools in the country. I've dealt with their graduates and they don't know a lot about certain legal issues.

She might be wise to hook up (in a non-sexual sense) with Jim Bob and the Duggars.An endorsement from Jim Bob and Michelle could yield tens of thousands in donations, or more.

Then again, Jim Bob probably doesn't believe women need that sort of education unless it can be obtained in the form of home-schooling. Furthermore, the Gothardites and Pat Robertson's branch of fundies may have major discrepancies regarding such important matters as the number of inches beneath the knees that culottes must be or the amount of pigmentation allowed in lip balm that would prevent any fusion between the two factions, which may be warring factions for all I know.

Still, this will be interesting to follow. I will be most disappointed in my fellow humans if this scammer collects enough to cover an application fee, much less tuition and living expenses.

This is Alexis, not Scott BTW

JimBoob would surely be threatened by the likes of this worldly looking woman...

I'm still paying on my loans. I consolidated two into one. I graduated in 2005. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. At least I finally got a job that required a Bachelor's degree. It's just another stupid bill I pay every month. I should start paying a little more on it.

Hopefully I kick the bucket before it is paid off.

Sorry to bump this old thread but I thought it would be interesting to offer an update on Julianna Battenfield, who tried to crowdfund her law school education. I blogged about her when this happened and recently had occasion to look her up. She's now a prosecutor in Florence, South Carolina, having graduated from Pat Robertson's Regent University. I don't know how she paid for school, though I see on her LinkedIn that she was in AmeriCorps.

And... on a happier note, I see that in 2014, I still owed $40,000 on my own loans. Well, I'm pleased to report that I now owe less than $5000 and will be entirely paid up next month. Germany has been good to us!

knotheadusc Wrote:
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> Sorry to bump this old thread but I thought it
> would be interesting to offer an update on
> Julianna Battenfield, who tried to crowdfund her
> law school education.

Thank you so much for bumping it! It is great to hear the before and after. The one thing that is lacking in this forum's threads is a long-term perspective, and you have just given us that.

I hope more people would bump a thread from five, ten or twenty years ago. What happened to the TBM bishop you clashed with as a teen? What do you think of your first posts when you came here at the beginning of your odessey out of TSCC? How did things work out if you and your spouse had different ideas about TSCC for a while? And so on and so forth.

Lots of people could have an interesting obsession from yesteryear they might want to share with us!

Thanks for appreciating my long memory! I know some people get upset when old threads are revived. I figured people probably wouldn't with this one, though, since I only bumped it to offer an update. It's less appreciated when someone asks for advice and a thread gets bumped years later with people not realizing the person has long moved on.

I was reminded of this because I noticed someone read my post about this on my blog and I was curious to find out how Battenfield made out in law school. I remember this was quite the shameful story in 2014, going on just days before we left Texas for Germany. I remember July 2014 to be one of my worst months ever, but things turned around beautifully in August of that year.

What happened with college tuition?

I made $90/week at Mr. Steak back in 1968. So it took two weeks salary to pay for a semester of classes if my memory that it was $15/unit is correct. Not that I had to, because my parents paid it for me... My beautiful Head 360 skis cost more...

How many weeks salary did it take to pay a semester's tuition when all of you were in school?

Was it simply that they could keep raising it all they wanted and people would just pay it?

Head 360's?

Ohhhh, the memories of this old Ski Patrol girl.

My Yale tuition ('68-72) was about $5,000 a year...but figuring the inflation, that would be the equivalent of $32,000 a year now. I always thought it sounded cheap...until I considered how much more a dollar bought then. Got student loans that deferred the payments, but upon graduation my mom used saved child-support money to pay it all off. (My brother, who went to a state university, got the remainder of his amount in cash.)

I see my figure must have been for total annual expenses (tuition, room, board, books). Interesting overview of price rises, as well as educational backgrounds, is "When Congress Went to College," showing the schools, years, tuitions, and conversions to 2016 equivalents for members of the US Senate and HR:
http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/DEMOS_DFC_Yearbook_FA_Optimized_0.pdf

I own rental units in a student neighborhood, and as the area schools (several close by) keep jacking up dormitory fees, rents follow at about 80% per bedroom. Ka-CHING!

("But Daddy, everybody wants to go to college in Boston!!")

I went to a public college in Virginia from 1990-94. I want to say tuition (without room and board) was about $3,500 to $4,500 a semester. Graduate school was about $8,000 a semester at the University of South Carolina from 1999-2002. Tuition went up a lot, though. I was an out of state student, but had an assistantship, so I paid a whole lot less. My loans came from living expenses.

CalState (Fullerton), undergrad 1981-1983...about $3500 per year tuition/books. Same school for grad school, 1983-1986, about $6700 a year.

I worked full-time all through college, doubling up on jobs during summers and winter breaks, and taking most of my classes late afternoons/evenings. I got a job in my field after getting my BS, which is why it took me 3 years to do 2 years of grad school :) Managed to not take out any student loans -- got some small Pell grants/Cal grants every semester, and paid for the rest by working.

My son's attending another CalState university now, and his tuition is about $7500 a year -- just over double what I was paying 35 years ago. The inflation calculator says $100 in 1983 is the same as $245 today, which means CalState tuition has risen less than inflation over that same 35 year period...not bad for a very good quality education :)

"Battenfield didn’t always want to be a lawyer, but she said God told her she must become one so that she can help people."

this is a recipe for disaster, she isn't making her own decisions using her BRAIN and what's worse is she is sucking other peoples money into it.

I blame her church, parents, and religion for this. This is one of biggest troubles of young millenials, the system hasn't taught them the most important things of life, they aren't helping young people discover their talents, how to make systematic good decisions, very few have a good idea what they are good at, and the biggest trouble is that they don't know what they don't know. I see a middle aged women ending up waiting tables, who's going to be pretty bitter before this is all through.

And as a tax payer we are subsidising religions all over this country, and paying $10,000 a year for each darlings public education, and they are learning virtually nothing.

anono this week Wrote:
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> ...and they are
> learning virtually nothing.

...said every older generation ever.

God didn't pay my tuition so I am certainly not going to pay hers.

The real miracle would have been for the tight-wad University to give her a scholly...... But that would have meant them giving up some of the "lord's" hard earned cash.

"I was just talking to him this morning and he didn't say a word about it to me."

The average tuition and fees at private law schools in the 2017-2018 academic year – $47,112 – was around $6,800 higher than the average ... (per US News & World March 2018)

Combine that with housing and other costs associated with a three year degree, it can easily come to over $200,000 to get a law degree from a private law school. Public law schools would be slightly less than this.

I'm surprised she could even pass the bar after attending a fourth rate college.

I wonder if Ghawd tells her who to prosecute as well?

Wow, I thought it was cheap back in the day....$2000 a year at U of Arizona in 1992 (and they gave me grants for $4,500). $350 a course for graduate school in Texas (and they gave me another $350 scholarship) so I took two classes at a time while I was working.