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13 years, 2 bachelors, 3 masters, 0 student debt. I couldn’t have done it without my study partner.
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13 years, 2 bachelors, 3 masters, 0 student debt. I couldn’t have done it without my study partner.
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View Reddit by Scarneck – View Source
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0 job?
Firstly, I want to underscore my conviction that our present education system is fundamentally flawed. Just because I managed to secure numerous degrees without amassing student loan debt, does not mean I endorse my personal route as universally applicable, nor that such opportunities are universally accessible. Our education system, in its current form, needs a complete overhaul. But, what should the revamped system look like? Honestly, I don’t know.
So how did I manage to do this? I definitely did NOT come from a wealthy family, I’m the oldest of 5 siblings and went to a public ghetto High School in Vegas, but, back in 2004, the state of Nevada put the Tobacco settlement funds to use by instituting the Millennium Scholarship. This program provided Nevada high school students who graduated with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher with $10k. The catch was that this scholarship could only be applied towards higher education institutions within Nevada. Consequently, I spent my first two years at the state community college before transferring to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). There, I pursued and earned dual degrees in Communication and Psychology.
While studying at UNLV, I joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp with the aim of becoming an officer upon graduation. Concurrently, I worked full-time both during my community college days and at UNLV to cover the remaining portion of my tuition.
Upon graduation and my commission in the Air Force, I qualified for military tuition assistance. This enabled me to embark on my first master’s program at Bellevue University, focusing on International Security and Intelligence Studies. Tuition assistance is essentially a scholarship, so it covers only a fraction of the costs. However, as an Air Force officer, I was fortunate enough to afford the remaining costs.the catch was that I had to work full time and do this masters at night.
For my second master’s degree, I held out until I became eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. This covered my full tuition at George Washington University, where I obtained a master’s in Strategic Public Relations. The Post 9/11 essentially provides five years of funding. Having completed that second master’s in two years, I figured, why not maximize the benefits? That led to my decision to pursue my third Master’s, an MBA, at UC Davis.
I think overall when I calculated everything my total education should’ve cost somewhere around $300k, which is absolutely ridiculous. But I think after all of the military benefits and Millennium scholarship I paid a little less than $30k. I 100% acknowledge that I got really lucky to be going to the right state, having jobs that allowed me to work simultaneously while going to grad schools, and having family and friends encouraging me to keep going.
Edit: wow! I didn’t think this was going to get this much traction! To answer some of the questions below, I was fully employed the entire time while pursuing each of those degrees, some of the classes I actually had to do online while deployed, which I definitely don’t recommend!
Why get so many degrees? To be 100% honest with everyone I’ve always had this fear of not being successful so I figured that since I have these military benefits I might as well use them to get as much education as I can and that hopefully that will help me land a good job.
What do you do for work now? I was working for Meta in their trust and safety for the last 2 years up until I was laid off last week with a bunch of my fellow teammates, so now looking at the next chapter.
Did your parents help you financially? No. I was the oldest of 5 siblings and moved out when I was 18. I went to High School in the ghetto of vegas (Rancho for those of you that know Vegas). They definitely did the best they could raising us with what they had, and I do credit my family for always making us strive to get educated but that’s the extent of it.
What’s your cats name? That’s Kili and I have another one called Cosmos. They’re both amazing and definitely couldn’t have done it without them.
Congrats man. You didn’t put the system in place, you just worked it to your advantage. Best of luck in putting those to use (or not)
Wow $300,000 in tax dollars wasted. Jeez dude read the room
Congrats man! That’s an impressive feat. I’m starting first year of cc, and would like to go for mb eventually. Long road ahead, but stories like yours give me inspiration to knock it out of the park!
Great job, you should be very proud of yourself!
Congratulations!
You single?
All that knowledge and you don’t know how to smile
Your achievements are a testament to your determination and dedication. Kudos my friend.
Those are some white teeth
Congratulation!!!!
The cat si SO cute.
Why so many tho?
Edit: he answered below: for potential job. 🙂
Congratulations! No one has as yet mentioned your beautiful study partner, have they been with you for all 13 years?
Congratulations!!! So excited and happy for you!! Can’t wait to see what you’ll do next!
Congratulations! Curious after all that schooling, where has that led you in terms of your career and what is your income like?
Time to stop going to school and get a job.
STUDY PARTNER!
A professional student lol.
Why do you have so many degrees? I can see maybe two masters if one is technical and one is an MBA but there should be a career goal motivating so many degrees. Do you have a reason for needing two bachelors and three masters?
Can anyone beat this? 3 bachelors and 4 masters? With zero student debt?
Thank you for your military service and great job taking advantage of the educational benefits it offers, many sadly don’t. Good luck in your future endeavors.. make sure all your hard work is appropriately compensated!
Sweet you’ll be a bar supervisor in no time !
I’m sorry sir, we can’t hire you without a minimum of 5 years experience.
You paid cash?
Now would someone hurry up and hire this man and pay him half of his salary expectation!
I’d like my caramel macchiato with extra caramel and extra napkins please. j/k I hope… Congrats.
Ok but nice cat tho
God damn! One after the other or concurrent??
Good job man
But do you have a job?
I see a lot of people here giving you shit, but I’d bet a lot of them struggled with high school. Congrats bro. Do good things with em!
Fyi, if privacy is a concern, we can totally read your name on all those diplomas.
Wtf are you doing that much school for
I’ll just assume the cat paid for everything..
Just the fact you have the Lego Discovery sitting on your desk brings me joy.
And a bunch of money
I came in thinking you had some rich benefactor to get you where you got. I see I was mistaken.
Congrats, and I understand why you are and should be proud.
What do you plan to do now?
Bro Im taking 8 years for just 1 bachelor 
Congratulations to both of you. I’d say we need you at the State of California, but it doesn’t pay well. Good luck. Hope you can take some time off.
I don’t get why are you getting those comments. If you’re lucky enough to spend 13 years studying, however you have funded it and whatever your goals -or lack of- are, if you enjoyed it, i’m sincerely glad for you. Studying is awesome and there are like 10000 worse ways to spend your time ffs.
Congrats! Now get a job.
Hell yeah, keep on moving up.
You now have more time for LEGO!
Dudes got Lego in the pic, so you know he’s cool!
Congratulations and thank you for your service to our country.
Kittler?
This a hobby or is there a practical use for all this paper at $100k a sheet?
Great job congrats!