The Goat Pen

aTm wrote:The laziest and yet most used way of evaluating which college is "awesomest and bestest!" is how many people they turn down for admission. It improves their academic reputation to generate applications that they can deny.

Georgetown gets dinged in the rankings because we don't take the common app.

529 money can be spent at any eligible school which is essentially any secondary school recognized by the department of education.

hedge wrote:Why are you so eager to name the schools where she doesn't want to go but so secretive about the ones she likes? Why the mystery?

I dunno, what difference does it make


Case Western, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Alabama are the ones she is serious about.

I had nothing to do with Kentucky - they offered her a scholarship and have spent a ton of money on campus improvements. We went there and I told her that she could do better to be honest, but UK has noticeably changed for the better since I was there. She loved it. Didn't hurt they gave us tickets to a football game.

Cletus wrote:529 money can be spent at any eligible school which is essentially any secondary school recognized by the department of education.

I'll need to look into it because early on I was buying school credits to a Ohio school. They ended that program just prior to the financial meltdown in 2008 but you could buy 1 credit hour to any Ohio school for a fixed priced. I've never really paid much attention to it over the years because after 2008 the money went into some investment account and the credit hour money I think stayed a fixed price. At the time it seemed money well spent with the rising cost of college education.

What does she want to study?

AlabamAlum wrote:What does she want to study?

Biomedical

Bama offers the Randall Research Program which is why she is so interested in them.

That's not a 529.

Cletus wrote:That's not a 529.

ok so I'm older than I thought - it was 2003. I guess what happened was I was taking a deduction from each paycheck and when the guaranteed plan closed, I went to the 529 options. Both are/were run under the College Advantage banner. Given it was 14 years ago I don't remember the exact progression of how I went from one to the other, but I didn't have a choice after 2003. I'm pretty sure I went with Vanguard because my 401K was tied to them back then too.
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Ohio operates two 529 college savings plans. The Ohio CollegeAdvantage Direct 529 Savings Plan is available to residents of any state and offers certificates of deposits and savings accounts from Fifth Third Bank in addition to a menu of options using mutual funds from Vanguard, PIMCO, OppenheimerFunds, and GE Asset Management. The BlackRock CollegeAdvantage Advisor 529 plan is advisor-sold and features BlackRock funds in its age-based and asset-allocation options along with individual-fund options from iShares and a variety of mutual fund families. Ohio also operates a prepaid tuition/guaranteed savings plan (Guaranteed Savings Fund) that was closed to new enrollments in 2003.

You have some history with Vanderbilt...

a little, but I also think its a great school for her for multiple reasons. Its also a highly selective school but they've given her some specific reasons why I think she may have a reasonable chance with them - so that is her longshot school. We won't know until March.

She should look into Florida

I wish you would look into the barrel of a loaded shotgun...

Weak

Decades ago, Lake Michigan teemed with nutrients and green algae, casting a brownish-green hue that resembled the mouth of an inland river rather than a vast, open-water lake.

Back then, the lake’s swampy complexion was less than inviting to swimmers and kayakers, but it supported a robust fishing industry as several commercial companies trawled for perch, and sport fishermen cast their lines for trout. But in the past 20 years, Lake Michigan has undergone a dramatic transformation.

In analyzing satellite images between 1998 and 2012, researchers at the Michigan Tech Research Institute were surprised to find that lakes Michigan and Huron are now clearer than Lake Superior. In a study published late last year, the researchers say limiting the amount of agricultural and sewage runoff in the lake has had an immense impact. However, the emergence of invasive mussels, which number in the trillions and have the ability to filter the entire volume of Lake Michigan in four to six days, has had an even greater effect.

“When you look at the scientific terms, we are approaching some oceanic values,” said Michael Sayers, a research engineer at Michigan Tech and co-author of the study. “We have some ways to go, but we are getting a lot closer to Lake Tahoe. A lot of times, you’ll hear from people that the water is so blue it compares to something in tropical areas.”

While appealing, the clarity comes at a significant cost to wildlife. In filtering the lake, the mussels have decimated the phytoplankton, a single-celled, green algae that serves as the base of the food chain. For much of the past decade, prey fish, like alewives, have remained at historic lows, prompting state managers to scale back the annual stocks of prized predators, such as king salmon.

The startling evolution has called into question the future of Great Lakes marine life and the region’s $7 billion fishing industry.

“Clearer is not necessarily better,” said Robert Shuchman, co-director of the Michigan Tech Research Institute. “Clearer water means less phytoplankton in the water column, and they’re the basic building block in the food web. The idea is, the little fish eat algae, and the bigger fish eat the little fish.

“There are some folks out there now that think Lake Michigan and Huron could become ecological deserts from a fishing standpoint. The food web could totally collapse because you don’t have the various organisms you need to sustain it.”

For ages, the phytoplankton fed the zooplankton, which were eaten by small, foraging fish. As the fast-filtering mussels reduce the plankton populations, there isn’t enough food to support the diet of many foraging fish. In addition, there’s not enough plankton or nutrients clouding the water to hide these small prey fish from predator fish.

“It’s a game of hide-and-seek in a brightly lit environment,” said Henry Vanderploeg, a research ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A different approach to fishing

After years of working aboard a relative’s charter boat, Rick Bentley was leaving the fishing industry in the early ’90s to pursue a career in finance when the mussels began arriving.

“A lot of people were sounding massive alarms about how the mussels could change everything,” recalled Bentley, 46.

Their fears turned out to be prophetic. As the water cleared up, the fish cleared out. Since the introduction of the mussels, there’s been a sharp decline in nearly all fish species in Lake Michigan, including king salmon, scientists say.

I'm sure you guys have heard of the Peter Principle where everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

I got promoted a few weeks back and I'm sinking fast - I sit in a meeting where the guys are saying we need to do this, do that. There is no right or wrong answer, its just depending on about a thousand variables, all of which are out of my control, things could go great, or go horribly wrong..and I'm just like

That promotion must've been stressful, you really turned gray quickly...

that guy looks much healthier than me

He looks like a cross b/w Anthony Hopkins and somebody...

If you are being serious, then you are the first person I've ever encountered who acknowledged being Peter Principled.

Is that worse than being Rickrolled?