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Why Get a Job When You Can Sue for Tuition?

August 4, 2009 at 3:30 pm
filed under News
Tagged current events, ridiculous

CNN is reporting the story of a New York student who after three whole months of being unable to find a job after graduation is suing her school for tuition and “stress”.  It’s sort of ridiculous.  Having read both the story and the original claim, I wanted to react to some of the more laughable parts.

From CNN:

As Thompson sees it, any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record. But Monroe’s career-services department has put forth insufficient effort to help her secure employment, she claims.

“They’re supposed to say, ‘I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?’ They’re not doing that,” she said.

Right, because every employer in New York City is just dying to have a student with a B- average and a degree in “Business Administration in Information Technology” work for them.

Ms. Thompson, here’s a couple points you may want to consider:

• A 2.7 GPA is nothing to sneeze at.
• A solid attendance record means nothing to an employer.  Showing up for work is expected of you, and it doesn’t add anything to your GPA to say that you attended every class.
• College Career Services centers can help you find jobs to apply for, but they don’t set up the interviews for you–you need to put effort into finding a job as well.

continuing with the story:

She suggested that Monroe’s Office of Career Advancement shows preferential treatment to students with excellent grades. “They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement,” she said.

Besides the last part of her statement giving me a headache grammatically, it’s completely untrue.  Career Advancement offices probably try to help everyone out with their job hunt–it’s not their fault if students with higher GPAs get more job offers.  That just makes sense.

Going through the actual filed statement is even more hilarious.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread.  If you’re going to misspell words like “tuition” and “reimbursement”, at least do it consistently
• $70,000 + $2,000 does not equal $75,000
• It is not the college’s responsibility to make sure you’re called for interviews.

And finally: it might not be the best idea to sue your Alma Mater over not being able to find a job if you’re trying to find a job.  I’m just saying.

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1. Nick Ohrn

   on August 5, 2009 at 11:49 pm

   I’m totally with you on this one, Ben. It is ridiculous what people will do these days for attention and money. I seriously hope she doesn’t expect to win (because she won’t).

   If this isn’t the penultimate in human stupidity, it has to be pretty close. If she put half the effort she put into this suit into finding a job, I’m sure she’d be doing just fine.

2. Ben Smith

   on August 6, 2009 at 12:41 am

   @Nick — The best part is the followup that came from another company.

   “Either Ms Thompson is a cunning out of the box thinker and we want her,” said Bellamy “or she isn’t, and her postiion would not last long. Either way, the law suit would no longer be clogging up the courts because there are now no damages. She now has a bonifide job offer. She just needs to call us and go over the details. But it is real and valid. If she is this fiesty, we’ll try her out. But if she is playing the victim card and pushing her problems onto everyone else – then her job wouldn’t likely last long.”