What States have the most work for Appraisers

[Lobo Fan]

Apprentices are having a real tough time since they changed the rules about having to be certified to mentor an apprentice. I am only licensed and I get a phone call or e-mail at least weekly. Sorry I say, but I am a one man band.

 

[Highlander416]

This is always an interesting conversation.

I will add my story to this thread. I used to work as a claim examiner in the insurance field. Required a 4 year degree and passing several "In house" tests. At the time, I was hired at $34,000 per year, salaried position. That included 21 days a year total PTO time. You could use it for sick time vacation time, etc. My insurance at the time was about $120 per month (single plan) for BCBC PPO.

Anyway, the stress in appraising is not even in the ball park with that job. I worked about 60 hours a week ( Salaried, so no OT). We were constantly aware of the chances of having to fly off to a different part of the country to be deposed for a claim(s) we were handling or testify. The company attorneys were on our case all the time and the angry calls from policy owners got to be so bad for me, I didn't want to pick up the phone. I remember some folks with a lot of time in there were making $50,000+, but, they were always facing the layoffs when profit margins were down. It was hell on wheels in there.

I got to a point where I was just downright depressed on Sunday night about having to face another week, so I put in my notice and moved on.

There are careers like Pharmacy where one can go back to school and make some decent cash. I actually looked into Pharmacy myself at Uconn. It is a lot of time and money for something I had no idea if I would have liked or not. Below is the basic requirements, and the prepharmacy classwork just to get started in the real program. I have a BA, so I have a have a couple Science courses, and the English, social sciences, etc. But, I still think it would be at least 4 more years full time. If one can deal well with blood and guts, becoming an RN is also high paying. Basically, there are a lot of careers that pay big money and if you are willing to do what is required, it is ready to be made.


Uconn Pharmacy-This four-year professional program follows two years of specific pre-pharmacy courses, for a combined total of 196 credits (132 credits in the professional program plus 64 credits pre-pharmacy).

Two years in the professional program leading to a Bachelors of Science with a major in Pharmacy Studies (BS Pharmacy Studies), followed by
Two additional years leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.).
For Further Information:

First Pre-Professional Year

Fall Semester - 16 credits
Spring Semester - 16 credits

CHEM 127Q+ General Chemistry (content area 3) 4 cr
CHEM 128Q+ General Chemistry II 4 cr
BIOL 107 Principles of Biology (content area 3) 4 cr
PHYS 127 Physics for Health Sciences (for students entering fall 2006) 3 cr
ECON 112 Principles of Microeconomics (content area 2) 3 cr
ENGL110* or
ENGL111* Academic Writing
OR Writing Through Literature 4 cr
Math 115Q Calculus 4 cr
Arts & Humanities GEOC Requirement (content area 1) 3 cr
Diversity Course GEOC Requirement (content area 4) 3 cr

Second Pre-Professional Year

Fall Semester - 16 credits
Spring Semester - 16 credits

CHEM 243 Organic Chemistry 3 cr CHEM
244 Organic Chemistry II 3 cr
PHAR 202 Human Physiology & Anatomy (for students entering fall 2006) 3 cr PHAR 203 Human Physiology & Anatomy II (for students entering fall 2006) 3 c
MCB 229 Fundamentals of Microbiology 4 cr MCB 203
Biochemistry 4 cr
SOCI 107* Introduction to Sociology (content area 2) 3 cr
Diversity Course GEOC Requirement (content area 4) 3 cr
Arts & Humanities GEOC Requirement (content area 1) 3 cr

 

[Jim Onderisin]

You've just added a touch of perspective to the issue, Mike.

 

[Jungle Boy]

SE Fla

Nah, don't move here, we be unindated. yes siree !!!

 

[Stone]

You've just added a touch of perspective to the issue, Mike.

Very true.

And, as has come up here in the past, a credit hour in college does not equal one hour of time (like appraiser education). Usually a credit hour translates into about one hour per week all semester (3 credits equals 3x1 hour classes or 2x1.5 hour classes each week.)

 

[Highlander416]

Yup, I remember that well. The Semesters usually run 16 weeks.

I recall trying to choose when to take a course and how that would impact my week. For example, I remember taking College Algebra. I hated that course. The choices were

M/W/F - 50 minute course each day.
T/R Hour and a half course each day
or a night course offered once a week for 3 hours, usually between 6:15 and 9:15.

I took the night course for two reasons at the time. 1. I only had to deal with it for one night a week. 2. As night courses are generally designed for folks with careers who work all day, I hoped the professor would be forced to water it down a bit. I thought it might have been years since some of the students had touched Algebra, while day students often saw the material in the last couple years. Well, I was wrong! That class was the fastest paced Math course I ever took. I learned a lot, but, no more night classes for me, at least while I was there as a day student. It turned out that a M/W/F was more effective as so many day students had been out all night Thursday, the class was half empty on Friday. Awesome for getting that extra help from the teacher, LOL! It is hard to believe that was my reasoning back in my early 20's. Now, only 10 years later, I wonder how I got by.

Mike

 

[Stone]

That's a very familiar story, Mike. I basically tried the same thing. The last college French course I took was a conversation and composition course at night (for very similar reasons... I thought it might be laid back). There were only nine of us, and the teacher was actually a part of the Law School faculty. She was French and only taught this one course every fall outside of her regular law classes.

It was murder. You could not have a bad studying day, because the small class size wouldn't let you hide. She always knew if you hadn't kept up and the pace was very fast. I worked my butt off and did ok. But, it meant no more foreign language courses, no matter how much I generally liked them.