Looking back, do you wish your child attended the least expensive college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I find odd is how much parents on here think of college as trade school. College was such an important coming of age time in my life. I am so glad I went where I went and met my dearest friends. If my parents had just been focused on ROI I think it would have taken a lot away from it. I did well enough, went to la good aw school, and have had a successful life, but it was never totally about that. I hope my teenagers find a place where they can connect with friends, faculty, and the whole thing, and learn and grow as people. I am not obsessed with the ROI equation.

Did the parents on here have fun in college?

I went to a top public before anyone chimes in with how I am just a product of privilege.

Fully agree that looking at ROI as a purely financial decision is a strange way to look at college. The purpose of being a parent is not just to churn out more meat for Goldman Sachs, McKinsey or Biglaw. We want to turn out good, thoughtful humans who can contribute to society, and college is an important part of that. I am not making any claims about whether a public, SLAC, or big private provides that best, but it is something that I think about.

[Anonymous]

To most parents, college is basically a trade school to which you daily commute to get your free or cheap STEM degree from, preferably in three years. That's it.

[Anonymous]

ROI seems to be the only scale for measuring education. Nothing more and nothing less.

[Anonymous]

If it was up to some parents, their kids would be banned from studying anything other than pre-med, engineering, computer science or finance.

... and it would be at community or regional state or whatever costs less.

[Anonymous]

... and living at home.

[Anonymous]

It’s sad that students no longer pursue education for education’s sake. Instead, we are all so concerned about earning potential because the middle class has been hollowed out and job security is nonexistent. Our grandparents could go to college and study Philosophy or Religion and still get a decent job with good benefits and a pension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I find odd is how much parents on here think of college as trade school. College was such an important coming of age time in my life. I am so glad I went where I went and met my dearest friends. If my parents had just been focused on ROI I think it would have taken a lot away from it. I did well enough, went to la good aw school, and have had a successful life, but it was never totally about that. I hope my teenagers find a place where they can connect with friends, faculty, and the whole thing, and learn and grow as people. I am not obsessed with the ROI equation.

Did the parents on here have fun in college?

I went to a top public before anyone chimes in with how I am just a product of privilege.

No. College is really expensive and loans are often involved, even for instate publics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I find odd is how much parents on here think of college as trade school. College was such an important coming of age time in my life. I am so glad I went where I went and met my dearest friends. If my parents had just been focused on ROI I think it would have taken a lot away from it. I did well enough, went to la good aw school, and have had a successful life, but it was never totally about that. I hope my teenagers find a place where they can connect with friends, faculty, and the whole thing, and learn and grow as people. I am not obsessed with the ROI equation.

Did the parents on here have fun in college?

I went to a top public before anyone chimes in with how I am just a product of privilege.

Did you have to manage a lot of college debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad that students no longer pursue education for education’s sake. Instead, we are all so concerned about earning potential because the middle class has been hollowed out and job security is nonexistent. Our grandparents could go to college and study Philosophy or Religion and still get a decent job with good benefits and a pension.

*Your white grandfathers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad that students no longer pursue education for education’s sake. Instead, we are all so concerned about earning potential because the middle class has been hollowed out and job security is nonexistent. Our grandparents could go to college and study Philosophy or Religion and still get a decent job with good benefits and a pension.

*Your white grandfathers

And wealthy grandfathers. My grandfathers were a farmer and a factory worker. My father (born 1936) went into the army and then trade school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I find odd is how much parents on here think of college as trade school. College was such an important coming of age time in my life. I am so glad I went where I went and met my dearest friends. If my parents had just been focused on ROI I think it would have taken a lot away from it. I did well enough, went to la good aw school, and have had a successful life, but it was never totally about that. I hope my teenagers find a place where they can connect with friends, faculty, and the whole thing, and learn and grow as people. I am not obsessed with the ROI equation.

Did the parents on here have fun in college?

I went to a top public before anyone chimes in with how I am just a product of privilege.

why do you assume the two are mutually exclusive? i AM focused on roi, because besides my house, it's the most expensive thing i'll ever "purchase." and my kids do not have a trust, nor will we be supporting them financially post-graduating, so yes, should they choose to go to a $90k/year university with no real thought to how they're going to provide for themselves afterwards...yea, that's a problem. also, if my kids are incapable of "connecting with friends, faculty, and the whole thing" or growing as a person unless they're attending some exclusive $90k/year school, i'd feel like i had failed as a parent. raising independent children/adults who can bloom where they are planted is a big deal to me. to each his own though.

[Anonymous]

I got sucked into the name/selectivity craziness of this board with my first child and they wisely blew me off and took a full ride to a school this board mocks. Now DC is headed to an Ivy for grad school. DC made the best choice and this board is toxic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I find odd is how much parents on here think of college as trade school. College was such an important coming of age time in my life. I am so glad I went where I went and met my dearest friends. If my parents had just been focused on ROI I think it would have taken a lot away from it. I did well enough, went to la good aw school, and have had a successful life, but it was never totally about that. I hope my teenagers find a place where they can connect with friends, faculty, and the whole thing, and learn and grow as people. I am not obsessed with the ROI equation.

Did the parents on here have fun in college?

I went to a top public before anyone chimes in with how I am just a product of privilege.

Undergraduate degrees are ultimately meaningless. You can connect with people wherever you go.

You think the social life and dating pool at a regional university is as deep as a selective private or flagship public? Good luck if some flunky pending dropout sinks his claws into your daughter. And enjoy all those great lifelong connections with future insurance salesmen, nurses, charter school teachers, and receptionists...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To most parents, college is basically a trade school to which you daily commute to get your free or cheap STEM degree from, preferably in three years. That's it.

Is this sarcasm? Is this like immigrant parents or what? Not the culture I am familiar with (American and have lived all over the country).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got sucked into the name/selectivity craziness of this board with my first child and they wisely blew me off and took a full ride to a school this board mocks. Now DC is headed to an Ivy for grad school. DC made the best choice and this board is toxic.

So your kid blew you off and four years later has such raging Ivy envy they're immediately headed to an Ivy to add some prestige to their CV (and presumably go into some debt for it)? And you're such an insecure striver (while you claim you're not) you're on here bragging about the Ivy. Got it. If the kid had the prestige BA they probably wouldn't be so hard up for the Ivy MA. And no matter, there's no substitute for lacking an elite BA. MA programs are largely cash cow scams, for sale to anyone who wants to buy one; they don't confer what you think it confers. The mediocre BA will be on their CV for the rest of their life, they keep that same college social circle, dating pool and memories from their mediocre college campus. Trying to buy your way into that prestige orbit with an MA never works. Only sometimes works if you get into like elite of the elite, ex. Yale Law School.