If you went to top schools but your kids are attending a lower tier, are you worried about downward mobility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strange question. I know Clemson grads who are living very well. It’s not the school- it’s the person that ultimately determines the outcome.

As a percentage of the graduating class, let’s be realistic

This is dcum

Not Reddit SEC

[Anonymous]

I don’t live in the DC area, but where I am, it seems like it almost a flex for the wealthiest families to not really care where their kids go to school. They just want them to have fun, play their sport, whatever. They know their kids are taken care of, they don’t need to grind away with the climbers and strivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will they though?

They are going to have a start by their parents' $. Downpayments, inheritance, maybe even a property. Some may even head to a family business or firm.

My husband and I are wealthier than our parents. He was poor. I was middle class, no inheritance or help with down payment, kid tuition type stuff.

We have investment properties. We have a large nest egg. We set them up with Roth IRAs, etc.

My firstborn is actually at an Ivy. First in the family--but his choice of major was up to him. I had a love of English and Science and my dad (stem himself) heavily suggested I take the science route. Both my kids love history and politics and international relations. They have the security of $ to be able to explore fields of passion and interest.

My husband and I had more of a fear of raising 'lazy' or entitled kids since they are growing up with a level of $ we did not. My kids never thought we had $. They have always had jobs and work hard at their sport and in school. Neither are partiers. They are also grateful and thank us if we drive them somewhere or go out to dinner, etc.

I could have written this. Same situation, spouse grew up poor, me middle class, met in BigLaw, made some good investments, ended up with a substantial sum. The substantial sum only became realized more recently, but if all goes well, they will each inherit quite a bit, multiple millions in today's dollars, if something were to happen to us in the near future. And, along the way, they will get help via downpayments, grad school, etc. The kids were raised to spend wisely.

I just want them to be happy. If they end up choosing a lower-paying career, that's their life choice. They will each go in different directions on their life's adventure.

[Anonymous]

I think the question is a little misguided. There are many of us who went to state universities who have excelled professionally and financially.

I just hope my kids will develop the motivation and skills to be successful in college and in the workforce.

They've definitely done well academically and in their extracurriculars, but they've had help with the time and money resources for EC opportunities. I was limited to what was available in the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you define success as net worth, then the most successful person I know attended Radford. My friends who went to the Ivys are college professors now.

I would love to be a professor in a college town. Sounds like a dream.

You won’t be a professor today unless you are a woman or minority.

[Anonymous]

Your kid is at Clemson?

Chipotle manager.

[Anonymous]

No, but the only ivy grads I know who are rich had rich parents.

[Anonymous]

DH and I went to top 20 schools for undergrad and grad. However, we had no help from family and we paid a lot for our degrees. We make a comfortable living now but cannot afford a top 20 for our kids (aka donut hole) without significantly impacting our retirement. It is more important to us that our kids graduate debt free (unlike us) and have some $ in a roth or for a downpayment on a first home- things we never had because we sacrificed for a brand name school.

[Anonymous]

If it's harder for top students to go to top schools, it just means schools from "lower tiers" will have more students with strong outcomes.

The fact that you believe this is a possibility worth analyzing also makes me question the value of attending a top school.

[Anonymous]

I agree that past money is the biggest predictor of future money.

A word about "education". Education it key to attaining or preserving a comfortable lifestyle. But it means so much more than academic education. Kids learn from their parents and extended family and friends how the world works in ways that the very poor or socially illiterate cannot. (I say socially illiterate as distinct from low income because one of my kids has autism. He's very intelligent, but he won't be able to network or make useful connections in ways my other kids can.)

Middle and upper class kids reach their adult years knowing how they should present themselves, how to address others, the basics of personal finance, have some idea of what various professions entail, how much their family's lifestyle costs, and the virtues of networking, saving and investing. Hopefully!

If your family is comfortable or wealthy and the children are educated for their socio-economic sphere... the institution name on the degree isn't that important.

Anecdotally, the people I know who went to Ivies have the least personal wealth of all my acquaintance. One family's kid is going to the same Ivy as one of her parents and is sure to do well: she's hyper functional. The other family's kid is not college bound and not hyper functional, but who knows? Maybe she'll marry rich

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s a pretty big—and wholly unfounded—assumption.

I’d call troll, but it’s probably more like good old-fashioned s**t-stirring.

If a question is not asked in good faith, but is instead intended to just get a rise out of people, is it a troll or s*** stirring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you define success as net worth, then the most successful person I know attended Radford. My friends who went to the Ivys are college professors now.

I would love to be a professor in a college town. Sounds like a dream.

With two, their HHI is around $400-500k. Not bad. And a great job to raise children.

Um no.

[Anonymous]

I mean— there’s a lot at play, including grad school (if any), school debt (which limits choices and things like buy a home early enough to accumulate equity and sock away money early in a 401k), the drive and raw talent of the individual kid, the majors, their ability to network, etc.

If you are looking at just undergrad outcomes, do you really want to argue that someone at the top of their class at Clemson engineering will, on average, earn less than a lower 1/3 of their class BA in gender studies from a T25?

[Anonymous]

No. Two generations ago, most of the parents of my friends went to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Two generations ago, any white, wealthy boy with a half-decent SAT score could get in.

Their children, my friends, went to places like College Park and Clemson. They’re all living at their dads’ standard of living. They’re members at the same clubs. Their kids are in the same private schools.

Who’s wealthy won’t change because Harvard is getting more competitive. Among the wealthy may be fewer Harvard alumni, because Harvard is getting more competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until you see some of the schools that Fortune 500 CEOs went to.

This. I guarantee my family has 10x the amount of money OP has. Both us are from state schools —and not the prestigious ones. If OP is so successful because of their “top college” education and doing so much better than all the poor, third tier college graduates, where is their network to help their “dumb” kid? With success, comes a network.