Middle class family being bamboozled with large "scholarships" from tier 5 LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it so interesting that so many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport. It's not like they are getting a full scholarship. Just seems so short sighted to pick a school with low return on investment for the privilege of playing in a mediocre league for 4 years. Some of these kids could clearly get better educations for the same price.

Kid not good enough, huh? Sorry. So many benefits to college sports, playing at the next level, being a part of something and seeing it through. Don’t worry about these kids, they will go to great grad programs and have a sport community for a lifetime.

so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Most kids at LACs / SLACs go to grad school.

right, so more bamboozling

So a JD or an MD is a bamboozle?

Are you saying that most LAC grads go on to get JD or MD?

[Anonymous]

What does the percentage of LAC grads going to law/medical school have anything to do with whether these degrees are a "bamboozle"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it so interesting that so many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport. It's not like they are getting a full scholarship. Just seems so short sighted to pick a school with low return on investment for the privilege of playing in a mediocre league for 4 years. Some of these kids could clearly get better educations for the same price.

Wealthy parents trying to save face and not feel like they wasted ten plus years on travel sports, hotels, travel, lessons, etc. One wealthy couple we knew said their daughter was going to play soccer at an obscure D3 college in Boston. Turns out she is not even on the varsity team, she is only playing club soccer at the college.

That's not a waste if the child wanted to play and enjoyed soccer.

Can't basically anyone who played travel easily walk on a club team at a no-name lower rung D3? Don't mislead people and spin yarn about how your teen is going to college across the country to play a sport at the next level when they're going to play club, barely a step up from intramurals, at some bottom tier D3. Even the varsity teams at bottom tier D3s are mediocre.

Then you clearly do not follow NCAA D1-3 soccer with schools you've "never heard of" in the 2023 championship playoffs right now.

I... can't imagine caring about this. Let alone using this as a basis for college choice.

Our family is into sports. Some of our DCs' friends are on teams in the playoffs. I was struck by the range of schools when looking at the brackets.

No one said "us[e] this as a basis for college choice."

Further up in this reply thread:

"many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport"
" One wealthy couple we knew said their daughter was going to play soccer at an obscure D3 college in Boston"
"That's not a waste if the child wanted to play and enjoyed soccer"

Yes, people are saying that playing a sport is the basis for their kid's college choice.

For their DC’s choice. Just their DC. Why do you care if a kid has that as a row on their spreadsheet when making their college list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it so interesting that so many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport. It's not like they are getting a full scholarship. Just seems so short sighted to pick a school with low return on investment for the privilege of playing in a mediocre league for 4 years. Some of these kids could clearly get better educations for the same price.

Kid not good enough, huh? Sorry. So many benefits to college sports, playing at the next level, being a part of something and seeing it through. Don’t worry about these kids, they will go to great grad programs and have a sport community for a lifetime.

so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Most kids at LACs / SLACs go to grad school.

right, so more bamboozling

So a JD or an MD is a bamboozle?

Are you saying that most LAC grads go on to get JD or MD?

No. Just that if a student is interested in law, medicine, research, etc then they need to pursue an advanced degree. BA/BS is not the terminal degree it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

You see what you want to see. And you're also comparing boomers and old gen X law partners to gen Y kids entering undergrad? You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything. If your teen is really smart, competitive and aggressive – and wants to be some hot shot law firm attorney – they want to be around peers who push them, not a bunch of nitwits in a podunk small town in the middle of nowhere. Again, we are NOT talking about Williams or even Trinity. We are talking about colleges nobody has ever heard of who throw fake scholarship money discounts to everyone on their email list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it so interesting that so many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport. It's not like they are getting a full scholarship. Just seems so short sighted to pick a school with low return on investment for the privilege of playing in a mediocre league for 4 years. Some of these kids could clearly get better educations for the same price.

Kid not good enough, huh? Sorry. So many benefits to college sports, playing at the next level, being a part of something and seeing it through. Don’t worry about these kids, they will go to great grad programs and have a sport community for a lifetime.

so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Most kids at LACs / SLACs go to grad school.

Nothing wrong with grad and professional school but taking on more debt and avoiding the real world is often a fallback because the LAC sucked and didn't prepare kids for the real world. There's practically zero on-campus recruiting at these podunk colleges. No career resources, no networking. Super shallow alum network. Nobody outside of the region has even heard of your low tier private college. You're totally on your own, up a creek, so many of these kids go to grad school to hold off on paying back undergrad loans and to tap better networking and career resources at a major R1. You need strong summer internships all four years, kids need to experience different cities, then they break out of the need to go to grad school – at least immediately after undergrad – unless absolutely required for their career goals.

Are you speaking from experience? Because most people who attend these podunk schools live in the regions in which the colleges are located and often want to remain there, so networking with local/regional businesses as well as alums makes total sense.

Has it occurred to you that not everybody wants to pursue the same career path as you did/want for your DC?

I know and an earlier poster says they know kids going to obscure low ranked LACs hundreds of miles away from home. Not in regions they plan to settle, most of them were driven there to pay a sport or because they were conned by a big tuition discount.

Even if they graduate, they come home with a lot of student loans and a degree from a college few have ever heard of. Then what? Grad school at an R1 with a brand so they can build a network, use career resources and get a real career? More debt, more years of life.

I like private colleges, but I'd steer my kids away from private LACs outside of the top 100 or so on US News. These low ranked privates are begging families to go there for a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

The people going on ad nausuem about LAC tiers, etc betray a fair amount of ignorance about the academic pedigrees of many successful people today. Yeah, there are a lot of HYPSMs out there, but not every grad/professional school admit slot is filled by them nor in their corresponding professions.

HYPSM grads are certainly overrepresented relative to their proportion of the total college undergraduate pool, and it's foolish to pretend this doesn't give you a significant advantage.

Surprisingly not. Maybe in New York / Boston. Not predominantly here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

The people going on ad nausuem about LAC tiers, etc betray a fair amount of ignorance about the academic pedigrees of many successful people today. Yeah, there are a lot of HYPSMs out there, but not every grad/professional school admit slot is filled by them nor in their corresponding professions.

HYPSM grads are certainly overrepresented relative to their proportion of the total college undergraduate pool, and it's foolish to pretend this doesn't give you a significant advantage.

Surprisingly not. Maybe in New York / Boston. Not predominantly here.

I was curious and clicked around bios at Covington for a while. I saw a lot of very random undergraduate schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

You see what you want to see. And you're also comparing boomers and old gen X law partners to gen Y kids entering undergrad? You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything. If your teen is really smart, competitive and aggressive – and wants to be some hot shot law firm attorney – they want to be around peers who push them, not a bunch of nitwits in a podunk small town in the middle of nowhere. Again, we are NOT talking about Williams or even Trinity. We are talking about colleges nobody has ever heard of who throw fake scholarship money discounts to everyone on their email list.

You clearly don’t know Biglaw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything.

No one in this thread has claimed that it's a "ticket." It's just not disqualifying.

It's entirely possible for a smart, hard-working student to get a 4.0 at a low/unranked school and parlay that with a high LSAT score into admission at a good law school (or, with luck or the right essay/demographics, somewhere in the lower end of T14). And then with strong 1L grades, voila -- BigLaw offers are within reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

You see what you want to see. And you're also comparing boomers and old gen X law partners to gen Y kids entering undergrad? You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything. If your teen is really smart, competitive and aggressive – and wants to be some hot shot law firm attorney – they want to be around peers who push them, not a bunch of nitwits in a podunk small town in the middle of nowhere. Again, we are NOT talking about Williams or even Trinity. We are talking about colleges nobody has ever heard of who throw fake scholarship money discounts to everyone on their email list.

Honestly, where you went to undergrad for law doesn’t really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

You see what you want to see. And you're also comparing boomers and old gen X law partners to gen Y kids entering undergrad? You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything. If your teen is really smart, competitive and aggressive – and wants to be some hot shot law firm attorney – they want to be around peers who push them, not a bunch of nitwits in a podunk small town in the middle of nowhere. Again, we are NOT talking about Williams or even Trinity. We are talking about colleges nobody has ever heard of who throw fake scholarship money discounts to everyone on their email list.

Honestly, where you went to undergrad for law doesn’t really matter.

This. Law school matters a lot and they care about GPA and LSAT and very little about where the undergrad degree is from.

[Anonymous]

Is OP a troll? This sounds a lot like the anti-CTCL troll. Best to ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it so interesting that so many kids from my DC's public MCPS high school go to these no name D3 colleges to play a sport. It's not like they are getting a full scholarship. Just seems so short sighted to pick a school with low return on investment for the privilege of playing in a mediocre league for 4 years. Some of these kids could clearly get better educations for the same price.

Kid not good enough, huh? Sorry. So many benefits to college sports, playing at the next level, being a part of something and seeing it through. Don’t worry about these kids, they will go to great grad programs and have a sport community for a lifetime.

so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Most kids at LACs / SLACs go to grad school.

Nothing wrong with grad and professional school but taking on more debt and avoiding the real world is often a fallback because the LAC sucked and didn't prepare kids for the real world. There's practically zero on-campus recruiting at these podunk colleges. No career resources, no networking. Super shallow alum network. Nobody outside of the region has even heard of your low tier private college. You're totally on your own, up a creek, so many of these kids go to grad school to hold off on paying back undergrad loans and to tap better networking and career resources at a major R1. You need strong summer internships all four years, kids need to experience different cities, then they break out of the need to go to grad school – at least immediately after undergrad – unless absolutely required for their career goals.

Hi Ivy mom. I see you are still crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so, they have to spend even more money to get a good paying job? Even more bamboozling.

Tell us, is there some secret way to making millions as a BigLaw partner with only an undergraduate degree?

Aggressive smart kids in 2023 who want to go to a hyper-competitive T14 law school and hyper-competitive "Big Law" career aren't going to podunk bottom tier private colleges nobody has heard of, where their average classmate is some nitwit who scored 1,100 on the SAT, and one-third of their class never graduates.

Ha! Have you even looked at the bios of the partners of the biggest firms? A lot of “podunk” undergrads in there (but usually, but not always, top law schools).

You see what you want to see. And you're also comparing boomers and old gen X law partners to gen Y kids entering undergrad? You are deluded if you think going to a podunk LOW RANKED or UNRANKED regional private college is a ticket to anything. If your teen is really smart, competitive and aggressive – and wants to be some hot shot law firm attorney – they want to be around peers who push them, not a bunch of nitwits in a podunk small town in the middle of nowhere. Again, we are NOT talking about Williams or even Trinity. We are talking about colleges nobody has ever heard of who throw fake scholarship money discounts to everyone on their email list.

You’ve never hired a single person in your life, that much is clear.