I left home in the late 1990s for Harvard, 1000 miles away. Sounds like we ran in different circles.
I was w econ/stats major people plus those from my foreign language major. And I befriended a ton of Intl people via being neighbors with the soccer team. Most of my close friends did banking, consulting or start ups. Then MBAs. I also had housemates and friends who did other things - teach for America, PhDs, law school, Kennedy school, returned to Montana, etc. They literally thought my senior year was “nuts” returning from study abroad, doing fall recruiting in NYC, my Econ thesis, tough classes and the late comprehension exams. I loved it. As a teen, my parents vocally said: go to college, graduate in 4 years, get marketable skills, find a job, you’re cut off but for emergencies once you graduate. Yes I’m female. One college Bf went to med school. Later college boyfriend went to hedge fund. And the Intl soccer friends had had the best weddings in Italy ever! |
Just ask what the plan is there. Normal question. Maybe he wants to relax and apply to med school or take a sort of gap year. |
Nobody “relaxes while applying to med school.” It’s not 1995. The kids taking gap years to apply to med school are working clinical jobs full-time i.e. EMT, CNA, Americorps. They’re not kayaking in Oregon. |
Were your parents really middle class? I didn’t have time to hang out with soccer team or what not because of work study and certainly there was no money for study abroad?? Also, economics is not usually a degree MC strivers did back then because it was not as vocational as engineering or aiming for doc/law. I know no one in my hometown would have no idea about what a hedge fund or investment bank was in the 90s. I’m guessing you are fairly attractive female, and were graced into a UMC crowd and dated among them, esp intl students who are wealthy full pay. How exactly were you “neighbors” with a soccer team? Did they rent a house or something together? Attractive or athlete is the best in for MC folks to the UMC and rich circles, but most MC folks are work studying and studying studying and don’t have the same idle time or sports training time together as that circle. No one I dated ever went into finance, they were aiming for teach for America or biotech engineering or medicine - the usual middle class path. |
You can kayak in oregon during the 3 month tourist season and not derail the rest of your life. Look, no one has any details or basic info here, including OP. OP is just throwing out theories like most of you all. Get a life. |
NP. If you pay better attention and not have such a narrow mind, you'd realize what else and who else is out there, middle class or not. The chip on your shoulder ain't helping you either. |
I’m fascinated by why Teach For America is considered more prestigious than just teaching at a rough public school. Most teachers in local public school districts when to schools like Towson & Radford—I don’t think they or anyone else considers them candidates for top law or B school. |
It’s BS. It recruits on campus at ivies, pays peanuts, and then tells you to apply to grad school. You basically make no money and then get further in debt. Maybe by age 30 you’ll get a decent paying job somewhere. |
I’m not. It’s for people who can’t plan or figure out their own path so they keep doing spoonfed programs or academia. There’s literally 1000s o Fulbright’s a year too, at totally no name Unis and topics. Just delays the real world. Seriously, tell your kids to avoid. |
Pay attention? It was a different world back then, it was really uncouth to talk about money or how much homes cost or anything like that. Unless you had a close friend or were dating someone from another class, there was no "behind the curtain" talks about how UMC jobs worked. MC kids went for dependable degrees without much risk, without even realizing there was a brass ring they could reach for before going to a nonprofit or mid tier job. My Ivy had VERY segregated social scene by class, I suspect its way more mixed company at places like Brown or Cornell. As a science major, I was in lots of hard math classes, and long labs -- not in the russian lit or english or politics class the IB bound UMC would be in -- our paths literally didn't cross. They would take taxis out to shows in the city, while I spent evenings working in the cafeteria. Unless you happened to be freshman roommates with someone who took a shine to you and clued you, athletic teammates for multiple years, or were attractive enough to be brought into the UMC fold as a dating partner, you are pretty shut out. And its not like I was looking to make "rich friends" as networking or something -- I just made normal friends, but my circle was limited to mostly people like me as noted above because of work study, labs, and no money for joining outings to the city, ski trips, etc. |
Lol. Like they even broach that mess at the reunion party fundraisers! |
\ I bet your life is still pretty narrow and segregated, amirite? No, it wasn't a different world. Being friendly, curious, sociable and paying attention, can take you far. Show up. Talk to your dorm neighbors, get invited to stuff. No one was sitting around talking about money or property values. This is your slanted cynical view of most of the world. Everyone talked about work load, professors, stress, long papers job options - this was actually informative if you paid attention. No one had to date someone or be pretty to know about various industries in the world. Just read a newspaper, go to the bookstore, befriend an upperclassman or five. I took current events class elective in high school, it was helpful! There are ways to have fun and take advantage of WHEREVER you live, in a range of budget realms. You seemed to have chosen to dwell on your work study, STEM major and seemingly rural Ivy. But even some of those had stem or jewish or whatever frats. Maybe this is a case of take the full ride scholarship to a better fit school and city over the small rural Ivy. I dunno. Or maybe this is a case of a bitter kid, teen, young adult, and DCUMer. That attitude would turn off anyone anywhere, any class. It attracts the same too. So now you're in a negative echo chamber, echoing around and trying to argue with MC-born entrepreneurs who had friends in college. We all have ups and downs, but you own your attitude. |
Yes it is so terrible to get to spend a year living abroad funded by a Fulbright. Some ppl have an unbelievably narrow worldview. I can't believe some of these posters are real. And I am a pretty Type A risk averse person myself! |
No idea about Cornell, but Brown of all places has a very segregated social scene by class because it is a favorite school of billionaire kids. |
Of course it’s fun. The funding is abysmal. It’s a great way to postpone real life if daddy’s going to buy you a starter home anyway. |