Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like college is necessary for those going on to medical school.

Medical school is gone. What do you not understand about the war on Science?

You are hyperventilating and nobody takes the left seriously because of people like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok you go first. Don’t send your kid to college.

Good luck with that!
PS- some of us can afford college.

Yes, this. Saying “don’t go into major debt for undergrad” is quite different from saying “don’t go to college at all unless it’s Harvard.”

But anyway, OP’s post appears to be AI.

Harvard is not worth it anymore either - plenty of unemployed Harvard grads including Harvard MBAs. Are you living under a rock?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. The data is clear. we have a massive surplus of low-value degrees and a labor market that is already starting to discount them. Unless your child is attending a top-tier target school where the institutional prestige acts as a hedge against mediocrity, they are likely walking into an underemployment trap. Johnny from State U is graduating with six-figure debt into a world that doesn't need another generalist with a "Business Administration" degree. We’ve flooded the market with credentials, and in doing so, we've rendered the mid-tier degree effectively worthless for anything other than basic administrative work. but no problem….at least they recorded their fair share of TikTok dances in their SEC sororities….
The "dumbification" of American higher ed is the quiet crisis no one on this board wants to admit. To keep the tuition checks flowing, universities have traded academic rigor for "student satisfaction" andt grade inflation. We are producing a workforce that can follow a rubric but lacks the cognitive stamina for first-principles thinking or problem-solving. While parents are busy comparing "Little Ivies," their kids are losing the ability to synthesize complex information without a digital crutch. We’ve turned college into a four-year delay of adulthood where students learn to navigate bureaucracy instead of mastering a competitive skill.
If you think the ROI is bad now, calculate the impact of AI over the next four years. If your kid is a freshman today, they will enter a 2030 job market where agentic AI has already cannibalized the majority of entry-level white-collar tasks. The "junior analyst" or "entry-level coordinator" roles that used to be the traditional starting point for college grads are being automated out of existence. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train kids for roles that a $20 monthly subscription will do better and faster by the time they graduate. If your child isn't in the top 5% of their field or pursuing a specialized technical trade, you aren't buying them a future…… you're buying them a very expensive seat at a table that is being removed from the room….

Anyway…..keep it up….

Totally agree with all this!

My company used to recruit from my university and have about 500 entry level positions globally per year. This year we took 5. Not 500, literally 5! We took about 100 interns with no path to permanent employment, which was also unprecedented (and probably unfair), but we did it anyway. The 5 grads we got were awesome- driven motivated - clearly smarter than me and I’m gifted (IQ 135). Good luck to everyone’s kid. Trade school would give them a better ROI - you can’t fix HVAC or electrics without a human in the loop.

[Anonymous]

Parents are college grads, and kids will be college grads.

Sorry bud. Get back to your basement.

[Anonymous]

State U shouldn't result in that much debt. And we all need a well educated population! Then kids can do nursing or other additional education if they want. Even starting your own business people benefit from financial education and economics etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is 2-1/2 years through college. The lessons they have learned about how to be independent, dealing with - and conquering - learning challenges, have been absolutely golden. That has been worth the price. There will be no debt afterwards.

Expensive price tag for what you should have taught as a parent - I guess it’s ok that you are literally paying for your mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. The data is clear. we have a massive surplus of low-value degrees and a labor market that is already starting to discount them. Unless your child is attending a top-tier target school where the institutional prestige acts as a hedge against mediocrity, they are likely walking into an underemployment trap. Johnny from State U is graduating with six-figure debt into a world that doesn't need another generalist with a "Business Administration" degree. We’ve flooded the market with credentials, and in doing so, we've rendered the mid-tier degree effectively worthless for anything other than basic administrative work. but no problem….at least they recorded their fair share of TikTok dances in their SEC sororities….
The "dumbification" of American higher ed is the quiet crisis no one on this board wants to admit. To keep the tuition checks flowing, universities have traded academic rigor for "student satisfaction" andt grade inflation. We are producing a workforce that can follow a rubric but lacks the cognitive stamina for first-principles thinking or problem-solving. While parents are busy comparing "Little Ivies," their kids are losing the ability to synthesize complex information without a digital crutch. We’ve turned college into a four-year delay of adulthood where students learn to navigate bureaucracy instead of mastering a competitive skill.
If you think the ROI is bad now, calculate the impact of AI over the next four years. If your kid is a freshman today, they will enter a 2030 job market where agentic AI has already cannibalized the majority of entry-level white-collar tasks. The "junior analyst" or "entry-level coordinator" roles that used to be the traditional starting point for college grads are being automated out of existence. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train kids for roles that a $20 monthly subscription will do better and faster by the time they graduate. If your child isn't in the top 5% of their field or pursuing a specialized technical trade, you aren't buying them a future…… you're buying them a very expensive seat at a table that is being removed from the room….

Anyway…..keep it up….

No, Johnny from "Big State U" with a degree in Business Administration is going to be a Surgery Scheduler at a large hospital in the suburbs, where he'll make $60,000 a year and be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle. Hanging drywall isn't as well paying a job as you think it is.

It is if you’re and independent contractor or own the company.

[Anonymous]

What’s hard is for every good career path, there’s one made to look slick but goes to a dead end. Kids and uneducated parents can’t tell the difference.

To those who have been hoodwinked, it all looks like a scam.

The warning should be: first time college-bound students, be aware that there are many scams out there.

The scammers should be prohibited from taking advantage of the vulnerable. But this will probably not happen in the immediate future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need to stop looking at a degree as an automatic "upward mobility" button and start looking at it as a high-risk capital allocation. The data is clear. we have a massive surplus of low-value degrees and a labor market that is already starting to discount them. Unless your child is attending a top-tier target school where the institutional prestige acts as a hedge against mediocrity, they are likely walking into an underemployment trap. Johnny from State U is graduating with six-figure debt into a world that doesn't need another generalist with a "Business Administration" degree. We’ve flooded the market with credentials, and in doing so, we've rendered the mid-tier degree effectively worthless for anything other than basic administrative work. but no problem….at least they recorded their fair share of TikTok dances in their SEC sororities….
The "dumbification" of American higher ed is the quiet crisis no one on this board wants to admit. To keep the tuition checks flowing, universities have traded academic rigor for "student satisfaction" andt grade inflation. We are producing a workforce that can follow a rubric but lacks the cognitive stamina for first-principles thinking or problem-solving. While parents are busy comparing "Little Ivies," their kids are losing the ability to synthesize complex information without a digital crutch. We’ve turned college into a four-year delay of adulthood where students learn to navigate bureaucracy instead of mastering a competitive skill.
If you think the ROI is bad now, calculate the impact of AI over the next four years. If your kid is a freshman today, they will enter a 2030 job market where agentic AI has already cannibalized the majority of entry-level white-collar tasks. The "junior analyst" or "entry-level coordinator" roles that used to be the traditional starting point for college grads are being automated out of existence. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train kids for roles that a $20 monthly subscription will do better and faster by the time they graduate. If your child isn't in the top 5% of their field or pursuing a specialized technical trade, you aren't buying them a future…… you're buying them a very expensive seat at a table that is being removed from the room….

Anyway…..keep it up….

If you rearrange DCUM it spells dumb.

Holy mother of stupid posts. We export millions of jobs to Asia because our politicians have sold American kids out. Plenty of jobs requiring degrees/higher level training.

Invest 300k in appreciating assets for your kid's future instead of throwing it down the toilet not to mention the lost 4 years.

We ain't in Kansas anymore mommys.

PP has a point you can’t comprehend. 300k in investments with AI picking stock in index funds of the S&P over the course of 18 years a quite a chunk of change! College, not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your post is so offensive. My senior, with an unweighted 4.0 GPA, is going to a trade school next fall because that is his dream and passion. So we are happy for him and support him in that.

But who the hell are you to tell any kid that they should or shouldn’t go to any college that they got accepted into and want to attend? MYOB

OP is telling the PARENTS not the kids that not everyone is successful with an undergrad degree - and they’re right! More people should be encouraged to trade school.

[Anonymous]

Once again, the idea that one would attend college to be educated, to learn to think and reason and broaden their mind, is lost on some people.

[Anonymous]

AI gonna take forum troll jobs away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re a snob. My state u student is graduating with a degree in business and has landed some impressive internships and offers. There are lots of smart kids who choose a public education to graduate debt free. What matters is work ethic and what you make of the college experience while you’re there.

Ask them and report back if you don't already know: what exactly will they be doing in those internships? Replacing paper in copier?
-NP

[Anonymous]

"Half of DCUM kids shouldn't go to college".

Yes, ALL of YOUR kids shouldn't go to college
NONE of MY kids shouldn't go to college. On average that makes half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6:38 again, and it is not a financial decision. He has a well funded 529 and is currently in private school. Let that blow your mind, OP. Some pick this path because they want to, not because they have to. We are proud of him.

Your effusive support for his decision to attend trade school makes me think you might be proud of him but you aren't really that proud of him going to trade school. What kind of trade? And by private school do you mean a local Catholic school?

I think it's just really hard for you to understand we give our kids an experience that does not have a ROI just because.

I mean, how many 2nd homes can you really have.

Brother went to trade school and the answer for him is 5. He has 5 homes. Each worth over a million. He went to trade school, worked hard for a guy who retired and sold him (very cheaply) the company. He built it from scratch and wanted to see his employees were taken care of and trusted my brother with everything.