Is this going to be a trend? (WSJ - Palantir Thinks College Might Be a Waste. So It's Hiring High-School Grads)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from Palantir, are there other companies that actively look to hire talented high school students?

It’s about time! I have a PhD at one of the largest companies in the world. We only hire folks with masters+. I have 2 teen kids with IQs 135+ and I’m convinced they are better than most my colleagues. With a tiny bit of training they could do the technical mechanics of my job. The people skills and political maneuvering is another beast but people don’t learn that in a classroom setting anyway.

+1

It would be funny for those college NG end up reporting to someone younger than them because they kick off career earlier than their peers or seniors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of what I hope my kid is learning in college is the ability to see how Palantir is bad for society, and to understand why she should not be part of anything like that.

👏👏👏 This.

[Anonymous]

If your family already has a lot of money, this would work - as your family could help you after the bottom drops out.

For everyone else, not a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Palantir + Peter Theil are both gross. College can be so much fun and a great way to meet people. Why skip it unless you truly can’t afford it.

When college becomes very expensive, it is no longer as much fun except for the few who will graduate with no loans. I think the pressure for everyone to get a degree that is expensive and it being branded as the best experience or best 4 years of your life is equally gross.

+1
The ROI for the majority of students is the worst investment they will make. I hope we go back to apprenticeships, which is basically what this is.

That all depends on if one is ok with working blue collar jobs that are harder on the body than white collar jobs.

The error is thinking you need college for a white collar job. Up through the 1980s in Britain plenty of white collar industries recruited students right out of high school via a training scheme. Especially in finance, accounting, low level corporate roles. You would be surprised by how many rose through the ranks. So many office jobs don't need degrees if we are being honest, far more is gained from on site job learning.

As for critical thinking, I am ambivalent about the concept. It's a nice idea but college isn't the only place to get an "education." There are so many poorly educated kids coming out of colleges these days, and the degree is no guarantee they're equipped with the right critical thinking skills.

yes, but then in the 80s/90s, companies wanted people to have a college education.

There are even more poorly educated kids coming out of HS.

BTW, now even in Britain, companies want people with college degrees. My spouse is from there; their nephews graduated from college about a decade ago, and they said that even then, companies there wanted people with college degrees.

What you are advocating would lead to a large proportion of the wealth gap. There would need to be a complete paradigm shift in corporate America to have a college degree be a waste.

If you want to be lead the way and not have your kids go to college, be my guest. Let us know how that turns out.

Mine is now in college, has had some great internships. The one upcoming is going to pay them $91/hour. There is no way that DC would've gotten that if they weren't in college. Most 18-21 year olds don't have the drive to self educate and learn on their own.

BTW, do you think Trump's college aged son will now drop out of college because it's a waste?

Should be pointed out that with growing expectations for a college degree, the income inequality has only worsened. Substantially.

When everyone has a degree, it becomes useless. There is nothing special about having a college degree. What it only does is to demonstrate you have the capacity to graduate from a college. That's all. It does not say anything about critical thinking or skills or accomplishments or attitudes. Having a degree doesn't mean you have any of it. There is no shortage of illogical people woth wacky beliefs and ideologies who have degrees.

Do we need to force millions of kids into expensive degrees with debt just to get a basic job once they graduated? That is the question. And it's worth looking at it carefully.

oh sure, that's why the elites don't send their kids to college. Don't send your kid to college. I don't care. More opportunities for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Palantir + Peter Theil are both gross. College can be so much fun and a great way to meet people. Why skip it unless you truly can’t afford it.

When college becomes very expensive, it is no longer as much fun except for the few who will graduate with no loans. I think the pressure for everyone to get a degree that is expensive and it being branded as the best experience or best 4 years of your life is equally gross.

+1
The ROI for the majority of students is the worst investment they will make. I hope we go back to apprenticeships, which is basically what this is.

That all depends on if one is ok with working blue collar jobs that are harder on the body than white collar jobs.

The error is thinking you need college for a white collar job. Up through the 1980s in Britain plenty of white collar industries recruited students right out of high school via a training scheme. Especially in finance, accounting, low level corporate roles. You would be surprised by how many rose through the ranks. So many office jobs don't need degrees if we are being honest, far more is gained from on site job learning.

As for critical thinking, I am ambivalent about the concept. It's a nice idea but college isn't the only place to get an "education." There are so many poorly educated kids coming out of colleges these days, and the degree is no guarantee they're equipped with the right critical thinking skills.

yes, but then in the 80s/90s, companies wanted people to have a college education.

There are even more poorly educated kids coming out of HS.

BTW, now even in Britain, companies want people with college degrees. My spouse is from there; their nephews graduated from college about a decade ago, and they said that even then, companies there wanted people with college degrees.

What you are advocating would lead to a large proportion of the wealth gap. There would need to be a complete paradigm shift in corporate America to have a college degree be a waste.

If you want to be lead the way and not have your kids go to college, be my guest. Let us know how that turns out.

Mine is now in college, has had some great internships. The one upcoming is going to pay them $91/hour. There is no way that DC would've gotten that if they weren't in college. Most 18-21 year olds don't have the drive to self educate and learn on their own.

BTW, do you think Trump's college aged son will now drop out of college because it's a waste?

Should be pointed out that with growing expectations for a college degree, the income inequality has only worsened. Substantially.

When everyone has a degree, it becomes useless. There is nothing special about having a college degree. What it only does is to demonstrate you have the capacity to graduate from a college. That's all. It does not say anything about critical thinking or skills or accomplishments or attitudes. Having a degree doesn't mean you have any of it. There is no shortage of illogical people woth wacky beliefs and ideologies who have degrees.

Do we need to force millions of kids into expensive degrees with debt just to get a basic job once they graduated? That is the question. And it's worth looking at it carefully.

oh sure, that's why the elites don't send their kids to college. Don't send your kid to college. I don't care. More opportunities for my kids.

Elites send their kids to college because it's a playground for them. The kids of the elite all do well because of their parents' connections, not because where they went to college.

There is a role for colleges. An important role. But a society that seemingly mandates college degrees to get into the door for too many basic jobs is missing the point of college in the first place. And too many kids suffer, either from unfair exclusion or taking on debt.

-- graduate of two elite universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there are two paths that this is taking…one kids straight out of high school and two kids dropping out of college.

In the Bay Area at least, there are some high stat kids that jump directly into full time jobs at various sizes of tech companies. They had connections or were good enough to land an internship, did great at the internship and were offered full time employment, and they didn’t get into any UCs higher than Merced or Riverside despite having incredibly high stats. Despite having OOS or private college acceptances, the cost and/or step down in rank wasn’t appealing. As the job market in tech has gone south, they didn’t want to give up their foot hold in tech. The ones that we know of that have done this have done or are doing community college classes online so that they are ready to transfer into a highly ranked UC as a junior in several years. UCs have lots of older transfer students.

I can see why this is a smarter path than going to a lower ranked university for four years, spending hundreds of thousands on it, being away from the tech center and struggling to find a job four years later.

Exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who wants to go through life without a college education no matter what career you choose? Get an education.

A depressing amount of people who post on this site see a college education and what you major in solely in terms of jobs and income

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Palantir + Peter Theil are both gross. College can be so much fun and a great way to meet people. Why skip it unless you truly can’t afford it.

When college becomes very expensive, it is no longer as much fun except for the few who will graduate with no loans. I think the pressure for everyone to get a degree that is expensive and it being branded as the best experience or best 4 years of your life is equally gross.

+1
The ROI for the majority of students is the worst investment they will make. I hope we go back to apprenticeships, which is basically what this is.

That all depends on if one is ok with working blue collar jobs that are harder on the body than white collar jobs.

The error is thinking you need college for a white collar job. Up through the 1980s in Britain plenty of white collar industries recruited students right out of high school via a training scheme. Especially in finance, accounting, low level corporate roles. You would be surprised by how many rose through the ranks. So many office jobs don't need degrees if we are being honest, far more is gained from on site job learning.

As for critical thinking, I am ambivalent about the concept. It's a nice idea but college isn't the only place to get an "education." There are so many poorly educated kids coming out of colleges these days, and the degree is no guarantee they're equipped with the right critical thinking skills.

yes, but then in the 80s/90s, companies wanted people to have a college education.

There are even more poorly educated kids coming out of HS.

BTW, now even in Britain, companies want people with college degrees. My spouse is from there; their nephews graduated from college about a decade ago, and they said that even then, companies there wanted people with college degrees.

What you are advocating would lead to a large proportion of the wealth gap. There would need to be a complete paradigm shift in corporate America to have a college degree be a waste.

If you want to be lead the way and not have your kids go to college, be my guest. Let us know how that turns out.

Mine is now in college, has had some great internships. The one upcoming is going to pay them $91/hour. There is no way that DC would've gotten that if they weren't in college. Most 18-21 year olds don't have the drive to self educate and learn on their own.

BTW, do you think Trump's college aged son will now drop out of college because it's a waste?

Should be pointed out that with growing expectations for a college degree, the income inequality has only worsened. Substantially.

When everyone has a degree, it becomes useless. There is nothing special about having a college degree. What it only does is to demonstrate you have the capacity to graduate from a college. That's all. It does not say anything about critical thinking or skills or accomplishments or attitudes. Having a degree doesn't mean you have any of it. There is no shortage of illogical people woth wacky beliefs and ideologies who have degrees.

Do we need to force millions of kids into expensive degrees with debt just to get a basic job once they graduated? That is the question. And it's worth looking at it carefully.

oh sure, that's why the elites don't send their kids to college. Don't send your kid to college. I don't care. More opportunities for my kids.

Elites send their kids to college because it's a playground for them. The kids of the elite all do well because of their parents' connections, not because where they went to college.

There is a role for colleges. An important role. But a society that seemingly mandates college degrees to get into the door for too many basic jobs is missing the point of college in the first place. And too many kids suffer, either from unfair exclusion or taking on debt.

-- graduate of two elite universities.

In the mean time the capitals invest heavily in AI. They will not need mediocre workers soon (college educated or not)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of what I hope my kid is learning in college is the ability to see how Palantir is bad for society, and to understand why she should not be part of anything like that.

Bad for society? Its software has been credited with locating bin Laden, COVID 19 tracking and vaccine distribution, humanitarian aid, combating child trafficking and financial crimes. I understand their relationship with the Israeli government and ICE, but its lazy to label them the root of all evil.

[Anonymous]

35% of American adults have a college degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from Palantir, are there other companies that actively look to hire talented high school students?

Palantir sucks and has no ethics.

This is why they want HS grads they can manipulate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aside from Palantir, are there other companies that actively look to hire talented high school students?

Just as the GOP wants 'em, uneducated. Get the degree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from Palantir, are there other companies that actively look to hire talented high school students?

Palantir sucks and has no ethics.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just exploitation by another name. They know they can pay an 18 year old less than a 22 year old. They will churn those kids and then dump them because most won’t have the skills to really progress beyond entry level. They are saying college isn’t worth it because we don’t really intend to invest in you and aren’t really looking for people that can grow with the company.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just exploitation by another name. They know they can pay an 18 year old less than a 22 year old. They will churn those kids and then dump them because most won’t have the skills to really progress beyond entry level. They are saying college isn’t worth it because we don’t really intend to invest in you and aren’t really looking for people that can grow with the company.

+ one million.