How the Rich are Secretly Handling College

[Anonymous]

It's hard to enjoy the Louvre unless you know something about art history. Otherwise you get BORED. True for many things in life.

[Anonymous]

what colleges did you people go to that you value it so little? i loved college - loved learning new subjects, how to think critically, how to write, etc. i find it hard to believe you didn't learn anything in college. if i didn't have to earn $$ now, I'd find a way to go back to school. these kids have their whole lives to make money - let them go to college and enjoy the experience, maybe learn a few things while they're at it. if the parents are super rich they can certainly afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to enjoy the Louvre unless you know something about art history. Otherwise you get BORED. True for many things in life.

Agreed. If you don't know who the people in a painting are, what the images represent, when and why it was painted, what technique it demonstrates, or why its considered important--it's just a painting. I don't know how looking at a painting without context teaches you anything. You can enjoy and appreciate the painting, but you're not better educated for just having gazed at it. If you did tours with docents and read the catalogues that would certainly be a step up, but you need to do a lot of independent reading outside of the museum to get out of it what you would in a class.

I love that a liberal arts education is being dismissed by people who don't seem to get what education is....or went to crappy overpriced schools.

[Anonymous]

OP, i agree with you. I'm hoping college will be optional for my two children = - or, if they go, it will be for fun. - signed, Exeter and Ivy + advanced degree grad.

I agree with you. Exeter and Ivy + advanced degree grad. was a waste of time. These schools are no better than good public high schools and universities. You're lucky you thrived despite the wasted sojourn.

[Anonymous]

The brain is still developing till age 25+. College is a time of exploration, social growth, identity formation, and intense learning. Why forego that. If you have a kid who doesn't want to go then sure, go for it with the startup idea. But I wouldn't plan for that or push them. Many wouldn't be ready to start a company. If you want to save money send them to a state school.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting conversation and I understand that the "titans of industry" don't see school keeping up with the world, but I totally see the value in college and even tracking it back down to high school. This California OP clearly hasn't had her children in high school or frankly any school because my kids' school has a lot of out of the box amazing experiences in addition to classroom learning. They are no longer just memorizing facts teachers are spouting off. In fact schools are very aware of this and have jumped on board a while ago. Great schools offer kids amazing learning opportunities including fascinating trips that aren't just parent funded party trips or those fake "community service" trips to Costa Rica. Maybe OP simply hasn't found a great school for her children. Luckily for them she/he can afford to support them for their whole lives and they wont need to do anything for themselves at all.

[Anonymous]

It also depends what you are looking to get out of education. If it is just a good job and connections, then I can see skipping it, but if it is to learn a deep knowledge in a subject you love, then the internet isn't going to help with that. Cue the laughter now, but I was a Classics major, learning Latin and Ancient Greek and even Sanskrit and before you mention how worthless that is, I have managed to pull a whole teaching career out of it that I love!! Been doing it for 16 years and am a very happy human being. Not too wealthy though, but perfectly content.

[Anonymous]

I would think it could hurt connections to not have a college degree. Some people just won't take you seriously. You have to realize that many of the people who drop out and succeed like zuckerberg are exceptional.

[Anonymous]

Ah college is going the avenue of upscale stores and America overall. .. H&M , forever21, IKEA Less is more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think it could hurt connections to not have a college degree. Some people just won't take you seriously. You have to realize that many of the people who drop out and succeed like zuckerberg are exceptional.

Although Zuckerberg dropped out, he was accepted and attended Harvard for awhile. Same with Steve Gates. Not going to college can compare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good god, not everyone wants to own a business?! gross

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this conversation about unconventional education several years back. We realized that our kids weren't going to get any financial aid and that many schools cost 60,000 per year. I said to my husband: for 720,000 dollars (we have three kids), we could probably hand-pick a number of really great individuals -- seven or eight -- and have them come to our house and live here for four years and teach our kids only full-time. It actually seemed like a much better use of our resources than writing big checks to a university which would probably squander most of it in overhead and not really benefit our kids in any appreciable way. THese seven individuals could travel with our students, take them places, show them things. The only thing we couldn't figure out was how they would ever get credit for this unusual education from an employer, and how we would handle lab sciences. But when you think about the outrageous sums of money being demanded for just a BA, it does cause you to begin to think about out of the box solutions.

I'm not sure what kind of really great individuals you think will work for $25,000 per year, but I doubt your kids would get much out of this education.

You're being way too generous. PP didn't factor in social security, medicare, federal and state unemployment tax, workers' comp, and the travel costs for this large group of people...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol. New money. Bless your heart.

+1. We're old money. Ivy educated for generations. Doing private schools as usual.

[Anonymous]

"No. That is what I am telling you. The titans of creativity and critical thinking by any measure are all questioning their college education. Some never completed it, and while in college, attended precious few classes. That's just Kool-Aid talk spouted by the Admissions Office. They were creative and thought critically by the time they stepped foot in college, and it's largely by the enrichment their received outside of school classes."

Horseshit. I work in emerging tech and just got back from a conference in Silicon Valley. What the hell qualities do you think those employers are looking for, whether start ups or Google and Yahoo? Creativity and critical thinking. And what do you think the VCs are looking for when they want to give out money? You need to have a product, but you also need to have - get this, creativity and critical thinking - to monetize it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think it could hurt connections to not have a college degree. Some people just won't take you seriously. You have to realize that many of the people who drop out and succeed like zuckerberg are exceptional.

Although Zuckerberg dropped out, he was accepted and attended Harvard for awhile. Same with Steve Gates. Not going to college can compare.

Zuckerberg went to Exeter and Bill Gates went to a exclusive private prep school before Harvard. Bill Gates' father was a law partner at a prestige firm. They have a similar background.

Where do you think the VC money comes from? Most of the VCs share a similar background to Gates and Zuckerberg.

The whole premise of this thread is ridiculous.