Reply to How much do you think college truly influences the trajectory of someone's life?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went from a conservative boarding school with rigid rules to a CA college that embraced bucking tradition on every level. College shaped what I read, how I thought, my sense of right and wrong, my interests, my career choice etc.   So while it didn't necessarily change the trajectory of my life in the sense that I needed to move out of a depressed town, it most certainly shaped the trajectory of my life by giving me a different framework to think in.  Not sure if that makes sense but that's what happened. [/quote]

It makes sense to me. If the question is "Did going to an T20 college help you become rich and important?" then no, it didn't, because I'm not rich or important. I'm financially secure and we are all God's children. I have strong personal relationships and the respect of my coworkers. But to outsiders, I am very much a nobody.

What college did do is expose me to a much wider range of people and ideas in an environment that encouraged me to explore different ways of seeing the world and my place in it. College made thinking fun. It offered me a lot of opportunities to spot my own bullshit and to reconsider what I valued.

One of my kids is deciding between colleges right now, and I worry that he is worrying about the wrong things. I don't care if we have to pay more for him to go somewhere that will really expand his view of the world and figure out how to create a life for himself that he can be happy with. College isn't just about what you earn when you graduate. (We're not paying his bills so he can live at home indefinitely. We do expect him to learn how to take care of himself by the time he graduates, but that's not just a financial issue.)[/quote]

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