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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is anyone worried about spending 400K on their kids' college degree and then the kid can't find a job?[/quote]

I will get criticized, but this is my honest observation:

Families who can comfortably pay $400k for 1 DC's college (so often over $1million for 2 kids esp if you consider this is post-tax net dollars and the opportunity investment cost) don't actually stress that much about whether their kids get can a job. They may have high expectations for getting the most prestigious and top-earning jobs, but these are not the families who fear their kids will starve and be homeless. Among our friend group, even those who have "normal great" jobs likes doctors, engineers, accountants, sales directors, etc. with HHI $250k-600k send their kids to state schools or try to get some merit. The ones who truly pays $400k cash out of pocket without loans have HHI $1mm+, and they are not worries their kids can't find any job. These parents and kids have enough connections, resources and frankly higher-than-average IQ that even if they don't get their dream job, they know they won't be working at Walmart.

I find it's typically the first-gen parents in the $200k-500k HHI category who are most intense about Ivies/T10 colleges. They have had some success themselves but are not secure about keeping that upward mobility going, and if they had seen someone at work getting promoted in the fast lane or a new young boss coming in with a HYP degree, that's all it takes to get them obsessed about getting into T10. Many top 1% families I know actually care less about Ivies, jobs after undergrad and prefer the WASP and grad school route. [/quote]

I agree with this in part.

Yes, I agee that UHNW families who can quite comfortably pay $400k+ per child are not viewing the choice of college through a lens of future economic security.

For most familes in this group, questions and concerns about job prospects - especially first jobs and average starting salaries - are much lower on the list of priorities than for other families. Unless the family has a strong "do it yourself" ethos or forced "make your own way" approach, they know their kids will graduate college with accessible generational wealth behind them and access to whatever networks they may want or need to succeed.

But I disagree about these families being less interested or intense about the Ivies/T10 colleges, especially for their kids who have succeeded in rigorous private schools and demonstrated that they meet (or are close to) the "objective" criteria for admission.

In this country, college offers many things in addition to an education and a pathway to a job and career. In America, higher education is - and always has been - [b]a social and economic sorting tool[/b]. And my experience tells me that UHNW families do prefer to see their kids at Ivies/T10 colleges if they think it will be a good experience for them overall. This is especially true for parents who themselves had good experiences at these elite schools.

When it comes to viewing college as a vehicle for economic security, families who can comfortably pay $400k_when it comes to the focus on job security [/quote]

I just want to highlight the difference in what college rankings mean in East Asian countries vs. in US.

In East Asian countries the college rankings reflect purely academic excellence, not wealth. People genuinely respect you if you say you graduated from the University of Tokyo, simply for your academic achievements. Sure, socioeconomic status can provide some advantages, but ultimately it’s the student’s own performance that matters.

Because of this, students can fully enjoy their hobbies—playing soccer, baseball, games, dancing—simply for the joy of it. Extracurriculars are for fun, not to prove their worth, because their academic record already speaks for itself. I am well aware of the grinding culture in East Asia but for truly bright kids, that is not the case. They can do well academically without too much efforts not like how people portrait them that they are just [i]NERDs[/i]. Quite the contrary.
[/quote]

Thanks for this perspective!  Does this differ between East Asian countries though?  And how do college rankings purely reflect academic excellence, and not wealth?  Differences in admission procedures?  [/quote]

The key difference is [u]equal [b]opportunity[/b] supported by strong public education from K to undergraduate schools[/u].

Reflecting on my own experience growing up in East Asia, I think the biggest difference—this is particularly impactful for the gifted students—is the emphasis on objective, measurable performance and equal access from K–12 through colleges. In countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, the top universities are all public institutions.

That said, I’m not claiming East Asian countries get everything right. They face serious challenges too: large populations, fewer resources than the U.S., and in some cases income inequality and nepotism that may be even worse than here. Forcing equity doesn’t work—people are born with different abilities.[/quote]

Supposedly a massive percentage of University of Tokyo students come from just like 20 top private and public high schools.

I assume wealth matters in order to attend one of these feeder schools…you just can’t donate a building to get accepted.[/quote]

Private feeder high schools in Japan aren’t that expensive—unless you’re talking about ASIJ or St. Mary’s. But those schools primarily target expats who plan to return to the U.S. for college.[/quote]

Average Japanese salaries aren’t that much, so it’s all relative.  There was an article about doctors, nurses, waiters…lost of different professions…moving from Japan to Australia because Japanese salaries were like 50% of that in Australia.[/quote]

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