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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wonder if OP attended a school that was not super pre-professional? I was a MC kid who went to a top 10 in the late aughts. Agreed that the internet became a HUGE resource at the turn of the century and I buy that getting this information would have required some - but not exhaustive - effort to obtain via visiting the career center etc in the late 90s. But even if I hadn't had the internet around, I was in clubs and classes where affluent students talked about finance/consulting/the path to professional school. I saw students walking around on campus in suits every winter/spring. It was just really hard to miss.

Maybe OP went to a school where most of the class wasn't that interested in Goldman/McKinsey/Harvard Law? And there was a huge emphasis on more do-gooder work?[b] I could see that being the vibe at Brown or a SLAC.[/b]

Also OP, I wouldn't let DCUM convince you that everyone who goes to an elite school earns $500K+. I'm a late 30s HYS grad making $225K in house after several years in Big Law. Hoping to make the leap to $300K+ in a few years when my kids are older. My former classmates making $500K are in big law. Even the in house lawyers aren't really there yet. If I had to guess, I would say most of my class, including public interest, are $100-300k range, again outside of Big Law. My friends who went to more normal schools are probably $50k-150k. So I wouldn't agree that anyone with a college degree, moderate effort, and a pulse makes $200k easy. It's a lot harder than that.[/quote]

But I don't get that either. Even first-gen/low-income students at, say, Brown understand that the do-gooder jobs are for rich kids and working class kids have to grind it out in STEM. OP should've picked up on this even if she was at a crunchy do-gooder college like Brown. [/quote]

So maybe this is just something you’re too privileged to get, PP.  Some of us don’t know what we don’t know. That applies to the privileged too.  You’re just so sure that’s what’s obvious to you because your life has included certain things is obvious to everyone.  It’s not.  Just like many things that might seem obvious to me are not on your radar and possibly beyond your ability to truly comprehend.

[/quote]

PP who mentioned Brown. I do agree that you don’t know what you don’t know. My spouse is a first generation college student who went on to an elite law school. It took a rare combination of luck and drive/discipline to make that happen. While I see their story (and my own) as evidence that leaps like this are POSSIBLE, I don’t see them as evidence that the leap is PROBABLE, hence the posts here.

And, I think OP probably isn’t the most aware or driven person in the world himself. He has offered a lot of excuses, some more compelling than others. But he has one life to live and it makes no sense to choose to he unhappy. Plus, if OP struggled in the cocoon that is college, a career in banking or consulting or big law would have been even more brutal. There, truly no one is holding your hand or telling you how things go. I’m fact, they pride themselves on their sink or swim cultures. It’s true luck of who gets a sponsor who will push them to partnership or not. So please OP, dont create this alternative future that would have likely been a crapshoot for almost anyone, including privileged UMC types. [/quote]

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