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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you're not looking at a degree in STEM, I would seriously consider whether or not college is a worthwhile investment.[/quote]

This is a classic lower class attitude. The point isn’t what the student “does with” college; it’s what college “does with” the student. [/quote]

Talk about class attitudes, lol! Yours is nasty and disingenuous. Lots of UMC kids are in college to get their tickets punched, to network, and to enjoy a few years of freedom while still on their parents’ dime but free from their immediate control. They aren’t in college to acquire knowledge or skills or character. They know that’s not how they’ll get jobs. And not getting a job is still unthinkable to them (and if that happens, there’s always grad school in some form of another). That’s not everyone of course, but it’s a really common attitude at the elite colleges UMC families covet.

And there are a helluva a lot of working class people who see college as a way to better themselves — to be exposed to more and different things (ideas, books, cultures, places, ways of life, experiences, people) than they would otherwise have access to.

The main difference (shocker) is that the UMC has lots more money than the working class. When faced with the staggering costs of higher education in the US, people who have lots of other immediate needs (and who see unemployment as a real threat) may be forced to ask whether/under what circumstances college is worth it. While the UMC, who generally can’t set their kids up for life via inheritance or control of a family business, cling to the notion that we live in a meritocracy where the smartest/best-educated win. So they’re desperate to get their kids into the right school(s). And/or to claim whatever schools their kids go to ARE the right schools. Somewhere in the middle of those two groups are people whose main goal is to get their kids a decent college education (because employers expect/demand at least a BA) while not saddling them with lots of debt.[/quote]

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