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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The play is to go to a school where it can be both. At a school like say Williams, you can major in virtually anything quantitative and, with good grades, get a job in banking; or major in virtually anything and get a job in consulting with good grades and internships.

But if you're at say Marymount, you don't necessarily have that luxury. You want to do nursing or business there.

[b]'Passion' is often code for nonprofit/academic work that pays cruddy. It should be treated with suspicion.[/b][/quote]

Yes for some. No for others.

As so many of the PPs have said, the purpose and opportunities of college depend a lot on the level of economic security a kid has going in to the experience.

For first-gen college students like OP's kid, yes, I agree - there's a big risk involved in pursuing a low-paying "passion" career, and it's smart to be suspicious (or at least to consider it with a critical eye.) The sad truth is that it's very difficult to build financial security from that starting point. Better to be practical and use college as a vehicle for finding a more secure and higher-paying career while pursuing "passion" interests on the side, if possible.

However . . .

The equation can and arguably should be different for kids who enter college with a high level of financial security.

For kids who are (a) truly interested in nonprofit or academic work; and (b) wealthy enough to support themselves by other means (family support / generational wealth), I'd argue that they absolutely should pursue their passion - both for their own sake and for the sake of society.

On the societal side, it benefits EVERYONE if wealthy people who are truly interested in nonprofit or academic work use their time and talent for that purpose. There's tremendous need in our society (nonprofit) and also tremendous opportunties for societal improvements via research and education (academics). Both invole slow and painstaking work, a well as intellectual challenges on multiple fronts. But the potential rewards are huge (personal satisfaction + societal impact).

IMHO, we should ENCOURAGE that, rather than continue to incentivize and steer our highly resourced (i.e. wealthy/privileged) kids towards finance, tech, and consulting jobs that primarily benefit the wealthiest in our society. (If we've learned anything at this point, it's that "trickle down economics" was a sham.)

There's a recent student opinion piece in the Duke newspaper on the topic: https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/why-arent-we-all-excited-to-do-service-20251001

As well as a new and thought-provoking book that pushes the discussion further: https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Ambition-Wasting-Talent-Difference/dp/031658035X [/quote]

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