Reply to Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Let’s be Honest DCUM Moms: Half of your kids should not be going to college"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Russian or Chinese trying to influence DCUM with a barely coherent AI rant.
The trades are great for many. However, for those that like to spit out that a 23 year old plumber makes more than a 23 year old recent grad, they are forgetting that the 33 year old plumber has maxed out his earning potential while the 33 year old college grad is not only making the same or more AND still climbing the ladder with a large potential to earn much more than the plumber. That’s true ROI. Yes, AI is having an impact on lower level recent grad jobs. But if the trades get flooded, the plumbers and electricians won’t make more than minimum either since there would be too many of them.
I have 4 sons. DH and I are college educated. We saved enough to afford each child an undergraduate degree from in state public. We give advice and guidance but let them make the decisions on what to do with the funds we saved.
The oldest got a BA in philosophy. We tried to convince him to pick a more useful degree… but we had to let him make his own mistakes. He graduated, was a bartender loving the tips, got a personal trainer certificate and did that for a few years… met the love of his life who is a nurse and realized he needed to grow up and have a career. He decided to go back to school to become a nurse. We did not pay for that degree, so he went in debt. He is a nurse at Johns Hopkins.  He doesn’t make a ton of money, but it is a needed field, and he will never lack in opportunities.  (TBH, when he went back to school, we encouraged looking at physical therapy as it aligned with his interests, but he did not want to be in school that long)
The second oldest went the Business admin route. Again, we paid for his in state public college, so no debt.  He’s a project manager at a construction company where he worked during the summers. At 27 years old, he’s making $150k easy. Not a millionaire, but not a bad life either.
The third is in college – again, in state public college. Going into a science field that he has loved since he was a kid. He knew by HS that he was going to follow his interest. Has a summer internship.  Starting salary in his field is $60k-$75k with a lot of future opportunities for career growth. He decided on a commuter school, so the money we saved that would have been used for housing is instead going to be a little nest egg for when he graduates.
Youngest still in HS.  Like many his age, he does not know what he wants to be when he grows up. Like the other 3, we will let him make his own path. If he wants to go into a trade, we will support him but will ensure he understands the salary cap. Being the youngest, he watched his oldest brother struggle initially in young adulthood since picking a useless degree and understands his brother went into debt due to poor education choices and knows my DH and I encouraged a different route. I imagine he will pick a science or technology field of study.
All the people that complain about the poor recent grad that got a degree in education but has $300k in student loans is missing the obvious. If a student picks a field without high paying career options, they need to pick their college carefully.  Why go to a private SLAC and pay $300k to be a teacher? Or the stories about recent college grads not being able to “find” jobs. It’s because 1. They decided to take it easy and not pursue an in-demand career field or 2. Didn’t pursue internships or 3. They are unwilling to go where the jobs are.
I’ve interviewed several recent grads. They always ask about telework. It’s a turnoff for a recent grad with no industry experience to want to work from home. If it’s something a dummy can do from anywhere, RPA/AI is going to do it.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics