Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For fun and because they are not super career-focused. I know a few former elite college grads who became ski bums, rafting guides, or fishing guides immediately after college for a year or two - they were generally upper class kids who had it made.

But that’s the thing — this kid is not upper class.

You have no idea. I'm a fed sitting on approx. 10MM that my grandma gifted to me. I live in the suburbs and drive a Sienna.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For fun and because they are not super career-focused. I know a few former elite college grads who became ski bums, rafting guides, or fishing guides immediately after college for a year or two - they were generally upper class kids who had it made.

But that’s the thing — this kid is not upper class.

Anonymous wrote:He’s probably doing whatever for a year whilst applying to grad school or law school or med school.

Or maybe career services is really terrible. Or white males need not apply. Think of it as equitable and equality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do highly credentialed HYPS grads accept crap jobs after graduation?

My neighbor’s son is a senior at a HYPS right now, and she told me that her son just accepted a job offer after graduation. When I asked her what the job is, she told me that her son is moving to Oregon to be a full-time whitewater kayaking instructor.

I was bewildered by this. With a math degree from HYPS, I would assume he’d get a great job offer at graduation.

Oh and for the record, it’s not like he is a rich kid who can rely on his parents — he is solidly middle class and went to his college on a good amount of financial aid.

Maybe he's burnt out or not into making money? I went to Dartmouth and had a friend who was a mountain guide at a therapeutic program for kids for like three years and then applied to a bunch of social work schools and got shut out from most of them (no idea why given her background) and ultimately ended up getting into a more prestigious MPA program and going back and working in a service-oriented role a a nonprofit. One of my other good friends from Dartmouth is a teacher at a public school outside of Boston. These jobs are by no means by sh*tty, but they are not considered prestigious and these friends are not ambitious when it comes to their careers. Even though it may seem paradoxical, not everyone who graduates from a prestigious school is ambitious when it comes to their career.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That sounds amazing.

Only if you have rich parents. If you are middle class, taking a job like that is a huge waste of time (and potentially money due to compound interest).

Not everything is about money. Lots of middle class kids take on lowly paid gap year or jobs for the experience. The Fulbright really doesn't pay very well, it basically just covers room & board, if that. A lot of middle class kids are also used to the idea of not really harnessing or achieving your true earning potential until years later - sometimes related to decisions their parents made like grad school or career changes that resulted in the kids growing up middle class, which isn't the end of the world either.

Anonymous wrote:This is fun and enjoyable and like a gap year. I know a kid who graduated from one of these schools, worked as a backwoods hiking guide for a year, then joined a top tier investment bank.

Anonymous wrote:Kayaking instructor isn’t a “crap job” he had to take because IB didn’t want him. That’s something he pursued with intention. There are few times in your life when you can take a paying job doing EXACTLY what you want to do, but age 22 is one of those times. It sounds like a great plan to me and his math degree isn’t going anywhere.
FWIW my kid is at HYP and feeling the pressure to have some amazing career path right out of the gate in no small part because of the culture of the school. I’ve encouraged her to think of her 20s as really “hers” and a time when it’s ok if the path twists around a bit. We aren’t wealthy, she needs and wants to be a self sufficient adult, and the good news is there are so many ways to do that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you major in useless easy stuff

Now majoring in Math is a useless easy degree?

DP. But yes, it certainly can be. Some of the laziest people I know are mathematicians, pi in the sky and all that, it can very much be a naval gazing humanities degree. To the extent employers think otherwise, that’s a fairly recent development.

But, if graduated without debt, he’ll be self sustaining as a kayak guide, so good enough.

Anonymous wrote:If he got into and graduated from an Ivy studying math, I expect that he’s had quite enough of the last 16 years of grinding nonstop at school. Just like your kids will, OP.

raptorsxyz wrote:Congratulations to him not buying into the rat race and enjoying life! A kid as smart as that will surely have a great career, especially after taking some time to find himself after graduation. Remember guys, you only life once, and you can't take money to the grave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fun and enjoyable and like a gap year. I know a kid who graduated from one of these schools, worked as a backwoods hiking guide for a year, then joined a top tier investment bank.

There’s no way this is real. Top tier IB jobs go out to summer analysts, so they start right after they graduate.

No, they don’t. Your middle class roots are showing. Most IB jobs go to kids with connections.

The kids with connections ARE the summer analysts, dummy.

No, you are the dummy. Kids with true connections do not need to work as summer analysts before getting offers... I have a good friend with a lot of connections who went to Harvard with me. He took off a couple years to teach English abroad and then came back and joined a top tier consulting firm. I have friends who did similar at investment banks.

And I'm a pretty recent grad so this isn't a back in the day thing.

Harvard grade don’t want to be investment bankers anymore.

This^. None of DS's Ivy friends wanted to join finance bros because they are seen as douche bags and work isn't purposeful.

My husband went to Harvard and he works at an investment bank. He's not a bro at all - the furthest thing, truly. But we both value a comfortable lifestyle and we prioritize careers where we can grow and make money.

It wasn't looked down upon until recently. Younger high IQ woke grads doesn't have interest in doing things they don't morally approve of.

Anonymous wrote:I support the kayaking job. And maybe he doesn’t have any loans and is totally supporting himself in this job. Yes he does have options that not all people have but why are you shaming him for that? We should all be so lucky. Let him live the life that works for him. No hurry to jump into the work grind just to make money to feel successful. Many of us feel successful in other ways and prioritize different things.