Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh good grief OP!

If your kid graduates HS I hope they leave you in the dust and make something of themselves.

OP here. Are you a professor?

Sorry that cut off. I was asking because I find people who are very defensive about the current value of college tend to be those invested in protecting its (IMO) artificially inflated value, even on the backs of kids who can't safely afford it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who is coming up (current 6th grader) and I am seriously questioning the value of a college education in the current system. I don't trust the admissions process, and I think they are basically corrupt institutions that protect their own. From the outside now the current system just looks ridiculous. The cost is unethical, causing massive lifelong burden on the kids who can least afford it. It's appalling how little the colleges are taking responsibility for their part in the corruption scandal, and I can only assume it's because that scandal is just the tip of the bribery iceberg and colleges don't want to open that can of worms. I don't think there is a correlation between teaching quality and college level, so saying it is for the education seems false.

Has anyone had their kids who might have been competitive for a "good" college step out of this process entirely? Skip college or go to a community college and then transfer to a state college? I just feel sick about the idea of gearing up to give institutions that seem wholly corrupt thousands of dollars that were really hard to earn, for a degree of what I perceive as less and less valuable.

This is a very sensible approach but most DC types who post here think that's a step down. Ignore them. All that matters is where the final degree is from. Most states with a well developed state college system offers some sort of variation of this. If you are in VA, you need to meet certain requirements such as taking core courses and get a certain GPA. Each VA university has its own cut-off.

Anonymous wrote:You seem very overwrought and you clearly have too much time on your hands if you are worrying about this now. Send your kid to a decent in-state school that you can afford like millions of other people have done and call it a day. Whatever is going on at Yale or USC is not going to affect you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Massive misconception notwithstanding, college is not intended to be trade school, and the most important thing thus is not "what you are going to do with it," but rather "what is it going to do with you." A good education, a real education, changes who people are. Education like that is harder and harder to find, but I hope a youngster can still find it if they want it enough. If they can, it is the "pearl of great price, and worth doing almost anything to get.

That's really idealistic, though, for kids who will bear a lifelong debt burden for this.

Either you’re a crappy parent for not saving for your child’s education or your child will be a crappy adult with a subpar job for not being able to pay off loans in a reasonable timeframe. Only incompetents endure a lifetime burden of paying off student loans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Massive misconception notwithstanding, college is not intended to be trade school, and the most important thing thus is not "what you are going to do with it," but rather "what is it going to do with you." A good education, a real education, changes who people are. Education like that is harder and harder to find, but I hope a youngster can still find it if they want it enough. If they can, it is the "pearl of great price, and worth doing almost anything to get.

That's really idealistic, though, for kids who will bear a lifelong debt burden for this.

Anonymous wrote:Massive misconception notwithstanding, college is not intended to be trade school, and the most important thing thus is not "what you are going to do with it," but rather "what is it going to do with you." A good education, a real education, changes who people are. Education like that is harder and harder to find, but I hope a youngster can still find it if they want it enough. If they can, it is the "pearl of great price, and worth doing almost anything to get.

Anonymous wrote:University of Toronto is great, as is University of London. One of my good friends never went to college and he's one of the most successful people I know. His brother went to Yale and isn't doing as well as he is. His networth.. about 70mil.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Military, vocational school, get a job

PTSD, get recruited to a shitty for-profit colleges, squander your GI bill, take out loans anyway bc your military salary's risk of death bonus puts you out of proportion with your skills in the workplace.

Anonymous wrote:^^ my cousin did it that way (community college) then transferred to a California University. And guess what? Her GPA was much higher than it would have been had she done all four years at the Cal University because grading was easier at the community college.

Anonymous wrote:^^ my cousin did it that way (community college) then transferred to a California University. And guess what? Her GPA was much higher than it would have been had she done all four years at the Cal University because grading was easier at the community college.