Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think what you’re reacting to is the focus on quantifying ROI, as if there’s some formula that will make a certain college “worth it.”

For someone who has to take out loans, I get this perspective—there’s a very practical sense of needing to be able to pay them back and live comfortably.

But for people who can afford to pay for their kids’ schooling without loans (as my parents were able to do for me, and spouse and I can for our kids), the idea of expecting some financial return on investment is harder for me to understand. For me, the ROI on our kids’ college will be their happiness; bound up in that is that they will emerge from college able to pursue careers that they enjoy and that allow them to live comfortably (however they define that). But that has nothing to do with dollars in and dollars out.

FWIW, I double-majored in humanities fields and then went to grad school for one of them. I do very well financially now, and I was able to find my way here because I never felt any pressure to make a certain amount of money to make my parents’ “investment” worthwhile. I found jobs that paid the bills and figured out what I wanted to do next. I have a really happy, satisfying life, which I owe in part to my intrinsic motivation and in part to my parents’ willingness to let me figure it out without earning pressure.

Let me guess, you went to law school?

No, I got a master’s degree in English.

Curious, what job do you have now? Almost all of the MFA people I know as well as those with graduate degrees in the humanities ended up deeply regretting it, so I'm just curious as to what you do now.

Anonymous wrote:The obsession with STEM, with CS, with Wall Street, with Investment Banking “target schools,” with MBB consulting, with Silicon Valley, with Ivies, with T10s… I don’t get it. I was a first-gen, low-income kid at an Ivy (went for free) and double majored in psychology and philosophy. I never once did a corporate internship in college and worked at an NPO for a few years after graduating. I got a PhD in Psychology afterwards and make around ~$180k/year in private practice.

I met my husband in college (also a poor kid on a full ride), and he double majored in visual arts and English. He went to law school on a large merit scholarship and is now a GS14. Sure, our combined HHI isn’t nearly as high as many people on this board, and a lot of our friends from college who went into more lucrative fields outearn us significantly. But it’s enough to give us a nice life in NoVa and fully fund our two kids’ 529s, retirement, our mortgage, and send some money back to our parents.

So what gives? Why are so many people on this forum obsessed with ROI and making sure that their kid makes as much money as possible?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think what you’re reacting to is the focus on quantifying ROI, as if there’s some formula that will make a certain college “worth it.”

For someone who has to take out loans, I get this perspective—there’s a very practical sense of needing to be able to pay them back and live comfortably.

But for people who can afford to pay for their kids’ schooling without loans (as my parents were able to do for me, and spouse and I can for our kids), the idea of expecting some financial return on investment is harder for me to understand. For me, the ROI on our kids’ college will be their happiness; bound up in that is that they will emerge from college able to pursue careers that they enjoy and that allow them to live comfortably (however they define that). But that has nothing to do with dollars in and dollars out.

FWIW, I double-majored in humanities fields and then went to grad school for one of them. I do very well financially now, and I was able to find my way here because I never felt any pressure to make a certain amount of money to make my parents’ “investment” worthwhile. I found jobs that paid the bills and figured out what I wanted to do next. I have a really happy, satisfying life, which I owe in part to my intrinsic motivation and in part to my parents’ willingness to let me figure it out without earning pressure.

Let me guess, you went to law school?

No, I got a master’s degree in English.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think what you’re reacting to is the focus on quantifying ROI, as if there’s some formula that will make a certain college “worth it.”

For someone who has to take out loans, I get this perspective—there’s a very practical sense of needing to be able to pay them back and live comfortably.

But for people who can afford to pay for their kids’ schooling without loans (as my parents were able to do for me, and spouse and I can for our kids), the idea of expecting some financial return on investment is harder for me to understand. For me, the ROI on our kids’ college will be their happiness; bound up in that is that they will emerge from college able to pursue careers that they enjoy and that allow them to live comfortably (however they define that). But that has nothing to do with dollars in and dollars out.

FWIW, I double-majored in humanities fields and then went to grad school for one of them. I do very well financially now, and I was able to find my way here because I never felt any pressure to make a certain amount of money to make my parents’ “investment” worthwhile. I found jobs that paid the bills and figured out what I wanted to do next. I have a really happy, satisfying life, which I owe in part to my intrinsic motivation and in part to my parents’ willingness to let me figure it out without earning pressure.

Let me guess, you went to law school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because college costs anywhere from 40 to 100k a year and for that kind of money people expect something. BTW, you and your husband make 320k a year combined and have federal benefits, that's a lot anywhere.

Yes, we recognize this and are very grateful (especially because we both grew up poor). But that's a testament to how thinking about ROI is short-changing your kids from doing something more meaningful -- I wasn't thinking about making lots of money while I was in college or right after, but I still ended up fine.

Maybe, just maybe, because you went to an Ivy and grad school for free?

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think what you’re reacting to is the focus on quantifying ROI, as if there’s some formula that will make a certain college “worth it.”

For someone who has to take out loans, I get this perspective—there’s a very practical sense of needing to be able to pay them back and live comfortably.

But for people who can afford to pay for their kids’ schooling without loans (as my parents were able to do for me, and spouse and I can for our kids), the idea of expecting some financial return on investment is harder for me to understand. For me, the ROI on our kids’ college will be their happiness; bound up in that is that they will emerge from college able to pursue careers that they enjoy and that allow them to live comfortably (however they define that). But that has nothing to do with dollars in and dollars out.

FWIW, I double-majored in humanities fields and then went to grad school for one of them. I do very well financially now, and I was able to find my way here because I never felt any pressure to make a certain amount of money to make my parents’ “investment” worthwhile. I found jobs that paid the bills and figured out what I wanted to do next. I have a really happy, satisfying life, which I owe in part to my intrinsic motivation and in part to my parents’ willingness to let me figure it out without earning pressure.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think what you’re reacting to is the focus on quantifying ROI, as if there’s some formula that will make a certain college “worth it.”

For someone who has to take out loans, I get this perspective—there’s a very practical sense of needing to be able to pay them back and live comfortably.

But for people who can afford to pay for their kids’ schooling without loans (as my parents were able to do for me, and spouse and I can for our kids), the idea of expecting some financial return on investment is harder for me to understand. For me, the ROI on our kids’ college will be their happiness; bound up in that is that they will emerge from college able to pursue careers that they enjoy and that allow them to live comfortably (however they define that). But that has nothing to do with dollars in and dollars out.

FWIW, I double-majored in humanities fields and then went to grad school for one of them. I do very well financially now, and I was able to find my way here because I never felt any pressure to make a certain amount of money to make my parents’ “investment” worthwhile. I found jobs that paid the bills and figured out what I wanted to do next. I have a really happy, satisfying life, which I owe in part to my intrinsic motivation and in part to my parents’ willingness to let me figure it out without earning pressure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know who works in medicine, consulting, corporate law, and investment banking is miserable and burnt out.

There are so many careers out there.

Tech. Tech is the best. Good work-life balance and little burn out.

And potentially very boring and not rewarding on giving back to society. Not judging....just sayin.

I had a tech job right out of college (with no tech degree - it's easy to teach this stuff on the job via training programs). I decided to go back to grad school and was able to use that tech experience with a social science discipline to end up with a much more interesting and rewarding career. One that also has great work-life balance and little burn-out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know who works in medicine, consulting, corporate law, and investment banking is miserable and burnt out.

There are so many careers out there.

Tech. Tech is the best. Good work-life balance and little burn out.

And potentially very boring and not rewarding on giving back to society. Not judging....just sayin.

I had a tech job right out of college (with no tech degree - it's easy to teach this stuff on the job via training programs). I decided to go back to grad school and was able to use that tech experience with a social science discipline to end up with a much more interesting and rewarding career. One that also has great work-life balance and little burn-out.

you are wired. all the innovating interesting futuristic exciting stuff are all coming out of Tech field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know who works in medicine, consulting, corporate law, and investment banking is miserable and burnt out.

There are so many careers out there.

Tech. Tech is the best. Good work-life balance and little burn out.

And potentially very boring and not rewarding on giving back to society. Not judging....just sayin.

I had a tech job right out of college (with no tech degree - it's easy to teach this stuff on the job via training programs). I decided to go back to grad school and was able to use that tech experience with a social science discipline to end up with a much more interesting and rewarding career. One that also has great work-life balance and little burn-out.