FIH, you say, “A good college degree, in a competitive major, is objective measure that someone has work ethics and had done the hard work. It cannot be taken away.”
True, but that doesn’t paint the full picture. There is so much more to finding an extremely lucrative career, which sounds like your main goal.
Believe me, I’m not knocking a kid or parents who are driven and hardworking, or who have prestigious degrees, and our own family is mainly in that camp. I just don’t think that being a hard worker and joining the race for a top tier school are the same thing. And many parents who have been involved in this with their kids realize it’s better to find the right fit for your kid’s college education than just shoot for the most prestigious school. If the kid is motivated, good stuff happens, but no amount of parental pressure is going to make a kid be financially successful.
Do you have kids who are in the college/pre-college environment? It’s hard to explain the intensity of it if you haven’t experienced it firsthand. Our kids have attended the top performing h.s. in SD County (ranked 5th in CA and 73rd in US according to US News World Report, if I recall correctly), where most are superstars. There are literally dozens of kids in each graduating class who are equally qualified to attend any school their hearts desire. But not all get in. Some don’t even get in to their top 3 or 4 choices. Doesn’t mean they won’t be super financially successful, if that’s what their focus is. Along the way, they’ll be measured by all kinds of gauges, some objective, some not.
