The cost of an Ivy League undergrad degree next year….

[scaredyclassic]

Maybe the futures calls for guerrilas.

[scaredyclassic]

When the solution is spend a lot more money for status I am suspicious.

[scaredyclassic]

Perhaps it’s not a war.

[scaredyclassic]

Let’s step back a moment.

If you were to list the upbringing and training of a kid mist likely to survive in the war of modern society what would you include in the raiding, teaching credent I a living and financing?

Would the answer be different if the g is known were to maximize his life satisfaction?

[FlyerInHi]

Think of it this way.. In the past it was a lot easier to bullshit your way to the top. It’s a lot of harder now.

For example the gambling business in Vegas. It was about the mob and connections. Now it’s corporate run by listed companies who use big data to manage their businesses. They are much more likely to hire college grads. A college education was less useful in the past for sure.

[Coronita]

That said. I am an example of what happens when your 1%er aspirations of being able to take advantage of whatever ivy league doors are suppose to open for you doesn’t pan out unlike it does for your peers. Like I said, someone has to be at the bottom of the bell curve sometimes.

[FlyerInHi]

Yes. But the bar has been raised.

We could point to people with grade school education who made it in the past. But it’s kind of irrelevant to the future.

[flyer]

Excellent points, flu. Agree.

[Coronita]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Think of it this way.. In the past it was a lot easier to bullshit your way to the top. It’s a lot of harder now.

For example the gambling business in Vegas. It was about the mob and connections. Now it’s corporate run by listed companies who use big data to manage their businesses. They are much more likely to hire college grads. A college education was less useful in the past for sure.[/quote]

Bullshitting your way to the top is still part of the game. But its just that right now, bullshit believability starts with a degree.

[Coronita]

[quote=CA renter][quote=nla][quote=CA renter][quote=AN]Since, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg are all college drop outs…

A piece of paper can’t feed you but the millions/billions in the bank can… for a very long time.[/quote]

Just wanted to add Michael Dell and Larry Ellison.

Here’s an opinion piece that lists many others who never received a college degree, but succeeded, nonetheless:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/30/opinion/schmitz-college/%5B/quote%5D
But how many kids are the next Larry Ellison or Bill Gates?[/quote]

Very, very few, of course. But that’s the case whether or not they graduate from an elite university. These universities screen specifically for the traits that are most likely to be found among the most successful people.[/quote]

99.5% of the population aren’t Bill Gates or Larry Ellison who don’t need college because (1) they are exceptionally brilliant AND (2) because their parents had money and were well connected.

As much as we would all like to think our kids are brilliant or exceptional, most likely they are average to above average at best and no where close Gates/Ellison. For the remainder of the 99.5% of us, it’s hard to argue that not going to college opens more doors/opportunities than those that do.

Often times, folks like to take the most success cases and extrapolate that as it is more common than the norm. For every Bill Gates/Ellison that didn’t “need” college there are several thousands that arguably could have done much better with better education. IF that wasn’t the case, this country wouldn’t have so many folks struggling financially working at a dead end minimum wage job indefinitely or the majority of people in this country stating that the american dream is dead. If you look at a lot of these cases, you can’t help but ask if these folks would have been better off with some better education, because many of them barely graduated from high school. What we do know is with their limited education and limited skill set, they remained stuck at their predicament.

Even IF you were able to succeed without higher education decades ago, that was then. This is now. This world will increasingly get more competitive. The world is a lot smaller, with more people hungry competing for the same resources. It’s estimated than in Asia, top rank universities are pumping out 1 million highly educated STEM degree graduates EVERY YEAR, not including them ones from Eastern Europe, Russia,etc. These are people who are going to be more educated and more knowledgeable over the next decade. Call it evolution or call it modern day version of darwinism.

So, yes, you will need to help your kid(s) out as much as you can by opening as many doors as you possibly can, without breaking your wallet.

This is especially the case if your kid(s) don’t have the personality to compete or driven to complete something no matter how difficult something may be nor understand that moving forward things aren’t going to be easily “given” to them on the global scale, as it might have been more readily “given” to their parents or grandparents, when there was much less competition. My kid is one of with a personality that unless something drastically changes, my has zero competitive bone in their body, so things are going to be tough for my kid, unless somehow we can even the score a bit.

Two part plan is

(1) helping open doors for your kid(s) to survive on their own in their endeavors, whatever it maybe
and
(2) as a backup plan, setting up a trust fund for your kid(s) and teaching them how to manage their money well so they can live off of it case whatever reason things from plan #1 goes south, which these days is an increasing possibility.

#1 is under attack by global competition and #2 is under attack by those that haven’t planned for their kids future and now wants to wealth redistribute it back to make up for deficiencies, some of which was self-inflicted by being facetious and giving up opportunities that were available when times were good, simply because “(someone) didn’t like it”.

Folks that want to gamble with those odds and think their kids are going to be in that exceptionally 0.5% brilliant category also have the money to back up their kid’s dreams and forgo college because they think “they don’t need it”…Go for it. Good luck.

No politician from any party is ever going to “fix” this, because it’s not a problem that probably can be “fixed”

FWIW: founder of GoPro graduated from UCSD. While also brilliant, part of his success can be attributed to his dad’s help: his dad is/was an investment banker. Bill Gates parents were close friends with Warren Buffett. This is not to detract these brilliant people’s accomplishments, because even with that much help, majority of folks from (wealthier) background still wouldn’t have obtain the successes of Gates/Ellison etc. But let’s face it. With that sort of financial support from their parents, it’s kinda hard for them to screw up, short of a being a drug addict.

[an]

flu, I totally agree. Guys like Gates, Jobs, Ellison, etc. are in the 0.005%. But then you have to also keep in mind that only 5% of American house hold make >$180k. As you said, what if your kids are just average or above average? Or more likely, what if your kids are brilliant but also have a huge heart and want to go into profession with very little chance of making big bucks. Would a UPenn nursing degree get you to make a lot more than a SDSU RN degree? Or what if your kid is great at teaching children and want to teach kids in the inner city because he/she want to make a real difference? Would an Ivy education make that big of a difference? We all have to keep in mind that most careers out there don’t make very much. If your kid want to be a doctor and joining doctor without border to help the poor. Would an Ivy MD matter? Wouldn’t having a few hundred grand to help them financially throughout their lives while they help the poor better than an Ivy degree?

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=AN]flu, I totally agree. Guys like Gates, Jobs, Ellison, etc. are in the 0.005%. But then you have to also keep in mind that only 5% of American house hold make >$180k. As you said, what if your kids are just average or above average? Or more likely, what if your kids are brilliant but also have a huge heart and want to go into profession with very little chance of making big bucks. Would a UPenn nursing degree get you to make a lot more than a SDSU RN degree? Or what if your kid is great at teaching children and want to teach kids in the inner city because he/she want to make a real difference? Would an Ivy education make that big of a difference? We all have to keep in mind that most careers out there don’t make very much. If your kid want to be a doctor and joining doctor without border to help the poor. Would an Ivy MD matter? Wouldn’t having a few hundred grand to help them financially throughout their lives while they help the poor better than an Ivy degree?[/quote]

This is probably easier if you have one kid, to just spend and hope.

but in any event resources must be allocated as efficiently as possible.

[CA renter]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=flyer]I do believe connections and family support are extremely important, and do make a difference in our kids lives, but I can also tell you that, from my kids experience, (two of whom graduated Ivy) as well some of their friends who did also, their degrees have also heavily contributed to their success.

As was mentioned, attending schools like LJ Country Day, Bishop’s, etc., don’t hurt either, and, of course, many who attend other schools and colleges may do equally as well, but I can only speak from the experiences of my own kids and their friends.

Diplomas in and of themselves are just pieces of paper, but, when properly utilized, their practical value can translate into millions of dollars. That’s not to say a few won’t “make it” in the world without them, but the stats show those individuals are few and far between.

All of these decisions are predicated on what your kids want to do with their lives, and everyone can roll the dice for their kids as they choose, but in the “new world” of global competition, imo, kids need every advantage they can possibly get. As a friend commented on this topic, “Why send someone to war without weapons?”[/quote]

the analogy to war is frightening. Perhaps our little soldiers will turn the weapons on themselves.

Suicide watch among hs. Students in Palo also during college admissions season.[/quote]

That was a great article, scaredy.

[Coronita]

Speaking of which

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/09/technology/google-people-laszlo-bock/index.html

“Google doesn’t care where you went to college”

When the company was small, Google cared a lot about getting kids from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. But Bock said it was the “wrong” hiring strategy. Experience has taught him there are exceptional kids at many other places, from state schools in California to New York.

“What we find is the best people from places like that are just as good if not better as anybody you can get from any Ivy League school,” said Bock, who just authored a book titled “Work Rules!” and stopped by CNNMoney to share his smarts.

Every year, 2 million people apply to get a job at Google (GOOG). Bock himself has seen some 25,000 résumés.

So what else does Google not care about:

Grades: Google’s data shows that grades predict performance for the first two years of a career, but do not matter after that.

Brainteasers: Gone are interview questions such as: Why are manhole covers round? or How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? “Our research tells us those questions are a waste of time,” Bock said. “They’re a really coachable skill. The more you practice, you get better at it.”

A shoe: “Somebody sent me a shoe once with a résumé tucked inside because they wanted to get their foot in the door.” That one didn’t work.

Or a robot: Especially when it arrived broken, with exposed wires and a “press here” button. Call in the bomb squad.

My take on this is simply. Google has grown up. Once a small company heavily dependent on “the best” techies, it no longer needs “the best”… Good enough is fine now, because a few select individuals now tell the rest of the employees what to do. “The best” is also subjective.

[scaredyclassic]

So let’s start at the beginning.

First if you want to have a successful kid, best to mate with a very intelligent very well adjusted person.

In fact if you screw up at this stage it might all be over anyway.

Some lawyers say the trial is pretty much already decided in jury selection…before the case even begins. Same principle may apply to success for your issue.

[Author]

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