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

[an]

[quote=deadzone]But no, you are not going to get rich being an Engineer or most any other profession. Most wealthy people are trust funders. A fortunate few get lucky with IPOs, real estate etc. but I don’t consider those careers.[/quote]Agree, I think engineering have one of the highest start and definitely have the highest ceiling. Bill Gates vs all :-).

[Coronita]

[quote=deadzone]Okay, give me one example of a Tech company that is run by Ivy grads? I just picked two of the most important San Diego companies, not cherry picking.

Reality is getting an Ivy degree does not give you a leg up in any type of tech career. Certainly not if you want to live/work in Socal which everybody here obviously does.

Also FLU, you are the only person I have ever heard that complained about Engineering not being a well paid profession. Can you name another white collar profession that you can pull nearly six figure starting salary immediately after a 4 year degree from a lowly state school? Pharmacy is the only profession that pays better starting out, but usually that is a 5 year or more degree nowadays.

But no, you are not going to get rich being an Engineer or most any other profession. Most wealthy people are trust funders. A fortunate few get lucky with IPOs, real estate etc. but I don’t consider those careers.[/quote]

Starting salary is irrelevant. It’s earning potential, doing the same thing throughout the years. You’ll find that short of getting into a VP or Director position, you’ll probably top out at a much lower ceiling than any other profession, relative to

1. Investment banking
2. Hedge fund
3. VC
4. Management consulting at companies like Bain and Company and McKinsey & Co…

[an]

[quote=flu]Starting salary is irrelevant. It’s earning potential, doing the same thing throughout the years. You’ll find that short of getting into a VP or Director position, you’ll probably top out at a much lower ceiling than any other profession, relative to

1. Investment banking
2. Hedge fund
3. VC
4. Management consulting at companies like Bain and Company and McKinsey & Co…[/quote]
I don’t know those fields. How much does a 10 years veteran make in those fields? How would their salary compare to salary at Google and FB? Can you break out and make it on your own like tech and start your own start up?

[Coronita]

[quote=AN][quote=flu]Starting salary is irrelevant. It’s earning potential, doing the same thing throughout the years. You’ll find that short of getting into a VP or Director position, you’ll probably top out at a much lower ceiling than any other profession, relative to

1. Investment banking
2. Hedge fund
3. VC
4. Management consulting at companies like Bain and Company and McKinsey & Co…[/quote]
I don’t know those fields. How much does a 10 years veteran make in those fields? How would their salary compare to salary at Google and FB? Can you break out and make it on your own like tech and start your own start up?[/quote]

Don’t ask, don’t tell 🙂 And you’re asking the wrong person. You probably want to ask someone that made it.

[Coronita]

[quote]
Okay, give me one example of a Tech company that is run by Ivy grads? I just picked two of the most important San Diego companies, not cherry picking.
[/quote]

Off the top of my head…

Reddit (Yale)
LinkedIn (UPenn Wharton)
Google(Ok, it’s Stanford but close enough)
Yelp(Harvard)
Yahoo and beloved Marissa(Stanford)
HP (Meg is Princeton and Harvard)
eBay: Stanford
Juniper Networks: Stanford
Tesla: UPenn (Musk is a Wharton Alumni and was undergrad in physics)
Amazon (Princeton)
Apple (Duke. It’s not ivy, but elitist enough :))

I’m sure there’s many more I missed, even the startup ones that aren’t well known. I guess we can argue now what is considered tech and what is considered not tech.

[Anonymous]

So every career on FLUs dream list are Wall St. banking activities. Personally I don’t consider those legit careers, certainly not for living in Socal. But sure those guys can get rich if that is your only goal in life and don’t mind selling your soul. Realistically, do you even need a college degree to be an investment banker? Probably more important who you know and what is your ethnicity.

[an]

[quote=flu]Off the top of my head…

Reddit (Yale)
LinkedIn (UPenn Wharton)
Google(Ok, it’s Stanford but close enough)
Yelp(Harvard)
Yahoo and beloved Marissa(Stanford)
HP (Meg is Princeton and Harvard)
eBay: Stanford
Juniper Networks: Stanford
Tesla: UPenn (Musk is a Wharton Alumni and was undergrad in physics)
Amazon (Princeton)
Apple (Duke. It’s not ivy, but elitist enough :))

I’m sure there’s many more I missed, even the startup ones that aren’t well known. I guess we can argue now what is considered tech and what is considered not tech.[/quote]
Base on that list, I say, go to Stanford, not Ivy :-P.

[Coronita]

[quote=AN][quote=flu]Off the top of my head…

Reddit (Yale)
LinkedIn (UPenn Wharton)
Google(Ok, it’s Stanford but close enough)
Yelp(Harvard)
Yahoo and beloved Marissa(Stanford)
HP (Meg is Princeton and Harvard)
eBay: Stanford
Juniper Networks: Stanford
Tesla: UPenn (Musk is a Wharton Alumni and was undergrad in physics)
Amazon (Princeton)
Apple (Duke. It’s not ivy, but elitist enough :))

I’m sure there’s many more I missed, even the startup ones that aren’t well known. I guess we can argue now what is considered tech and what is considered not tech.[/quote]
Base on that list, I say, go to Stanford, not Ivy :-P.[/quote]

Stanford is harder to get in 🙂 At least if you do get in, tuition is free if your household income is less than $150k. In the bay area, I did run into a bunch of Stanford grads, and they were pretty capable. The school runs like an incubator

[Coronita]

[quote=deadzone]So every career on FLUs dream list are Wall St. banking activities. Personally I don’t consider those legit careers, certainly not for living in Socal. But sure those guys can get rich if that is your only goal in life and don’t mind selling your soul. Realistically, do you even need a college degree to be an investment banker? Probably more important who you know and what is your ethnicity.[/quote]

I’m sure doctors do pretty well mid-career, better than engineers, don’t you? And how long can doctors practice for?

I’m sure a decent attorney can still practice when their in their 60ies.

I’m sure a decent real estate broker/agent can still work in their 60ies.

You think you can practice in your engineering job when you are 70? Have you seen many 60-65 year old engineers?

I know you’re going to say, well most of those doctors/real estate brokers/agents/attoronies don’t do well… Well guess what? Most of the engineers these days that aren’t really good, don’t do really well either. They usually are the ones that get outsourced overseas first. So if you want to make a comparison, compare best case scenario to best case scenario or worst case scenario to worst case scenario. Also, if you felt engineering is so great, why do you continue to complain about H1-Bs being a threat? just curious

[an]

[quote=flu]I’m sure doctors do pretty well mid-career, better than engineers, don’t you? And how long can doctors practice for?

I’m sure a decent attorney can still practice when their in their 60ies.

I’m sure a decent real estate broker/agent can still work in their 60ies.

You think you can practice in your engineering job when you are 70? Have you seen many 60-65 year old engineers?

I know you’re going to say, well most of those doctors/real estate brokers/agents/attoronies don’t do well… Well guess what? Most of the engineers these days that aren’t really good, don’t do really well either. They usually are the ones that get outsourced overseas first. So if you want to make a comparison, compare best case scenario to best case scenario or worst case scenario to worst case scenario.

Way to pick my words.[/quote]Totally agree with this assessment. What I actually plan to do is become a real estate agent/broker after my tech career start to fade. Nothing say you have to stay in Tech till you’re old :-P. But, I’m sure an average real estate agent only sell a couple house a year, so you’re definitely not making as much as an average engineer. I’m trying to retire when I’m in my 50s, so, it doesn’t concern me about career prospect in the 60+. Become a real estate agent would be my hobby :-).

[an]

[quote=flu]Stanford is harder to get in 🙂 At least if you do get in, tuition is free if your household income is less than $150k. In the bay area, I did run into a bunch of Stanford grads, and they were pretty capable. The school runs like an incubator[/quote]My bet though, is that if you take any of these guys and put them in SJSU or SDSU, they would still be where they are today. I still believe that they make the school and not the school make them. Meg wouldn’t be where she is today if she didn’t get lucky and be part of the eBay start up. Same with Marissa Meyer. I don’t think these school somehow changed them to make them want to do a start up. It’s in their DNA. But I have no data to back that assumption.
If my kids are really that smart to be able to get into Ivy/Stanford, I can just retire a few years before they apply, so that my income will be near $0. Then they’ll get a free ride. Then the ROI definitely will be there :-D.

[Coronita]

Ok, that’s an interesting point then….

I guess the bigger question is, if cost wasn’t an issue, and your kid did get into Stanford or an Ivy League school and get into say SDSU or UCSD, would you still encourage your kid to go to SDSU or UCSD or would you encourage your kid to Stanford or an Ivy League school?

For me, if cost and my kid’s ability wasn’t an issue, it would be a no brainer, I’d encourage the former.

[an]

[quote=flu]Ok, that’s an interesting point then….

I guess the bigger question is, if cost wasn’t an issue, and your kid did get into Stanford or an Ivy League school and get into say SDSU or UCSD, would you still encourage your kid to go to SDSU or UCSD or would you encourage your kid to Stanford or an Ivy League school?

For me, if cost and my kid’s ability wasn’t an issue, it would be a no brainer, I’d encourage the former.[/quote]I say, what ever would make them happy. They’re old enough to make their decisions and they’ll will have to live with that decision. They can only blame themselves in the future. I will give them all the pros and cons that I know for all the options. I can show them the door but they have to walk through it. We just have different style of parenting. No right or wrong. I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t be sure which would be better. Especially since I believe the students make the school and not the other way around.

I didn’t apply to any of the Ivy because I HATE living in cold area with snow. I would be miserable there and I know it. I did apply up and down the CA coast though. My parents forced me to go to the better school and I hated them for awhile for doing that.

[Anonymous]

[quote=flu][quote=deadzone]So every career on FLUs dream list are Wall St. banking activities. Personally I don’t consider those legit careers, certainly not for living in Socal. But sure those guys can get rich if that is your only goal in life and don’t mind selling your soul. Realistically, do you even need a college degree to be an investment banker? Probably more important who you know and what is your ethnicity.[/quote]

I’m sure doctors do pretty well mid-career, better than engineers, don’t you? And how long can doctors practice for?

I’m sure a decent attorney can still practice when their in their 60ies.

I’m sure a decent real estate broker/agent can still work in their 60ies.

You think you can practice in your engineering job when you are 70? Have you seen many 60-65 year old engineers?

I know you’re going to say, well most of those doctors/real estate brokers/agents/attoronies don’t do well… Well guess what? Most of the engineers these days that aren’t really good, don’t do really well either. They usually are the ones that get outsourced overseas first. So if you want to make a comparison, compare best case scenario to best case scenario or worst case scenario to worst case scenario. Also, if you felt engineering is so great, why do you continue to complain about H1-Bs being a threat? just curious[/quote]

You are nuts if you believe H1B is not a threat. Do you want your kids to have to compete with lower cost imported labor? Regardless of how “good” they are, net result is negative for the American worker. Just like with all the immigration debate, the only Americans that benefit from this are the employers.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=deadzone]Okay, give me one example of a Tech company that is run by Ivy grads? I just picked two of the most important San Diego companies, not cherry picking.

Reality is getting an Ivy degree does not give you a leg up in any type of tech career. Certainly not if you want to live/work in Socal which everybody here obviously does.

Also FLU, you are the only person I have ever heard that complained about Engineering not being a well paid profession. Can you name another white collar profession that you can pull nearly six figure starting salary immediately after a 4 year degree from a lowly state school? Pharmacy is the only profession that pays better starting out, but usually that is a 5 year or more degree nowadays.

But no, you are not going to get rich being an Engineer or most any other profession. Most wealthy people are trust funders. A fortunate few get lucky with IPOs, real estate etc. but I don’t consider those careers.[/quote]

Deadzone, Accounting pays nearly $100K right out of the gate IF the student passed their CPA Exam and got their masters degree (which is one additional year [or less] over the Bachelor’s degree requirements, depending on curriculum of the school’s business programs). Many public colleges and universities all over the country are now offering ALL the credits for a Master’s in Accounting (incl subspecialties) for the same price as undergrad credits PROVIDED the degree candidate walks at graduation only ONCE and stays at the same school and works through BOTH programs diligently and full-time, either consecutively or concurrently, graduating in a timely manner.

NOT ALL Engineering grads make $100K immediately upon graduation. It completely depends on the graduate’s field of study, demand in that field in the locale they they’re applying for jobs in and the salary levels of that locale. In SD, I could see $65K as a more realistic starting pay for many recent engineering grads and I could see some types of engineering grads (civil eng?) possibly having to relocate out of SD to get any job at all in their fields.

I agree that an “Ivy degree” doesn’t really matter on the west coast in obtaining entry-level positions in almost all fields. I have no idea how much sway it holds for employers hiring for entry-level positions on the east coast. In any case, it’s probably not worth it to pay for ALL one’s college credits at an Ivy school. In paying only for graduate school at an Ivy school (if that’s what one aspires to do), this would have the same result out there in the “real world” because the ink on the diploma dries the same, IMO.

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