OT: college; fear of debt

[Essbee]

I think that if your kid has aspirations to be in fields such as medicine, law, or Wall Street, he should go to the best school possible. Resumes really matter in these fields.

I’m in medicine and I have never met anyone who has come thru the community college route. I’m sure it could be done, but I think it’s much better to go to “at minimum” a UC school. Preferably an Ivy. I wouldn’t even recommend a CSU school, much less a community college.

Now maybe this is because Ivy/UC kids have better MCATs than CSU kids, and that if someone from a CSU got a 36+ on the MCAT, they could get into med school just as easily… but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I’m sure I’ll get haters for this message but I’m simply telling you how it is.

[Rich Toscano]

[quote=Essbee]I think that if your kid has aspirations to be in fields such as medicine, law, or Wall Street, he should go to the best school possible. Resumes really matter in these fields.

I’m in medicine and I have never met anyone who has come thru the community college route. I’m sure it could be done, but I think it’s much better to go to “at minimum” a UC school. Preferably an Ivy. I wouldn’t even recommend a CSU school, much less a community college.

Now maybe this is because Ivy/UC kids have better MCATs than CSU kids, and that if someone from a CSU got a 36+ on the MCAT, they could get into med school just as easily… but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I’m sure I’ll get haters for this message but I’m simply telling you how it is.[/quote]

That’s interesting. In my prior industry, software tech, it was the opposite… in my experience schooling didn’t matter much if at all (where you went, or even if you went). All that mattered was how talented, smart, experienced, and reliable you were (plus personality, to a varying degree depending on the company).

That was my experience, anyway (as both a programmer and a person who did a lot of hiring/resume reviews of other programmers). I am not denying at all that it is probably different in other fields, as Essbee suggests.

Rich

PS – Yes, as scaredy suggested, I think that if you get a long term fixed rate loan, inflation will take care of a lot of it. Of course, no loan is even better than that.

[Essbee]

Yes, once you are in to med school, it doesn’t really matter much where you came from. Brains, charisma, and talent are more important. Sometimes the hardest part is getting the interview!

But the hierarchy continues and it is easier to get into a good residency if you went to a good med school; and easier to get into a good fellowship if you went to a good residency… etc etc etc.

It all depends on what your goals are.

[matt-waiting]

“Community college. You know why they call it community college? ‘Cause anybody in the community can go. Crackhead, prostitute, drug dealer—come on in. Community college is like a disco with books. ‘Here’s ten dollars. I’m gonna get my learn on.’”

– Chris Rock

[flyer]

If your son really doesn’t know what he wants to do, but you have faith that he’ll find himself, as he pursues the GE requirements at a 4-year university, I’d probably roll the dice–especially if you think he may be inclined toward medicine or law, etc.

Our kids went Ivy League–but they knew exactly what that wanted to do–and they got in–so we went along for the ride, and it worked out.

Whatever you can do for him will be to his advantage. My kids, now in their late 20’s, found an extremely competitive job market before they nailed down their positions, and it and will only become more and more competitive as time goes on.

[Coronita]

One thing I should comment I think perhaps we’ll need to educate our kids…Unless your kid is going to be a recipient of a trust fund, the future is going to look increasingly much more competitive than anything you or even I have seen.

Simply put, the world is smaller, it’s more competitive, and resources (in this cause opportunity) is going to get more and more limited. The world isn’t gonna stop for your kid or anyone else for that matter.

Let’s put this in perspective.

1. Engineering in U.S. is not nearly as cushy as one use to be….

2. In medicine, doctor’s aren’t exactly having a cushy job these days either.

3. A lot of attorneys these days struggle (it’s not a walk in the park either)

4. Investment banking/finance isn’t what it use to be either.

Just saying….

[poorgradstudent]

95th percentile is great, but possibly not good enough to pull many merit based scholarships (is he National Merit?)

I’m extremely torn on the value of the “4 year college experience”. It can have value, but it’s also extremely easy to squander. I do think a lot of 18 year olds benefit from an extra year of low pressure school (aka Community College).

[scaredyclassic]

ah, wait. we checked his score tonight (he hadnt seen it). i added up his score wrong when i checked it out this morning. it’s actually 96th percentile. i guess i would do less than stellar on the sat.

if my sat scores from 1980 are still available, i think the record will reflect that i was around the 98th percentile. evidently there has been some brain decay or ossification of my grey matter over those decades….

still, 96th or even 98th percentile good, but not like super outstanding.

personally, myself, i want to go to UC santa cruz and start over. i think i’ll be a scientist.

Im not sure i have faith that I will find myself, but I do have faith that my kid will find his way.

[Coronita]

[quote=squat250]ah, wait. we checked his score tonight (he hadnt seen it). i added up his score wrong when i checked it out this morning. it’s actually 96th percentile. i guess i would do less than stellar on the sat.

if my sat scores from 1980 are still available, i think the record will reflect that i was around the 98th percentile. evidently there has been some brain decay or ossification of my grey matter over those decades….

still, 96th or even 98th percentile good, but not like super outstanding.

personally, myself, i want to go to UC santa cruz and start over. i think i’ll be a scientist.

Im not sure i have faith that I will find myself, but I do have faith that my kid will find his way.[/quote]

Tell your son to get a real estate license as soon as possible, and while he is deciding what he wants to do, he can work as a loan officer during college discovery years….Most of us enginerds end up realizing we want to go that way anyway…It just takes us 15+years to realize that.

[CardiffBaseball]

This is tough for me as I suffer from the same aversion to debt as Squat. Kid is Sr. and certainly can play baseball in college it’s a question of whether it’s D1-D2-D3 or JUCO. Since he was late to the party getting good, D1 is probably out as most schools are done with 2013s (though there will be some spots popping up).

I have squat (no pun scaredy) for cash. His ACT 80th percentile and considering he didn’t study, I am fine with that. He doesn’t have a desire for a technical degree (Eng/Match/CompSci) and is thinking some kind of bus. degree and Law.

I am curious why a Law school would care where he started if he kicks ass on the LSAT? So what if year one and two were at Podunk CC? Also wouldn’t a law school look favorably on someone who played a major sport? Those kids are up at 6:00 for lifting every day before school, I mean for an ncaa athlete it’s brutal.

In any case I’ve probably short-changed him mentally, because he’s showing defeatist signs, as in “what does it matter I am going to a JUCO”. Not too bad, I think I got him turned around but he did get a C in College Algebra (lots of AP and Dual-Enrollment classes) this first term, but should be able to work it to a B for the report card. I digress.

There are probably many nice schools that would love him but if the school is 40k and they give him 25% for the sport, that’s still 30k. I just haven’t even looked at schools like that, why bother? I have high income and no savings so folks like us don’t even qualify for government backed student loans. The only loans are immediate payback. So I’ve told him it looks like JUCO is in your future son, make the most of it.

[bobby]

[quote=Essbee]I think that if your kid has aspirations to be in fields such as medicine, law, or Wall Street, he should go to the best school possible. Resumes really matter in these fields.

I’m in medicine and I have never met anyone who has come thru the community college route. I’m sure it could be done, but I think it’s much better to go to “at minimum” a UC school. Preferably an Ivy. I wouldn’t even recommend a CSU school, much less a community college.

Now maybe this is because Ivy/UC kids have better MCATs than CSU kids, and that if someone from a CSU got a 36+ on the MCAT, they could get into med school just as easily… but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I’m sure I’ll get haters for this message but I’m simply telling you how it is.[/quote]

I am also medicine and I agree.
It matters very much where one goes to college. MCAT and USMLE evens the playing field a little but what school you went to makes a huge difference.
This is especially true if you want to be a specialist. It’s a struggle to get into these coveted spots and will easier to achieve this if you don’t have to fight the headwind.

[Hobie]

I vote for the full college experience. Live on campus, 4yr school. So much personal growth in these years. And if you don’t know of which major, take business classes while trying out the liberal arts classes. Push for a 4yr and a masters.

To the HS senior, he only one shot at getting in so apply to a bunch of schools. Yes,expensive. Of course, he can go community college then xfer but I think starting off at any 4 yr is better.

High SAT, GPA do mean a lot with professional and tech schools, but the essays can be a great equalizer. Write a killer essay and you’ll get noticed.

[desmond]

[quote=squat250]Is there a word in English (or any other language) for “fear of debt”. should it be coined now? Debitopohobia? Something catchier?

[/quote]

I can think of a few, cheap, lazy, selfish. If your kid is working hard than you should to, applications should have already gone out. Complaining on this board and spending your time on squating won’t help. Just some tuff love…

[scaredyclassic]

applications should have gone out?

if there’s one thing I’ve taught my kid, it’s wait till the deadline!

the world is going to end sometime and you don’t want to have done a whole bunch of unnecessary work!

after consultation with kid, it looks like he prefers the community college thing anyway…i think that’sthe way it’s gonna go.

i read an article in the la times about students enrolling at multiplecommcoll to get classes. maybe try that…

we have an interview to go discuss the Honors program at the comm coll, where you get priority registration, whcih sounds better…

[scaredyclassic]

i think a physically fit parent does help.

my dad always made owrking out and fitness a top prirotiy his whole life.

in fact, the family story is, when i was about to be born, he had snuck away from the hospital for a quick game of handball and his inlaws had to go fetch him!

the lesson we teach through priroitizing physical health is probably more important than any other–kids do as we do, not as we say…

[Author]

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