[millennial]

Being a millennial (born late 70’s-early 2000) we obviously think a lot different than our parents, but there are a lot of similarities. For instance we care about our environment, personal free time, and larger social networks. We also are very hard workers, but we are results driven and don’t need to be in the office to get things done (aka face-time). We are also not in a rush to get married and have kids, (especially in CA, or NYC) cause we are responsible and either don’t want them, or can’t afford them; therefore are mostly renters cause mobility is key when you are young and starting your career. Yes we do like urban areas, because why would you want to spend your life on a freeway when you can be working and playing with all you buddies downtown? A big house is nice, but honestly not very practical. Also, why would your friends want to come out to the burbs when all the fun stuff is downtown?

Personally I own my own home, because it finally made sense after I had my third child. So now I own this big house with 5 bedrooms in suburbia, cause I need to. But trust me that once the kids are old and in college and moved out, my wife and I are going to move back to the city; with the food, the culture, and the nightlife.

[millennial]

I’ve never been to Oklahoma but I have some friends that went there. Those houses look gorgeous! I have never seen something like that in California except some places in San Marino and Pasadena. Wish they had something like that in SD.

[millennial]

I cut my cord a few years ago and was going to suggest sling for ESPN, which covers about 90% of the college games I watch. I also use local broadcast for nationally and locally televised professional games. For ones that aren’t broadcasted locally or are affiliated with a conference (big 10, sec, pac 10) with or without cable you will need to subscribe to specific packages to watch out of network games. Your dependence on those packages depends a lot on the teams you cover. Luckily MSU has been on ESPN quite a bit for both football and basketball so no need to subscribe to the b10 network, whereas if I followed Rutgers or Northwestern I would.

[millennial]

[quote=scaredyclassic]“The main aim of education should be to send children out into the world with a reasonably sized anthology in their heads so that, while seated on the lavatory, waiting in doctor’s surgeries, on stationary trains or watching interviews with politicians, they have something interesting to think about.”
John Mortimer[/quote]

Football is very interesting to talk about. Hence the reason why we have so much media and so much $ devoted to it.

[millennial]

[quote=deadzone]By the way, for most undergraduate majors, there is practically no difference between any of these large universities, big time football or not, in terms of curriculum, resources, etc.

For example, to suggest that a UMich undergrad is going to receive a superior education versus MSU is utter non-sense. UM may be more “prestigious” for whatever reasons and it is more competitive to get in primarily due to increased competition from out of staters (mostly east coast jews as a matter of fact). But that proves nothing about the actual curriculum or quality of education.

It annoys the hell out of my how much people overrate the value of higher education these days.[/quote]

Agree. Higher education means different things for different people. Personally, I studied a lot in HS and could have went to a more prestigious academic school (top 5 schools by US News) if I wanted to, but based on what I wanted to get out of college I couldn’t have made a better choice. For me college was learning about being away from my parents and having fun, but also able to get a job once I got out. Now that it’s been 15 years since, I’ve learned that success isn’t about what your undergraduate college was ranked (#27 vs. #52). Also to be honest with you, I don’t think it ever mattered. I got my first job from connections I made and have gotten each subsequent job based on referrals. Quality employees and employers don’t base merit on a # spit out by a magazine, they base it on you.

[millennial]

[quote=deadzone] It annoys the hell out of my how much people overrate the value of higher education these days.[/quote]

Agreed. Graduate degrees and research is what university academics are all about. Also college football programs like OSU and Texas which are worth almost $1Bn dollars aren’t meant to fund undergraduate studies, but are used primarily for research. Where do the great minds of this planet go? They go to the universities that have the most funding, be it from football/alumni/undergraduate tuition fees/state grants etc.

[millennial]

[quote=paramount]A list of a few academically competitive Schools with big time football programs:

1. UVA
2. UCB
3. UCLA
4. UND
5. Michigan
6. Stanford
7. BYU
8. Washington
9. Maryland
10. USC[/quote]

BTW, if you are going to extend the list to include BYU (#54 based on value of football team, #66 based on US News and World Report National Universities) and Maryland (#56 based on football and #57 based on academics) then you need to include the following programs also which also fall in the criteria.

(rank in value of football program/rank based on undergraduate program)
Northwestern (45, 12)
Ohio State (1,52)
Texas (2,52)
Penn State (10,47 tied)
Florida (7,47 tied)
Georgia (8,61)

Actually, out of the top 10 most valued football programs 7 are ranked in the top 61 by US News and World Report annual National University Undergrad rankings. I could go farther down the line but I think this pretty much sums up your ignorance and how much you’re full of it.

[millennial]

I’m sorry, what are your standards regarding big time football programs? Is it based on how much a college spends on their team? Does it mean that they have football teams which are in division I? WSJ just had an article on this on 1/16/16.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-much-is-your-favorite-college-football-team-worth-1452473476

Also when considering academics are you looking strictly at undergraduate degrees, or graduate programs? Are you also looking at how much the university spends on research? A lot of what you are stating can be easily backed up by data (US News and World Report vs. AP Top 25/The list I just sent). To simply list a bunch of schools without backing it up with criteria and data is just mindless banter.

[millennial]

paramount,

I hope you’re kidding? To penalize an applicant based on their football team seems like a horrible hiring process.

[millennial]

bearishgurl,

You are correct in your assessment of entrance requirements being much more difficult than what I remember. I personally have 3 kids of my own and right now in the midst of navigating one through elementary, one through preschool and one through being a normal 1 year old. With each generation it seems to be getting tougher and tougher as each generation continues to stress the importance of college and the top tier schools not having the ability to place the increased demand; hence the University of Phoenix’s. This being said, I think we need to change our view on college education as a whole, which is a whole different topic.

My previous post was primarily aimed at refuting the original author’s post and his misnomer of football being synonymous with a party school atmosphere and a place where students don’t get anything academically out of it.

[millennial]

Paramount your points are well taken and most likely true. Personally, I went to Michigan State and decided to not go to UofM (despite getting offered) for the reasons you stated earlier. When I was 18 my priorities were partying, and meeting new people (most of my friends were going to UofM). I was one of those people that chose business as my major because I really didn’t have a true passion for anything, although I excelled at most. Looking back, picking MSU was one of the best decisions of my life. MSU is where I met my wife, made my most important business and personal contacts, and continues to give me a team to root for on the weekends. In addition, each time I meet a fellow Spartan it gives us something to talk about. This being said, such as most things in life, the choice of a university is a personal choice which is neither right nor wrong. I also believe that your negative opinions are not warranted, ignorant and heavily biased.

[millennial]

Hi Nazzy:

Not sure if you’re still checking on this blog, but I hope I can help. My family and I have just moved to La Jolla from Santa Barbara about a year ago and just recently spent a lot of research into this as our first daughter was entering Kindergarten at the time. Now after just finishing her first year (Torrey Pines Elementary), I have these insights to add.

1. Well funded = More programs- The school has a lot of fundraising events. This allowed my daughter to have a music teacher, science teacher, and computer teacher. Not sure if this is available in other San Diego Unified schools, but it was a great option.

2. Parents – The majority of the parents are well-educated and related to UCSD as reseachers/teachers/doctors. Some of the families are on visas, others are here on research grants, and others are here more permanently. At first I thought this was a negative, I was thinking it would be like Beverly Hills 90210 and the kids would be made up of the upper echelon, but I think I would rather have this now. The parents are very supportive and come in weekly to teach the kids about their profession (ie. one mathmetician parent taught the kids Fibonacci series). In addition, having a makeup of parents whose lives are devoted to science and academia doesn’t hurt.

3. Diversity – Because of the student makeup, her class had 5-8 different nationalities and languages. She was able to play with kids who spoke French, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Indian. Personally I enjoy this, as everyone had different backgrounds and pot luck parties were fun and interesting.

4. API Scores – I guess scores don’t hurt, I believe TPES’s was 990 which placed them somewhere in the top 20 elementary schools in California.

5. Class Size and Makeup – I thought the class size was perfect, not too big not too small (around 16 kids). In terms of demographics, I would say it was around 20% asian, 20% african american/hispanic, and 60% caucasian. Asian parents were predominately researchers from Korea/Japan and a couple local professionals (which I am), caucasian parents were mixed with local researchers/doctors and some from abroad, and the hispanics/african americans were local too (not bussed in as someone was saying). In terms of socioeconomic I think it’s varied. I would say that none of the parents were in the top 1%, but I don’t think anyone was really hurting too. I think the majority lived around the area we do (UTC/La Jolla Village area) and rent or own a condo. In terms of median household income, I would say most were > $150K/yr < $600K/yr (with the exception of the researchers from abroad, since many were single income households). 6. Nice house = Big $$ - When we moved here our idea was to rent first, figure out the area and buy later. Unfortunately, now we are currently priced out of the market based on our needs and wants. We are currently looking around the same price range as you are, and like someone else alluded to, SFR in that price range will get you a 1,200 sq ft fixer upper, or a condo. In addition, as someone else mentioned, most affluent homeowners in the area send their kids to private schools (eg. La Jolla Country Day) and your kids will probably not be playing, or going to the same schools as the kids on the block. So right now we are looking at Carmel Valley and Scripps Ranch; hoping to find the 2,500 sf+ house of our dreams with a good education system. Unfortunately it's a little farther from the coast than we would like and a little cookie cutter, but at least I don't have the 45 minute-1 hour commute from Temecula and Poway like some cooworkers. If you would like to discuss further feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

[Author]

Posts