The Italian kids I grew up with were like this - about half of them did not go to college in a town where everyone else went to college - they were expected to join the family business. A generation before that none of them went to college. Now the great majority do.
Side note: the Italian-American club in town, probably dating back to the 1920s, has a sign on the wall: “Proudly Italian, 100% American.”
Another side note: there’s something wrong with a society that expects everyone to go to college, and expects people not to make a decent living if they don’t.
The two major goals of the AMS club were (1)helping Italian immigrantsn find jobs and (2)getting them to learn English.
Let's see if any Freeper can tell us what AMS stands for. I'll give the answer if it isn't here after about 20 posts.
Ex-cobol programmer here. Six figures. No college.
I have three daughters, aged 30, 27 and 24. One has a masters in Civil Engineering and works for an insurance company analyzing buildings to determine insurability. She travels all over the country and as a single girl in her early 20’s is living a dream. The second graduated Summa Cum Laude and is now a CPA. She is more socially challenged, personality wise, and this significantly improves her ability to continue to make a good income.
The third (and oldest) is a Business Analyst with a GED. She is naturally smart and gegarious and she has parleyed that, coupled with the non-college training necessary to do the job, into a very promising career. She has catipulted up the career ladder in just a few short years. She is also the highest paid of the three - so far.
College doesn’t hurt, but it is not necessary - especially if you have personality and intelligence talents that you can bring to the table.
It’s an exageration, but I tend to jokingly put it this way: College is for those who can’t do it by themselves. The exceptions are the “hard” knowledge areas: Engineering, medicine, science, etc.