Posted on 09/11/2010 1:05:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Across the region and around the country, parents are kissing their college-bound kids -- and potentially up to $200,000 in tuition, room and board -- goodbye.
Especially in the supremely well-educated Washington area, this is expected. It's a rite of passage, part of an orderly progression toward success.
Or is it . . . herd mentality?
Hear this, high achievers: If you crunch the numbers, some experts say, college is a bad investment.
"You've been fooled into thinking there's no other way for my kid to get a job . . . or learn critical thinking or make social connections," hedge fund manager James Altucher says.
Altucher, president of Formula Capital, says he sees people making bad investment decisions all the time -- and one of them is paying for college.
College is overrated, he says: In most cases, what you get out of it is not worth the money, and there are cheaper and better ways to get an education. Altucher says he's not planning to send his two daughters to college.
"My plan is to encourage them to pursue a dream, at least initially," Altucher, 42, says. "Travel or do something creative or start a business. . . . Whether they succeed or fail, it'll be an interesting life experience. They'll meet people, they'll learn the value of money."
Certainly, you'd be forgiven for thinking this argument reeks of elitism. After all, Altucher is an Ivy Leaguer. He's rolling in dough. Easy for him to pooh-pooh the status quo.
But, it turns out, his anti-college ideas stem from personal experience. After his first year at Cornell University, Altucher says his parents lost money and couldn't afford tuition. So he paid his own way, working 60 hours a week delivering pizza and tutoring, on top of his course load.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
-PJ
Sometimes I wonder... Which is better, starting off at $28,000 a year as a truck driver with no debts or making $50,000 a year after graduating from college with a $150,000 debt...
What are his daughters’ names? I need to mark them off my list of possible physicians when they arrive back from traveling the world and setting up their dream doc in a box practice.
..and for that 22K difference per year, in 6 years the guy with no college will still be making $28K and the guy who originally made $50K per year has paid off his debt and has moved up to making $75K.
However, one thing that a good college can do for you is establish a lifetime of connections, provided you have good social skills and stay involved with alumni activities long after your college years are over.
-PJ
Am 2 months away from my 57th birthday. I have always had a high paying job and rose to the top wherever I was. Then was laid off from Wells Fargo in Dec 2008. I have not been hired anywhere since. No 4 year degree means no job in these times anyway. I am thanking God because my son is a freshman at Hillsdale College this year. He will need at least a 4 year degree to compete. That may not be enough.
What’s best is doing the work you want to do with the least amount of non-paid school work possible.
For some people that may mean going to school and getting degrees.
For other people it is best to grab the first apprenticeship-type job that is offered.
Ironically, I was able to achieve a higher status than many people who passed me over for interviews in lower level positions, but I had to find an organization willing to look at my results.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have bypassed college and started a business. Being master of your own destiny is the only true path to security.
Mine is looking at 7 years minimum.
It depends on what you want to do.
If you want an MBA level job, you need the MBA.
If you want to be a Chemical Engineer, college is mandatory.
If you spend $137,000 to get a four year degree in Restaurant Management, you probably would have been better off going to culinary school.
Trade or technical schools are a better path that college for many people.
Well med school is like any trade school - it teaches a specfic trade. That does not mean the generic BA will teach anything useful.
My son got his math degree and decided against all the entry level positions he was offered.
Instead, he went back to doing what he had always done to make money, work for his dad’s service company.
He got all the licenses he needed and now they are partners and doing fine.
Neither one of them would have ever been happy working for “the man”.
Cool! Can I also skip entry-level jobs and demand to go straight to being an executive, too?
-——————————————————————————————Absolutely. It just helps to have a wealthy family to give you a little boost.
I was there. Went back and finished. So far, it hasn’t meant diddly squat difference, although I have had a much better contract which I wouldn’t have gotten had I not finished.
Sadly that contract was some time ago.
A DJ here in Memphis would say a boob job was more surer investment for young women than a college education. Unsure if he was right though.
As anti-business, evil-capitalist stereotypes are taking hold in college cirricula across the country, it’s possible that businesses may alter their hiring practices...which would totally 86 the principal motive for American kids and their parents to scrimp, save and sacrifice for college “education”. It’s not likely they’ll still come to the door simply to get an ideological makeover.
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