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 ...
Well it is simply the truth.
There’s these things called books. Couple those with the desire to learn and you can learn anything you like assuming you have the mental capacity to learn it.
I find it amazing your views are so narrow.
Thank you for your helpful reply. We plan to do much more research. Time flies though, only a year and half left.
I don’t know how long ago or when in TN you paid such low property taxes . . . we pay 700.00 per YEAR on an EMPTY lot. Well, the lot is actually 8 acres in a mini-farm community but still it is empty and when we build that will go up to around 5K per year. And we now have 9.25 or 9.50 sales tax in the county in TN which I speak of.
BUT IF we get a new home built and move across the state line from AL to TN, our two kids would be eligible for 3200.00 per year in a TN university. When I first started searching for property, that amount was around 2K and has steadily increased, we have 1.5 years to go on daughter and 4.5 on son so don’t know what the amount will be by 2012 or 2015.
not likely to pay off the debt in six years... btw--one can get a degree without paying an outrageous amount of dinero...
I had one of you bulldozer clowns try to tell me it was OK to put gravel over topsoil, he had cleared some trees for me and was ATTEMPTING to build a road for me. I told him to move the topsoil then put down the gravel, but he wouldn't listen, I fired him and he never got a penny from me.
Actually Bill Gates didn’t really drop out. He was strongly encouraged to take time off from Harvard. He was running high stakes poker games in his dorm room.
Believe it or not, skipping college used to be the norm.
I was told by one man that “people don't read anymore”. Little did I realize at the time that he was talking about himself. Once he received his masters degree he stopped reading...and it showed after a few short years.
That is why I am thankful that my children are all avid readers
I believe it still is the norm in most of the country...
I must disagree. I have the background which I acquired in the military, but no formal degree. I’ve had more opportunities than I can shake a stick at, and I’m 52.
If you have some specialized skill that is rare and marketable you can get a job but not if you are competing in a broader market.
Like I said you are a criminal, or a least think like one. What the guy was trying to do was to get you to do your job correctly which offended your "bulldog" ego. So, he suffered and the person paying for the project probably got shoddy work but in the end, you left work on time and got to beer drinking on time.
If it had been me things would have work out differently.
A person cannot graduate from a university with a degree in Engineering an be an idiot. Someone can learn how to drive a bulldozer with a sub 100 IQ though.
Nothing should be constructed on top soil, NOTHING. That is Civil Engineering 101. If don't know that you are an idiot.
The guys in the field will build crap as fast as possible if you let them.
Spoken like a low IQ HS graduate.
Is this std. procedure for Neanderthal to use a bulldozer as a weapon. So brave. How bout hoping down and handling the problem face to face?
I’ve been out of college 12 years and have a Chemical Engineering degree and more than enough experience to get a P.E. license, though I haven’t bothered to take the test yet. It took me 5 years to earn the degree but I had scholarships (was valedictorian, Nat’l Merit Scholar, etc.) so I didn’t have to acquire much student loan debt to finish (only $10K or so as I recall).
I also have little-to-no use of my left arm due to a birth injury. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have strongly considered becoming something like a plumber or electrician instead of going to college. I think I’d be happier doing something like that.
Biggest bunch of morons known to man!
Class warfare at its best. Calling a class of people morons in a blanket statement IS moronic.
When things collapse or explode and people are killed, what would you say in an ensued investigation?
I bet you'll be one of the first to run away from any responsibility, the engineer told me to do it, right?
Bush's fault, eh?
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