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If you're smart, personable, and have ambition, you can succeed without a degree. There's a reason that even today it's optional. My husband is almost at a six figure salary and he didn't finish. No luck needed. Just the things I've aforementioned. We don't need to make more money. We are happy where we are in life.
Not to brag, but my husband, with an associate's degree which he paid for completely by himself, is making more than some doctors, in a highly technical field. He literally gets job offers about once a week. Occasionally he accepts one of them. And he would be the first to tell you that he's not a genius and he's not a prodigy - but what he is is the hardest, most dedicated and honest worker on the payroll, wherever he goes.
Young adults these days are being sold a bill of goods when it comes to requirements to be successful.
People from years ago have these stories about paying their way through college. My dad paid his way through college working at a grocery store. It's not the same world it used to be, college is crazy expensive these days, especially if you're going to anything besides an affordable state school. Scholarships are tough to come by and even loans can be a headache as oftentimes if you're parents make too much money, which is actually a pretty low threshhold you can't get aloans. I was in college about 18 and wasn't getting any help from my folks and wasn't even speaking to them at the time but I couldn't get loans as up until age 24 you still have to turn in parents income stuff.
I know some people have been saying kids have an entitled or spoiled attitude but honestly if you're a parent and aren't putting something away for your kids college, unless your living in poverty, I think your a pretty uncaring and irresponsible parent. Hell even if its only a couple hundred bucks a year if you start at a young age there's investment accounts and ways to prepay at todays rates and not 20 years from now rates when it will be higher. I'm not saying a parent has to foot the entire bill or even send their kid to an out of state dream school thats pricy but if you don't put something away why did you become a parent.
If you're smart, personable, and have ambition, you can succeed without a degree. There's a reason that even today it's optional. My husband is almost at a six figure salary and he didn't finish. No luck needed. Just the things I've aforementioned. We don't need to make more money. We are happy where we are in life.
The stats are there - college grads, on average, make SIGNIFICANTLY more than high school grads and have significantly lower unemployment rates. Obviously there are exceptions, but the idea one should forgo college under the idea they can succeed just as much because they're smart/ambitious/personable is naive at best.
People from years ago have these stories about paying their way through college. My dad paid his way through college working at a grocery store. It's not the same world it used to be, college is crazy expensive these days, especially if you're going to anything besides an affordable state school. Scholarships are tough to come by and even loans can be a headache as oftentimes if you're parents make too much money, which is actually a pretty low threshhold you can't get aloans. I was in college about 18 and wasn't getting any help from my folks and wasn't even speaking to them at the time but I couldn't get loans as up until age 24 you still have to turn in parents income stuff.
I know some people have been saying kids have an entitled or spoiled attitude but honestly if you're a parent and aren't putting something away for your kids college, unless your living in poverty, I think your a pretty uncaring and irresponsible parent. Hell even if its only a couple hundred bucks a year if you start at a young age there's investment accounts and ways to prepay at todays rates and not 20 years from now rates when it will be higher. I'm not saying a parent has to foot the entire bill or even send their kid to an out of state dream school thats pricy but if you don't put something away why did you become a parent.
So why not go to "an affordable state school?" Work part time, pay part of the expenses - this seems reasonable to me, but so many adult kids I know aren't even willing to do this.
My son could go to a state school for free thanks to my husband's military service. Instead, he is insisting on attending a private liberal arts college that will cost $150K by the time it's all said and done. If that's my son's choice, fine, he'll have to figure out how to make it happen. I am happy to help my son help himself. I feel no guilt over not bending over backward to incur a boat load of debt for a useless college degree.
The stats are there - college grads, on average, make SIGNIFICANTLY more than high school grads and have significantly lower unemployment rates. Obviously there are exceptions, but the idea one should forgo college under the idea they can succeed just as much because they're smart/ambitious/personable is naive at best.
There are more exceptions than you'd think. I am not saying that someone should forego college. I would prefer that my own kids go to college. But that is not the only road to success. If neither of them finish college, I'd encourage them to go to a trade skill and learn a valuable, employable skill. There are several that pay nice wages. In the case of my husband and myself, we were both driven to succeed in life and college didn't make or break us. My husband, while lacking a college degree, has a skill set that is in demand. He is in an analytical role, so it requires a modicum of smarts. He is personable and hardworking, which caused the right people to take notice of him. And he's ambitious - he's been promoted several levels over four years and is being groomed for management. I know that he's an outlier, but he's (and our developer friend, who just finished his degree at 36) proof that you can succeed in life without a degree as well.
Not to brag, but my husband, with an associate's degree which he paid for completely by himself, is making more than some doctors, in a highly technical field. He literally gets job offers about once a week. Occasionally he accepts one of them. And he would be the first to tell you that he's not a genius and he's not a prodigy - but what he is is the hardest, most dedicated and honest worker on the payroll, wherever he goes.
Young adults these days are being sold a bill of goods when it comes to requirements to be successful.
Observing my husband, I definitely believe you. He's a solutions architect at a fortune 500 company specializing in Medicaid. He has a specific government-suited skillset that translates into incredible potential if you have the right ethic, smarts, and background. The applications always say "college degree" but that he's at the point now where his 15+ years of experience across only three companies does the talking for him.
So why not go to "an affordable state school?" Work part time, pay part of the expenses - this seems reasonable to me, but so many adult kids I know aren't even willing to do this.
Not everyone lives in a state where the state school is all that affordable. Where I live, a year of school + room and board costs about 20 grand a year, multiplied by four years is 80k, and that's not accounting for tuition increases.
For kids from middle class and upper middle class homes whose parents refuse to help them, their only option more often than not ends up being debt. Most schools, even after age 24 still require you to turn in your parent's financial info and allocate aid based on that expected contribution regardless of whether or not your parents are actually planning on footing most or some of the bill. As a result, if your parents have means but don't actually contribute to your schooling you don't get any aid, and the only way to pay for school is through loans.
I'm currently in med school now and I have friends whose parents are doctors but refuse to pay for any part of their tuition. One of them is already married and living on her own and our school still demands financial info from her parents and expect a contribution from them and as a result, they're not eligible for aid because of how much money their parents make. They can't even apply for scholarships because they're need based.
You are so right
50 years ago parents did not pay for college crazy huh?
So if you get a masters and mom and pop sign the iou for $130k you can get that job at Starbucks and they can forget about retirement right I mean you are 30 it's the least they can do right?
Grow up son learn a traditional blue collar trade buy a ticket to Dubai or Saudi arabia and make some money
Stop dreaming and scheming and start living
i'm a senior in college, and my parents paid the full amount. However, I've already gotten (and accepted) a job offer from a major company with a decent start salary (60k). It wouldn't have happened without college (and really my parents supporting me).
.
Congratulations. Your life has been sprinkled with magic dust. That happens when the stars align and Jupiter is in retrograde.... or something. A lot of people are born outside the magic dust circle. Yes. They exist. There are millions of them and how you've graduated from college without knowing any is a mystery to me but whatever.... you aren't the first 20-something who is stepping into life sprinkled with magic dust who thinks she/he knows all the answers and you won't be the last.
Here's what's important: What you DO with that life.
Last edited by DewDropInn; 10-06-2014 at 09:20 PM..
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