Send your kids to college ... or not ...

[muck]

For the record, and subject to change, my preference is:

 

* Homeschool through their senior year, finishing 'early' at 16-17 years of age.

 

* Attend a local JUCO for 1-2 years filling out the 'intro level' stuff they'll need later on

 

* 1-2 years in service to others, preferrably outside the country (military or volunteer/missions) --- not to start until they're 18yrs old

 

* Attend a local JUCO for another year, preferrably while they are working part-time in a business they've started

 

* Head to a "four year" school at 19-21 years of age with at least half of their undergraduate credits in the rear-view-mirror ... working part-time in the field they think they want to be in full-time while finishing the remainder of their degree over 2-3 years of year-round pursuit. Preferrably, their degree will be in the humanities (philosophy, literature, etc.) -- something requiring lots of writing -- and they will have minored in something more technical (biology, accounting, etc.) -- something requiring research and details.

 

... except my 11.5 yr old daughter has started asking questions about Julliard ... I have no ideas about how that fits into my little plan ...

Edited February 9, 2011 by muck

[redrumjuice]

Muck, your poll is flawed.

 

No schit. What's wrong with letting the kid decide?

 

I think your thinking, proven by the poll options is what is wrong with higher education. You're stuck with college = success. I think college = waiter.

[redrumjuice]

Whatever gains my doppelganger made in his 20s I will meet or surpass in my 30s. When my blue-collar doppelganger's aching back can no longer do heavy lifting in his 50s, I will be in my prime income-earning years. During the course of my career I will make more, be able to work longer, and be more intellectually stimulated.

 

That is kinda sad.

 

So motivated by $$$ and success. Hopefully you don't die early, or get to be 60 and wonder where your life went. It's people like you who always talk about how awesome college was. It's all you have.

[yo mama]

That is kinda sad.

 

So motivated by $$$ and success. Hopefully you don't die early, or get to be 60 and wonder where your life went. It's people like you who always talk about how awesome college was. It's all you have.

That's not true.

[Ursa Majoris]

PS --- Remember that Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg did not finish their undergraduate degree ... much less their graduate degree ...

Fine and dandy for these four entrepreneurs but we're talking tens of millions of people here. They can't all invent Windows, Virgin, Facebook or direct market PCs.

[wiegie]

exactly, which is why it's a fallacy to compare their salaries, rates of unemployment, etc. in trying to discern the value of a college education. it's almost like saying that people who drive BMW's are, on average, smarter and harder working than people who drive toyota tercels, therefore you'll make more money if you trade in your tercel for a beamer.

I see what you did there.