> You can go to a community college for much less money and all kids aren't required to go to College to earn a good living
Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of ten million wealthy upper middle class parents simultaneously recoiling in horror.
But seriously, parents that do these sorts of things have spent the last 20 years of their life ensuring their kids stay on the maximum-privilege track, and they're not going to quit now.
My daughter decided to defer going to ‘real’ college for a year to figure out what she wanted to do: why spend all the money when you haven’t figured out things anyway?
She enrolled at a highly rated local community college and signed up for some difficult classes and she was very much not impressed: the pace of instruction was very slow, the students unmotivated (not doing homework, not participating during class), and the overall level of instruction often easier than what she had in high school.
It’s an excellent way to get some garden variety general courses off you plate at low cost and low effort, but, in her case, it was not a substitution of the real thing.
Having attended both types of college, I actually had the opposite experience. At the community college, I was taught entry level classes by PHds who taught purely for enjoyment. The students were largely very motivated and professional. The university I attended was decent (top 60s), but all my direct interactions were with graduate TAs, many of whom struggled with the English language. The students mostly just wanted to party and constantly needed their hands held.
Most likely I just got lucky. My main point is that anecdata isn't very good data.
I took Spanish at community college and it was a breeze. I rushed through all my assignments in class and spent the rest of the time spacing out. Felt like middle school all over again.
Oh yeah. This is a game in which people are competing for social status. Sure, you can buy a nice car and you can buy a nice house, but you can't buy your children's way into... actually, scratch that. It's just much harder.
But having smart kids is the crowning achievement for these parents. I feel terribly sorry for kids caught in the middle of all of it.
I went to Stanford, but my parents didn't give a damn about any of that. Get this -- they taught me to value knowledge and a good work ethic, and I got in because I was really good at standardized tests.
However, I don't think it's been a big benefit for me because I wasn't a top student there, and I got off the hyper-achievement train early on in my twenties. I probably would have been just as okay professionally if I had taken that full scholarship to Texas A&M that I got through my standardized test-taking ability.
Well... CLC didn't offer me much that I wanted but couldn't get at Stevenson anyway. I was dual enrolled for an introductory philosophy class, but within my eventual undergrad majors, Stevenson offered at least as much coursework depth.
This depends on the degree. My computer science degree had CS classes all the way from freshman year, and I think the pre-requisite graph required at least 3 years, so the standard ‘2 years of core classes for an associates and then 2 years of degree-specific courses’ wouldn’t have worked well for people like me and it would have taken me 5+ years of relatively light classes to finish college with a degree rather than 4.5 (130+ credits required for my CS degree)
Community colleges offer CS classes. Whether they’ll be accepted as specific prerequisites at a specific 4-year institution would require further research, but it’s definitely not a reason to completely dismiss community college. You can also go to community college for one year, then transfer to a university. There’s no requirement to get a degree before transferring.
Source: I did one year of community college before transferring into the computer & electrical engineering program at a university.
> My computer science degree had CS classes all the way from freshman year, and I think the pre-requisite graph required at least 3 years, so the standard ‘2 years of core classes for an associates and then 2 years of degree-specific courses’ wouldn’t have worked well for people like me
Community colleges often have CS programs, they don't just offer GE.
They may not have equivalents for all of the courses in a particular universities lower-division major curriculum in a particular major, which can be an issue.
Some states, like North Dakota, have common course numbering to make sure the credits can transfer from the community colleges to the universities. If the local community college doesn't offer the specific class, you can often get a distance learning option through the community college.
> You can go to a community college for much less money
Agreed.
> and all kids aren't required to go to College to earn a good living.
This will need a citation. My understanding is that the gap between between college graduates incomes and non-college graduate incomes continues to increase.
There are plenty of skilled trade jobs that pay as well or better than a number of undergraduate degrees. Electrician, aviation techs, construction managers, plumbers, radiology tech, LPN, and dental hygienists are all jobs that pay as well or better than some of the lower paying bachelor's degree careers. So that would be your history, english, biology, psychology degrees, etc. Here's a chart of salaries by 4 year degree:
Obviously once you get into engineering degrees, computer science, finance, law degrees, and the like, no trade school or community college degree can compare. But the ultimate point is that a 4 year degree is not the only path to a decent income. Especially when you factor in student loan debt.
Obviously once you get into engineering degrees, computer science, finance, law degrees, and the like, no trade school or community college degree can compare.
Well, I wouldn't be so sure of that. Quite a few of the vocations can make more than what you mentioned. It is variable, much like the pay of a computer science major depending on market.
This is just silly.