I see going to college more of a risk. I didnt get as lucky as you did straight out of high school. After I dropped out after my first semester of college, I was still struggling to earn $10/hr. I worked LONG hours and still couldnt amount near what I am making now. I wanted to start a business but couldnt afford the startup costs.
I see going to college more of a risk. I didnt get as lucky as you did straight out of high school. After I dropped out after my first semester of college, I was still struggling to earn $10/hr. I worked LONG hours and still couldnt amount near what I am making now. I wanted to start a business but couldnt afford the startup costs.
I would have loved to go to college. I initially wasn't ready to grow up, but my mom falling ill (couldn't work for almost a year), her husband taking out all the equity in their house and fleeing (she chose not to fight it), I really had no choice. Now I am blessed to have her in my rental property, a 3-level townhouse, and that I can cover more than half the note for her, while she works the extra years she was supposed to be retired.
But I like reading the part you wrote "I worked LONG hours and still couldn't amount near what I am making NOW." It's a testiment to your hard work that you are reaping the rewards. I instill in my two children that you must WORK for what you want in life, do not expect to be given anything, just because you have an expensive education, live in a certain area, write well (something I suck at, I am very aware of, lol). I could never have received the education I got in a classroom that I received by rolling up my sleeves and putting my nose to the grindstone. I wish more kids out of college didn't feel "entitled" to a certain salary just because they went to college. Prove your worth, first, the money will follow.
I would have loved to go to college. I initially wasn't ready to grow up, but my mom falling ill (couldn't work for almost a year), her husband taking out all the equity in their house and fleeing (she chose not to fight it), I really had no choice. Now I am blessed to have her in my rental property, a 3-level townhouse, and that I can cover more than half the note for her, while she works the extra years she was supposed to be retired.
But I like reading the part you wrote "I worked LONG hours and still couldn't amount near what I am making NOW." It's a testiment to your hard work that you are reaping the rewards. I instill in my two children that you must WORK for what you want in life, do not expect to be given anything, just because you have an expensive education, live in a certain area, write well (something I suck at, I am very aware of, lol). I could never have received the education I got in a classroom that I received by rolling up my sleeves and putting my nose to the grindstone. I wish more kids out of college didn't feel "entitled" to a certain salary just because they went to college. Prove your worth, first, the money will follow.
I hear you, but, unfortunately or fortunately, that's not the world that we live in. When you spend years committing to formal education, you expect to be compensated for it, and when companies include "BA, MBA preferred" in the job description, they have to be ready to pay for it. No one would pay $50,000-$100,000 for formal education if there weren't higher earnings and better job prospects on the other end.
Some people are fortunate enough to do well without a college education, but in the current and future generations, most of them will be stuck with jobs that people with higher education simply don't want. Working "long and hard" is great, but if after a decade plus of doing so, you're only making $50,000-$60,000 before taxes, then you probably made some bad moves. Working long and hard for peanuts is for people who can't do better because they didn't get a good education (or have a criminal background).
+1 to the underlined part. People go to college immediately after high school because it's the "right" thing to do, so a lot of them go through those 4 years without any real direction...just because it's what they're "supposed to do." If people worked for a few years before going to college, I think that they'd get more out of it.
That was definitely the case for me when I went back to school for my MBA. I went to college because it was the "right" thing to do. After working for a few years post-graduation, I had a real idea of what I wanted to do, so I went back to school. If I'd had that knowledge and experience before college, who knows what would have happened?
The problem is that when people don't go to college right after high school, life kicks in, and they usually don't ever finish college. Working part-time jobs starting in h.s may be the sweet spot.
+1 to the underlined part. People go to college immediately after high school because it's the "right" thing to do, so a lot of them go through those 4 years without any real direction...just because it's what they're "supposed to do." If people worked for a few years before going to college, I think that they'd get more out of it.
That was definitely the case for me when I went back to school for my MBA. I went to college because it was the "right" thing to do. After working for a few years post-graduation, I had a real idea of what I wanted to do, so I went back to school. If I'd had that knowledge and experience before college, who knows what would have happened?
The problem is that when people don't go to college right after high school, life kicks in, and they usually don't ever finish college. Working part-time jobs starting in h.s may be the sweet spot.
That's why Im glad I dropped out of college after my first semester. I hated school, got very poor grades, and had no idea or plan about what I was going to do with my degree. After being out for 3 years, I knew that I didnt want to wash cars for the rest of my life and grew more motivated to obtain a practical education. I followed that with tons of research before I declared my major.
Thanks for the well wishes. i may have given the wrong impression in my post. Just to be clear, it is already working out for my wife. True, she may not be making as much money as we want (but who is?), but I think she ended up much better off than the majority of her classmates. I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just saying the point of my post was that from my first hand experience it seems that the legal market is tough--much tougher than one might think. But again, thanks for the well wishes, especially with our upcoming move.
Also, are you European? Your username and avatar give that suggestion. I feel like there might be significant discrepancies between the pay for social work as well as tuition costs for degrees (especially law) between the US and Europe.
