am I the only parent that doesn't care if their kid(s) goes to college?

[gigismomma]

I would love my kids to attend college for the experience, but I will support them in whatever they decide to do. I am certainly not going to push for nice private schools or anything like that. If they want to go to one, I will try to help (there is NO WAY we will be able to afford sending our kids to private colleges, though!) I went to a private school myself and it really didn't get me ahead. I also just have way too many friends that have 3 figure student loans from going to private school, yet they are making 40k a year, so it is hard to justify. Didn't get them very far, kwim? My BF won't have her loans paid off until she is near retirement! And her degree is essentially worthless with her current job, anyway.

[Kama]

I will support my kids in whatever they decide to do but I will make sure they understand the importance of having a solid plan before they begin college classes and that college should be used as a means to reach a goal, not as something to do just to be doing it. I think the last couple of college generations (and I include myself in this) have gotten into trouble because it was really emphasized that we should just go to college, college makes everything better, don't worry about exactly what you are going to do you will figure it out ect. Well now you have tons of college graduates who can't find work either because of bad luck (the job market for their chosen profession crashed while they were finishing their degree ect) or because they didn't have a clear idea of what they were going to do with their degree, didn't get work experience while they went to school and now they have a non specific not useful degree or no experience.

College can be good, it can be great, IF you have a plan. Going to college for the sake of going to college rarely works out well.

[steph410]

Originally Posted by Kama College can be good, it can be great, IF you have a plan. Going to college for the sake of going to college rarely works out well.

i sort of (respectfully) disagree. i don't think a college education has to be used toward a specific job/career in order to be valuable. i think education has a value apart from that.

if you are solely interested in job prospects, there are associates degrees, etc that you can pursue. a liberal arts education still has value even if it's never "used" in a job. (in my opinion)

[Kama]

Well, I misphrased that maybe, it does have value, however if you plan to have a degree that may not "pay for itself" you should be very careful about how much debt you burden yourself with in order to get it.

[lauren_brooke]

I'm the same. DH didn't go to college and I quit a few weeks before finishing my 2nd year. We're both blessed to have found great jobs. I would love for my kids to college and I will encourage them to do so, but if it's not what they want that's fine!

[el's mama]

Originally Posted by ulawolf I value teachers. My dd1 is planning on being an English/ music teacher. Now she wanted to go out of state to a 50,000 a year college. However we have Western university here which will only cost 10,000 a year. Why? Spend more? Both are good colleges. She doesnt need to go to the more prestigious school to do what she wants to do. And where we live in Michigan teachers rarely make 70,000 a year.

I live in California and just moved from one of the State's richest counties (median home price $600,000). No WAY do most teachers make that much either. Try about half of that. College Professors make $70k+ but certainly not Elementary/Jr. High/High School Teachers. If you have a Masters and teach you can make $50K.

Both of my parents were school teachers (it's actually how they met ) and I highly value education, but a more expensive college does not always mean better opportunities. There are so many variables that there's no way to say one way is better than the other.

[myoo]

I would hope that no one would lead their child to think that their only options are A) go to college and have massive debt or B) don't go to college. I think that many, many people do not realize the vast amount of financial aid that is out there, ESPECIALLY from small private liberal arts colleges. I work for a private university and the average amount of financial aid awarded to a student is 80% of the tuition. I'm talking about scholarships and grants here. A lot of people don't even apply to private schools because they assume that they will pay more, but often you end up paying about the same as a public university - there is simply more financial aid available at a private school. So I would say - encourage your kids to at least apply to 2 colleges - 1 public and 1 private - and see what kind of financial aid package they are offered, before deciding whether or not they will attend college.

Also, a college major often has nothing to do with your eventual job and that's normal and fine. As I said, I work in an academic office at a university. My co-workers and I have degrees in Psychology, English, Elementary Education, and Horticulture/Landscape Design. I have to say, when we hired a new employee last year and got hundreds and hundreds of applications, the first step in the weeding-out process was separating college grads from non-college grads (we kept just one non-grad in our "yes" pile of applications to look at more closely). That doesn't mean that a non-grad wouldn't have been great at the job, but you have to start somewhere, and the fact is - a college graduate will almost always trump a non-grad when an employer has the option.

[myoo]

I will also add - I think that going to college is a heck of a lot easier when you're fresh out of high school than it is when you're 30+ and married and have kids and a job and are trying to juggle all that. I would hate for my kids to decide not to go to college and then realize 10-15 years down the road that they need a degree and have to go back to school at that point.

Since I value education, I will encourage and expect my children to go to college. It's not like I will disown them if they don't, but I'm not going to go around saying things like, "Oh, you can go to college if you want, but if you don't want to I don't care - I don't think it's that important." Showing that you don't place value in a college education means, to me, that your child is likely to not earn a college degree.

[ALNaturMom]

DH and I fully support our children choosing to not go to college! We will push them to learn a trade of some sort if they don't, and will make it clear that they cannot live on our dime as adults. I know that many necessary trades are at risk now because everyone wants a college degree. The most successful business owners I've ever known were people who did not have degrees, but who started up businesses after becoming skilled workers.

[madebytrudi]

I only read the initial post and wanted to say that I am not caring if my kids go to college or not. I'll push trade school or apprenticeship training, or college, depending upon what they are geared to do. My eldest is already working on a photography & graphic arts business, already at age 15 and has some pretty impressive work under her belt already! Education is more than just going to a college. I feel it is over priced and over rated. Too many kids are overly stressed from high school pressures, which bleeds into their 'college' days... which bleeds over to career days, causing a LOT of overly-stresssed people who are sooo in debt that joy is hard to find because everyone is looking for jobs that pay a lot of money.

Hubby never went to college, but spent 22 years in the Marines. Sad that he never gets paid what he's worth because of lack of a degree, but we make ends meet and are content. More money often leads to more stuff and more stress. I went 2 years and never really knew what I wanted to be, so I quit, joined the Navy (hoping for a career) but ended up with a medical discharge. I get to be a mommy 24-7, which is actually my joy.

Many people are successful and HAPPY without a high degree and without all the debt.