7 ms·

My experience was similar to yours. I immigrated from Russia at a young age so we had very little money. I attended a great college mostly on scholarship. My mo

• austenallred 9y ago
  I'd venture a guess that helpful and savvy parents matter as much as (if not more than) coming from money
  • labster 9y ago
    You need luck or connections or wealth to succeed. Connections can include parents, friends, etc. But something has to break your way -- simply attending college is not enough to tilt the odds in your favor.
    • vizeroth 9y ago
      Many colleges are being pressured (by accreditation committees, donors, government, etc.) to provide methods for students to acquire connections that make it easier to succeed. Networking opportunities, guest lecturers from industry, internships, and special programs are fairly common ways that colleges can make a difference for students beyond an education. While some (perhaps many or most in some schools) professors live in the isolation of academia, lecturers or part-time, non-tenure professors often work in a field related to the subject they are teaching, and can be a good source of connections for students. Sure, simple attendance may not be enough for many students, but most colleges do at least try to give you the opportunities and tools you need to succeed.
      • labster 9y ago
        So that's how they justify the administrative bloat in universities these days. And it's a great excuse to keep hiring lecturers instead of faculty! I'm not trying to be hard on you, it's just that I'm skeptical about whether new non-academic programs in universities improve outcomes enough to offset their costs to individual students. The check on administrative bloat is very weak in the US, and arbitrary ratings like the US News & World Report have more influence than customers do.
        • vizeroth 9y ago
          I realize this is days later, but I felt the need to respond even though I didn't feel the need to check for responses earlier. I do see how it can be easy to believe that ratings have more influence than students. At the same time, many ratings include student surveys as a substantial part of the ratings process. Additionally, I can see how it can be easy to believe that there is significant administrative bloat in universities, even when the reports on funding sources and costs state that the administrative costs have been going down. For many the budgets and administration of public universities simply don't have enough transparency, and even when they strive to achieve transparency there may not be enough historical data to give people any real perspective. Further, it's easy to point the finger at all sorts of practices within a University as sources of said administrative bloat, regardless of whether the budgets support those arguments. When you have a significant reduction in state funding for public universities, you drive those institutions to look for ways to overcome those budget shortfalls. Generally speaking, it's hard to get people to accept salary reductions, so cost-cutting measures come from other directions. Where I work, tenured/tenure-track faculty in some colleges are teaching significantly more credit-hours than they would have ten years ago, so there are fewer lecturers, students, part-time faculty teaching classes. Since the tenured faculty don't get paid more for teaching more classes, this is a pretty effective cost-cutting measure for some colleges, but it has its limits, especially since those faculty are also expected to continue with other intellectual contributions (such as research). Every new staff or faculty member hired anywhere within the University has to be justified. They no longer hire someone simply because a position has been vacated, so when someone retires it's possible that their duties simply get distributed among others and the position goes away. However, if someone's job is basically fund-raising, it's probably going to be easier to get approval for that position, especially if you can find a candidate with a proven history of improving the budget situation for an educational institution. Meanwhile, programs and physical things like buildings and equipment tend to be attractive to donors. You can put up buildings and fill them with equipment by demonstrating a willingness to pay for 50% of the cost and then creating a big push for donors, and with the right people working on the project you can end up paying significantly less (or nothing). Further, you can then leverage the new building/equipment for further facilities/equipment upgrades. Good luck getting someone to pay someone's pension or to pay the salary of any of the staff dealing with the budget, custodial work, IT, etc.
• slackingoff2017 9y ago
  Going to college without debt is not always possible. I tried everything to get scholarships to no avail. Picking a major with a good ROI is definitely possible. Assuming everyone can do what you did is foolish because there's not physically enough scholarships to go around. There's probably a much greater number of people equally puzzled why they have to go to community college because they couldn't get a scholarship.
  • swimfar 9y ago
    I think his point was that he went to a college he could afford. It's true that not everyone can get scholarships to pay for their entire education. But no one has to pay $40k+/year in tuition to get a good education.
    • ryandrake 9y ago
      Yea, my point was both college selection and major selection should be guided by ROI. This was pretty thoroughly drilled into me by my parents and my high school advisors / guidance counselors. We couldn't afford much so I went to a low cost state school, took advantage of as many scholarships as I possibly could, and picked an engineering major. At no point in the process did anyone ever advise me to "follow my dreams" or "pursue my passions".
      • SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
        I did this as well, spent my first 3 semesters at a private school that cost 40k a year had a pretty decent scholarship but the kicker was that I was in a major that had a minimum starting salary around 100k. So I felt that going to this particular school was worth the debt I'd accumulate because of 1 the major, and 2 the socioeconomic status most of the students came from. Anyways after 3 semesters I realized that I really didn't like the major I was in so I dropped outta that school and moved home and went to community college until I got myself together and motivated. When that happened I moved into a local state school that is known for being extremely good for its cost. I don't regret going to the expensive school even if most of the credits didn't transfer, I met some great people there who will be valuable friends to have made. I also don't regret not going there anymore because it would have been way too expensive.
• plaguuuuuu 9y ago
  Coming from money isn't a necessity for an individual, but on a statistical basis, the correlation is undeniable - you're so much more likely to succeed if you come from money that the idea is substantially correct. If I had a "small $1 million loan" right now, I'd be able to take much greater risks in terms of quitting my job to create a startup or whatever. Thus I'd be far more likely to be more successful (financially speaking)
  • dennisgorelik 9y ago
    > If I had a "small $1 million loan" right now ... then your fate would be similar to the fate of a typical big lottery winner: having all your money spent in a few years and your life derailed. Children of wealthy people succeed not because of inherited money, but because of wealth management habits they learned from their parents.
    • 0xC0DECAFE2020 9y ago
      They succeed because of connections, plain and simple.
      • askl56 9y ago
        It's not zero sum. As somebody who has come from money and made a lot of money in a field entirely unrelated to my parents and with zero financial help from them after university, a lot of the disparities I see between myself and others in my situation who came from more disadvantaged backgrounds is that they spend their money far less wisely because they think that, for example, a house in the country will make them happy. I know from my childhood that is not necessarily the case.