The Top 40

I'll tell you what terrifies me.

College costs for two sons.

I have a junior and a freshman currently in high school. Both are bright, academically able and musically gifted. They attend a public high school that's rated as one of the top schools in the country.

My eldest already has three AP scores of 5 under his belt, is currently taking 2 AP biology and chemistry classes plus an IB Latin course and honors band. His GPA is 3.75 and class ranking puts him in the top 25% of his class.

My freshman son will probably put his brother's fine academic record to shame. The boy is simply brilliant.

The cost of attending public university in Texas ranges from $25K to $30K a year all inclusive (tuition, dorm, meal plan, books and fees) which racks up to $100,000 - $120,000 for a bachelors degree.

How many families or students can afford the crushing debt that come with this most basic degree?

I know poor kids, minorities and stupendously brilliant kids have access to all sorts of free higher education money, but what happens to better than average students who happen to hail from middle class homes with income levels that preclude financial assistance but still find the cost of college out of reach?

It keeps me awake at night. Either my kids take on a huge amount of debt to secure their future or I do.

***apologies for the lack of paragraphs. I tried, the system wouldn't allow it.

And then there was our son who got a 4 year STEM degree in 3 years at a local college while he lived at home with us, worked a full time job and paid for his school expenses, then 28 days after graduating got a job with one of the largest "news media" organizations in the country earning $80k at the age of 20 years.

16 years later he is running his own company with 19 employees with some of the most popular corporations in the world as his clients.

He was home educated, and trained to *think* from birth, and socializing with morons was never a priority.

Plan your work and work your plan.

Daphne,
the university is no longer any place for our best and brightest. If your sons do not have plans to be in the professions: Medicine, law or engineering, I say, forget it. There are plenty of ways of securing an education without going to traditional college. It is way over priced and not worth the risk to their soul. It is a terrible place for a young man, especially. Start searching now for options. Keep your money.

To be afraid of? Oh, I don't know, hmm, lessee:

Stupid incompetent low-self-esteem "well-meaning" liberals with too many cats and several piercings;

usually overweight gender-vague soft-as-a-sneaker-fulla-shit persons that reached their Peter Principle positions at entry level jobs;

all of the above having control over even the least aspects of my life. Like IRS workers, bankers, medical workers, builders of my cars and parts, teachers of children, jurors, cops.

I received a BS degree in a field I never used. I went to work in a technical trade, attended numerous free night classes. Started my own business at age of 34 and never looked back at "University education".

My wife graduated with a degree in German from a private university, "expensive" of course. She took night classes to become a very well known chemist. She also did not use her "degree".

The "University" I wasted my time attending was a hot bed of Communism. If a parent wants to risk losing his or her dear child to the left, send them to a "University". They will lose any ability to reason.

Daphne: research TAMS. Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) is a unique residential program for high school-aged Texas students who are high achievers and interested in mathematics and science. While living in McConnell Hall, students in this two-year program complete a rigorous academic curriculum of college coursework at the University of North Texas (UNT). Instruction is by regular university faculty. There are no high school courses taught, but students enjoy many of the activities of high school and the company of age mates who are intellectual peers.

Students who graduate TAMS generally have their choice of scholarships. http://tams.unt.edu/

@Leslie

"Start searching now for options. Keep your money. "

It's looking more and more like that, Leslie. Much of the undergraduate courses can now be obtained and mastered via other means (read: internet). I still think the University has a niche - but only in the area of hands on experience of the Research Lab (which many times can not be done at home).

The other thing you can get from the university is the PACE of learning required to attain the rudimentaries of a subject in a short period of time (of which the science education excels at having a rigorous pace)

Humanities, Literature, Liberal Arts... meh... when the Higher Education bubble bursts, these will return to the homestead of yore.

----

From my viewpoint, I see the importance of less interdependence with this ever so obviously failing culture/civilization and a bright future in Hobby Farms and the canning of food...

Daphne, you might owe them the first semester. If they can get good grades, they can find work and put themselves through the rest of college.

They probably will realize fast that paying for that crap isn't worth it, quit and learn something useful that cannot be taken away by a robot or the Government.

the number of people that succeeded without college is huge; all had one thing in common: Drive to succeed.

Another way to get educated is by getting a job or joining the military. After a few years being subordinate the kid will know what he does not want to do.
Besides, a young person of eighteen, maybe twenty years old cannot make decisions of that magnitude — "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

I eschewed college back in the mid-sixties, got drafted and served well; Uncle Sam taught me how to blow things up and kill people, a career path I would not recommend.
When they pulled me in from the cold my handlers made it possible for me to learn a trade, namely Electrical. That line of work sustained me comfortably.
I didn't have a bunch of letters after my name and I didn't worry about office politics, I made a comfortable living.

Pretty much the same with me chasmatic. I did four years in the Fleet from 70-74 on a carrier and when I realized that history and english majors were flying F4's I knew that I could never put myself in some subordinate position for very long.

Graduated from college in 3 years with 3.8 gpa, got into the oil and gas business and never looked back. The current slump in oil and gas prices and drilling activity forced me into early retirement but I'm in good shape financially. For the moment.

Hello, Daphne. Times have changed, really changed. Don't be the last to buy into a Ponzi scheme. 60% of college graduates are looking for work in government. What do you think the colleges are actually teaching? People send their kids to college in the hope that they may become bright, like your boys. So you must ask what you are you sending them to college for.

Hillsdale college in Michigan is first rate, and cheap. They don't accept any federal money and so are immune to federal mandates.

St. Johns college is not cheap, but they will work with you when they like the student. The best college remaining in North America, it is a Greek education in which education is transmitted through the classics and math; professors are called tutors, a labor of love without tenure; the classes are very small and interactive. Kids who are not cutting it are not asked back, same deal for tutors. The original campus is in Annapolis, the second campus is in Santa Fe. Enrollment is around 400 in each.

Or instead of supporting them for four to seven years into an unknown environment, send them to work straight away and in four years they will have no debt and four years of experience when your support will mean something as they start to hit their stride.

Thank you Terry.

Big hugs and kisses to you James Wilson. I do miss you in my life.

You too, Gerard.