JCC College Admissions Help

Helicopter parenting perhaps. The most my parents ever did was offer me advice about picking a school and lending a hand with the student loan paperwork. They had no say at all in where I went or what I studied and I'd probably be doing something I wouldn't enjoy doing had I asked for them to hold my hand through the entire process of picking a school and what to study.

 

I'm sure he was being slightly (probably a lot more than slightly) facetious when he said he was making all the decisions. The is the JCC, after all... it wouldn't be unheard of.

 

As long as he's not like these parents were to their daughter in college.

 

I'm the money, at least in part, so I tend to frame it in terms of plausible choices. A lot of my friends with immigrant parents were told they would get help from their parents only if they went to engineering or med school. I'm not that kind of parent, except for the trucking school part. If that comes in at the top of the poll, he's going to trucking school or his out the door.

 

Keep in mind that many employers nowadays tend to look beyond the name of the school you attended. I killed myself for five years at a good Uni trying to get good results so that I would have a good prospect of getting a decent job. I got the job because my middle name is Welsh and my interviewer was Welsh and because I was a bit older than the rest of the applicants (as I was a mature age student). In fact, in some jobs, academic brilliance can be a turn off as there is a perception that academically gifted people can't function in a commercial environment. So, in many ways, life experience can be the leverage to getting a good job if you have the requisite qualifications. On this basis, I would go for college in Vienna.

 

Really? Academically-gifted people being discriminated against in the workplace?

Are you sure these people who were supposedly being discriminated against for their brilliance weren't also stunted in some significant way?

My experience has been the opposite... in fact, I once negotiated for a higher pay rate based solely on my alma mater.

 

Yes, in some jobs. For example, in some law firms the partners want a lawyer who can relate to the clients and provide simple, cear and concise commercial advice and in some law firms there is a perception that a first class honours student who has won the university medal is probably better off in academia. It's true that some gifted students make lousy workers.

 

State school! I graduated 5 years ago and I have no debt.

Last I knew, where you get your bachelors isn't as important as it's made out to be. If your son does well in undergrad and wants to continue his education, the fact that he went to a state school shouldn't hurt. I know someone who went to a state school (not even the flagship one), and got a full ride to Columbia University for his PhD.

Although Vienna sounds kind of awesome too. I bet college is a lot cheaper in Austria. So depending on what your son wants to study, it could be worth investigating.

 

Financial aid and student loans aren't the devil. They suck, sure, but they're not the end of the world.

Graduating in 4 years is really hard depending on your major, and especially dependent on if they switch majors too.

For my part, all I can say is that college should be their choice as to where to go within reason. I'm definitely in the "make them get a job" boat; I honestly don't think my actual degree taught me as much at college as my working and studying abroad did.

 

From what I've been led to believe the school where your latest degree is from is the one that really matters. A prestigious school can (not will) help, but, using your example, it's more important that Columbia was the grad school and not the undergrad. If they look at the name of the school at all then they won't care where you went to undergrad if you went to Columbia for graduate school.

My general philosophy is go to the best school you possibly can for what you want to do and damn the cost, but that's generally not feasible for most. The truth is your son can't just base where he wants to go (and it should be at least partly his decision) on just cost, or just name, or location, or program, or whatever. In the end all of it needs to be taken into account and it has to be synthesized into the best possible compromise you can. In that regard going to the best state school you can possibly get into might be the best option given. It shouldn't be the only one though. If you guys think he genuinely has a shot at getting into the big name schools, then by all means apply just in case. In that regard you should really tailor who you send applications to based on what the best schools are for the subject he wants to take.

Out of curiosity, what does he want to take? Does he have an idea? It should affect the decision.

 

I have a few questions. Are D-I schools totally off the table? Could he get some kind of sports scholarship to a D-3 school? What D-3 schools are you guys looking at? There are a lot of good D-3 schools. Playing a sport for the love of it is one thing, but in a lot of cases, it's the structure provided by being part of a sport that crosses over into academics. Coaches routinely look at athletes' grades, especially at D-3 schools where there isn't as much of a "win at all costs" culture.

Also, I don't know if the HVAC option was included as a joke or not, but I wouldn't knock trade skills, especially in this age when more and more college graduates are finding their degrees utterly useless.

 

yeah, this is a reality. I'm not telling him what to do, but I want him to know what his options are and how much debt he takes on, particularly if he wants to go to a school like Michigan, which is extremely expensive for out of staters and is notorious for not being able to offer much financial aid, or NYU, also a school famous for graduate debt load.

He's thinking of getting an undergraduate business degree. The business university in Vienna (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) would be an option. The complication is compulsory miliary/civilian service in Austria. Because of his dual U.S. citizenship, military service isn't really an option, but he could do 9 months civilian service potentially after completing a degree there. Tuition would be negligible, but living costs would be high, and it might be difficult to explain his degree if he comes back to the U.S. looking for work. Also, he has some work to do to get his written German up to a college level.

In my experience this is 90% true with the caveat that people will often care if you have an ivy league undergrad degree. I don't know if that would help for someone say with a Princeton undergrad degree but a J.D. at a second tier law school. The big law firms are probably only going to care about how you did in law school (law review? top 10%?) and where you got your degree. The top investment banks will only care where you got your MBA - Harvard? Stanford? My sibling got an undergrad at Wisconsin and an MBA at Wharton and went directly to Goldman Sachs, now earns about $15 million/year.

His first love is water polo, though he's probably good enough to walk on to some D3 swim teams. Probably would not get any financial aid based on a coach's desire to have him. There's only a handful of D3 water polo teams. I think he would get more out of playing water polo for a club team, and there are plenty of schools with those. I hope he'll do something to stay in shape. Also, he's an experienced swim teacher, so that will give him a potential side income throughout school.

Yes, but I've talked to him about trade programs. Austrian trade schools are far superior in training electricians, plumbers and the like. He has a cousin who trained as a master carpenter in Austria and is earning very good money.

 

Well then, why are you asking our advice? Your sibling can pay the tuition.

 

Because Goldman Sachs considers evil and extreme greed to be among the top employment qualifications.

 

Haters gon hate. I had a friend who graduated with an MSA from my college, and he went right into Goldman Sachs too. Needless to say, I am now trying to get mine. MBA to follow. If the world is generous, I will get into an Ivy League B-School for MBA.

 

It's bad form to ask a family member for money when you don't need the help.

A Medical Savings Account?

 

A nice trade school. The world needs more plumbers, mechanics, electricians, etc.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT go to a liberal arts college to major in some bullhockey like "Women's Studies" or "Queer Theory", because honestly there's no future in that unless you want to go on and become a professor in said field, and god help you because the job market is exceedingly slim and the tenured professors are grasping on as far as they can and do anything short of attacking you and literally eating you alive to keep their own jobs secure.

Hell, don't even major in HISTORY, unless you plan to go into teaching or move on to law school. I'm warning you, as much as I love history and historiography, it is a BAD F. MOVE if you are wanting to enter any kind of professional job market.


As a matter of fact....**** college. That's right. **** it right up it's self-important, overpriced ***.

 

I have a friend who got his phD in Sanskrit. In any given year there are about 2 faculty positions for that opening up nationwide.

 

More proof that following your passion is the worst possible advice when it comes to getting the bills paid.

 

Masters of Science in Accounting

 

accounting seems like a very solid degree in terms of job opportunities.

I had a close friend who died of pancreatic cancer about ten years ago. One of the wonderful things he did before he passed away was bequeath his tax lawyer/accountant to me. He is incredible at his job. I worry that he may be going senile though. He looks like he's in his 80s.