| > Poor kids who don't get a crack at high performing programs before college end up floundering. The number one factor I look at in a kids future is parental relationship. How attuned is it? Is it stable, or are they on the brink of foreclosure and moving place to place? Does the child have emotional support? Are their parents substance abusers? Do they fight each other and scream every night? (It can be hard to do homework!) When we bring "poor" and other characteristics into this - man, I feel we're missing an iceberg. We're just getting further from "fixing" anything, we don't even acknowledge the most impactful thing that effects people regardless of some characteristic that's so often a facade masking the family system. Home life can be a matter of maternal / paternal deprivation or abandonment, or over-controlling, or abuse. On the other hand, it could be the gift of having chill parents, a stable base. When college comes up, I worry. Commenters speak of colleges as if they're an annuity that pays out. Financial outcomes are almost always implied, if not explicitly mentioned. If you're not getting a license in some way, maybe it's just not needed. I see names at prestigious law firms, hospitals, business, gov at all levels that have gone to schools I never heard of. I've read academic papers and I have to tell you, very seldom do I ever see an "elite school" (whatever that means?) behind it. I'm not against any of these, it's more important for certain people's goals than others, but man does having a supportive family mean a lot. |
And yet... they still didn't know a lot. I remember in my sophomore year someone mentioned that they were trying to get an ibanking internship. I was like, "What is ibanking? A personal finance program for the Mac?" When I found out what it was, I was blown away. Like, doctors didn't make the most money? There was much to learn in the coming years...