[jackleebusn]

Traditional Careers from Schooling that will impress your parents the most:

Option X - Surgeon/Scientist: Age 18-21: Caltech Undergrad Age 22-29: Harvard/MIT MD-PhD (8 yr dual program with Harvard MD and MIT PhD) Age 30-36: UCSF Neurosurgery Residency (#1 in US) Age 37: NYU Langone Hospital Neurosurgeon Scientist (#1 in US)

Option Y - PE/VC/Lawyer: Age 18-21: Harvard Undergrad Age 22-24: Blackstone Private Equity Analyst (3 yr program fresh new grad, skipping investment banking) Age 25-28: Stanford GSB JD/MBA (4 yr dual program JD and MBA program) Age 29: SCOTUS Fellow (straight to SCOTUS, directly skipping appellate clerkships) Age 30: Tiger Hedge Fund Manager or Sequoia Venture Capitalist or Wachtell Lawyer

Option Z - Software Engineer / AI Researcher: Age 18-21: MIT SB/MEng (4 yr program combining Master's Degree with Bachelor's) Summer after Sophomore Year: DeepMind internship Summer after Junior Year: Hudson River Trading internship Summer after graduating, before entering PhD: SpaceX internship Age 22-24: Stanford CS PhD (3 yr program for Master's holders, skipping the intro 2 years before Qualifying Exams; Google Researcher during summers) Age 25: OpenAI Research Scientist or Founder CEO (Unicorn/Decacorn before Age 30)

[thorin]

None of them would have impressed my parents as they would have had no idea what they were. My uncle was a doctor ( the only family member that I knew that went to a university ) but they weren't keen on him. They met in the army and had little education.

I did do a MEng in a high rating university, but they'd have been equally happy if I'd been a plumber.

[esafak]

Don't live someone else's life.