It’s like buying used cars. As a parent you have to shop around and pit different colleges against each other for the best deal. No one knows what the real price is. And you may get a good deal, but the terms require a GPA that 85% of students fall under so mathematically the college knows they only pay the merit scholarships mostly for the first year.
Undergraduate is a racket. If my kids choose to get into tech I will use my connections to get them a job, either working for one of my companies or for a friend of mine, or start a company with children of friends. Now that is how the real world works - not handing 6 figures every year to a government sponsored scam.
>Undergraduate is a racket. If my kids choose to get into tech I will use my connections to get them a job, either working for one of my companies or for a friend of mine, or start a company with children of friends. Now that is how the real world works - not handing 6 figures every year to a government sponsored scam.
Your solution to the "racket" that is undergraduate education is to... engage in nepotism? What exactly is that supposed to mean in terms of policy implications? Rather than paying tens of thousands for an undergraduate degree, students should just ask their parents to vouch for them instead? What if their parents don't have the connections? And what about the flip side? Should your friends oblige you and hire your children without any credentials just because you're their friend?
It seems reasonable to me that if a child wants to get into the same trade as one of their parents, that parent should be happy to teach them directly and help them get work. If a parent is skilled in a trade, teaches it to their children, and vouches for them, that's not "without any credentials". That's a skilled practitioner vouching for having personally taught them, which is better than a university credential.
That's not just acceptable, but ought to be considered a moral obligation as a parent.
You're both not wrong. That's the beauty of this "problem" which isn't a problem but just nature.
Parents feel morally obligated to set their children up for success via generational wealth transfer of ideas, skills, and dollars.
My dad taught me to read before I landed in kindergarten. I'm convinced that as a result (compounded..) I was intellectually years ahead of my cohort until University (where I met everyone else who also was in their high school).
I was at a tailor in Italy and genuinely asked how I could learn what he knows (I'm a self taught amateur right now). He said he just worked in his dad's (now his) tailor shop since he was a boy. Out of reach for me!
I think most people help their friends get jobs. I’m 1000x more incentivized to help my own children over a friend. Same story for everyone, it’s part of human nature.
When reading your original comment, it sounds like you're saying that the solution is to avoid undergraduate college and leverage connections to immediately get a job. While that might work for people with those connections, how is that a solution for people without connections?
Undergraduate is a racket. If my kids choose to get into tech I will use my connections to get them a job, either working for one of my companies or for a friend of mine, or start a company with children of friends. Now that is how the real world works - not handing 6 figures every year to a government sponsored scam.