What We Actually Send Our Kids to College For

As my elementary school aged children get older I've been thinking a lot about sending them to college. Specifically I'm thinking about how I'm going to afford it. There was a great OP/ED piece in Forbes recently by John Tamny that, although it didn't assuage my anxiety about paying for college, at least it helped reinforce my original intentions in the first place. The crux of it is this:

"Parents and kids once again aren’t buying education despite their protests to the contrary. Going to college is a status thing, not a learning thing. Kids go to college for the experience, not for what’s taught."

Most of us aren't entrepreneurs. Most of us aren't Walt Disney or Mark Zuckerberg. Most people get a job working for someone else. And the best place to get into that "club" of people who have high-paying jobs is a four year college. It's where you meet the right friends, potential spouses and networking contacts. And it's the first thing a hiring manager is going to notice is missing.

I just wish it cost what it did in the early 1990s.

Online Education Will Be the Next 'Bubble' To Pop, Not Traditional University Learning [Forbes.com]

"Is That $50,000-a-Year College Worth It?" Uh, maybe.

With the baseball season started and the tax season finished, it is time for the final rite of spring: Where to send the college deposit check.  That is the dilemma facing many families of high school seniors who have been accepted to multiple places.

via blogs.bnet.com

This is a question I know I'm going to have to tackle eventually - twice. What this article basically comes down to is - if you can get into a truly elite school, then it's probably best to go. If it's between an expensive middle tier school and a public university, the cheaper public option might be better.

The most interesting point to me was that if you can get into an elite school in the first place, then actually going might not make you any better off. UNLESS you come from a low-income family.

Of course measuring "success" is kind of difficult, but my advice? If you live in a state with great public universities, stay put.

via @deantsouvalas