Maybe, maybe not. I’m not going to run through this entire thread at this point, but you hit on something that was similar to what I was thinking when I read the OP’s post. Find applicable/transferable skills that you can adapt from whatever major you had and be willing to pay your dues, learn, maybe find a mentor and work your way up. Also totally agree with getting in on internships early and often.
OT: "half of college grads are working jobs that don't use their degrees"
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The New Jersey legislature passed a law some years back that pretty much obligated Rutgers and the state's other four year schools to accept community college credits. My understanding is that Rutgers had a record of badly screwing transfers from community colleges. Having gone to college in California, I always found this upsetting: in California, every community college is able to specify in its catalog what courses the University of California will accept for credit.
Don’t sell yourself short. Those of us who graduated then had to find jobs the hard way - responding to ads, mailing individually typed cover letters, in-person interviews, etc. We were limited by what we had access to. Resourceful grads today have much greater opportunity to search for great jobs. I’m proud and jealous of my kids and their spouses for the great jobs they’ve landed that I never could have even known about in my early career.
She has a good idea that she has a good inheritance, it helps knowing you don‘t have to save for retirement.
BCC is really good with it. Where I grew up- near Poughkeepsie NY- almost Dutchess cc credits transferred to Marist. This is the most impotent thing with CC’s.
Need to look at college and degree choice as an investment.
In the past, any college degree likely afforded you a good life.
But now a college degree has become what the high school degree once was: a bare minimum credential.
In the past, any college degree likely afforded you a good life.
But now a college degree has become what the high school degree once was: a bare minimum credential.
Exactly. Need to be strategic about a college degree now. Can't major in something that'll amount to nothing but thousands of dollars in student loan debt.
Or maybe the kid is just working their ass of and providing and the 4 mil doesn’t factor in..,
Dave flexing a bit.
Obviously, you know there are mostly regular people on here. By “regular” I mean people with pretty good income and retirement plans.
You don’t need to flex. And I’d avoid humble brags.
Not looking for a fight or an argument. Just thought it was an unnecessary flex that might make others feel like “well…I don’t have that kind of money.” (I 100% did not think that.)
(Yes Rutgers, I think you would like “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek.)
Who cares if your kid works for Goldman vs. Starbucks? Are they a good person contributing meaningfully to society?
I have a son who will never make more than $30,00 a year (2024 dollars), and his idea of a day off is to take the overnight shift at a homeless shelter.
I was a psychology major in the 80’s, was accepted to the Rutgers doctoral program, but pivoted at the last minute and went to grad school for the hot new field of Computer Education. I was going to become a software developer, but became a computer teacher, and ultimately, a director of technology. I just retired and now I give talks at school districts about how AI will change education (and society).
Do I use the skills I developed while earning my psychology degree? All the time. Now I help educators who will be dealing with profound change. Sometimes you can’t predict how you will use your degree, and unless you are studying engineering or pharmacy, your undergrad years should be more focused on personal and intellectual development. That will prepare you for almost many job.
Do I use the skills I developed while earning my psychology degree? All the time. Now I help educators who will be dealing with profound change. Sometimes you can’t predict how you will use your degree, and unless you are studying engineering or pharmacy, your undergrad years should be more focused on personal and intellectual development. That will prepare you for almost many job.
that's awesome and proud of him I'm sure however, it's unrealistic and unless he's living in your basement with his family and you're prepared to take care of them all, it's not ideal
it matters, you know it
I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned the amount. He also happen to work at the right company at the right time when the stock soared like GE before they fell, or Apple or Microsoft, also has a pension like a public employee. I think 30-40% of the board are doing as well being business owners, lawyers, managers or directors. Base on the traveling, the towns people live in and vacations mentioned on the board, there are many that are doing as well. I noticed that everyone mention their exceptional kids that get merit or athletics scholarship on the board. I don’t have any exceptional relatives that can get financial aid or any type of scholarships.
The story was about his daughter that didn’t do so well financial and is one of the ones mentioned in the article by the op. I didn’t mention before that she probably was in the lost generation created by the Great Recession. No matter how well you do in school or what school you went to, it may take hard work to succeed but it also takes luck. The safety net is there for the ones that run into some bad luck. The kids when they get their inheritance will get it will be in their 50-60’s so it’s a safety net if they didn’t save enough for their retirement.
Economics is pretty useless unless you graduate at the top of your class. That's what I majored in and it was very tough getting a good job. Once I went back and got my MBA in Accounting, I got a much better job.
Funny story: Today I bought a new truck. The salesman saw that I had Rutgers license plates and said he went to Rutgers too. Turns out he graduated one year after me. He said that he majored in Political Science and that's why he sells cars now.
Along with having underpaid adjuncts (often denied access to copiers) teaching classes, and ripping kids off for tuition, refusing transfer credits was another way of squeezing extra dollars. They often did these things while banging on kids about capitalism and economic inequality and injustice.
Like everything else, if you are at the right school and have great grades, you will be fine. Luck and who you know certainly helps.
It would appear so and has been for a long time. Harvard, Penn (Wharton), Princeton, and several others churn out plenty of Econ grads who often find themselves landing finance roles as they don't even offer undergrad business programs/majors.
Those schools have churn out history grads that land finance roles. Of course, part of that goes to who you know.
Not sure I would go to college if I was 18 in this economy. I would become a plumber and open my own business. Have recently had three plumbing jobs done two were leaks and one was to run a gas pipe for a Direct Vent fireplace. Total was about $5000 for less than 5 hours of work
Electrician
Plumber
Heating and Air
Pipefitters
Welders
All good fields. I am sure I am missing some others.
My neighbors kid decided to stop going to college and got a cosmetology license. She is doing well. I believe she opened her own shop.
I’m an Econ major.
I graduated by the skin of my teeth and basically floundered around dead-end positions for the first 5 years out of school.
Once I built up my resume a bit, I was finally able to get my career on track.
Lesson: pick the right college/major and get good grades. That way you get out of the gate strong and won’t have to waste the prime years of your 20s digging yourself out of a hole.
You’ll have more money earlier on which means you can enjoy your single life more and build up your retirement accounts.
I graduated by the skin of my teeth and basically floundered around dead-end positions for the first 5 years out of school.
Once I built up my resume a bit, I was finally able to get my career on track.
Lesson: pick the right college/major and get good grades. That way you get out of the gate strong and won’t have to waste the prime years of your 20s digging yourself out of a hole.
You’ll have more money earlier on which means you can enjoy your single life more and build up your retirement accounts.
EDIT: Sorry, this rambled more than I thought. You can skip to the end to get the points I'm trying to make lol.
As others have mentioned, sometimes college is valuable even if you aren't using your degree. It's also worth mentioning that you never know what connections you make during those years could end up being pivotal, so it's important to be friendly and respectful to everyone.
During my freshman orientation, one of the speakers said that about 50% of college students change their majors. I was set on accounting and remember hearing that statistic and thinking, "What a bunch of idiots, how do you still not know what you want to do?" A year and a half later, I changed my major. I was set on accounting because my dad was a CPA and I took a college prep accounting class in high school and did well in it. That "college prep" class really only prepared me for the first week or so of the actual college class. After that, the material got pretty dry. I enjoyed working with numbers but it involved less math than I expected and felt more like a law class. I also knew my grades probably weren't good enough to get into the business school, so I switched to sport management. I wanted to work in pro hockey and do marketing. My senior year I decided I didn't want a corporate job and would rather deal with regular everyday people, and set my sights on running a local ice rink someday.
One of my classes, advanced sport marketing, basically had one assignment--we each spent the semester working on a business plan. Throughout college, I worked at a small hockey equipment shop at an ice rink. I was working on this business plan while at work one night, and one of the managers from the rink came in to pick up something he ordered from us. He asked what I was working on and I told him I was writing a business plan for a rink and I want to run a rink someday. He said that was his goal too, so we stayed in touch and I met with him a few times to gain valuable insight to use in my business plan. A few months later, he was hired at a different ice rink and was tasked with putting together a new operations staff. He hired me as soon as I finished college, but all they could give me was a part-time position. I didn't need a degree for this job, but it showed them that I was serious about making a career out of this. I remained part-time for a few years, but during that time, he taught me how to do pretty much everything there, and gradually gave me more administrative responsibilities too. Eventually, a management company took over, laid him off, and promoted me to his position. I felt terrible, but that's life I suppose.
I was doing pretty well there for a few years, but eventually took on a bigger workload in exchange for a big raise. We didn't discuss when I'd get the raise or how much because at the time the GM and I got along well, so I trusted him. A year and a half later, my workload continued to increase, and I mentioned that I'm still waiting on this raise. Instead, he said the money wasn't there so instead of giving me a raise, my pay was cut via removing my revenue-based bonuses. After working at this place for just shy of a decade, it was time for a change. I interviewed for a general manager position at another rink, but did not get the job. I was burnt out of working at an ice rink anyway and wanted a job that I don't need to think about when I'm not actually at work.
I was hanging out with a buddy of mine that was a longtime coworker before he left to start a career as a maintenance worker for a nearby government transportation dept. He suggested I go for that. There was a multiple choice test involving questions about various trades as well as some math. I had almost no trades experience since middle school because even in high school I always requested woodshop, drafting, etc, but they would always just put me in the business classes instead because that's where they directed the kids with good grades. I got all the math questions right, and that carried me to barely passing the test. There was then a practical test where we actually did some woodworking, hanging drywall, etc. I thought I failed that, but apparently did well enough to get the job. I went from interviewing for a general manager position to making more money only a couple years into this blue collar entry-level job, plus I have good health insurance, plenty of time off, I don't have to think about work when I'm not there, and I'll retire with a pension.
I'm not using my degree anymore, but if it wasn't for college and writing that business plan, I wouldn't have become so close with the guy who initially hired and developed me, and wouldn't have become close friends with the coworker who pointed me towards my current job. To go even further back, if I didn't take that job at the local hockey shop during the summer after high school graduation, I wouldn't have even met the first guy and then the rest of my story probably wouldn't have happened. Someone mentioned early in this thread that early job choice matters. At the time, I took that job to make a few bucks over the summer, and it ended up being the beginning of a path that would eventually lead to a completely unrelated career.
A couple years ago, after I had left the ice rink industry, a guy that I used to play pickup roller hockey with when I was in college reached out to me on facebook. He was a recruiter at American Dream and was looking to hire someone experienced to run their ice rink and asked if I knew anyone qualified. I connected him with my old boss who taught me everything, and they hired him at the interview and paid him more than the advertised salary. For years I still felt bad about replacing the guy that taught me everything, so it felt great to have some closure on that and to give back.
TL;DR:
1. The value of college is not always the degree.
2. You never know who you meet that will end up being important later on.
3. Early job choice very well could have a huge impact on your career.
4. Blue collar jobs are well worth looking into, they're not just for kids with bad grades.
As others have mentioned, sometimes college is valuable even if you aren't using your degree. It's also worth mentioning that you never know what connections you make during those years could end up being pivotal, so it's important to be friendly and respectful to everyone.
During my freshman orientation, one of the speakers said that about 50% of college students change their majors. I was set on accounting and remember hearing that statistic and thinking, "What a bunch of idiots, how do you still not know what you want to do?" A year and a half later, I changed my major. I was set on accounting because my dad was a CPA and I took a college prep accounting class in high school and did well in it. That "college prep" class really only prepared me for the first week or so of the actual college class. After that, the material got pretty dry. I enjoyed working with numbers but it involved less math than I expected and felt more like a law class. I also knew my grades probably weren't good enough to get into the business school, so I switched to sport management. I wanted to work in pro hockey and do marketing. My senior year I decided I didn't want a corporate job and would rather deal with regular everyday people, and set my sights on running a local ice rink someday.
One of my classes, advanced sport marketing, basically had one assignment--we each spent the semester working on a business plan. Throughout college, I worked at a small hockey equipment shop at an ice rink. I was working on this business plan while at work one night, and one of the managers from the rink came in to pick up something he ordered from us. He asked what I was working on and I told him I was writing a business plan for a rink and I want to run a rink someday. He said that was his goal too, so we stayed in touch and I met with him a few times to gain valuable insight to use in my business plan. A few months later, he was hired at a different ice rink and was tasked with putting together a new operations staff. He hired me as soon as I finished college, but all they could give me was a part-time position. I didn't need a degree for this job, but it showed them that I was serious about making a career out of this. I remained part-time for a few years, but during that time, he taught me how to do pretty much everything there, and gradually gave me more administrative responsibilities too. Eventually, a management company took over, laid him off, and promoted me to his position. I felt terrible, but that's life I suppose.
I was doing pretty well there for a few years, but eventually took on a bigger workload in exchange for a big raise. We didn't discuss when I'd get the raise or how much because at the time the GM and I got along well, so I trusted him. A year and a half later, my workload continued to increase, and I mentioned that I'm still waiting on this raise. Instead, he said the money wasn't there so instead of giving me a raise, my pay was cut via removing my revenue-based bonuses. After working at this place for just shy of a decade, it was time for a change. I interviewed for a general manager position at another rink, but did not get the job. I was burnt out of working at an ice rink anyway and wanted a job that I don't need to think about when I'm not actually at work.
I was hanging out with a buddy of mine that was a longtime coworker before he left to start a career as a maintenance worker for a nearby government transportation dept. He suggested I go for that. There was a multiple choice test involving questions about various trades as well as some math. I had almost no trades experience since middle school because even in high school I always requested woodshop, drafting, etc, but they would always just put me in the business classes instead because that's where they directed the kids with good grades. I got all the math questions right, and that carried me to barely passing the test. There was then a practical test where we actually did some woodworking, hanging drywall, etc. I thought I failed that, but apparently did well enough to get the job. I went from interviewing for a general manager position to making more money only a couple years into this blue collar entry-level job, plus I have good health insurance, plenty of time off, I don't have to think about work when I'm not there, and I'll retire with a pension.
I'm not using my degree anymore, but if it wasn't for college and writing that business plan, I wouldn't have become so close with the guy who initially hired and developed me, and wouldn't have become close friends with the coworker who pointed me towards my current job. To go even further back, if I didn't take that job at the local hockey shop during the summer after high school graduation, I wouldn't have even met the first guy and then the rest of my story probably wouldn't have happened. Someone mentioned early in this thread that early job choice matters. At the time, I took that job to make a few bucks over the summer, and it ended up being the beginning of a path that would eventually lead to a completely unrelated career.
A couple years ago, after I had left the ice rink industry, a guy that I used to play pickup roller hockey with when I was in college reached out to me on facebook. He was a recruiter at American Dream and was looking to hire someone experienced to run their ice rink and asked if I knew anyone qualified. I connected him with my old boss who taught me everything, and they hired him at the interview and paid him more than the advertised salary. For years I still felt bad about replacing the guy that taught me everything, so it felt great to have some closure on that and to give back.
TL;DR:
1. The value of college is not always the degree.
2. You never know who you meet that will end up being important later on.
3. Early job choice very well could have a huge impact on your career.
4. Blue collar jobs are well worth looking into, they're not just for kids with bad grades.
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Would a few business and accounting classes at a CC with an associates degree help her run her business ?
Maybe but I think learning QuickBooks or one of the bookkeeping programs would be sufficient
Economics is not useless. As long as you get above a 3.0 gpa, you are a natural candidate for bank rotation programs, which are an excellent way to start your career. If not banks, Prudential hires many grads, and is where I got my start. Lots of opportunities to start out as a junior financial analyst or financial reviewer. Just need to learn excel on your own.
If you want to make the big money, you need an MBA. I would recommend working three years, then going back to school.
A have a good friend who is a plumber - he could give you a long diatribe but keeping it short, your plumber did not clear $5,000. Cost of parts, insurance, maintains plumbing license, vehicle etc, not to mention value of experience are all part of the price you paid.
Luck and who you know: dad worked at RU and was able to land me a summer job.
When I graduated had one Eco related interview - Business Week didn’t get job so stayed on at hourly summer job, but two months later, office manager left and I was offered job. Led to 30+ year RU career
I don't know about Zuckerberg but Gates' father could supply all the legal advice for free and connect Bill with the other services he needed.
People so sorely estimate the who you know factor. College is also about connections.
Having graduated from RU...I probably have at least one friend in every major white collar profession. That alone is worth the value. Free professional advice on basically at my fingertips.
The connections he got in college likely help with that kind of position that an 18 year old who starts at out of college wouldn't have. And even jobs that don't require college grads often prefer them.
I think the problem is that it is easy to get injured doing a lot of those, and then what happens when you're 30s 40s 50s without anything else to fall back on? And for cosmetology, eventually women "age out", fairly or unfairly, customers want the pretty young face.
With an education, unless you lose your mind, it cannot be taken away. And it can be used outside of a career just as much as inside.
econ is fine and opens doors, I went to Cantor with one
After my mba, i was accepted to a one year econ program at the LSE but opted to go back to wall st. Econ is a fine major, shows critical thinking, problem solving, mathematics, etc etc
3.5 gpa and you’re set. You should be able to la d a great job or great grad school as long as you have decent standardized scores.
+1
Most liberal arts degrees are worthless in the real world. Any major with "studies" in the name is likely garbage.
After working a few years (ChemE), I went back to RU for an MBA. By far the best decision of my career. I learned a lot and was able to pivot from R&D to commercial in pharma/biotech. Yeah, you can learn these skills on the job in many situations, so the degree is a bit of a box check. However, it is an important one and helps with the early part of careers.
I don't exclusively hire MBAs, but those with one or a younger professional busting it to get one part time always piques my interest. Very high on PharmDs as well.
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