Student Loans

As a college student (feel free to immediately disregard my opinion as I don't own a Lambo and haven't graduated yet), I faced a decision about debt just a few years ago. Out of high school I had the choice to go to a good but not elite private school in SoCal that wouldve cost me ~43k a year AFTER scholarships, and subtracting what my dad could afford to pay to help out I would've probably rung up about 30k/year in student debt. My other choice, the one I pursued, was to go to a local community college and transfer. I chose the latter route, and two years at CC cost me all in all 4k. Currently I'm at a highly regarded UC undergrad business school and as an in state student, and with the help of some scholarships and my father who sacrificed time and money to put my sister and I through college, it looks as though I won't have any debt upon graduation. Hopefully ill have a great job too. My sister who graduated from a public school in the south a few years ago only has about 18k in debt, which isn't that bad.

 

I think the route I took is arguably the best unless you get into an elite school like an Ivy leave or Stanford. Those schools cost the same as a University of Orgeon type or such (assuming you're an out of state student) but seem to have much higher prospects upon graduation. It just seems like such a huge advantage to not have to be paying $500-$1000 a month towards student loans for the first 20 years you're out of college. I almost feel bad for some of my friends who, as far as I can tell, are going to be getting a degree in a field with crappy job prospects but still be 80-160k in debt.

Street smarts > Book smarts.

 

I disagree. Street smarts and book smarts are different from one another and each has it's one invaluable purpose.

 

I'll gladly take the college drop out whom started his own shop to fix a car built on his passion, but I'd rather have the Doctor that had the best grades and graduated from the top of his class at Johns Hopkins when going under the knife.

 

Certain things REQUIRE education: Medicine, Law, Engineering. And while "street smarts" may make give you a functional understanding of survival in the material, you can't master something or reach the next level until you know why it is the way it is, and how that works, and how it all works together.

 

Generally speaking the point is there is no magic bullet to success. If you know your stuff inside and out, that's a great step, but you better be smart enough to know when something is out of your league or understanding. Otherwise no amount of street or book smarts will save your ass when you let your pride get in the way.