Big name colleges worth the $$$

Agree but that is not Adam, Ryan one of my younger kids maybe.So Chris do you still talk to this women who does the screening?
 
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I see her from time to time- her husband and I remain good friends. I don't know that she's still doing it but I'm sure she's stayed involved with the university.

Interesting story- she was in the same class-year and dorm with Bill Gates.
 
Get the degree at a good college, get a job and let company pay for the MBA at a NAME school.

Also no offense to you or your son but how does a 16 year old know he wants a business degree ?
We have a boy who's now in his third year at Pitt on full ride and he still wonders about what his final career may be. Statistics show most college grads work outside their degree five years after graduation.
ed
 
A lot of my friends are doing the college rounds with their kids now and Chris is right the good schools are expecting kids to be very involved in organizations and charity work. With grade scores and SAT scores being so equal among a lot of their applicants this type of stuff is what sets the kids apart from one another. Is he involved in a lot of other things?


He is but probably not to the level that others are at he works full time in the summer and about 25 30 hours a week during school.So its not easy to do activities and honor classes you would think that he works would mean something.Maybe he can help out with the post of the week contest
 
Get the degree at a good college, get a job and let company pay for the MBA at a NAME school.

Also no offense to you or your son but how does a 16 year old know he wants a business degree ?
We have a boy who's now in his third year at Pitt on full ride and he still wonders about what his final career may be. Statistics show most college grads work outside their degree five years after graduation.
ed

Its always been his thing he was a Ebay power seller at 11 not that that means much but he pretty much ran the whole thing....at 11.
 
I hate to say it but......
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......How many parents will even admit that their kids have been recent CEOs?:banghead:
 
I see kids that are like f'ing robots. One of my friends has two kids on Ivy-league tracks. They are in EVERYTHING. Their entire summers are spent volunteering- not a couple hours a week, 50/60 hours a week. They're in student government, service organizations, church organizations, young political organizations and all srets of those well-rounded things like plenty of sports, piano/violin/voice/ballet lessons. And every extra waking moment is spent reading some piece of literature.
 
Statistics show most college grads work outside their degree five years after graduation.
ed

I was an accounting major....... # of days being an accountant.......0 :ack2::rofl::rofl:



But I am great with numbers. I always get to add up the scorecard on the course! :D
 
It will depend on where they want to work. For yourself or a small company, I won't, In a large corporation that you want to climb the ladder it's a bigger deal IMOH.

One of my former employees has a son who tooled around for about 10 years after high school doing all sorts of different jobs to find out what he wanted for a career, only to go and get a standard IT degree from some no name local college along with a few other software Certs. that he aquired on his own time. He applied at several large corps. and never scored anything more than a first interview. Last summer he was offered a 6 figure + starting salary plus a paid move to Washington to take a job doing top level financial management for a "medium" sized software co. Apparently his common sense approach to business was more than this company had seen with their current staff of business degrees.
 
I see kids that are like f'ing robots. One of my friends has two kids on Ivy-league tracks. They are in EVERYTHING. Their entire summers are spent volunteering- not a couple hours a week, 50/60 hours a week. They're in student government, service organizations, church organizations, young political organizations and all srets of those well-rounded things like plenty of sports, piano/violin/voice/ballet lessons. And every extra waking moment is spent reading some piece of literature.

I guess holding the same job since 14 doesn't mean much anymore.Maybe I will suggest instead of working this summer to go to some third world country and help build huts or something:(
 
If you worked at it, you could probably figure out how to turn the smallest thing into a monumental accomplishment. That ebay thing could probably be used; shows initiative, results driven, foreword thinking, creativity by getting adds noticed, I am sure some other good buzz words could be used as well. What's the job he works at, no matter what it is since he has been at it a while there are skills there, reliability, working with people, working across age barriers and race, handling pressure, letters of recomendation from there a must. Sometimes I think it's how you write all the essays about yourself that counts, if you can write well you can turn a small accomplishment into a world class event. You can even make a scrap book/ presentation about yourself For instance I held a charity day here at the lake for some kids from a shelter, I asked a couple of my friends teenagers to help out and watch the kids that were swimming. A couple of weeks later, one of the mothers called asking me to fill out a form about community involvement and stuff, I am sure she turned this into a lot more than swimming at the beach club with a bunch of poor kids. The other mom never called....... It's also about networking, find out who you know that has gone to the school your kid wants to go to, or has a kid there, even a friend of a friend of a friend. If your kid is good at networking he could probably find some kids that go to the schools of interest through face book and contact them. Just start by asking some open ended questions, "hey I see you are from near me and I was thinking of applying, how do you like it"... what did you have to do to get in, is it hard. Try several kids and a few are bound to be friendly, this will give you a lot of incite of how they got in and how they are doing, and after several emails later he might even have a buddy, that maybe can talk to someone, maybe knows someone. And since all these traits come in handy for CEO's he might as well learn networking skills early:D
 
I guess holding the same job since 14 doesn't mean much anymore.Maybe I will suggest instead of working this summer to go to some third world country and help build huts or something:(

My friends kids do that- literally. His son spends two or three weeks every summer with a religious group building houses in Central America. he's very fluent in Spanish and goes as a translator.

Here's another example- my daughter has never gotten anything but an A. She's a senior this year. Her ACT score is a 32. She's captain of the dance team, plays lacrosse, was in student council and does some volunteer stuff here & there. She was denied enrollment in National Honor Society. She refused to inflate what she did into something that sounded like she was saving the world. She also refused to do things she didn't want to do or believed in. So many of these kids are just doing it because they have to. Is that truly the spirit of volunteerism?
 
Here's another example- my daughter has never gotten anything but an A. She's a senior this year. Her ACT score is a 32. She's captain of the dance team, plays lacrosse, was in student council and does some volunteer stuff here & there. She was denied enrollment in National Honor Society. She refused to inflate what she did into something that sounded like she was saving the world. She also refused to do things she didn't want to do or believed in. So many of these kids are just doing it because they have to. Is that truly the spirit of volunteerism?


Good for her you can't learn integrity in college you either have it or you don't by then
 
Coming into this a little late. It is good to see that regardless of what school you pick, everyone agrees that college is a good thing.

There is a valid argument for both state/private vs ivy leauger shools.

We have 2 kids in college now. The first graduating this year with a marketing degree and the other just started in an engineering program. Both are in state schools and both will have different challenges they will have to meet.

The important thing is to find a good fit for your kid, dont worry about what sticker you will put on your back window or how much money they will make when they get out.

As far as student loans. If the parents pay the loans thats one thing. On the other hand if you ask your kids to pay, that is an entire different matter. It is very difficult to ask a kid, who lives day to day, as they should, to pay back a loan for the next 10 to 20 years. just look at the pay back, someone will have to pay back a lot of money for a long time. Our kids have their entire lives to get into debt, ( boats boats boats ) let them start with a clean slate.

Tim, my only advise is to find a good fit for your son, go thru the process, enjoy the journey, then sit back and watch him grow. Next summer we can sit back and discuss the cost/value of higher education.
good luck with your search
 
As a current student (graduating f09 from university of guelph), I would say go check out the schools first hand and DEFINITELY spend a night there. I went to Ryerson University first year and as much as I enjoyed the people and the classes, I absolutely hated staying in Toronto. I came and visited some friends at Guelph one weekend when I was in first year and the second I got here I knew it was right for me, so I took the initiative and switched. When I switched universities I went from being in criminology and law (wanted to be a lawyer) to being an honors student in geography and GIS. If he has the brains and the ability to go ivy league, I would say definitely go for it!

On another note, one of my roommates in trying to get into the Guelph Veterinary College for next year because it is considered the best in the country, and the amount of volunteering he does amazes me. He goes to a pig farm 3 times a week (MWF) and then works at a emergency vet (TTH). I really hope it pans out for him!
 
When my sister's boys were applying at different "name brand" schools one thing that seem to be of great interest was the fact that both boys had been Eagle scouts. As a manager that hired many people during my tenure I can tell you that yes, a degree opens doors, however, in the end it is the knowledge and preceived ability of the applicant that will prevail. You can have degrees running out of your a** but if you can not and do not present yourself well during the interview process it will be all for not. As was said before, a degree from Harvard or Yale is wonderful, but employers are hiring the person, not the degree. IMO.
Jay
 
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