MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Professional Gamer vs Neurosurgeon

> > Kids need a year off out of high school anyway unless they
> > really know what they want to do, and none of them do. Pushing college too soon can
> > end up with them going for the wrong degree.
>
> I kind of disagree with this. Sure, if a kid has no clue, it's a waste of money for
> him to go to college and "find himself". But if he at least has an idea of what he
> wants to do, I think it's much better to jump in straight out of high school. You can
> always make course corrections as you go along. Taking a year off, it can be too easy
> to let inertia take over. Next thing you know, you're a middle aged guy working in a
> convenience store for 8 bucks an hour.
>
> I guess it depends on the personality type. I know for me, taking a year off would
> have been a disaster.

The problem is that college is disgustingly expensive these days, and you literally cannot afford to make mistakes.

The best way to handle college is to make your child go to the local community college and get a generic "Liberal Arts" Associate degree before transferring to an in-state 4-year college for their Bachelor degree. A generic liberal arts degree is more-or-less the first two years of classes that all 4-year schools make you take anyway.

Doing the first two years at a local community college has definite benefits. The biggest of which is that it's much, much cheaper than a 4-year school. They live at home and commute to school, which gives them a little freedom, but lets them ease into being an independent adult so they don't end up in a hospital with alcohol poisoning after a frat party. Classes are generally easier, and there's almost zero admissions requirements and no competition for spots. If they screw up a little and end up taking 3 years to finish their degree, no biggie due to the lower cost.

Once they have a generic liberal arts degree, most in-state 4-year colleges will take all 60 of their credits due to reciprocal agreements when they transfer. Generally, if you already have an Associate degree when you apply to a 4-year school, they just wave you right in without all the SATs and essays and other bullshit that they make kids straight out of high school go through.

So to re-cap the most important bits... it must be a generic "Liberal Arts" degree as that gives you the best chance that they'll take all your credits, and transfer to an in-state 4-year school, again to have the best chance of all credits transferring.

One way to bribe your kid to go for this plan is to offer to buy them a cheap used car for commuting back and forth to community college if they agree to do it. Generally, you save so much money over all, that you still come out way ahead financially.

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