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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 |
I think the essays of Paul Graham http://paulgraham.com/articles.html , one of the founders of Y Combinator, are very interesting. Y Combinator gives start-up founders, in return for an equity stake, (1) a small stipend (2) advice, and (3) introductions My eldest son likes to program. I have wondered if at age 17 I should give him the choice of $240K for college or $240K to spend as he sees fit, perhaps to work on a start-up idea. I can't provide (2) and (3) of Y Combinator's services, but I can do (1). The Tiger Mother will probably nix this idea.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Do you mean your personal TM? Or just in a general sense? I plan to come back and add something here-- but I'm going to need more coffee first (PDT out here, it's still early). Gaaa... it's a relatively new international scholars program-- so a bit more like conventional higher ed in some respects, but the students move (as a cohort) around the globe every few months. Someone (here? or elsewhere?) brought it up recently during a discussion about higher ed, and I found the concept fascinating. I'll have to dig through some things to locate it. I'm having no luck uncovering it again with a search engine. Some of these are interesting: AERO's list of low-residency and alternative post-secondary schoolsI sure wish that I could convince myself that St. John's is worth the cost. {sigh} DD would thrive in that environment.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,478
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,478 |
My eldest son likes to program. I have wondered if at age 17 I should give him the choice of $240K for college or $240K to spend as he sees fit, perhaps to work on a start-up idea. I can't provide (2) and (3) of Y Combinator's services, but I can do (1). The Tiger Mother will probably nix this idea. A gap year, six months to identify and begin working at a niche business. Checkpoints for: identifying a market, developing a business plan, meeting with SCORE professionals, make a software development plan, begin programming. If at six months the market & business plans aren't moving forward, then he shifts gear to working on a meaningful software project within the open source arena while building out a resume of specific contemporary/bleeding edge technologies. Cost: food and a roof + <$2000 for development tools. Software is the cheapest arena to enter if you have the mindset, drive, and your own free technical skills.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Posts: 5,181 |
Here are some other alternative post-secondary ideas: The New Global Student: Skip the SA... and Get a Truly International EducationThat book has some ideas that are truly feasible and flexible, and look to be right up the alley of a lot of HG+ kids. (I'm going to come back and add a few more links that I've got stashed.) 
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Posts: 2,640 |
Do you mean your personal TM? Or just in a general sense? My wife would be understandably wary. In theory the $240K cost of college is an investment in the future, while $240K just given to a young adult could be blown in many interesting ways. But articles such as http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114744/luxification-college-dormsGranite Countertops, Flat-Screen TVs, Fire Pits: The Surprising Story of How College Dorms Got Luxe BY INGA SAFFRON September 18, 2013 New Republic make me wonder if college has become, for many children and their families, merely a respectable way to blow $240K under the guise of investment.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Yeah, we wonder that, as well. Living in a college town, we see some trends that certainly offer a compelling argument for the "four-year luxury vacation" theory.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513
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I'm with Zen. If your son is accelerated, why not allocate a predetermined time to entrepreneurship with the aim of still attending university. Your marginal cost as parents would be pretty negligible. IMHO, having some real-world experience before university will make your son's studies more valuable to him because he'll already have a mental model of at least one industry that interests him and personal experience to leverage on the other side of his degree.
Also, at no future point in time will your son's ability to withstand risk and uncertainty be greater.
What is to give light must endure burning.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,297
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Joined: Sep 2007
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This information in the OP's link to Popular Mechanics caught my eye: He needed 36 credits to complete his degree, but didn't know when he'd finish because some of the required courses were no longer being offered—and UConn couldn't say when the problem would be fixed. Back in the late 90s, I knew a number of people who had recently attended or were still enrolled at public colleges in California. They told me that students commonly took 5 years to graduate because of needing an upper-level class that was oversubscribed and only offered once per year. My understanding is that the situation is even worse now, and that 5 or even 6 years is the norm for many majors (e.g. engineering). For example, my friend's daughter had to take two chemistry courses over the summer just to finish a science degree in five years. So she lost a year of earnings and a chunk of summer earnings for the next school year on top of that. And there were those extra loans for the fifth year. This problem apparently occurs in many states. I guess a guarantee that you'll be able to take courses when you need them is one thing you pay for at a private college. But of course, this leads us right back to the question of the value of $60,000 a year for 8 classes, some institutional food, and a bed (more when most of the kids here are ready).
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Posts: 2,640 |
Back in the late 90s, I knew a number of people who had recently attended or were still enrolled at public colleges in California. They told me that students commonly took 5 years to graduate because of needing an upper-level class that was oversubscribed and only offered once per year. My understanding is that the situation is even worse now, and that 5 or even 6 years is the norm for many majors (e.g. engineering). The president of the California Senate proposed requiring California universities to accept MOOC credits to alleviate this problem, http://chronicle.com/article/A-Bold-Move-Toward-MOOCs-Sends/137903/California's Move Toward MOOCs Sends Shock Waves, but Key Questions Remain Unanswered March 14, 2013 but after they moved to expand their online offerings, he shelved the bill http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/california-puts-mooc-bill-on-ice/45215California Puts MOOC Bill on Ice August 1, 2013
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