That’s indeed what I’d call a small percentage.
Sure and most HS graduates don’t get a degree. That is hardly relevant. Please go back and look at the title to the thread you are all posting on. Elite/Ivy grads, so lets keep on topic and not discuss the average HS student. As for living in Palo Alto the crisis is quite severe so your example ucb is way out of context. Good luck on 110k.
Why would you become a HS teacher when you can become an elementary school teacher. Teenagers are mostly unpleasant.
Usual progression: elementary school teacher in a private day school–> getting married with an ad in the NYT bridal section–> SAHM–> Director at the Granpa’s Charity. Elite education is quite handy for this scenario.
“More challenging career”? In what sense?
I was an elite college grad whose parents paid full fare, and I was a public school teacher after I graduated. My parents were very proud of me. I simply can’t imagine that there are many well-educated, cultured, affluent people who would be disappointed or ashamed of spawning a professional educator. After all, education is what it’s all about. How can you worship elite college admissions and not respect the people who make it possible? It makes no sense.
Why is it out of context that half of Palo Alto households have income of $126,771 or less?
They say that they cannot afford a $2.7 million dollar house. But there are many houses for sale in Palo Alto for much less. Granted, $1.5 million is still a lot of money, but it is a lot less than $2.7 million. And Palo Alto borders other cities where housing is considerably less expensive.
If only more elite school grads would enter teaching. How many professions have the ability to impact so many?
Regarding spending big bucks for an elite education, then grad enters a relatively low-paying field:
- A college grad may work as a teacher or museum curator or something else for a few years, then choose to move to another path. What is going to better equip her for professional school or another career direction--- a BA in finance or history from a Top 50 LAC, or a degree in education from Southwest Somewhere State?
- Besides a different set of alumni connections from an elite college, there is a different pool of marital possibilities there as well. (Not everybody marries someone from college, and of course there are anecdotes of kids meeting future spouse at a directional, and that spouse becomes millionaire). But you are more likely to find a high earner to marry at a more elite college.
- Sure, a family could spend 100K for son to get a degree from a state school, rather than 250K at an elite. (Assuming full-pay). Then take the extra 150K and stick it in an S&P 500 ETF for the kid and wait 40 years. But how many families have the discipline to do this? How many 20- and 30-somethings could leave that money alone to double every 7 to 10 years?
- Beside the financial aspect, what about the pure intangible value of a degree from a college with smart and talented students, at a school with a 95% Freshmen retention rate, 90% four-year grad rate, etc., versus at a school where just getting the degree is the primary goal of most students? Why does a family take a three week vacation in Europe instead of a weekend at Disney World? Why drive a BMW instead of a Nissan Versa? Well, the answer is obvious for most families. You get what you can afford. But if you have enough to send your child to an elite college, I cannot think of a better way I'd rather spend my money.
Just make sure you keep your kid away from those Southwest Somewhere State kids and you’ll never have to worry about a thing.
In the 2014-15 CDS (latest I saw online), 59% of undergrad students received FA. It’s a high percentage because you generally need to have a very high income to not qualify. In their net price calc, a parent with 2 children in college like your example, can get FA with incomes of over $300k/yr (and typical assets).
You asked if I had attended a parent function at H. I haven’t, but I do know classmates from Stanford who went into teaching. Among my small sample size, all that started n HS teaching moved on to a different and related position relatively quickly. For example, one started as high school teacher at a lower income school in EPA, then became the school’s principal in a few years. She was on a full ride (parents paid no tuition, no room & board, no books, …), so I expect ROI was quite good. I didn’t interact with many parents, but I did know one well enough to be friends on Facebook. From Facebook posts, one might think they were as proud as a parent could possibly be of their daughter who started out teaching in HS, then later got her PhD and taught at a university level. They made it sound, they’ve known she would go in to teaching since she was extremely young, so the career path did not come as a surprise.
https://www.redfin.com/city/14325/CA/Palo-Alto
Which one can a family with a household income of 110K afford? @ucbalumnus LOL
Well, someone is living in Palo Alto with an income of $126,771 (the median there).
In any case, someone who works in Palo Alto (as a school teacher or otherwise) can live in a nearby less expensive area as well, since Palo Alto is not that large. The same can be said for any other expensive place that one may work in.
Households with 125Kish income with child(Ren) that are living anywhere resonantly close to Palo Alto are no doubt struggling households, unless they are willing to pay the price of living in bad schools and bad neighborhoods. And even then they don’t live comfortably…
I find it very sad–and very telling—that K-12 teachers are held in such low esteem in this country that some posters here would be “very, very disappointed” if their well-educated kids went into that profession. No wonder our schools are in such trouble and our kids perform so poorly relative to the international competition. In Finland, which beats the pants off the U.S. in literacy rates and in performance on international standardized tests, teachers are revered as national heroes and teaching is regarded as the noblest profession. And why not? What could be more important than educating our young?
I should perhaps admit some bias here. I myself am an educator, albeit at a college/university level. I’m reasonably well compensated for my work and I suppose university faculty enjoy an increment of prestige over K-12 teachers. But I don’t do what I do for the money or the prestige. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to pursue much more lucrative careers, but I was drawn to teaching out of a call to public service. The greatest satisfaction I derive from my work comes not from my paychecks, but from the sense that I am not only helping to educate young people in my particular subject matter, but helping them to find their way in the world. If I weren’t able to do that, I don’t think a bigger paycheck of any size could come close to compensating for that loss.
My D1 earned her undergraduate degree from what is by any measure an elite academic institution, a top 10 LAC which she attended as a full-pay. After dabbling in a number of possible majors she decided to “follow her passion” and settled on a major in classics—a lifelong dream, as she had been studying Latin and Greek from the age of 9 or 10. I fully supported that decision. As a family we’ve always valued education for education’s sake, not just for ROI measured in naked dollars and cents, which to my mind seems a crass cheapening of the educational process (though I understand why it happens). She didn’t want to become a HS Latin teacher (and there are precious few of those jobs left), and the academic job market is so dismal that there seemed to be little point in pursuing a Ph.D. So upon graduation she went to work with a refugee resettlement agency, which she found deeply satisfying because it appealed to her passion for justice for the most marginalized and the most desperate, whom she was able to assist in tangible, concrete ways. She thought about moving from there to law school, to specialize in immigration law, but she finally decided that she wanted to teach English as a second language in K-12 schools, and she is now pursuing the academic credentials to allow her to do that. This is a good move for her because she has a great rapport with kids, she’s a gifted teacher (as several jobs have taught us), she’s thoughtful and creative and empathetic and engaging, and she has a deep understanding of languages and language acquisition honed over years of studying both classical and modern languages and linguistics. It’s also a career that is in much demand and consequently will pay the bills and afford her and her family a moderately comfortable middle-class life, to “do well by doing good,” helping the youngest and most vulnerable new Americans adapt and assimilate, and find opportunities to make their own way in this country. Am I disappointed? Not in the least. In fact, I couldn’t be prouder of her… I think in many ways she’s a model citizen, and I think her elite undergraduate college, which deeply values public service and social justice and which she chose in part for those reasons, will think so, too. But I hasten to add that I don’t think she’s exceptional. Many of her generation are making similar choices, or would if they could see their way clear to do so. In my book, this is all to the good, and I am proud of all of them.
@panpacific, why is renting not being considered?
@PurpleTitan because the rent in Bay Area is so high and forever increasing, renting for a family with kids means either poor living condition or prohibitive cost, which is just another form of struggling…
This attitude that (going to an elite) to become a museum curator is somehow better than being a HS teacher (which I completely disagree with, BTW).
If you think about it, it says a lot.
It’s a very “what will the neighbors think” mindset. Blech.
I don’t think that many (any?) here hold that position. However, some posters have (I think rightly, unfortunately) pointed out that there are a good number of people in this country who would hold that position.
But I suspect that the ones who are willing to become museum currators are more likely to approve of HS teacher as a career choice. It’s those that aspire bigger financial success in life than what a HS teacher or a museum curator would likely to bring about that think a HS teacher after an expensive elite education would be dissapointing.
There are many elite college students choose to work in less lucrative occupations - there’s no doubt about it. But I think most of others get in profitable industries or choose jobs with more earning potentials do so for practical reasons. Nowadays elite college students are from more diverse backgrounds. The top 1% have the luxury of being able to do whatever they want to do and for mysterious reasons many of them still choose to work in the “high profile” industries. Some of those from poor(er) or middle class families are driven to use their elite education to drastically change their socioeconomic status. Some of those from upper middle class working professional families feel compelled to find ways so they can continue the lifestyle they have grown used to… There may be some individuals who choose what to do for “their neighbors” but I think they are rare.
What I think is funny is the notion I’m supposed to survey other parents at a Harvard/elite function to determine my own set of values. If I find that 98% of the other parents at an elite school function think X, I’m supposed to then think X too? So lame.