"what do you wanna do after college?"

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>A thread in the College Life forum asked this question.</p>

<p>(sorry don't know how to link) url is:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=199506%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=199506&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I read through it and was glad to see how ambitious some people were. It was refreshing to see people want to join the peace corps, teach for america, doctors without borders, lawyers without borders, etc. It's nice to see that a decent number of those who responded in the thread were planning on attempting such endeavors.</p>

<p>On the other hand, interspersed in that thread there were so many people whose only goal is to make money. (It actually seemed like a majority wished planned on this). Several blatantly state it. I honestly got a little depressed seeing all of that. Thinking about it, it saddens me even more to think that so many people have these goals in life:</p>

<p>Get into an Ivy League college -> Make money -> Die. All I can think is how unrewarding all of this seems seems.</p>

<p>Perhaps I am missing the humor in some of the posts, but I just can't understand the mindset of someone who states that one of their goals is to marry a man who is rich.</p>

<p>Anyone else have a similar/different take on this? Am I in the wrong thinking that making money as a life goal will be, ultimately, especially rewarding?</p>

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<p>It may be unrewarding, but making a living is necessary. I just want to make a living doing something I enjoy, that's about all I can say about myself. I wish I were slightly more altruistic and could be happy living in a hut in Africa all my life while I save thousands from dying from disease, but I'm sad to say I'd rather live a more mundane life and raise a family comfortably somewhere :-/</p>

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<p>Grad 06, you are going to love Swat! It does not have that pre-professional, money making mentality and is largely defined by a culture focused on making the world a better place (as well as the life of the mind.)</p>

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<p>NJPitcher: I understand the need to make a living but I think that the majority of people who graduate from top schools are likely going to live comfortably anyways. I can't help but think, though, that if someone were to pick a career path based almost entirely on its salary (as opposed to whether they thought they'd like it or not), they would be heading on a road that might lead directly to unhappiness.</p>

<p>There's nothing wrong with making money. I was interested for quite awhile in working towards eventually getting an MBA to work my way up the management of a company. This wasn't because of the money, it was instead because I'm so interested in business. I'm also very interested in the stock market, and considered a career as a stock broker or financial analyst. Again, this wasn't because of the money but rather because I enjoyed the subject.</p>

<p>Overall the thread made me rethink how strong (or rather weak) the correlation between intelligence and shallowness is. I found an interesting definition of "shallow" from Wikipedia:</p>

<p>". . . There is no standard definition of what constitutes "depth" in this sense, but usually an individual is considered deep if they seem to be interesting, original, creative, philosophical or intelligent. By contrast, somebody who appears superficial, naive, materialistic, petty, unimaginative or a conformist is likely to be denounced as being shallow . . ."</p>

<p>It was surprising to see how many of those who responded to the thread fit the definition of someone who is shallow (at least as given by Wikipedia). This is shocking to me because this is a site where the average SAT score of members seems to be like 1450+. If someone were to mention that their #1 goal is to make $1 million a year as an investment banker by age 30, I would think that person most definitely seems to possess qualities associated with someone who is shallow, namely by being materialistic, unimaginative, petty, and a conformist. I'm simply surprised how many people stated that their goal is to have a well paying job as opposed to a job they liked.</p>

<p>mommamia: knowing that Swarthmore is largely characterized, as you stated, by a desire in students to make the world a better place is a main reason why it is so attractive for me.</p>

<p>I didn't start this thread because I think I am "greater than thou" or anything of the sort. I'm not putting people down because their life goal isn't to end world hunger or something of the sort. Instead, I am simply surprised how many intelligent people in this forum seem to think that their life can be made most fulfilling if they make seven figures a year. Maybe I'm in the minority disagreeing with that notion. I certainly hope not . . .</p>

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<p>I'd like to politely disagree with your characterization of people who want to do investment banking and finance, and god forbid, make lots of money, as "materialistic, unimaginative, petty, and... conformist(s)". </p>

<p>It takes a great deal of guts, originality, and yes, imagination, to make millions on Wall Street. The people at the top in banking aren't data-entering moles with no personality or imagination. They're people of great judgement and personal force. So they care more about the nine-digit numbers cascading on computer screens before them than most people do, but so what? So they like finance, enjoy juggling figures, like tweaking numbers till they spin millions of dollars of profit. Maybe they like math and playing with numbers. Maybe they quite simply enjoy seeing their bank balances get really fat as they work. Why does that seem like a bad thing?</p>

<p>Their individual experiences may have influenced them to create a nest-egg for themselves early on in life. A lot of people try to take up high-paying jobs early on, so they can pay off loans and have the resources to do the other things they'd love to - travel, write, do nonprofit work, whatever. Not such a stupid thing, is that?</p>

<p>Your definition of "depth" might be quite different from theirs. You may define being deep as being able to appreciate a Beethoven symphony, or perhaps create the next Mona Lisa. One of these kids might think of that as frivolous, and define "depth" as having the mathematical and personal acumen to create financial instruments that provide billions of dollars in resources to governments, firms and individuals. </p>

<p>How much a person wants to make money has nothing to do with how deep they are. Suppose they want to take that money and sponsor ten upcoming artists a year. Does that make them any less shallow in your eyes? Indeed, have you fully investigated what they intend to do with each cent of the money they earn?</p>

<p>And if you're expecting Swarthmore to be free of money-minded kids running for banking jobs, you're in for a big shock. They exist. Gasp.</p>

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<p>swatwallah:</p>

<p>What I attempted to explain in the second paragraph of my above post was that I think there is nothing inherently bad with making money. I'm more concerned with the emphasis of "I want to make $1 million a year and I can BEST go about it by being an investment banker" over "I want to be an investment banker, and may make as much as $1 million a year." Hopefully this makes sense? I'm planning on majoring in economics and I can assure you I don't consider banking or the stock market to be uninteresting.</p>

<p>"If you've never felt or realized the need to make lots of money early on, I'm happy for you. Just keep in mind that a lot of people don't have that sort of financial security, and would like to have it before they have kids or do what they really want to."</p>

<p>I am not so sure it's about financial security with the numbers that the people in the thread were talking about. Making "just" $100,000 a year would be fine but people wishing to make $1 million a year is a little over and above what it means to be financially secure.</p>

<p>It was wrong is me to be so rash with accusations of shallowness, but at the same time I will say again that the thread, overall, made me rethink how strongly correlated intelligence and "depth" are.</p>

<p>"Their individual experiences may have influenced them to create a nest-egg for themselves early on in life. A lot of people try to take up high-paying jobs early on, so they can pay off loans and have the resources to do the other things they'd love to - travel, write, do nonprofit work, whatever. Not such a stupid thing, is that?"</p>

<p>I do not disagree with you. At the same time, many people take up high paying jobs not to travel, write, or do nonprofit work, but rather so that they can own a mansion, own a yacht, and drive a Hummer. If those are instead the reasons why someone wants to make millions, I again wonder if I am in the minority thinking that such a person might be on a path that, in the end, they will find unfulfilling.</p>

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<p>There are lots of not terribly bright or imaginative folks who do make a fortune in the financial field. And there are lots of "shallow" people who
are fulfilled by having the most toys at the end of the game. I wouldn't despair for them. And yes, there are undoubtedly all sorts of kids at Swat but it has a different mentality in comparison to many of the other top schools in the country.</p>

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<p>Grad06: I think that your outlook on life and your future is very different from people on CC, but I agree with you. For me, life is more than just making money and dying, because of the type of situation I was brought up in, I would hate to be the one making money and not helping out those who really needed it.</p>

<p>But swatwallah is also right, MOST college students, especially at selective/expensive colleges have the goal of going into a profession that's going to bring them money and thus happiness. Swat is no different.</p>

<p>Personally, I want to create scholarship programs and community educational outreach programs in St. Louis, and to do this, immediately, I'm going to need some money. Still, the goal of getting into a "good" college, making money, and dying does seem hella sad and petty. THe moral is, it kinds sucks but the vast majority of people think like that.</p>

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<p>brickbreeze:</p>

<p>"But swatwallah is also right, MOST college students, especially at selective/expensive colleges have the goal of going into a profession that's going to bring them money and thus happiness. Swat is no different."</p>

<p>This just came as a surprise to me. Where I come from, only very rarely does someone go to a "selective" school. There is no mentality of get into a successful school -> make money.</p>

<p>There is nothing wrong with making money, of course. If your goal is to make money just to make money, then I only wonder if you will find that rewarding. If someone said they wanted to make $1 million so they could provide the best for their kids, or so they could donate more to charities, or so they could retire early to free up time to fight for a cause, then the person would probably find that making that money would make their life more rewarding. I'm talking more about the people who wanted to buy mansions with their money or just reinvest the money to get richer or to buy chateaux in Franch. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing anyone in that thread that mentioned that the person wanted to make money so that they could give their kids all the chances they never had or something like that.</p>