^^ or not as simple as the best college that admits them.
Just saying: I thought it was savvy of my kid’s friend to go study radiation tech at the cc. She came out employed, with maybe 8k debt. Nice kid, well suited to the work. Poor, single parent family. Doing better than her older sisters who did the 4 year thing. And it’s something she can do in almost any part of the country. Or part-time, if she has her own family. She wasn’t interested in the rounding of a more academic college experience, didn’t assume anything about a golden ticket- and knew herself well enough to go for pre-professional.
A friend’s dau graduated with honors from a local 3rd tier, works third shift at the grocery store. That’s her, her personality, her limited goals, not her academics. Luckily, not in debt. Another graduated in engineering from the same school, still moseying around, will probably end up in a tech job that doesn’t require a 4 year engineering degree. Or sales (nothing wrong with that, for the most industrious.) But the debt.
As for my trainer, who majored in that at a big state U, she’s 23 and closing on a (nice) house, no family help in that. I guess the lesson is, ya never know. There are kids in poli sci who won’t make it big time. The difference is the kids themselves, how they hunker down. My former trainer was finishing his degree in education, wanting to be a gym teacher. Yeah. But he lit up and is now a regional admin director for the school system.
I guess what I want to say is: college is right for some kids, the debt (I distinctly mean reasonable debt) is just something they will deal with, they have the goods to take their position in life further. Others are missing something and need to take a safer economic path.