Cannonball
Ex "Expert"
- Feb 25, 2009
- 4,890
- 113
How are going to measure whether it was a mistake or not?
Some people are highly intelligent underachievers though. My dad (who played college football until he blew out his knee) did the bare minimum to get the minimum grades he had to get. Still got into first an MBA program then later, law school. When he finished law school he figured he'd sit for the bar exam without studying, so he could get a good feel for it and make sure he didn't over study. For real, he only does the least amount he had to do to get by. So he went to take it with no studying after a night of heavy drinking, and passed it.
I'm trying to understand your point...teach your kids to do the bare minimum because they may still achieve their end goals with mediocrity?
Maybe I'm nuts but I value my kids doing the best they can including challenging themselves in rigorous coursework so they can get into a good school and have options when they graduate from college (job or graduate school). I can only imagine that getting a good paying job is going to get tougher and tougher each decade.
Someone once did an interesting study of two colleges. I remember the names, because I attended one of the colleges.
The study was done in Pennsylvania. It compared students with the same SAT and HS GPA. One group attended a large state university in the middle of Pennsylvania. The other group attended a small, elite liberal arts college in the Philly suburbs (NOT the main line). I attended the latter school.
On the average, the students who went to Small Elite Liberal Arts College did better financially in their post-college years than did the students who attended State U. So far it appears the college made the difference, right? Wrong.
They also looked at students who were accepted at Small Elite College but who attended State U. There was no statistically significant difference between students who were accepted at the elite college and DID attend vs. the students who were accepted at the elite college who did NOT attend.
The conclusion? The researchers figured the admissions office at the Small Elite College did a good job screening which students were more likely to be successful in later life.
This is important. If your kid has what it takes to do well in life, your kid will do well in life.
A HUGE caveat: Since that time, a number of very high paying Wall Street financial firms have pretty much limited their recruiting to students who graduated from Ivy League or similar level schools, and who graduated in the top half of their class. The financial firms are, in effect, outsourcing their HR screening to the Ivy admissions offices. So, if your kid really wants to go into finance, and has a chance to attend an Ivy, then she should do so.
If your kid decides to be a doctor or a lawyer or a PhD, people will remember the law school or med school or grad school, NOT the undergraduate college.
Some people are highly intelligent underachievers though. My dad (who played college football until he blew out his knee) did the bare minimum to get the minimum grades he had to get. Still got into first an MBA program then later, law school. When he finished law school he figured he'd sit for the bar exam without studying, so he could get a good feel for it and make sure he didn't over study. For real, he only does the least amount he had to do to get by. So he went to take it with no studying after a night of heavy drinking, and passed it.