<p>Lets get rid of all warning labels and let evolution take its course.</p>
<p>Dont you mean * Natural Selection*?</p>
<p>Yes indeed. Sorry about that.</p>
<p>sounds more like “survival of the fittest” – check out the Darwin Awards…</p>
<p>Our generation is weak. I see so many Korean and Taiwanese at my school with their parents planning their entire future for them, forcing them to apply to certain colleges, and enrolling them in high cost SAT prep classes. I am glad that my parents do not dominate me like that, but I am also somewhat disheartened since having parents like that helps motivate you. My parents are the type that go “Just do you best and you will succeed.”, but I am a lazy punk.</p>
<p>our generation does suck. the need and want for money has increased. Our only motive to do anything is money. we’re selfish and narrow-minded.</p>
<p>TheGFG, That kind of stuff didn’t happen (in my area at least) at the middle school dances when I was that age (I’m going to be a soph in college) and I find it quite crazy. Although, For quite awhile now due to better nutrition and such the average for puberty has been decreasing. But, I find myself more bewildered by the other parent’s reactions “giving their boys extra money”.</p>
<p>Our generation is hard working, we get a ridiculous amount of standardized testing and applications to college involve more work than ever and so does the academic preparation for college.</p>
<p>Really though, everything is relative, and a fair amount of parents will be over-protective of their children (justified as a nurturing instinct perhaps, but gone much farther than that).</p>
<p>Yeah right. It is just that every subject is really getting easier. AP calculus does not compare with the difficulty of calculus 10 years ago. Sure the concepts are the same, but the complexity is much lower. We are in fact getting dumber. The SAT has been greatly simplified as well, adn even easier tests like the ACT are arising. Pitiful. And the very existence of SAT prep is a canker upon learning.</p>
<p>FastMEd, I disagree with you completely. Subject matter is absolutely NOT getting easier! Kids are doing in grades 2 and 3 what they used to do in 4 and 5 (in terms of reading comprehension and essay writing). In High School, they use mostly college texts. I went to a very well regarded high school, and did not have nearly as intense a curriculum as my own HS aged child has. I still have some of my papers too, which receieved A’s, and really are low B papers, by today’s standards.</p>
<p>fastMEd, you make it sound like the SAT prep itself is what should be blamed. If there is anything wrong with the current SAT test and the significance of standardized testing to admissions (and that in itself is a statement that is open to debate) it is that the test can easily be manipulated by specific preparation.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Many kids from my class (graduated last year) are planning to go into fields which are not exactly known for their earning potential. I don’t think we’re greedier than past generations. That being said, what’s wrong with considering money when choosing what to go into? Yes, some people have an absolute passion for one area and nothing else could make them happy, but many others could follow quite a few different paths and still be happy and good at what they’re doing. It’d be stupid to chase money and end up doing something where you’re miserable, but ignoring those practical concerns doesn’t seem like a very good idea either.</p>
<p>" …but ignoring those practical concerns doesn’t seem like a very good idea either."</p>
<p>This reminds me of a conversation I had with my father who went to college after WWII on the GI bill. He went into engineering–not because he had a passion, but because he tested well and it was a field where he could have job security. He said his generation didn’t worry about being “fulfilled”, they worried about being able to put food on the table and knowing they had a skill that would be demand no matter what the economy. He didn’t say that it was “right”, only that priorities were much different. He viewed his job as something that allowed him to pursue his “passions” on his off time, such as art—which was a field that offered little job security.</p>
<p>I think today’s generation probably looks at career choices with both some of the practicality of my father’s generation and also some of the idealism of the 60’s and 70’s—with a hope to find a working blend of the two.</p>
<p>Well, my father—who one that graduated from college in 1929 slam into the depression–did worry about being fulfilled, as well as worrying about eating. My father horrified his father by NOT becoming a lawyer and entering the family practice–which is what his two older brothers did. My father chose to follow his heart straight into journalism, and writing (and rabblerousing–he led his paper to several Pulitzers) was his passion and his vocation.</p>
<p>dmd, sounds like our fathers were coming from two very different points. My father had to hitchhike to college, shared one room with two other boys (they had a schedule for sleeping for the one bed) and lived on bread and mayo sandwiches most of the week (said he could afford meat once a week). He was first in family to go to college, in fact one of the first to even finish high school. So, for him, security was a major concern.</p>
<p>My daughter was first to go to college in our family- but while I did encourage her to go to a “regular” college instead of an art school, I wanted her to study what she was interested in.</p>
<p>She has always had jobs, so I knew she would find a way to support herself.
But if you were really just concerned with being able to make a living- my grandfather just graduated from 8th grade and made enough so that he was able to pay cash for a house ( they didn’t beleive in credit) in a pretty nice area of Seattle( albeit outer Mongolia), and we know lots of people who either didn’t attend college, or their jobs aren’t related to their degrees who are able to support their families.</p>
<p>( Plus if you didn’t go to college- you have no loans- in addition, you have at least 4 more years to have experience in teh workforce)</p>
<p>WIth engineering jobs, being sent to other countries, it may have looked like a secure career 40 years ago, but it isnt anymore.</p>
<p>It is interesting that someone that strapped for money would feel that college was necessary,( was this in the 50s?) especially since he didn’t seem to find it that fullfilling. He must have been very determined- It must have also been worrying to him to see people that weren’t as concerned about security. I know it was to my grandparents</p>
<p>He was in school in the 40’s. Got married in '51. He and my mother didn’t have a credit card until the 80’s when it became next to impossible to book hotel rooms, etc without one. As ek4 mentioned, many from this generation were skeptical of credit—and it served them well. I remember hearing over and over growing up “if you don’t have the money, do without”. That issue is something I worry about with my children—it is so tempting to college students who receive all those mailers offerings credit cards — so far, mine have been responsible, but I keep my fingers crossed.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My dad’s advice (I am going into my freshman year of college) is that you should never pursue something that you would be unhappy doing for the money, but that for many (even most?) people, there’s a number of careers they could see themselves being happy in. If you are in that situation, where there are several things that you believe you could have the ability and desire to do, that’s when the money should begin to be a large factor in your decision.</p>
<p>To me at least that sounds like a decent blend of the idealistic/practical views.</p>
<p>I now find myself wondering if the predictor for kind of job that appeals may be how one was raised. My father–whom I used as a counter-example to the “look for a secure job” argument–was raised in comfortable (although they would now sound austere) conditions on a gentleman’s farm (where his grandmother and grandfather supervised a mixed community of farm workers and family that totalled 24 people–all of whom my grandmother fed three meals a day–without electricity, using a wood-fired stove). He was third-generation college-educated. </p>
<p>My father certainly experienced demanding conditions and rose to them–he was an embedded war correspondent in Papua New Guinea with McArthur’s troops at one point–but it is certainly true that he took his next meal for granted. Even during the depression, he always had work, and work that paid well.</p>
<p>What’s “secure” anymore? The kind of jobs that our grandfathers (and even our fathers) had don’t exist anymore. And I don’t just mean the type of jobs themselves. I mean the culture in which you knew that if you started with the company at 18, you’d retire from there at 65. You did your job and your company (or union) would take of you. Today, people change jobs (voluntarily or not) multiple times, and they may also change careers. Leaving a legal career for business analysis would have been unthinkable in a generation ago, and yet I know many ex-lawyers.</p>
<p>It’s a different world out there now, folks. So if you can’t be secure, at least be happy.</p>
<p>“What’s “secure” anymore?”</p>
<p>How true Chedva. When our children have asked for our opinions on career choices, we have been very careful not to offer too much beyond “chose something you like to do and have an aptitude for”. We know too many people in today’s world that either have lost jobs at the age of 50 or are constantly worried about the security of their position at a time in their lives one would hope would be a stable financial period. </p>
<p>You are so right, when my father entered the work force in 1949, he started with a company and stayed with them until his death in 1986. That probably isn’t so common anymore.</p>
<p>I am a new college mom, and new to this forum. I agree with you and laud your stance at wanting to be close to your family. There’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t mean you’re insecure and needy. You sound like a well balanced kid; a lot like my daughter who is very ready to leave home. But I must admit that I am feeling anxious about her absence, and will miss her sweet little ways. It’s nice to know there are other kids out there who want to be close to their family, yet lead and forge their own lives.</p>
<p>LOL This topic is funny</p>
<p>Parents…* even if the Internet existed back then * would your parents have spent this much time on a college admissions web site?</p>