<p>I always kind of feel like the odd person out, since I’m a woman with a master’s degree in engineering. Not too many of us out there, at least in Maine. I relate better to men than women, but at most events I go to, the genders seem to stick to themselves. When I go to professional meetings, sometimes I’m the only woman in the room. It cracks me up that men feel the need to apologize to me when they say even mild swear words.</p>
<p>Since Mr PMK was an officer in the USMC for 22 years, everyone we knew had an undergrad degree and over the years nearly everyone has aquired an advanced degree as well. Family is the same. For friends outside the USMC, it ranges from no degrees to doctors. </p>
<p>One thing we do have in common is that everyone wants their kid to go to college and/or trade school. We all worry about our kids and employment. I think that’s just a fact of life, especially these days.</p>
<p>My social circles (and this includes family members) offer a wide variety–from some with a little bit of college to those with absolutely no college to several with post-graduate degrees. </p>
<p>I am finishing my master’s degree 25 years after achieving my bachelor’s and while several friends and aquaintances have similar educational experiences, certainly there are those who could care less about pursuing an advanced education of any kind. </p>
<p>I think it really kept me from forming some kind of higher-ed “bubble” and has broadened my horizons to include a wide ranging network of friends.</p>
<p>I have a professional degree/doctorate. My mom, dad and sister all have advanced degrees. My husband did not attend college and his parents attended, but did not graduate from college. We grew up in the same neighborhood, and if anything, his family has more money than mine. I have a lot of friends, who make twice what I make, and never attended college. Aside from my work friends, I would say most of my friend’s have a bachelors degree, but a lot didn’t go to college (and are very successful) and a few have advanced degrees. I have quite a few friends, with doctorates, who are stay-at-home moms.</p>
<p>I suspect that many of the guys we socialize with at the Y don’t have college degrees. I know some don’t. They are firemen, policemen, busdrivers, doctors, a printer, a real estate agent. At least one guy who is still in med school. And that’s the one’s I know of.</p>
<p>We moved around quite a bit growing up. Started in an area where most people barely finished high school and now live in a very diverse area. Both of my parents barely finished high school. I am first gen. Dad’s best friend has a master’s degree and is married to a doctor. Mother’s close group friends mostly have high school and undergrad degrees. My sister is a college drop out. </p>
<p>There is no rhyme or reason in our circle of friends. Both my parents and I have friends everywhere from high school dropouts to PhDs. I love it and it was a great environment to grow up in IMO.</p>
<p>My H and I are both physicians, so if we’re socializing with people from work we of course know the educational level of at least the husband or wife if that’s who we work with. Otherwise, with neighborhood friends or the parents of our kids’ friends, we don’t know. </p>
<p>It has caused some angst with us, though, in some situations, especially when we were deep in the college search/application process with our D. Her boyfriend’s parents didn’t go to college, and though they’re intelligent and successful, it was obvious that college wasn’t necessarily a given as a goal for their son. We did struggle a bit when he was thinking about college-- how much advice/help could we give without offending his parents, who were not sure of the process, etc etc.</p>
<p>^OTOH, most of my kids’ friends parents didn’t go to college (even though H was a physician and I am a college instructor), but the friends’ parents tended to have the same goals for their kids as we did. In fact, some of their friends with college-educated parents encountered more apathy or lack of support. Don’t think there’s necessarily a correlation there, and even less likely a causation.</p>
<p>I’m sure that’s true. I’m just talking about this one kid, and his parents, who had the same goals, but didn’t have the information about attaining those goals. They weren’t apathetic, but they started the journey behind people like many CC parents.</p>
<p>I’ve known several of my friends since our oldest was born & she’s thirty!
So while I don’t ask anyone for a resume, sharing information about their history is something many people just * do* overtime, unless they are in a witness protection program.
;)</p>
<p>I would say yes that most have similar educational backgrounds. However, there are a that did not finish college in the mix. The ones without grad degrees have bachelors and are working in family businesses. And yes, close friends do share their histories over time so I’m pretty sure I know which colleges all of our "group’ attended. In our neighborhood, we are sandwiched between several physicians and a couple who are both HS teachers so yes, we pretty much know their educational background if not the specific colleges but our closest friends do not live in our neighborhood.</p>
<p>I guess my husband and I are still searching for our peer group! We both need people that had 4.0’s three quarters of the way through grad school, took a chance and dropped out to live our dream, also starting a business no one thought would last now going into it’s 16th year. In other words we hang out with a diverse group because our story is a little wacky to some but those that “get it” (hs, college, PhD, MD’s) are our friends! :)</p>
<p>No more than 2 or 3 of my friends have a masters, and the rest either have 2 or 4 year degrees and are working. No other PhD’s than myself. However, nearly all of my work friends have PhDs, so I could see in a decade a situation where I have mostly PhD friends.</p>
<p>All of our friends have at least a 4 year degree, just worked out that way I guess. A lot of that has to do with the community we live in (60% of those over 18 have at least a BA) and since a lot of our friends are parents of our kids’ friends and they are all in the various advanced classes together, it just kind of happened. It isn’t like the topic comes up in conversation but knowing what everyone does for a living is kind of a giveaway :D.</p>
<p>Both my wife and I work(ed) in fields that require a graduate degree so as you’d expect most of our friends met in the workplace also have graduate degrees. Our immediate neighbors include engineers, teachers, accountants and a couple small buisiness owners. These folks, all of whom have a BA/BS or more, range in age from early 30s to 60s. We also have a few real senior citizens (I find it hard to consider myself a “senior citizen” at age 60) who are long retired from jobs in long-gone local factories. Most of our senior male neighbors do not have college degrees but their wives do.</p>
<p>I have found that people tend to gravitate more to those in same economic strata than educational strata with the exception of college professors</p>
<p>I would say 95% of my close friends have at least a BA. Some have advanced degrees (JD, PharmD, MD, OD, etc.). I have only a few close friends who only have a high school diploma.</p>
<p>The people that I get along with tend to have the same interests as me. I also met many of them during college. For those I met during high school, most had the ambition of wanting to go to college. You tend to be friends who people who have similar goals as you do.</p>
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<p>I disagree with this. I tend to be friends with those that have the same values that I do…not goals. I have many friends that I’ve known from childhood who did not attend college as I did. I’m still friends with many for the simple fact that they are good honest people.</p>
<p>Geeps–this is one place where I totally agree with you! 
I was thinking the same thing. I really don’t expect others to have the same goals as me. I have a very good friend who went to business school for secretarial work. She’s smart, funny, engaged with the world, and a good person --despite the fact that she never went to college and does office work. (and incidentally her son was the val of my D’s class, so I would not presume to make presumptions about what her goals were/are.)</p>
<p>Another dear friend–HS dropout who works on a family farm, supplements this with warehouse/trucking work, and is a phenomenal dobro-player in several bluegrass bands–also shares my values. He probably adds more to the world’s greater good than I do.</p>
<p>This is a high education area, so most of the people we know have post secondary degrees of some variety or other. I am ridiculously over educated and H is highly educated. But, he really tends to like guys who build things and work in the trades. So, we have a lot of friends who are builders and chefs and whatnot, though many of them do have bachelor’s degrees, as well. I think in his next incarnation, starting next year, H is going to be a custom furniture maker. He’s very talented and has been busy in finance all these years. What I like best in a friend is a good heart and a wicked sense of humor. If this comes from a high school drop out? I still prefer this to a well educated jerk or bore. YMMV</p>