<p>I believe Cal Tech and MIT are Div III schools. Sports divisions don’t have any connection to academic prowess. </p>
<p>It is amazing to me how many people view college as a need, not a want. I think it is a great idea for most people and I encourage my own children to go to college and do well. I also know a lot of very successful people who either never attended or never graduated from college. </p>
<p>For those who think college is a right of passage and not a path to gainful employment…it must be nice to be so stinking rich that you can squander resources for kids to have 4 years of partying and enlightenment with no expectation that it will produce any tangible ROI. I would argue the dollars you spend giving your children 4 years of fun and frivolity would be better spent on a scholarship for a kid who needs that education to better himself and his family in a tangible way. </p>
<p>I guess having grown up in poor, under-educated family myself I find this approach to higher education to be abhorrent. My family could to little to help us get an education, but they taught us to be self-reliant and to put family first. 3 of 4 of us got degrees. 2 of those are advanced degrees. One went the military route, one worked through school and one took the longer route but all finished with little or no debt. None of us would dream of not supporting our parents in their old age. We honor them for giving us the tools to accomplish our educational goals through hard work and self-determination. That was a much bigger gift to me and my siblings than had they the resources to pay for our college outright. I did not mean to imply that everyone who pays for their kids school will end up with ungrateful or maladjusted kids. But I think those who do it themselves, as a whole, are more capable individuals than peers (again, as a whole) who are products of parental largess. </p>
<p>Maybe that means college is not done at 21 or 22. Maybe it means a stint in the military or taking courses part-time as you work a job. Many companies pay for tuition for employees and the path may be longer, but it can be done. </p>