According to famed investor and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Warren Buffet, “Price is what you pay and value is what you get.” And, given that the total price for college continues to rise at a rate greater than consumer price inflation, and families have already invested considerable capital as well as effort to prepare for college, it would be wise to properly value a college education to avoid malinvestment and costs that can have life long detrimental impacts.
Valuing one college experience over another is a complex process, requiring understanding of the reasons why a student is attending college in the first place. Self-reflection with trusted mentors, both before college and throughout one’s college career are essential for students to gain and revise such understanding and vision of one’s purpose in life. Then, students can readily recognize those opportunities where they’ll network with others who seek similar objectives in life both during and well after college.
Yet, too often, families speculate during the college admissions process, under the illusion of great gain in ascending the social ranks to the realms of elite complete with lasting prosperity and untold riches—the modern American Dream—yet risking great losses, both in not meeting their expectations (being denied admissions), but also of a young person graduating college with little, if any more understanding, of their inherent self, but now deemed by society to be a full-fledged adult, imbued with the responsibility to “do great things”—an awkward position at best.
Doing 80 percent or more of what you are told at a level of 80 percent or better throughout high school will more than likely qualify for college admissions, but will it guarantee economic prosperity and peace of mind? Acceptance into and graduating from college, an ever increasing costly proposition, does not always equate to value. To find value in college and throughout life requires understanding, sought after constantly with both courage and patience, as well as a willingness to change when our understanding requires it.
For more information about how Creative Marbles experts help families reduce the risks of malinvestment in a college education, contact us at Creative Marbles Consultancy
