Are you financially better off than your parents were at your age?

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

If I didn't go onto grad school, I have no idea what the hell I'd have done with my poli-sci degree from a liberal arts school.

Sure, I can write like a champ (or could) because I had 30-40 page papers due seemingly every other week. From that standpoint, practice gave me a pretty high-end ability to articulate thoughts/ideas in writing. I would guess at some point that would have paid off pretty well but it would have just been in some random-ass field.

I'm guessing I'd have gone and worked for State Farm or some other large volume corporate business where the stability of the organization appealed to me. I'd have then gone through the age-old story of trying to get noticed and climb my way up the ranks.

The standard college path contributes strongly to an 'ants-marching' mindset, IMO.

Mike Rowe has been promoting learning trades as a viable option from school.