Should My Son Go To College?

Ok, this is my Friday’s deep philosophical question, but it is one that is bothering me.

My college days were in the early eighties and at that time, college was never presented as an option to me. Don’t get me wrong, my parents did not hold a gun to my head, but my Mom worked for a University that paid tuition for her children. I went to a good school (ranked well), 100% of my tuition paid.

My older son is 16 and we are talking about PSATs in the fall and eventually college visits. But we are also talking about him growing his online business. He has made more money with his business than I ever made on my paper routes, and I had two of them. He isn’t all that enthusiastic about college. He is an entrepreneur and has been homeschooled, so his educational model has been drastically different than what mine was when I was his age.

Here is the deal. He is struggling with seeing value in investing in a 4 year education. He wants to own his own business, and like many Millennials, he isn’t too impressed with corporate life. Remember, Millennials have watched their Dads and Moms give blood to their company and then when the economy headed south for a time, they ended up on the unemployment line. Not a particularly inspiring model, is it?

I read an article recently about whether college was worth the investment or not. I’ll end with this quote:

“If college costs
continue to escalate at this rate, you may reach a point where the
investment simply isn’t worth it.” - Charles Miller, chaired the U.S. Department of Education’s
Commission on the Future of Higher Education