[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Arles

1. Attend a trade school and start out with a nice salary for a 22-year old. Then use experience to carve out a nice career.

2. "play the game" in high school, do dual enrollment courses for college credit, get good enough grades to qualify for in-state scholarships and try to cut the cost by 50-75% using scholarships and college credits earned in HS.

3. Don't get the best grades or credits in HS, but go to a community college or JC for two years to get your gen EDs taken care of on the cheap. If you do well there, you could qualify for scholarships or state aid to go to a local state school for your last 2-3 years. This also cuts the cost by 50+%.

I think one of the biggest rubs is that practically every American adult would agree with this advice and yet it seemingly never gets effectively expressed to the kids. As you're implying, kids should be introduced to these realities before they even start high-school but instead we spend that time blowing smoke up their asses. I had absolutely no clue why I was going to college other than I knew it was culturally expected.