To University and Beyond. Mandee Heller Adler

To University and Beyond - Mandee Heller Adler


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      After working on Wall Street, selling an Internet company, and then running a division of a publicly traded company, I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted a career with meaning, and to use my blessings to help others. To quote Benjamin Franklin, I wanted to “do well by doing good.” I realized that so much of what I had accomplished up to that point was due to advantages I received through higher education, first at the University of Pennsylvania and then later at Harvard Business School. This led me to independent college counseling: I would help other students to reach their academic goals.

      You're likely investing a lot of money, and a lot of time, to get yourself educated. We definitely did. How can you maximize the benefits of all the years and all the money that you are investing?

      To prepare this book, we interviewed dozens of professionals who work with young people early in their career, as well as our classmates from the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and Harvard Business School and clients of International College Counselors. We asked what were the most effective uses of their time during their education and also probed to learn about what were the least effective uses of their time.

      We hope you get a lot of value from our book! Please don't hesitate to contact us via InternationalCollegeCounselors.com and Teten.com.

      We realize you'll most likely get a traditional undergraduate degree and maybe more degrees beyond that. That said, a traditional degree is not the right choice for everyone. It can be expensive, time consuming, and may leave you with a mountain of debt. Of course, it's also a credential and network you can use for the rest of your life.

      Before you and your family make an expensive long‐term commitment, we encourage you to consider some other options that may pay you immediately, may be more prestigious, and are likely much faster. We think that regardless of what path you take, the ideas we discuss in this book are going to help you take maximum advantage of whatever road is right for you.

      We've ranked in this chapter some educational options for you, roughly in declining order of how much money you can get paid. “Much better that someone pays you, than you pay tuition to someone else, right?”

      An exceptional, and very competitive, option is the Thiel Fellowship (thielfellowship.org). “The Thiel Fellowship is a two‐year program for young people [under age 22] who want to build new things. Thiel Fellows skip or step out of college to receive a $100,000 grant and support from the Thiel Foundation's network of founders, investors, and scientists.”

      Another option is the technology accelerators, that is, Y Combinator (ycombinator.com) and TechStars (Techstars.com). These will give you capital (typically $100,000–$200,000) to build a new company, and you can pay yourself a salary out of that capital. You need to have an idea and typically a prototype before they'll accept you. You'll graduate as chief executive officer (CEO) of a funded start‐up company.

      Military training teaches you real‐world skills that you'll never get in a traditional college, and in certain roles you'll work with sophisticated technologies that typical universities cannot afford. See https://usa.gov/join-military and https://military.com/join-armed-forces.

      Another option is targeted education programs that are squarely focused on career preparation and dispense with most of the traditional overhead of universities. These are typically far cheaper than a conventional university. Some examples:

       HackerU (hackerusa.com) collaborates with top tier universities to provide immersive, comprehensive, and rigorous programs in digital skills, with salaries ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.

       Lambda School (lambdaschool.com) teaches the tech skills you need to launch a new career in just 9 months. You don't pay tuition until you land a job making at least $50,000 a year.

       Praxis (discoverpraxis.com) says, “During … . bootcamp you'll learn the skills employers are looking for as well as how to showcase those skills, and then you'll put them to use during your apprenticeship while getting paid. During the apprenticeship you'll make a minimum of $15,000, and the average salary upon graduation for Praxis grads is $50,000/year.” Tuition: $12,000.

       Revature (revature.com) teaches coding at no cost and then helps you find a job.

      The last option is to simply teach yourself. Famed writer Ray Bradbury said,

      On almost any subject imaginable, you can find newsletters, podcasts, videos, and books. You'll find very influential people are sometimes surprisingly approachable on social media, if you engage thoughtfully with them. Скачать книгу