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Comment by carnagii | Hacker News Reader

The earnings for college graduates are very misleading because virtually all the children of wealthy people graduate from college, and they get high salaries, but those high salaries are due to nepotism and exploiting their parent's networks, and have nothing to do with their college degree.

For poor/lower-middle-class students college is mostly b.s. and you can be doing the exact same job for half the wage because you don't have the connections to get the high salary.

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In my view it's not just connections. The children of wealthy people are also, for the most part, children of educated people. As a result, they know how to navigate the college system and to get the most out of it. There are things about college that I've explicitly told my kids. Someone who doesn't know, or is predisposed to believe that college is worthless, won't ever know what they missed out on.

Also, by the time they hit college, kids are already highly differentiated, and this affects their access to the more fructifying opportunities in college. There's this giant Sorting Hat, and it's called Math.

So I don't deny the wealth effect, but I don't think it's fully explained by connections.

> not just connections

totally true. but even the dumbest children of wealth will end up in six-figure jobs while the average ones will be top corporate lawyers, sales people, or professors, and the extraordinary ones will be CEOs. The smartest poor kids can excel in college and get the same salary as the dumbest rich kids, but will never move up the ladder because they lack the network.

There is also the lack of financial stress while in college and probably not having to work.

To my knowledge you don't need nepotism to get good jobs in STEM or high paying professions like dentistry, nursing, physical therapy, medicine, or law (well, actually in law if you are only a mediocre graduate nepotism can help a lot).

depends on what you call a good job: 6 figures as a grunt or 7-8 figures as an "entrepreneur."

In the vast majority of the country outside major west coast metro areas and corridor from NoVa to Boston, 6 figures is a pretty good job

Yes, and it's worse, screening for a college degree is an attempt not just to hire people you know specifically, but people _of your social class_ generally. Wealthy people prefer to hire children of wealthy people they don't even know.

(and even more clear when considering how degrees from some institutions are rated higher than others).

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