Hacker News Reader

Comment by julienchastang | Hacker News Reader

Not really. A couple of generations ago, you could attend a US state college and pay off the tuition by working summer jobs. Now, due to a long list of factors, colleges attempt to extract every nickel out of parents/students. I don't have the reference on my finger tips, but universities are employing AI algorithms to achieve this. In turn, parents have to hire consultants to get advice on bargaining the tuition price down -- in sum, an arms race.

View on HN

I went to a cal state and paid 7k a year in tuition. 3 years later I am making around 300k TC at a FAANG. Everyone who graduated with me seems to be doing pretty well judging by LinkedIn.

It's ludicrous to suggest that this is an easy outcome. If it were, you wouldn't be making 300k TC.

I know quite a few people who went to various California public colleges and universities and earn that much. In tech, it's the choice of major, not the university, that really matters -- and even companies that have policies of only hiring from certain universities tend to apply that only to new grads.

I know several people who have succeeded in tech in staff+/leadership roles without any college degree at all!

In law, and medicine, and academia in general? Sure, your pedigree matters. But in tech, and in many engineering fields, a state school degree is all you need.

Of course its possible. The path exists. The problem is many can't take the path to begin with.

Just look at the numbers. If it was so easy, again, everyone would do it. It's not.

The reality is that most CS programs even in mid tier state schools weed out the worst to the point that the average grad is definitely making well over 100K per year 2 years out of school.

I saw this with my own school. I have a hard time finding any graduates from my program who aren't gainfully employed right now.

Sure, that's the point: most get weeded out. Whether that is in freshman year of college, or kids struggling with calc 1 in their senior year of high school.

CS degrees aren't like business degrees. It's much harder. Hence, many don't do it, despite the huge financial advantages of doing it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com