Maggie's Farm

My son's HS graduation speaker was a Marine Captain who basically said some similar things.

One part of this which struck me was the "fraternity basements" part. I spent quite a bit of time in our fraternity basement and he's right, the bonding down there was very useful.

But I disagree that it's all that valuable - at least it's nowhere near as valuable as the education missed by those who spent time down there while skipping classes. I knew 2 fellows who eventually dropped out. A few others who are making a fair to middling income.

The 'college experience' isn't what I'm paying for my son to have. He can have bonding anywhere, it doesn't have to be a fraternity basement. It could be at the store he works, in the car with friends as he cruises around town, at the community college, on a lacrosse club, etc.

There is no 'college experience' so valuable that it can't be had somewhere else. A friend of mine complained about his experience going to a commuter school. I asked if he had a great time. Yes he did, he joined a fraternity. So, I pointed out, your experience wasn't bad, it was just different, and there's nothing wrong with that. What if I'd chosen Penn as opposed to Syracuse, as I could have? Would I have had a 'better' experience in a fraternity basement there? Would that experience be equal to the education I was receiving? No and no.

Still, some of this was good advice and I agree with it. But I'm not shelling out $40,000 a year for 'an experience'. Too many other ways to have that which are much cheaper.