Risky Business
In this post, I will give a little background on my family, particularly my father, because their background or their "come-up" story bears a lot of influence on how I've made my decisions in the past and how I will make decisions in the future. I was very fortunate to grow up in an upper middle class household where my parents could provide for me comfortably. As immigrants, everything my parents have worked for, they were able to do it on their own with no outside help.
My father was the first one in my family to immigrate to this country. He grew up in the state of Karnataka in India and his family was pretty low income because his father had a low-income state government job. This government job required his family to move around the state a lot so my dad went to public school for his K-12 education and public school education in India isn't so good. At the age of 17, my dad's father, the only source of income for his household, passed away from an unknown cancer or tumor. Access to healthcare wasn't very good at that time. My father, being the oldest son in his family, was faced with the important decision of getting a job right away or pursuing his dream of studying engineering and becoming an engineer.
My father decided to go to college for civil engineering. He studied hard in his exams and won scholarships. For the five years of his undergraduate college, he stayed in an orphanage's hostel so he could save money on housing. I honestly don't remember how he was able to stay in an orphanage's hostel, probably because his mother wasn't working. After his degree, he wanted to come to North America to pursue a masters. His did his master's at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and his Ph.D at the University of Arkansas, both in environmental engineering. He accomplished both of these through research assistantships so he was able to graduate debt-free and without paying a penny for his education. He was even offered admission to do his master's at UC Berkeley but he couldn't go because they didn't offer him a full assistantship and he would have to pay with money he didn't have
This is what I remember him saying often growing up, how he never paid a penny for his education. He would tell me stories of his college days, visiting his professor's house, going on roadtrips, etc. But the point of his stories was to make careful decisions about where you go and what you choose. He would tell me that he has worked hard in life so that his kids wouldn't have to face the decisions he faced on the issue of college affordability.
My mom is also an engineer. She completed her bachelor's degree in India in electronics engineering. Her father was a social worker so her family also grew up in relatively low income, but she grew up in the city, Bangalore, so she had access to more resources.
Both my parents work for financial institutions, given our proximity to New York City. My father has worked for various banks on Wall Street and my mom has worked for Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America) for as long as I remember. My main motivation when making decisions on my future is to be able to maintain the type of life my parents were able to give me. We weren't rich, but we're comfortable, and that's my aim: to be comfortable. I've also grown up with my dad being between jobs sometimes and those times were scary. Two years ago, my dad was laid off from his job and he spent a little over a year looking for another job. This was the longest time that he was between jobs, and with paying for my out-of-state tuition, this put a lot of financial pressure on my mom.
All these factors have bore weight onto the decisions that I make. I didn't want to be a doctor and I didn't want to be an engineer. Contrary to popular belief, my parents being of Indian origin were okay with that decision. I just wanted to be something that will allow me to give the type of life to my children what my parents are giving to me. I liked the business and financial services industry but I didn't want to study accounting or finance because I felt those majors were too narrow. I chose to major in Economics because of the flexibility to discover many different career options. Over the summer, I recently interned at Chubb, an insurance company. I learned that many of my questions and interest stemmed from the legal/liability side of things rather than the insurance/finance side of things.
As I finish my last year of college, I am faced with an important decision of figuring out where I want life to take me next. I've been serious considering law school because I really like learning more about law, contracts, liability and things likes that. But law school is an expensive and time consuming decision. I'm currently battling the opportunity cost of spending three years in time and money for law school or spending that same time working and earning an income. Do I spend money on a good law school or do I take the similar option that my dad did and go to a lesser law school but save a lot of money? Will I be successful if I go to law school or will I flunk the exams and waste money? I'm still young so I know I might have a little time, but there are so many options I need to weigh. I've recently been in touch with an Econ alumna who works as a litigation consultant (without a J.D. because she graduated 2 years ago from here), so that might be something I could look into before I make a costly decision of going to law school. Perhaps finding a similar job like that would be safer decisions because I would still be earning an income will figuring out if it's a field I like. Maybe I will realize that I don't need to go to law school to achieve the type of career I'd like and enjoy. Thinking about these risky decisions I have to make give me a bit of anxiety, but hopefully it'll all work out in the future.
My father was the first one in my family to immigrate to this country. He grew up in the state of Karnataka in India and his family was pretty low income because his father had a low-income state government job. This government job required his family to move around the state a lot so my dad went to public school for his K-12 education and public school education in India isn't so good. At the age of 17, my dad's father, the only source of income for his household, passed away from an unknown cancer or tumor. Access to healthcare wasn't very good at that time. My father, being the oldest son in his family, was faced with the important decision of getting a job right away or pursuing his dream of studying engineering and becoming an engineer.
My father decided to go to college for civil engineering. He studied hard in his exams and won scholarships. For the five years of his undergraduate college, he stayed in an orphanage's hostel so he could save money on housing. I honestly don't remember how he was able to stay in an orphanage's hostel, probably because his mother wasn't working. After his degree, he wanted to come to North America to pursue a masters. His did his master's at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and his Ph.D at the University of Arkansas, both in environmental engineering. He accomplished both of these through research assistantships so he was able to graduate debt-free and without paying a penny for his education. He was even offered admission to do his master's at UC Berkeley but he couldn't go because they didn't offer him a full assistantship and he would have to pay with money he didn't have
This is what I remember him saying often growing up, how he never paid a penny for his education. He would tell me stories of his college days, visiting his professor's house, going on roadtrips, etc. But the point of his stories was to make careful decisions about where you go and what you choose. He would tell me that he has worked hard in life so that his kids wouldn't have to face the decisions he faced on the issue of college affordability.
My mom is also an engineer. She completed her bachelor's degree in India in electronics engineering. Her father was a social worker so her family also grew up in relatively low income, but she grew up in the city, Bangalore, so she had access to more resources.
Both my parents work for financial institutions, given our proximity to New York City. My father has worked for various banks on Wall Street and my mom has worked for Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America) for as long as I remember. My main motivation when making decisions on my future is to be able to maintain the type of life my parents were able to give me. We weren't rich, but we're comfortable, and that's my aim: to be comfortable. I've also grown up with my dad being between jobs sometimes and those times were scary. Two years ago, my dad was laid off from his job and he spent a little over a year looking for another job. This was the longest time that he was between jobs, and with paying for my out-of-state tuition, this put a lot of financial pressure on my mom.
All these factors have bore weight onto the decisions that I make. I didn't want to be a doctor and I didn't want to be an engineer. Contrary to popular belief, my parents being of Indian origin were okay with that decision. I just wanted to be something that will allow me to give the type of life to my children what my parents are giving to me. I liked the business and financial services industry but I didn't want to study accounting or finance because I felt those majors were too narrow. I chose to major in Economics because of the flexibility to discover many different career options. Over the summer, I recently interned at Chubb, an insurance company. I learned that many of my questions and interest stemmed from the legal/liability side of things rather than the insurance/finance side of things.
As I finish my last year of college, I am faced with an important decision of figuring out where I want life to take me next. I've been serious considering law school because I really like learning more about law, contracts, liability and things likes that. But law school is an expensive and time consuming decision. I'm currently battling the opportunity cost of spending three years in time and money for law school or spending that same time working and earning an income. Do I spend money on a good law school or do I take the similar option that my dad did and go to a lesser law school but save a lot of money? Will I be successful if I go to law school or will I flunk the exams and waste money? I'm still young so I know I might have a little time, but there are so many options I need to weigh. I've recently been in touch with an Econ alumna who works as a litigation consultant (without a J.D. because she graduated 2 years ago from here), so that might be something I could look into before I make a costly decision of going to law school. Perhaps finding a similar job like that would be safer decisions because I would still be earning an income will figuring out if it's a field I like. Maybe I will realize that I don't need to go to law school to achieve the type of career I'd like and enjoy. Thinking about these risky decisions I have to make give me a bit of anxiety, but hopefully it'll all work out in the future.
Your parents story is interesting. I take it to be an emblem of the immigrant with an educational bent. Many families have found the good life under that sort of trajectory. Until about 15 or 20 years ago, I would have said that a middle class lifestyle is an absorbing state - the kids make out the same way the parents did and the entire situation is self-perpetuating. More recent descriptions of income distribution say that instead of this stable picture there are now reasons to expect either further climbing in the income distribution or backsliding, so the kids don't do as well as the parents. I didn't concern myself with those matters when I was your age. But I do care about them for my own kids.
ReplyDeleteYour discussion of graduate education probably needs some modification as it includes professional education (like law school) which is typically high tuition and doctoral education, which often has the students getting tuition waivers and stipends, because they serve as research assistants, teaching assistants, or in some cases they are on fellowship and don't have those work obligations. They also differ in their educational goal. Professional education is a credential for a career in some line of business or government service. Doctoral education typically aims at a career in academia - though there are many other places where PhDs are employed.
I don't want to contribute to your stress, but law schools have witness a sharp drop in demand as a consequence of a glut of lawyers, as well as because the field really suffered after the financial crisis. Legal training might be good in other fields, but where it was kind of a guarantee of the good life when I was graduating college, and on a par with becoming a doctor, I don't believe it is nearly the safe bet it once was.
One other thing I will comment on, based on what you wrote in your last paragraph. This is something I've written in response to other students as well. Whatever you decide to do next, you really have to be totally committed to it. It might be a good fit for you and it might not. You will never know unless you give it your all for an extended period of time and take all the little bumps you will experience in stride. Such dedication may be hard to generate, if you haven't done things so intensively before. But it really is necessary as a way to get to the next level, in whatever field you end up pursuing.
My parents' stories can relate to other immigrants' stories in the similarity to come up from something little. My younger brother and I have the unique experience of being a part of the first generation of my family in this country, and I think this is a shared experience of all children of immigrants regardless of where the parents emigrated from. I wonder how this will translate to my own children someday in regards to their values and decision-making, considering how I am not an immigrant, but was raised by immigrants.
DeleteIt is worrisome that nowadays, you can work hard to give a better life for your children, but it's not always guaranteed that your children might obtain the same lifestyle that you've worked hard to obtain yourself. I wonder what has changed in the past generations that older groups of people like yourself didn't have to worry about those matters but younger people now do need to.
I realize after reading your comment that you are correct in that professional education and doctoral education differ quite a bit in terms of funding. I had known that before, but I forgot about that aspect. However, I would argue that not everyone who gets a Master's or a Ph.D intends to work in academia. Some people I know pursue postgraduate degrees like those simply to get paid better, which brings me to my next point.
Before they used to say that you won't be able to get a good-paying job without a college degree. Now I wonder if we need a postgraduate degree or a professional degree to get to the same level and stay competitive. I've seen a few job requirements where they say "Masters/JD preferred, but not required". Does this mean that getting a second degree is obsolete or necessary?
It's these type of thoughts that make me unsure how to move on after I graduate from here. Hopefully I'll figure it out, but it's hard to be 100% when things aren't as safe anymore.
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ReplyDeleteI can totally relate on the story you shared about your parents. My dad made that sacrifice to move to the United States for work when my sister and I were only 3 and 5. I am sure at that time I didn't really understand, but now I do. The sacrifices that my parents have been making since I was born as been paying off to the person that I am today. I also had a similar issue to you because my dad wanted me to go into the medical field and become a pharmacist. He believed that there is more income certainty compared to being an Economist. In fact, it took a lot of convincing for him to come to terms with my major and minor in Economics and Business.
DeleteI think combining Econ and Business sounds like a good idea. I know a couple of consulting firms that work solely with law firms and law department. That can be something to look into even if you don't end up going to Law school. Since Law school is a long shot, one most likely has to be invested in it because of the potential long run benefits. I hope one day all the risk we take pays off.