User blog:SensibleCenobite/Don't send your neonates to university. A Cost Analysis.

I'm an ancient vampire recently revived from torpor and decided to give up on everything I used to believe to try something else. It's working wonders. I read the rules to blogging on the forum and it says I can tell personal stories and ask questions to get comments. I'm going to do all three in this blog post. This is for any of the vampire clans that are thinking about sending their Neonates to college or the university system. As an example I will use casual game programming because that’s what I focused on when I was a neonate in Atlantis. This is a rough cost analysis of going straight into casual gaming as a junior in high school vs getting a bachelor's degree in STEM.

SUMMARY OF A CAREER PATH FOR THE AVERAGE COLLEGE GRAD: Salary = Slavery. Enough to stay, but not enough to compensate for the lost time. Analyze your time spent getting ready to beat traffic, starting up your system and updating it, programming non stop under the eye of Sauron, working overtime, watching your co-workers get assigned home work after a 9 hour day, and the cost of benefits. After all is said and done, someone making $55,000 after tax, benefits, and contributions will make $18-$25 per hour. I make $15-$25 waiting tables, delivering to people, or bar tending. An acquaintance I met a few years ago said he made $45,000 per year working 40-50 per week at two waiting jobs.

ROAD TO CAREER PATH ABOVE: Assume you plan on churning out university in four to six years and will live with your parents rent free. You rarely have to re-take courses and will have a smooth enough journey toward a bachelor's degree in some STEM field.

Junior and Senior year in high school : 2 years wasted on average : Free if public, expensive if private. Associates degree : 2-3 years wasted on average : Moderately priced : Maybe use debt you can't default on. Bachelors degree : 2-3 years wasted on average : Expensive : Probably use debt you can't default on. Average cost of a bachelor's degree = $40,000 + %interest. -$40,000 / [6:8]yrs = [-$6,666.67:-$5,000]/yr not including interest charges.

Instead, let's say someone decided to work part time and make $1,000/month after taxes. That means they can make $12,000 per year for six to eight years instead. $12,000/yr * 2yrs + [2:3]yrs + [2:3]yrs = $12,000/yr * [6:8]yrs = [$72,000:$96,000] before bills. Use credit card debt where needed that you can default on.

SO, the debt you took on less the potential wages you could have earned over a 6 to 8 year period. -$40,000 - $72,000 = -$112,000 -$40,000 - $96,000 = -$136,000

That's a lot of money you could have used to buy 3rd party support for projects, invest in stocks, real estate, crypto currency, or a private free market education. One acre of raw land, a condo, and a one room game production studio in the condo would cost less than that. Any Storyteller that has their players' character read this blog should give them a +1 to Finances/Economics, just like Becket giving history lessons about the book of Nod.

Please let me know what you think with comments. I believe in freedom of speech and written words. However, I will not tolerate harassment toward people. It’s OK to disagree with their opinion, of course. Please avoid being Sphinx like and vague.

We are in Elysium,

Sensible Cenobite