You posted on another thread: 4+ years of college takes away 10% of your working years. They may not be PRIME money making years but think of compound interest over 40+ years until age 59 and a half-Roth IRA. No taxes on winnings! I say join the military for 4 years, put your FIRST $6k in the Roth and get out at age 22. They will be ‘trained’ by then.
You and I are in the same group re most college degrees now. Besides most degrees being worthless. They take away 5 years of ones life and place most in deep debt.
See the description of my grandson. Besides being a great looking California guy, he is excellent in math and science.
He makes A’s in his STEM classes and barely gets B’s in his non STEM classes. He was in the Math Olympics during his middle school years. However, those b’s will keep him out of any UC college.
He speaks/reads Spanish about as good as his Hispanic friends.
It is scary what he can do with Ipads, smart phones, his mac pc and my Chromebook.
I have suggested that he consider the military and the Navy’s
Cyber Command.
http://www.public.navy.mil/fcc-c10f/Pages/home.aspx
As you noted, his military training for 4 years would be excellent for a lot of jobs in the next several decades. He would be debt free as well as his parents with an incredible real world education.
The starting salary for a Bachelor if Science ( not Arts ) degree in engineering from a top 50/25 ranked Engineering school is greater that 70,000 dollars per year.
The investment more than pays for itself if you can get accepted and graduate even if you have to go too and pay out of state tuition.