It's not often that I take the time to brag about my family. Or hell, even myself, of who I'm my biggest critic.

I usually mess about my wife, even though she's the coolest and most beautiful woman in the world AND a redhead!!

The son, who can be difficult at times, like ALL kids I suppose, has always been intelligent. And even though he's a consistent straight A student, his grades lacked this senior year in the 2nd half. In his head he was done already, and he got lazy. He eventually applied himself and of course got through. This kiddo can do amazing things if I learns to consistently apply himself to what he does. Hell, if he attacked school the way he does video games at night, he would be golden! And he knows a TON about computers, and while a lot learned from me, he simply applied himself because he wanted to learn about them.

So now off to college. No screw ups and not many lazy days to be had. He'll need to apply himself all the time to keep up, and apply himself that much harder if he wants to excel and have things easier on himself.

What he's so lucky enough to about to be entering (the bragging part, on how great of an opportunity he has been given) Maybe not the greatest in the nation, and not an Ivy league school, but very very well for what he's headed to college for:

Rankings:

Rensselaer is consistently ranked among the best universities in the United States and the world. For over a decade, Rensselaer has remained in the top fifty national universities in the United States, and is currently listed among the top six universities for highest median earnings. In 2017, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rensselaer 42nd among all colleges and universities and 31st for "Best Value" in undergraduate education. As of 2017, Rensselaer's undergraduate engineering program is ranked 30th and its graduate program is ranked 39th by U.S. News & World Report. Rensselaer's undergraduate and graduate engineering programs include Aerospace/Aeronautical (23rd), Biomedical (39th), Chemical (22nd), Civil (27th), Computer (27th), Electrical (26th), Environmental (34th), Industrial (17th), Materials (22nd), Mechanical (24th), and Nuclear (12th).

In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rensselaer 6th for multimedia and visual communications. The same source ranked Rensselaer's computer science program 47th in the nation for graduates. The Leiden Ranking (2016) placed RPI at 127 among the top 900 world universities and research institutions according to the proportion of the top 1% most frequently cited publications of a university. In 2016, The Economist ranked Rensselaer #18 amongst four-year non-vocational colleges and universities and Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings placed Rensselaer among the top 50 universities for technology in the world. In 2012, RPI was ranked as the 4th best engineering school in the world by Business Insider. The Newsweek/Kaplan 2007 Educational College Guide named Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the 25 "New Ivies", a group of 25 schools described as providing an education equivalent to schools in the Ivy League. In 2017, Rensselaer was ranked 3rd in the U.S. by College Factual among all universities in physics. In 2015, Forbes ranked Rensselaer the 12th most entrepreneurial university in the world. The Lally School of Management and Technology is ranked 6th in technological entrepreneurship and 21st in entrepreneurship by Entrepreneur. The Lally School's corporate strategy program was ranked 11th in the nation by BusinessWeek and the management program was ranked 5th in the nation by TFE Times.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rensse...itute#Rankings


For those of you who do have a degree - PLEASE write something encouraging here of just how important it is to tough things out and get a college degree & the opportunities it can open for you in life.

For those of you who have worked jobs, where you have seen first hand what it has done for folks, please share here.

This would mean a lot to me & hopefully Jordan. I know this is 2 threads, but I want for this to be something I have him read. I want him to understand going in what he is facing, and what a measly 4 years of his life will mean for the rest of his life. And hell, I'm 50 now, so I know that 4 years is nothing and goes by like that - but at that age it's hard to understand that, as 4 years sounds like an eternity!