Read this! It's MY thoughts!

I am trying to persuade one of my aunts (well, first cousin once removed) that she has a bright son who cannot be bothered with school, and that instead of panicking about him not getting into some kind of university she should pack him off abroad somewhere to work when he finishes school: the language and the experience will be as useful to him in most places as some crappy degree from some dodgy private college in Poland (or even a state one), and if he decides later that a degree would be useful he'll be in a better position to get a good place and make good use of it. Hey, he could do a British one and get it over in three years instead of five. But she is far from convinced at the moment. I suppose she thinks it's easy for me to talk, who get jobs for which I am completely unqualified because people see a posh university on my CV. On the other hand, why doesn't she think "hmmm, this cousin of mine has a posh degree and she is still scrounging out of her parents' fridge at nearly thirty"?