Don't go to college
 

based on some magazine survey or bullshit ranking. Here's just one analysis of why some newspaper/magazines' school rankings aren't that good or trustworthy: http://www.stats.org/stories/college...y_aug28_06.htm

I went to college, graduate with a degree and I will be the first to tell people not to go to college. UNLESS you want a career that requires a college degree, like needing a college degree to be admitted into law school so you can become a lawyer. If you don't know what you want to do or if you don't need a college degree to do it, than don't waste your tme and money. Learn a specific trade or try starting your own business first.

College is for people who want to work for other people(within obvious limits).

Yep that's the exact line my uncle told me when I was about 17 or 18.

so true :)

oh my god that has to be one of the most ignorant things i have ever heard. my cousin went to university did an accounting degree, then went on to become a chartered accountant, teamed up with someone he met while at uni and started their own accounting firm.

To say college/university is for ppl who want to work for someone else is just fucking narrow minded. it simply opens doors for you and gives you more options than you may have previously had. yeah the vast majority of ppl who go to coll end up working for someone else. as do the vast majority of ppl who dont go to coll

I agree with the previous poster......... anyone who says college is for idiots or people who want to work for others is seriously bitter and frustrated with their own lives. Maybe some people go to college because they don't want to be dumbasses like yourself? mhmmm yea

yah.. you guys are right...

I went to college so in case shit hits the fan and for one reason or the other I'd have to shut my companies down, I'd have a paper to help me get a job. Sort of a back-up plan.

..then again, we have free schools in Finland (actually get paid to attend college).

Im at University now in UK and I'd say definately go to University!

In the UK though, there isn't a market on education, so its a LOT cheaper to study here than the US. Oxford and Cambridge University charge £3000 per year (about $5500?) and thats the most any UK university can charge.

In the UK, someone without a degree earns on average £11000 per year in their first 5 years of emplyment. The average starting salary for someone with a Physics degree for example, is £19000.

Im currently studying for a degree in Astronomy, Space science and Astrophysics. :)

Why not go to college and have options.... It's a lot harder to go at 30 than at 18. If you can afford it there is no reason not to.

Despite what you may think a college education is necessary to be interviewed for some jobs.

Just my opinion.

Oh and I did a 3 month business course inbetween college (High school in US?) and University :) So I tried to get best of both worlds

Average starting salary: free use of the planetarium? :1orglaugh

Just joking. What inspired that choice?

Yeah, over here science jobs used to be fully paid but they stopped that.

However, anyone studying to be a teacher, or nurse/doctor etc for the NHS (national health service), or a degree before entering the armed forces, or a degree before entering the police force, always gets either private sponsorship or government sponsorship.

I used to want to be an astronaut (typical kid dream) and as I got older I realised all astronauts have to have science degrees.

Then I developed a phobia for flying :lol:

So then I got really into Astronomy. I always aced my physics and maths papers in school so it seemed a good choice.

Also because it's still very core physics based, a physics degree is the third highest paying in UK (behind Law and Medicine). It still leaves loads of windows open once I graduate my masters/phd

Sounds like you have it all planned out! I had no clue, but definitely didn't want to study maths or physics. :thumbsup

I read philosophy in the end! Great subject but it isn't always treated like a serious qualification... especially down the pub! :Oh crap

Yeah, one of the guys I hang around the most reads philosphy. He's awful at maths and science, and his gramma aint that great, but he's got a load of common sense and general knowledge and always seems very articulate.

He says the exact same as you lol didn't know what to do, he just knew he wanted to go to uni lol and yeah, we all say he does a Mickey Mouse degree too :D

At school we were told the subject didn't matter, it was more important to study something we enjoyed... Oh well.... it got me into porn in the end! :Graucho :Graucho

imho you can always tell a person with high education from a person without it. a short conversation is usually enough.
:2 cents:

I got many friends that think it's a waste of time but I personally don't regret I spent 5 years in the uni.

it will still be a big factor and a plus if you finish your college..there will be a lot job opportunities if you do have a degree...

It's not the most ignorant thing because you can give 1 example where it is not true. The comment was a litte exaggerated though. College grooms you for a good job/career. Thats all they talk about, do good and get a good job, etc... Not everyone who goes to college is going with the intentions of working for someone else but I can tell you with certainty that at least 95% of the people go to college to get a good job.

Some self employeed jobs require higher education. Attorney, doctor, cpa, etc... need college whether they work for themselves or not.

i went to college for 3 years and honestly, i just learned a few stuff. College do gives a plus factor but its the skills that will lead you to your success, not the typical paper and all.

Interesting how this thread strayed from the original post of "don't go to college BASED on some ranking." Read the stats article. Very revealing look at how "top college" rankings are actually formulated. Lots of subjectivity and 'wiggle room'.

Was your uncle successful?

College is good. Just not for everyone. If you have the opportunity though, you sure as heck should use it. ANY opportunity

each person and situation is different. I know a lot of people who graduated and are not using their degree. They got a job in a totally unlrelated field. In most of their cases I don't think that they had a degree made that much of a difference since it did not prepare them for the job they got and they had to be trained for that job. A lot of people have bounced from job to job in different fields that had nothing to do with what they went to school for. Do a poll how many people are using their degree I bet you will be surprised.


If you have any entrepreneur ambitions then try doing your own thing for a year or two. I also know some people who were in school but also working online. They were making more online basically part time than they would make from their career 10 years from now. To me that is retarded. Put school on hold and work full time on your business, make as much as you can. If you stop making money and haven't made enough to diversify and be set for life and you can't get any other businesses going, then go back to school, get your degree and go work for the man the rest of your life.

College was a blast, best and most fun partying I ever did have.

And not everyone that don't go to college have their own business, and I can tell you that 95% of people who don't go to college earn less money than a college graduate.:winkwink:

What I did in college amounts to nothing I do Now.

I very much doubt that. Yiu could have done a degree in knitting, and then become a racing car driver, and yet your 3 years of college would still have contributed to you as a person.

It teaches you key skills, wisdom, logic, reason. It's not about pure knowledge, retaining facts and formulae and remember pi.

He's a self made multi millionaire.. I was told he's in the billionaire club now, but I haven't talked to him in a few years so I don't know if it's true or not. If he is I wouldn't doubt it, some of the stuff he's done amazes the hell out of me.

education isn't bad and is needed for some occupations. but for the most part doesn't give you experience. which in my opinion is more valued then any education.

im 20 pretty much flunked out of high school. i went through the motions and bought as much time as i could without getting kicked out of school and having to take on any real responsibility. which happened to be the day i turned 18. my parents gave me two weeks to find a job.

not knowing a thing about anything. i landed a job at a local structural steel business as an assistant project manager. they taught me how to read fabrication drawings, design drawings, what an RFI was (lol) and how to respond to one, learned it all.

within 6 months i could purchase (beams, tube, angle, pipe, bolts, rebar, plate, blah blah blah etc..), read fabrication drawings, take care of RFI's, work with architects, attend job site meetings, troubleshoot structural problems on site, and cut expenses by over 15% from all the fuck ups that one of our previous project managers would sweep under the table.

now with what i learned in that 6 months I KNOW there is zero possibility any school could teach you close to that even with a 4 year college education. not to mention i didn't just learn the project managing position at that job. i found out with what i learned there i can be a purchaser, work takeoff, or project manage.

i got offered 50k to project manage late last year and 35k to be a purchaser at another smaller company. this is without applying anywhere and purely from word of mouth. not bad for a guy who isn't even old enough to buy alcohol. :pimp

also if i took that 50k i'd be doing a 5th of the work i did at the job that got me there and get paid 5k more a year. not to mention with 2-3 more years under my belt i could move onto bigger companies and get paid anywhere from 75-150k a year salary, with a company truck, and full benefits.

now say some kid who's been in school for the last 24 years rolls in with his degree in construction management. who do you think is going to get the project managing position? :winkwink:

it's all about the quality of work, references, and experience. not some piece of paper that says congratulations you're now certified to work.

I wouldn't say 95%. I know some electricians, plumbers, even frammers who make more buiilding houses for me than a lot of people who went to college. Hell I know some mexicans who can't speak english who make more than some of my college friends. All those skilled jobs require no college degree, and for service related work bill anywhere from 60 - 100$ an hour. I know people who charge over 100 an hour for networking who never went to college but work for a computer company. I know someone who drives rigs and makes more than some people with a college degree. I worked with bartenders who pulled down 200 - 300 a night, worked 3 - 4 nights a week and make more than a lot of people who graduted from college. This is just rambling off the top of my head with out even thinking. I am sure I could name a lot more examples of professions you can good money doing that don't require a college degree.

How many people get out of college and can't find work ?

I went to an institute for music production... Waste of fuckin time, money and effort! First off... what I wanted to go to school for, the teachers were telling us everyone was starting to do at home anyway. Next off, they weren't govt. accredited at the time so I got screwed on the loan. (A private one I had to take out from a bank that later sold it to a student loan company). Just an all around goddamn joke! I've never known of anyone that's gotten degrees, kept good jobs in what they went to school for and amounted to making a lot of money.

You noticed? :winkwink:

Now... generally on GFY... :pimp

Speaking for myself, you are 100% wrong.

I still use a calculator so my math classes, all that advanced shit, I have never and will never use. My english grammar is about that of a high school senior. All my history classes have been forgotten. I can't remember a lick of foreign language I took. (and it's only been 7 years since I graduated and I went for 5 years). I can't think of one subject that I still use or even remember. I majored in political science, that sure taught me a lot. :Oh crap

I skipped more classes than I went too and I spent more time looking at T&A than I did looking at school books. It taught me nothing of responsibility especially since I got school loans so i felt like I wasn't really paying for it. But did I after I graduated, lol. :winkwink:

I learned more when I took a year off right before I finished and worked with a network marketing company and learned from some great motivational, sales type people, having to cold call people, walk on a stage in front of 1000's of people, manage a business, that was 1000x more beneficial to me than anything I learned in 5 years of college. I learned ZERO from college about computers, taught myself, and about realestate, which I was a sponge and learned from some really good successful people.

I am sure I am not the norm, but college did nothing for me except give me a lot of good memories, a nice debt when i got out, and really cool piece of paper I hang on my wall. period.

theres lots of cute chicks in college

so you sucked at maths and had bad grammar, and you didn't have good enough I.T. facilities at your college. Maybe you went to a sucky college.

Didn't you learn ANY study skills, organisational skills, motivational skills etc. in college?

...damn, Im glad Im at a good Uni in the UK.... :P

I'm happy I went to college. These college years were the best-fucking-around-moments in my life. I changed alot. It was a good school for my brain, my attitude and I learned many useful things while being surrounded by other students. College made me a multiple dynamic personality and, damn it, we had so many yummy pussies at the campus!

college isn't for everyone. if you're 18 and don't have a job or a passion, college is the place to go to find yourself.

It's not all about the money though, many people choose a rewarding career with average pay, over a shitty jobs that pay well... Sure you can make 200-300 a night serving drinks to a bunch of drunks, or unclog toilets the whole day, and make 6 figures a year, but come on, would you really want to do that? Those jobs may be great for the first 3 months, $$ is flowing in, you think you are big shot, but then you start getting the "I hate my job" feeling... I don't think the same thing happens quite as often with jobs requiring a college degree...

I got laid a lot, learned what " drinking with lincoln " meant. Played a lot of intermural sports, had a blast. It taught me next to nothing. I look at it as an excuse to not grow up for another 4 - 5 years after i got out of high school. A lot of people i know that went to college looked at it the same way, most of them didn't even have to work, it was a big joke, big waste of 4 -5 years of your life from actually doing anything productive.

I went to a state college, LSU. No different than any other state college for the most part. I don't think the school as bad as much as the people attending were attending for the wrong reasons, and what they did learn, in most cases didn't help them worth a shit for the " real world ".

how much is it / term over there, in the US!

I am sorry what did you say ?? it's not ^!^!#* #*#*@@ *@* " ... "


I can't understand those words, I don't know what that phrase means :winkwink:

When i went it was cheap, like 1200 a semester. Last I heard I think it cost more like 4K a semester and depending if you live in state or out of state the fees could go up a lot more. In general I think most state universities would run about 5K where as a good private university (average) might be more like 20K

um yeah, say away from university or college. yep.

Words to the wise, if it is a job ( or for that matter anything you make money doing) 99% of people are not going to enjoy it. I think there are very very few people who can do something that they have to do for income day after day that they can truely enjoy and find rewarding. College degree or not.

The unclog a toilet, sure some plumbing jobs are bad, some have nothing to do with shit actually. The ones i deal with do all the plumbing on new construction. Maybe some people take pride in building something, maybe they do it for the money. Maybe some people enjoy entertaining and like the night life. The people I know who bartend who make really good money, have been doing it for years, 10+ years. Some of them have college degrees :1orglaugh :thumbsup

The biggest problem with attending college is seeing your degree through to an actual career. Looking at the people around me, VERY FEW are actually working in the field they went to school for.

I think a lot of that goes back to kids being forced to make a major career decision, and based on what? They have no life experience.

I saw something on TV about the high school vs. college earnings debate. Everyone says that college grads earn more, but this guy outlined that if you invest your would-be college money and instead enter the workforce at 18 that you'll actually come out ahead of the college grad.

This is prob very true overall Matt... tho there may be plans etc, folks often change and some of these career changes may not be planned, but more out of sense than otherwise (hopefully).

Did the college time and spent another 3 years at film school - only worked in the mainline media/entertainment industry for a few years and became self employed. But... it was worth the time spent at college in many other ways and sure don't regret it. But.. also never regretted being self-employed :winkwink:

Why didnt you tell me this BEFORE i paid the $60k tuition