Go To College or Not?

Off Topic
21

[quote]silverhydra wrote:
I have a few friends who are decently well off without college, so there’s more on the bandwagon of ‘College isn’t an end all be all’ plan.

Also, I have heard that in the past a college degree was the thing to have, and a university better; now companies are looking for university degrees where college degrees were the thing, and masters degrees where regular undergrad degrees were sought. So a college degree isn’t going to ‘make’ your future, and the debt garnered by attending college may be more costly than what the degree will give you in the future.
[/quote]

What defines “decently well off”? How much do they make a year?

It all comes down to where you want to be and you want to do when it is all said and done. If making under 50k a year is ok with you, then college may not be needed…however, in many fields you won’t be earning anywhere near six figures without not just one degree, but more than that.

22

I’m going to plug the teaching profession. Around 40k to start, 180 work days a year, cradle to the grave health coverage and pension, job security, and (depending on how much you suck) the satisfaction of making a difference in a child’s life.

23

did you learn anything in highschool? notmuch probs, but you got qualifications. will you learn much in college? maybe not but you will get a qualification that will open career doors.

i thought id be happy doing landscaping, but a year after highschool, i realised i wanted more than £60-70 a day after expenses (if lucky) and not be able to push myself not nearly as much as i wanted in the gym and always being knakered by friday with no real energy for the weekend.

  i want a job with responsibility, an ok wage (not looking for a ton of money here) and job satisfaction. so im getting my degree, working for abit,then prob getting more qualifications later in life.
24

I think most of these responses are bs. There’s very few people out there that know what they want to do coming out of highschool. If your one of them, and you like being a tradesman, then it’s a pretty obvious choice. However, I had no clue what I wanted to be at 18. Hell, I’m 21 now, and I still have no idea.

I got into a good pharmacy program in RI , and i’ll be done in a couple years(hopefully) but I look at my future career as a means to an end. Although I might dislike my major, I can’t help but say college has been a good experience.

25

College is absolutely worth it and you will learn a shit ton. You will also meet interesting people. Even if you don’t know what to do, go to college. BTW there are scholarships available.

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[quote]zooropa1150 wrote:
I think most of these responses are bs. There’s very few people out there that know what they want to do coming out of highschool. If your one of them, and you like being a tradesman, then it’s a pretty obvious choice. However, I had no clue what I wanted to be at 18. Hell, I’m 21 now, and I still have no idea.

I got into a good pharmacy program in RI , and i’ll be done in a couple years(hopefully) but I look at my future career as a means to an end. Although I might dislike my major, I can’t help but say college has been a good experience. [/quote]

No, this response is BS. I’m a dentist. Do you really think I grew up thinking this is what I wanted to do? I originally wanted to be a lawyer when I was in junior high. I was even in the Young Lawyers Association. However, I went to a high school that had the goal of taking kids with above average skills and getting them involved in the health field at an early age so that at least changed my overall focus to something in medicine.

NONE of us really knew what we wanted…so I went through life taking hints from everything happening around me. I tend to believe you are exactly where you need to be right now…and where you go from there is entirely up to you but you should learn from your current experiences. I guess believing in faith and destiny helps but it doesn’t mean anyone else here was handed a road map to figuring out life.

I applied to Dental school because a girl I respected (amazing person but that’s another story) applied…so I applied too…and I got in…so I went. I didn’t know this was what I was good at or that this is what I would like doing…until I was on the job getting paid for it in the military.

In life you take risks. those afraid to take any will be stuck exactly where they are…waiting on someone to take their hand and tell them what to do.

That person is never going to come.

Grow some balls and do SOMETHING. That is all the rest of us did.

27

Your general point (referring to the OP) has some validity, but:

  1. On average, a college degree adds a lot to lifetime income. Of course there are exceptions. But betting against strong trends is more often than not, not the winning plan.

  2. Having more options is a good thing.

However I wouldn’t have posted just that. My intended point is that you are overstating the financial cost required.

I can’t remember now what I paid, but I did not take out any loans and was not earning a huge income (worked as an aircraft mechanic at low pay while earning the AA at community college, and as a recording engineer and piano teacher while earning the BS at the University of Florida; and in graduate school relied on the stipend and on money earned with writing) and had no trouble paying the tuition. The amount I paid each semester was probably under $1500, or if over, not by much. In community college it was probably under $1000.

The huge figures one sees cited all the time are for the big-snoot schools and typically include housing and food.

No one cares – no one even asks – where you went to college for the first two years. Unless you only do the two years. And state universities cannot discriminate against you, compared to their own students, in admission to upper division programs.

The cost of community college is ordinarily quite low, and state universities are usually not too bad either. NOTHING like the figures one sees quoted all the time for cost of going to college.

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[quote]zooropa1150 wrote:
I think most of these responses are bs. There’s very few people out there that know what they want to do coming out of highschool. If your one of them, and you like being a tradesman, then it’s a pretty obvious choice. However, I had no clue what I wanted to be at 18. Hell, I’m 21 now, and I still have no idea. [/quote]

i don’t think they’re bs. the best thing i can suggest if someone is still in high school (or not), and is unsure of what they want to do, is to pick something they think they’d want to do and try to get an internship / entry level job in that field and see what it’s like.

i thought at a fairly young age, 15-16, that i might want to be an architect. so what did i do? i went out to a bunch of firms and asked for a job doing anything just so i could see how the profession worked from the inside. the job i got was mostly administrative in nature, but i still began to learn how firms functioned and if that was the right environment for me. fast forward 10 years - i went to college, got my bachelors of architecture, and am working towards my professional registration.

my point being if there’s something you’re interested in, go do it and see if it’s right for you.

29

[quote]iamthewolf wrote:
zooropa1150 wrote:
I think most of these responses are bs. There’s very few people out there that know what they want to do coming out of highschool. If your one of them, and you like being a tradesman, then it’s a pretty obvious choice. However, I had no clue what I wanted to be at 18. Hell, I’m 21 now, and I still have no idea.

i don’t think they’re bs. the best thing i can suggest if someone is still in high school (or not), and is unsure of what they want to do, is to pick something they think they’d want to do and try to get an internship / entry level job in that field and see what it’s like.

i thought at a fairly young age, 15-16, that i wanted to be an architect. so what did i do? i went out to a bunch of firms and asked for a job doing anything just so i could see how the profession worked from the inside. the job i got was mostly administrative in nature, but i still began to learn how firms functioned and if that was the right environment for me. fast forward 10 years - i went to college, got my bachelors of architecture, and am working towards my professional registration.

my point being if there’s something you’re interested in, go do it and see if it’s right for you.[/quote]

Great post.

I would only add that you do not have forever to figure this shit out. Life isn’t always about simply trying to work at what you enjoy the most right now. It is also about compromise. I REALLY like music and bodybuilding. However, I always thought of my degree as “something to fall back on” should something not work out with the music thing. I’m glad I did it like that. Anyone remember the music group “Ideal”? I went to school with them…and came in second at a talent show to them…which stunk. They had one hit song years back but you don’t see them at all now. They dropped out of school to pursue the music thing…which is non-existent now.

Have a back up plan. Making a decent income can make up for being a second-best life decision.

30

Thanks, for all the replies. With that said I think I may have caused some confusion. I always used college and university interchangeably. I have been in college for 2 semesters and was thinking ahead to whether transferring was what I really wanted. At the moment I am a psychology major. I never had a dream job I always figured that whatever career I ended up with was just a way to earn income. I have looked at most job choices with a psychology degree and it seems that unless I go on to get a masters or PHD salaries top off at around 60k.

Here are some figures I found for apprenticships-journeymen in Burbank, CA:(BWP)
Electrician $28.00 - $45.16/hour
Line Mechanic $32.82 - $51.04/hour
Pipefitter $19.32 - $32.79/hour
Power Plant Maintenance $26.73 - $40.50/hour
Power Plant Operator $31.43 - $47.63/hour
Test Technician $28.76 - $46.39/hour

I have not made a decision , it just seems that a big difference is whether you want to be behind a desk or not because salary wise with a liberal arts degree it seems the pay is the same if not less.
I guess I just feel a bit nervous of not eventually getting a degree because it has been drilled into me from a young age (school/parents) that it is the way it is.

31

[quote]countingbeans wrote:
BiscuitChief wrote:

I have a degree in Computer Science and I learned more on the job in 6 months than I did in years of college.

This is going to be true with any field and any degree. It is the way it is.[/quote]

True, but my point was that you don’t have to go to college. Many people grow up and are constantly fed the idea that college is the key to their future; when for many people it isn’t necessarily the best way to go.

I was one of the rare exceptions that went into college knowing what I wanted to do and everyone said college would help me get there. In the end the education system was a real let down. I did learn things in college; but I could’ve learned the same amount in one year of classes instead of four and I rarely use any of it. College wasn’t for me and in retrospect that time could’ve been better spent somewhere else.

Keep in mind I deal with computers and I’m constantly around people who either don’t have degrees, or have totally unrelated degrees, and they are doing just fine. College isn’t bad, just overrated.

32

I’m getting a 2 year degree at cc for free (they’re giving me money to live on lol) and if I maintain a 3.0 I get 33% of tuition at Umass. So ill get a B.A pretty cheap. I want to have a major in history but unsure what kind of money ill be making. My brother got a 2 year degree in webpage design and makes 55K plus bonuses at his job though. They hired him without any work experience etc. I also see tons of job listings for things like C.A.D jobs which only require a two year degree. So you could do something with a college degree.

You dont have to have one to succeed but only you choose wisely what you are going to do then you might get unlucky.

33

[quote]iamthewolf wrote:
i thought at a fairly young age, 15-16, that i might want to be an architect. so what did i do? i went out to a bunch of firms and asked for a job doing anything just so i could see how the profession worked from the inside. the job i got was mostly administrative in nature, but i still began to learn how firms functioned and if that was the right environment for me. fast forward 10 years - i went to college, got my bachelors of architecture, and am working towards my professional registration.

my point being if there’s something you’re interested in, go do it and see if it’s right for you.[/quote]

Pretty much, I think that’s what most people should do and what I should’ve done.

34

I personally got a BS in Finance, but I knew I wanted to be in business before I went to school. You can definitely be very successful without going to college, but if you think you want to do something behind a desk at some point I would recommend it.

I was very close to not going to college and pursuing a career in a Fire Dept. While that is a great job, I am glad I followed through with college. You can always become an electrician after college (though with a bit more debt).

Dont waste the time and money to go to college and come out with a BS degree (I wont offend everyone by listing what those are in my opinion). College is really about a piece of paper that can get you a job to learn for real. Try and figure out what interests you and pick something to major in that would get you in the door there.

I have a buddy thats an electrician that does really well, and never went to college, but he is out there getting shocked, cut up and sweating all day everyday. If thats up your alley then go for it. College will never be easier to get yourself into than the next year.

35

[quote]james28 wrote:
Thanks, for all the replies. With that said I think I may have caused some confusion. I always used college and university interchangeably. I have been in college for 2 semesters and was thinking ahead to whether transferring was what I really wanted. At the moment I am a psychology major. I never had a dream job I always figured that whatever career I ended up with was just a way to earn income. I have looked at most job choices with a psychology degree and it seems that unless I go on to get a masters or PHD salaries top off at around 60k.

Here are some figures I found for apprenticships-journeymen in Burbank, CA:(BWP)
Electrician $28.00 - $45.16/hour
Line Mechanic $32.82 - $51.04/hour
Pipefitter $19.32 - $32.79/hour
Power Plant Maintenance $26.73 - $40.50/hour
Power Plant Operator $31.43 - $47.63/hour
Test Technician $28.76 - $46.39/hour

I have not made a decision , it just seems that a big difference is whether you want to be behind a desk or not because salary wise with a liberal arts degree it seems the pay is the same if not less.
I guess I just feel a bit nervous of not eventually getting a degree because it has been drilled into me from a young age (school/parents) that it is the way it is.

[/quote]

I have a BS in psychology, but I have never worked in the field. After struggling through business classes for two years, I changed majors after taking a psych class by a professor I really enjoyed. I was intrigued by psych and I have no regrets that I made the change.

When I got out into the “real world” it didn’t matter that I had a psych degree or a liberal arts degree, only that I had a degree. It got me in the door several places and probably actually got me the job in others.

I’m 38 now and have worked in banking, the private investigation field, insurance, job recruiting and, finally, telecom. I work at a desk during usual business hours, but I am afforded a lot of freedom and enjoy what I do. Plus I make considerably more than what some website tells me someone with a psych degree “tops out” at.

Point is, don’t base your decision solely on how much money some arbitrary organization says you can make, nor resign yourself to a particular field because that’s what you feel you want to do “right now”. My advice would be, if being an apprentice/journeyman appeals to you, find a way in, but continue to take classes. And if/when you realize that that is not what you want to do, be prepared to completely change directions. If that involves transferring to a university or dropping out altogether, fine.

36

I would recommend doing both. Being an electrician is great and you can make some really good money, but after some time on the job you may want to be in charge and a bachelors degree in management or project management would help big when applying for a supervisor job. Good luck with whatever you decide.

37

College has girls. And 18-22 year old girls are really hard to meet outside of college (at least in my experience and not accounting for drunk girls slumming it).

If you decide not to go that route, think big projects/jobs for best money. i.e. Pipelines, ports, refineries, tunnel projects, etc. Hooking up someone’s ceiling fan is not the most lucrative long term.

38

Go. Life and work are based on experiences, and college gives you experiences that you cannot get anywhere else.

39

Things I hate about college:

College kids… GOD I fucking hate these college kids. Then I breathe, relax, then remind myself that I was just like them when I was 19, only not as retarded.

Marketing and management classes. GOD what a fucking waste of time. “Can we segment the market for toilet paper? And how do we target those markets?” FUCK YOU! It’s fucking toilet paper you fat bitch! You wipe your ass with it! No one is thinking to themselves: “Hmmmmmmmm… This toilet paper is scented and has cute little bunnies on it, I will purchase this over the unscented with quilts and a baby on the front!” Marketing is for assholes that suck at math.

College kids. I hate them.

10 page essays when 5 will be sufficient. I have turned in some of the most fucked up essays simply because I was pissed that I ran out of material at page 7. Then the rest of my essay is drivel and looks like it was written by a 19 year old college kid.

Things I like about college:

College chicks. Mmmmmmmmm. Fun to stare at. I feel like a creepy old pervy man sometimes, but I don’t give a shit. It’s actually much more fun when they catch me ogling them, I’m like “Yeah, that’s right baby!” I somtimes wink and nod. Fun.

OP you could be like me and wait until you are 26 to go to school. You’ll find that it’s a real pain in the ass. I wouldn’t wait. I didn’t know what I wanted to do until my second year of community, when completely by accident, I found something that I actually was excited about, good at, and wanted to pursue. Now I have a set, fixed goal for myself, and a vision of what I want to be in 10 years. Damn it all if I hadn’t had this drive 10 years ago, I would be just that much closer.

40

[quote]BiscuitChief wrote:
countingbeans wrote:
BiscuitChief wrote:

I have a degree in Computer Science and I learned more on the job in 6 months than I did in years of college.

This is going to be true with any field and any degree. It is the way it is.

True, but my point was that you don’t have to go to college. Many people grow up and are constantly fed the idea that college is the key to their future; when for many people it isn’t necessarily the best way to go.

I was one of the rare exceptions that went into college knowing what I wanted to do and everyone said college would help me get there. In the end the education system was a real let down. I did learn things in college; but I could’ve learned the same amount in one year of classes instead of four and I rarely use any of it. College wasn’t for me and in retrospect that time could’ve been better spent somewhere else.

Keep in mind I deal with computers and I’m constantly around people who either don’t have degrees, or have totally unrelated degrees, and they are doing just fine. College isn’t bad, just overrated.[/quote]

That is one of very few industries that you can make good money without a degree. One of my buddies has ADD and can’t do well in class, no matter how hard he tries.

He works from home now on his own schedule which allows him to be flexible with his time, and makes a bit more than I do.

So no, you don’t need it 100% of the time. I’m just always wearing of telling someone to forgo college. Mainly because you can’t get your youth back, life starts to go real fucking fast. Next thing you know you have 2 kids a wife, and you need a mortgage but can’t get one because you’ve been doing the same bullshit job.

College tends to give those who try at life a career. While outside of the trades, no college tends to leave you with a job.

Plus I met my wife in college, and some of the best friends I’ve ever had in college.

I’m not saying your wrong, but not everyone is going to be good at computers…