Successful life without college???

[Puc]

moose...

You do not have to be a college student to learn.

That is what books are for. They are really cheap, too.

 

[rudedawg]

Just face the facts, guys. A college degree is useful only in two situations:

1) You simply do not possess the knowledge required to excel in your field and are unable to teach it to yourself, so you must go some place to learn it.

2) You are applying for a job that will not give you an interview without a college degree.

My friend is 22 with one semester of college and he made like 90k last year. College is bullshit.

-Warik

Exactly. I went 3 years of college and majored in Baseball. Like Matt I got my grades based on athletic ability as much as scores on test, etc.... No degree, no experience when I was done playing pro ball and now am in the upper class. If you have initiative, desire, and aren't a quitter you can make it.

 

[Puc]

If you are in it for the experience I agree completely. If you are in it for "da learnin'" I think it is a waste of time.

College, to quote myself, is a large slumber party. Take a bunch of people who aren't mature enough to be on there own and stick them someplace barely supervised. They drink, stay up late, talk about the opposite sex, do each others hair, etc...

I think it is a profound analogy

 

[rudedawg]

why would anyone not want to go to college?

Maybe to not be in debt for 10 years as soon as you get out.

My buddy got his degree to be a physical therapist. Got an awesome job right out of college making 55K/yr.... problem is he will be paying that much and some for all the student loans he had to take out to get that degree. He started his career in the hole.

 

[Cleaner]

Read the "Millionaire next Door"

Most only have a year or two.
If you have drive you'll get what you want.

I want to be a PAW.

 

[runner]

puc said:

All I wound up with is a piece of paper that the majority of the world believes is tantamount to erudition.

i agree with almost everything you said, puc. but let's face it, the majority of the world DOES believe that your sheepskin means something. a college degree will open doors for you that would otherwise be closed. i'm curious to know what you do for a living and whether you think you would have had an opportunity to do it without your degree.

i spent more time in college learning on my own, and learned more through my "pleasure" reading than i did from my professors. my access to an incredible library and its vast stores of knowledge was a big perk in going to school.

too many anecdotes about successful and/or unsuccessful people who did/didn't graduate from college (warik's friend, bill gates, etc.). the statistics don't lie (though they must be properly analyzed)...those who graduate from college make a lot more money than those who don't. (i'll grant you that those who do graduate from college are smarter and more driven than those who don't...on average. guess we can't TRULY know how they WOULD HAVE done had they not gone to college)

what worries me is that too often people use advice like skywalker's or stories like gates' to convince themselves that college would not be beneficial to them. i can't count how many times people have gone back to school after realizing that not getting a degree was a big mistake....

 

[Warik]

in high school you learn a lot of stuff that you will never use. does that mean you shouldnt go to high school now?

If I could get an interview for a job without a high school diploma, sure. For the most part, high school was a waste for me. There are five, five out of TWENTY FOUR classes I took in high school that I actually thought were worth my while.

Five out of twenty four.

"The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school."

-Warik

 

[Warik]

the statistics don't lie (though they must be properly analyzed)...those who graduate from college make a lot more money than those who don't.

In terms of those statistics, proper analysis is impossible. The problem with these "graduates make more than dropouts" statistics is the fact that they take into account ALL dropouts/people who don't go - even those with the intellectual capacity of a turnip. Why don't we do a statistical analysis of ALL college graduates and ALL people who didn't attend college who were actually good students in high school? It should be a crime to compare the financial status of Mr. College Degree to the financial status of Mr. "I had a 2.3GPA in HS and that's why I couldn't get into college" for these purposes.

-Warik

 

[Puc]

I am a contract PC/Web applications developer working for a consulting company.

I love my job because it allows me creative freedom. Of course, I am atypical in my love of logic (programs are poems to those who appreciate their flow and interplay)

I also like it because it doesn't require me to take the "time clock" approach to work. When I wake up, I go to work, when I get tired, I leave. No one is watching my back.

Now, to answer the latter question, I could do this without a degree. Many do, the information boom has freed people with my skillset from needing degrees. However, simply because I haven't noticed a glass ceiling yet doesn't mean one doesn't exists. I have a degree which might render it imperceptible.

 

[Warik]

Also, let's note that George's job advertisement says nothing about college education.

"Well I don't have any experience, but Mr. Spellwin, I went to college for 10 years!"

"Next applicant please."

-Warik