for I would say a good 70% of people college is a total waste of money.

Is wildly expensive, since the government decided to pour money into it without ever verifying that the results were worth anything.

My reply would have been-
College: Only as good as your major

I'm going to college part time, and wish I had gone to a state school. Turning high schools into college feeder programs was a mistake. If you aren't gifted or have a great plan, learn a trade so you can retire.

Quite frankly, it's been my experience and that of others, that today's college is yesterday's high school - but just barely.

I don't mean that to be all-inclusive but for the majority...

It depends on what you want college to do for you. Are you looking for college to be a glorified trade school? Then it probably won't work. But if you are looking for exposure to ideas that may expand your horizons for what is possible with your life, then college works.

Most people don't need to go to a fancy school. Local and state colleges will work just as well as a pricey private school.

My company won't even look at someone without a degree. It can be in underwater basket weaving, but new hires for all the best-paid jobs need a degree. Do we miss some highly qualified people by enforcing this requirement? Yep. But the rules are the rules. And my company is not alone.

I'd never have gotten my job without a degree, but what I do has very little to do with my major. It was just proof that I could stick to something and think at a certain level.

My kids are going to state universities when the time comes, unless they get full rides to somewhere else.

While college wasn't for me, personally, economists are nigh-unanimous that college will pay for itself and change over the course of your life. It is my hope that my child will go someday, but I hated school and just wanted to get out into the workforce.

I'm going to be leaving college with a degree in chemical engineering and a wealth of knowledge acquired from co-ops with some of the world's most renowned companies.

However I will be leaving college with more debt than I want to deal with.

Perhaps a scholarship is something I should look into (being that I already have a lot and I'm still going to be in debt up to my eyeballs).

College got me a job in Biomedical research. However, I could have parlayed my time in the USAF into a well paid trade career in airplane mechanics. Although I am making a pretty decent salary now after 15 years in my field...truth is, I would have made more in airplanes. However, there is more to a career than money. I am quite happy with my choice. Total college loan debt: ~15K...almost all paid off. I'm a slow burner ;)

College used to be important, but now everyone has a college degree and they are pretty much meaningless. I am a college graduate, but the job I have now does not require a college degree and is one of the better paying jobs in my town. Which, considering this is the rural midwest, really isn't much. So I have all that student loan debt that will take me 20 years to pay off for nothing.

I know more people my age who are not using their college degrees than those that are using them. I'm in my early 30's, btw.

The problem with college today is that most are for profit businesses. They overpay staff and run bloated budgets at the expenses of the middle class and poor. Another problem is the proliferation of FOR PROFIT COLLEGES that amount to a glorified high school. Much of what one study’s in college can be achieved today by reading and internet. Most end up in careers that never needed college and they learned through the employer. College does show the ability and character to finish a goal, but at what expense. Investing in ones education is still and will always be up to the individual. I applaud wanting to learn, but don't think it will make your rich in wealth. Going to college should be about growing, not finding a career. Go to a vocational or trade school if that is finding a job is your goal or make lots of money. Many degrees one can get in college can be found cheaper and better through vocational schools. Don't get saddled in debt. A vast majority are struggleto pay off loans or place their parents in debt that will cause them to work themselves to death. College is what you make of it and many just squander the opportunity. An undergraduate degree helps develop well rounded citizens, but many career paths can be achieved in less than 2 years and for less money. The main problem with college is the inflated tuitions that cause more hardship than the education is worth. College football and basketball mean more to the students than their education. SHAME, but very true.

10dsbrennan wrote:I'm going to be leaving college with a degree in chemical engineering and a wealth of knowledge acquired from co-ops with some of the world's most renowned companies.

However I will be leaving college with more debt than I want to deal with.

Perhaps a scholarship is something I should look into (being that I already have a lot and I'm still going to be in debt up to my eyeballs).

You have a great degree and will be fine. I feel bad for those who go and study art and find themselves in debt and unemployed. Tuition should be based on the degree of the student. Degree's should be based on job opportunities and average salary of graduates. But the history, English, and art professors would riot like the French and guillotine the chancellor. Chemical engineer degree should cost more than a theology degree. Doesn't mean it has less value to society, but that it does mean the odd's show you will make less.

When I was a kid, we were sold on the idea that college was the key to a prosperous future. Without college, you were doomed to be poor. Recently I read an article in a business publication about the ROI of various degrees. It was shocking. Many of them barely exceeded 100%. Should people be expected to spend half of their career earnings just to pay for school? It seems that instead of the key to prosperity, for many college is the doorway to life-long debt and borderline poverty.

mkiisupraman18 wrote:My reply would have been-
College: Only as good as your major

Being in the workforce, I'd argue this. You'd be amazed how many employers don't care what your major is. They just want to know if you:
a) Went to college or not
b) Graduated or Not (and if you didn't, do you plan to or are you continuing your education).

The key to prosperity is communication skills, ingenuity, drive and not having an aversion to hard work, the type of which you enjoy doing. The enjoyment is the key, to the degree that the "work" isn't "work" but is still remunerative. It's often a parental dream and propagated fallacy that college will somehow make this happen. It may for some but it won't for most.

When I was younger I thought it was going to be pretty important to go to college. But then, just before Christmas during my senior year of HS, they booted me out for skipping too much class.

Long story short, I worked my way up from Desktop Support Tech to Manager of Datacenter Infrastructure over the past 6 years working for one of the largest Forex brokers in the world.

I was able to achieve this with no HS diploma (no GED either) and never even a thought of going to college. So, for me at least, it would seem that college wasn't very necessary.

A college degree is almost mandatory because HR departments don't have the skills required to evaluate talent. As a result they only pass on resumes that have a college degree listed. I see the stupidest things when looking for IT jobs. Many now say that an MBA is required. How dopey is that? Some of the best IT guys I have ever worked with were self taught. The best programmer that ever worked for me didn't have a high school diploma. Since HR (not IT) required a degree they blocked his raises and promotions. As a result he went to another company and we had to finally hire 3 people (at a higher rate) to get his work done.

PapaMidnight wrote:Being in the workforce, I'd argue this. You'd be amazed how many employers don't care what your major is. They just want to know if you:
a) Went to college or not
b) Graduated or Not (and if you didn't, do you plan to or are you continuing your education).

goatta agree here - my take is a degree just shows how much BS you can put up with (engineers excepted). The more BS you can put up with the less chance you will have the stones to leave when your boss is an I D I O T.

College is not as important as it used to be. Still important from the perspective of many employers, and if you get a good school (or good profs even at a mediocre school), they will teach you how to think. My career has nothing to do with my major - but my education taught me so much more than just the major.

That said, college is not for everyone. Unfortunately, too many higher ed institutions are focused either on 1) money, or 2) propoganda, and their efficacy is minimized. I am a firm proponent of trade schools, which could teach skill sets and get many people into good jobs/careers. May they be fruitful and multiply, and convince many pupils that a $100k English degree is not as valuable as some good life experience and doing something useful with one's hands.

I believe in education and training. College is just one avenue to take to achieve this. I am surprised that trade schools are not held in higher regards. I have a 4 year degree but I did not get it until a couple of years ago. I work in a trade and have a 6 figure income. My job does not require a degree. My wife has two degrees and made less than 40k in the legal field when she was working... Go figure.

College is important, even if you don't work in the field you studied. It changes your way of thinking and learning in a way that impacts almost every aspect of daily life. Even though I disliked school and never pursued the advanced degrees that most of my family achieved, I still feel that my bachelor's degree was beneficial to my life and career. I do, however, wish that I could go back and do some of it over again...in order to do better.

I excelled in high school and then turned in a varied performance in college/university. My variable interest showed in my grades -- I just passed subjects I wasn't interested in and got top grades in classes that caught my attention. I started after a nursing degree and then switched abruptly to English. (A long story that was largely influeneced by missteps of faculty so egregious that my father was able to wrangle a free semester as compensation.) I still wish that I had finished the nursing degree, but the experience was not wasted. I now work as a information specialist in public health.

mrsly69 wrote:The problem with college today is that most are for profit businesses. They overpay staff and run bloated budgets at the expenses of the middle class and poor. Another problem is the proliferation of FOR PROFIT COLLEGES that amount to a glorified high school. Much of what one study’s in college can be achieved today by reading and internet. Most end up in careers that never needed college and they learned through the employer. College does show the ability and character to finish a goal, but at what expense. Investing in ones education is still and will always be up to the individual. I applaud wanting to learn, but don't think it will make your rich in wealth. Going to college should be about growing, not finding a career. Go to a vocational or trade school if that is finding a job is your goal or make lots of money. Many degrees one can get in college can be found cheaper and better through vocational schools. Don't get saddled in debt. A vast majority are struggleto pay off loans or place their parents in debt that will cause them to work themselves to death. College is what you make of it and many just squander the opportunity. An undergraduate degree helps develop well rounded citizens, but many career paths can be achieved in less than 2 years and for less money. The main problem with college is the inflated tuitions that cause more hardship than the education is worth. College football and basketball mean more to the students than their education. SHAME, but very true.

AMEN !!! Well stated....thks

I go to college to learn (mostly to get my foot in the door, and then I learn mostly on my own), not to get a degree. I have 70 credits ranging from biomedical technology, media/television production, to CIS and horticulture/permaculture.

I have many friends with degrees, bachelors, masters, and they're surprisingly incompetent. All they care about is getting a job, they can't do them very well, and it's actually disgusting that many students only go to college so they can get the degree to get a job rather than expand their knowledge.

slappomatt wrote:for I would say a good 70% of people college is a total waste of money.

I would say, given your response, that you would benefit tremendously from some higher education.

When you've got the hustle, you can do just as well without college, but that's not to say it is pointless. If they didn't confer degrees, I would have still gone to college; the experience was absolutely worth it.

...at least in my experience. I'm sure this is not universally true.

College isn't supposed to teach you technical skills, it's supposed to broaden your thinking skills by engaging your brain in subjects you might not have thought about before.

It should (not always it would seem) impart some critical thinking skills which would allow you to analyze a problem and solve it more effectively than someone without those skills.

I went to College to get a diploma. It's amazing the doors that are opened by that little piece of paper.

That being said, if your high school failed to impart upon you at least a modicum of critical thinking skills, College will usually rectify that situation.

Essentially, College will teach you how to think, learn, reason, etc. and will be especially beneficial if you have not had much exposure to that sort of environment before. Otherwise, it's just rote memorization - in which case you would be better off using google. But as I said before, the piece of paper is still very nice to have.

I'm about to graduate from college and I have a six-figure job waiting for me when I leave. I know that's not common for most college grads, but it (almost?) never happens for high school grads.

It's gotten to the point where college is nothing more than a piece of paper that costs a ton to get. Book smarts are great, but for the price you're paying you're not getting the basic experience you need to really get ahead.

JRRB wrote:College is important, even if you don't work in the field you studied. It changes your way of thinking and learning in a way that impacts almost every aspect of daily life.

Right. Only people who go to college know how to think properly. This is a myth perpetuated by, oddly enough, colleges.