Is college overrated?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...903350.html?hpid=talkbox1&sid=ST2010090904227





I find it interesting this guy went to cornell for computer science. it just makes me wonder.

What do you think?

 

I need college, but as much as that will help, it's also about experience these days. I'm getting both. So I don't think it's overrated.

Only place where you pay for a degree are those bullshit daytime tv college commercials, like ITT Tech or Everest College. I hate that fucking dude on the Everest commercial. Straighten your hat, fucker.

 

Not at all. I prefer to go to a doctor and dentist who has been to college.

 

A college degree is like a general admission membership card into American society, which doesn't mean you can't accomplish a LOT without a degree, but it does make life in many respects a whole helluva lot more difficult.

There are certain professions, non manual labor btw, that if you start early enough in your work career and become highly proficient, a degree doesn't matter.
That said, I would tell anyone to gut through a 4-year bachelor's degree program ANYWHERE, just because you don't want to give an employer one more reason not to hire you. :smt025

EDJUmacation...pass it on!!

 

In certain aspects yes...

 

I wouldn't say college is overrated, but I will say that the usefulness of technical schools is underrated. In some cases, a technical diploma can provide you with more money, as compared to someone with a 4-year Bachelors of Psychology working in the psych field. Even then, a paralegal with 2 years of college, typically earns 50k a year, which is pretty decent as compared to some of the job offers I was posting, when working in the student affairs center back in college.

My recommendation tho for anyone, is to get a degree first (right after high school if you can..bang it out quick), then consider getting additional skills through trade schools or certifications. The more letters you have after your name, the higher the probability of you getting a decent job. If you're banking your entire future on a degree, you may be short-changing yourself, as evidenced by the unemployment rate and lack of jobs in any given sector.

 

A lot of those technical schools are bullshit and people don't really learn much from them. Employers don't even accept a lot of people from those schools because a lot of them are scams and not accredited. You can get those same skills and certification at a community college, for 1/10 the cost.

 

well yeah you can get some of the skills/certs from community, but others are still isolated in tech schools. But like you said, you have to make sure they're accredited and you have to research their respective job markets...maybe even call ahead to different employers and ask them about their hiring practices.

paralegal can be completed at a tech school or community, AND you make good money with just a 2-year degree. 4-years of college is NOT for everyone (psych grads find this out the hard way, when they realize the big money comes with graduate degrees), and sometimes your situation dictates a plan-of-action tailored specifically for you. Part of being intelligent is knowing how to devise those plans and put them into action, not just parroting back what you read in a book for some class.

You have to be street smart.

 

This is true.

 

College is "overrated" if you are exceptionally talented in something that doesn't require academic study or you attend a shitty university. I dropped out of high school with no firm commitment to anything, so I worked, read, and pretty much did nothing for a few years before deciding to give college a try.

I have an education from an outstanding university, but have also discovered that what I earn over the course of my lifetime is immaterial to my concerns. I don't need a large sum of money to be happy or live as I please. Although I had it in mind to become a computer programmer and make lots of money, it bored the shit out of me so I switched to a social science/humanities major.

Fuck the pressures of the job market, the expectations of others, and most of all fuck capitalism. If you decide to attend college, pick something that enlivens your sense of self not what you feel will pay you a lot.

And BA is right, avoid any half-ass school that costs as much as Harvard. That degree will be worthless.

 

:smt023

 

So true, and well said.

Welcome back, Saty.

 

Exactly.
I have attended university, technical college and community college (uni and community at the same time - uni during day, community for night class) and loved it only because I chose to study what I enjoyed, not what would pay me heaps of money. BTW I only took one English class, so don't expect literary brilliance from me despite the number of years of post secondary education ahahahahahahahaha.

 

Damn, Athena was all over the place. :smt023

 

True dat on all points. the thing is that people need to spend their money wisely. Example: I saw a report on a dude who went to harvard to become a high school teacher..now that was dumb because harvard would cost well over 100,000 to graduate where a teacher would make about 35000 to start depending were you live. they could have gone to a small college and received the same quality education or close to it for that teaching degree for about 30000 to graduate.

if they want to be a doctor then take your ass to harvard...if I see you went to "around the way and up th block university" then Im not allowing you give me a flu shot.

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/


Here's an interesting program. It talks about rise in for-profit colleges (Everest, University of Phoenix, etc.) and it's controversy. I thought it was pretty good.

 

Maybe he truly enjoyed education, and wanted to go to a prestigious school, because that was the type of person he was. Walking around the University of Penn (ivy) is very different from walking around many other universities. It attracts a certain type of student and has a different atmosphere (you get that elitist impression when you spent time around the campus), you know? Maybe he gets a sense of pride that he wouldnt have gotten from Penn State or Temple.

 

I like U of Phoenix because of their attempt to make college accessible for everybody, but the prices are astronomical, and their faculty/reputation are questionable. I would rather enroll in Drexel online, because of their reputation, tradition and yearly national rankings. It may be harder to get into, but at least you know you're paying good money for a good school.

 

yeah really. if i remember correctly (im not sure) but it seemed that he was complaining about the student loan he had. Im not sure on that though or maybe it was the fact he had that large student loan.

Yeah he could love the fact he went to a nike school

 

Which is what makes it sketchy. I've heard "horror stories" about people who went to these kinds of schools. The teachers were always late, they had 5 teachers by the time they finished their "education", and would lecture for like 20 minutes and then have the rest be reading. In that College Inc. program, a Psycology major said for a field trip, they went to a pre-school or some shit. And in a lot of those schools, they have you take their entrance test to see if you are qualified, and I've heard stories about how people bombed and the representative or whoever was like "that's fine" and began discussing loans and other paperwork. If they do make it harder, then it seems like they might be just a little more legit than the other schools, but I don't know.


Funny thing is that they have taglines like "why spend a bunch of money on some university". Even though they just as much, if not more, than out of state university tuition. They say "some university" like it's some hole in the wall downtown. And they say a "bunch of money" as if the money being spent isn't worth it.