Posted on 05/16/2011 12:58:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
That's a very intelligent comment.
Stupid question! You can pay anywhere from a few thousand to most of $100K per year for anything from an engineering degree to a degree in minority studies. How can one assess the value of that with a yes/no?
It depends on what you mean by “college”. A degree in accounting or engineering is a far different thing than than general liberal arts, fine arts or communications. My daughter, SIL, nieces and nephews took, for the most part, subjects with real world value. Surveys such as this are so broad as to be meaningless. That said, it is likely most students are there for the social aspects.
Here’s another true story. My brother in canada hired this dude (who painted some of the most expensive restos in Vancouver BC) to paint his property, and he really looked like a homeless bum. Shirt was torn up, had holes etc. Seriously.
One day, he was finishing up , said goodbye to my brother to come back the next day...and walks to the latest AUDI in the parking lot and drives off.
I asked my bro, “that’s his car???”. He said “yep..and I drive a Honda”.
You think it’s a rip-off, but you support it? Democrat voters.
I went to college (night school) while working full time and had three kids at home. I went on the GI Bill so there were no student loans. I am glad I put the effort in, not just for a sheepskin to hang on the wall, but also because I feel educated, not smarter. The most important class one can take is ENGL101. If you can’t write well, you’ll never advance in your chosen field. One will never get promoted solely if one knows who Iago is, what the Swidden Technique is, the role the trilobite plays in geology, when to use the subjunctive in French or who painted The Birth of Venus. One can never tell when these subjects will arise in a saloon, and being able to prove your point intelligently could avoid a nasty bar fight. Of course, nowadays, everyone has Google on one’s cellphone, so maybe it wasn’t worth it after all.
Our local newspaper publishes photos of prospective brides and grooms along with their traditional wedding announcements, which say, where relevant, what colleges they attended and what degrees they received. My wife and I sometimes play a game in which we have to identify by the photo only whether the bride or the groom or both did or did not graduate from college. The amazing thing is that we are both right about 90+ percent of the time. Since we are both college graduates ourselves, I have always assumed we are, subconsciously, asking ourselves, “Does this young couple look like people we would know or we would relate to?”
” adults who did not earn a bachelor’s degree feel as though they would be making $20,000 more per year if they had gone to college.”
Feel? With todays job market, and all those horror stories of getting a BS in Biology and a minor in Chem and only finding a job at BestBuy, and they say ...feel? Is that the best that they could come up with?
It sounds so lame.
I earned a business degree. I am a photographer. Self taught in my profession. But the business degree, and subsequent twenty years of management and marketing experience is responsible for my success.
We are going through this very discussion with our kids. One is going to a college for a specific degree. She picked the best school for that particular specialty and she targeted just that school. She knows exactly what she wants to do and is moving in that direction.
Our older daughter was not sure. She did two years of community college and will be doing to a finish at a local private school. Again, targeted to her specific career goals. She will end up in two years with a quarter of the debt of her classmates.
We taught our children at a young age that college was NOT the answer to all of their dreams. Rather, college was a targeted way to make your dreams come true.
I have two brothers. One is a commercial painter and his business grosses three times mine. The other went to night school through the ANG. He is not a Ops manager of a very big plant.
College is not always the answer. You just have to blow through the BS the kids are bombarded with each day.
I wish I had become a car mechanic. Those guys are always busy.
I have my bachelors and started my MBA but stopped for lack of interest. I make a great living doing what I do but would rather work outside in the fresh air than at a desk.
I recently met a Mennonite guy with an 8th grade education who owns an excavation construction business. He has more work than he can handle.
In his case, I would rather have the 8th grade education.
I’d have answered in the same way, because the study was set up badly. Yes, college and graduate school were more than worth it to me, but then I went to school many years ago, expanded my mind without being exposed to leftist agitprop, and accumulated no debt. But no, it’s probably not worth it today for many young people who don’t have a scholarly turn of mind, won’t be studying for the pure love of knowledge, won’t get a better job as a result, and will just be racking up enormous educational debts. Until this situation is resolved I would not encourage most young people to go to any institution at which they’d be generating much debt.
The trouble is that we are using college as a very expensive trade school today. That wasn’t its original intention.
If a kid wants to go to college, he needs to pick a field that a) is going to require he bust his butt in studying and b) has marketable real world value.
Me, my whole family and all of my son’s friends begged him to go to college. Well, he enrolled and then turned around and joined the Army. He called from Afghanistan today and said he was “livin’ the dream!” The whole country smells like sh!t, is hotter than hell, no A/C, but I have a roll of Cope Straight long cut an M4 in a giant man camp of guys just like me”........he was seriously happy.
College is great if you have a plan, if not, it is an expensive extension of HS with lots of drinking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.