Posted on 11/03/2016 10:50:18 AM PDT by CorporateStepsister
Did anyone here on FR forgo going to college and university and end up all the better for it? I dropped out of college in 2006 right before I had my nervous breakdwon and after ten years of working on my business and other interests, I'm thinking of seeking out private tutoring instead of going back to a really expensive mainstream education system.
Read ‘The Millionaire Next Door’
then re-read it 2 more times
Send me your contact info & $5,000; I’ll give you 2 quizzes, a midterm, a final exam, plus a 10 page research paper all based on the book.
We can repeat 32 more times with different topics; as long as your checks clear. I’ll create a real fancy parchment diploma with much fine words ( some even in Latin ) with a real authentic degree.,
but seriously - if after reading ‘The millionaire next door’ 3 times doesn’t finally purge your brain of the false need to go to college; nothing will.
my degrees
BS Econ - Lower Tier Ivy
BA (Hons) - some dang foreign place
MS Civil Engineering - Top Ten
MBA - Top Tier Ivy
All useless
Thank you! And my baking skills make me my best money when I’m baking pastries because I get paid more per piece than I do for breads and rolls.
BUT, my most reliable work is always for breads and rolls. Not every resort or restaurant is all so hot for fresh pastries but they all love fresh bread and rolls. My thing is my sourdough starter. It’s mine and when I started it in school the teachers all said it was special and I’ve kept it going ever since.
Retired now, went through working life with no college - ended up a multi-millionaire.
With that said, it would have been easier to get through my career (banking) with a college degree - any four-year college degree would have been just fine. This is especially true if one is working for someone else but if you have your own business a college degree doesn’t necessarily help.
I skipped college. Did a year at a trade school. Never regretted it. I own my own construction business.
Book is available for free to Amazon Prime members. Thanks for the recommendation.
Your lawyer was having his receptionist type up those applications.
Congratulations!
I forwent it and will soon be a multi-millionaire as soon as they pick my Powerball® ticket.
Boom. there you go. A small investment company I previously worked for once looked at buying a relatively small ($6-8 million year sales) commercial bakery. A nice, stable biz, but we passed because once the owner and his partner retired (one was quite ill), we had no viable plan for management. I learned later it was sold to two men with backgrounds that sound similar to yours. I don't know exactly how they financed it, but the money came to them. I think they must be doing well - I see their trucks all over town.
Watch, learn the state-of-the-art, be trustworthy and these sorts of opportunities to control your own future, will constantly appear before you.
I have a degree in Sociology. I have been self employed in sales for nearly 40 years - didn’t need a degree for that.
However, because I got a student deferment just before they stopped giving them, my college education was not career oriented. It was mostly stay out of the rice paddies oriented. And the Sociology department had a great supply of attractive coeds.
Also, a college campus then was a real free speech zone. We freely discussed anything without fear of retribution. Hell, I was a conservative in the Sociology department. Imagine that now!
Truthfully, I have often wondered if I would have finished college had there been no war or draft.
Your openness and honesty is admirable.
Whatever you pursue educationally or otherwise, the nervous breakdown has to be explored.
If there was an acute event/series of events that precipitated it - that is one thing.
If there is an underlying issue and if it is possible it will recur, then you have to also consider that.
College isn’t magic, but it does take a substantial commitment of time and (some) money to complete it, and actually learn from it, depending on what you decide to study.
If you’re looking for a sheepskin to hang on your wall, fine, take night school and work.
If you’re looking to change your career path meaningfully, a college degree will not guarantee that. It may help, but it isn’t a guarantee. It also may not help at all.
It depends entirely upon the occupation you plan to pursue. There is no substitute for a good engineering education. If you are planning a liberal arts degree for anything other than a teaching career, forget it.
Business degrees are good as long as they are applied. If you are proficient in accounting, finance, marketing, advertising, operations management and motivation, you have what you need for entrepreneurship. If you want to work for a big corporation, get the MBA.
I joined the military after my girlfriend died in H.S.
Later I started my own business. Now I’m retired with a home paid for. I’m 56 and live alone.
Find something you love to do and do it. Find someone to love and do them too. Just my 2 cents.
“My thing is my sourdough starter”
How does one start and keep a sourdough? It sounds like a skill worth having.
I joined the Missouri Army National Guard at 18 in 1972. Went Fort Dix For Basic & then to Aberdeen Proving Grounds for Machinist school. Returned home in the spring of 1973 and went to work in a machine shop. After several job changes went to work for Anheuser Busch Inc. as an industrial equipment repair machinist for over 30 years. Retired in 2012 at 58, living comfortably and enjoying life.
I did. I was a great student. Went to a vocational school for medical secretary. Got a job with an insurance company when computers were just coming in the scene. Took that computer experience to AZ and got a job at ASU. Career there morphed over the years. 28 years later retired at 55 with full retirement. So I think I did pretty well for myself!
Cheers.
“If you’re going to be employed by corporate America, you really need to have a desirable degree as in chemistry, engineering, data services.”
I don’t disagree with that, but the majority of those I know with degrees, have not leveraged those sheepskins into high paying corporate careers.
It goes without saying that, the edumacated fools I know, all have degrees in so-called ‘soft’ subjects.
I quit college in the middle of my second year (I was an all “A” student) because the school dropped the traditional grading system and went to an egalitarian PASS/FAIL model. All one needed to “PASS” was show up for class. I was so infuriated by this that I quit and never went back.
I then proceeded to educate myself and now teach Voice, Guitar, Piano, Music Theory, Creative Writing, and Art from pre-school to college level. I prepare people for Entrance Exams and Auditions, and have many successes to report.
But I never did get that degree. LOL.
Id recommend ordering some CLEP test books in subjects you feel comfortable in. You can accumulate quite a lot of intro and 101 level class credits this way, and the tests are much cheaper than taking a class.
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.