Posted on 12/02/2012 10:30:41 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
BENJAMIN GOERING does not look like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, talk like him or inspire the same controversy. But he does apparently think like him.
Two years ago, Mr. Goering was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, studying computer science and philosophy and feeling frustrated in crowded lecture halls where the professors did not even know his name.
“I wanted to make Web experiences,” said Mr. Goering, now 22, and create “tools that make the lives of others better.”
So in the spring of 2010, Mr. Goering took the same leap as Mr. Zuckerberg: he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco to make his mark. He got a job as a software engineer at a social-software company, Livefyre, run by a college dropout, where the chief technology officer at the time and a lead engineer were also dropouts. None were sheepish about their lack of a diploma. Rather, they were proud of their real-life lessons on the job.
“Education isn’t a four-year program,” Mr. Goering said. “It’s a mind-set.”
The idea that a college diploma is an all-but-mandatory ticket to a successful career is showing fissures. Feeling squeezed by a sagging job market and mounting student debt, a groundswell of university-age heretics are pledging allegiance to new groups like UnCollege, dedicated to “hacking” higher education. Inspired by billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider themselves a D.I.Y. vanguard, committed to changing the perception of dropping out from a personal failure to a sensible option, at least for a certain breed of risk-embracing maverick.
Risky? Perhaps. But it worked for the founders of Twitter, Tumblr and a little company known as Apple.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Not going to be the first in line to get heart surgery from a doctor who dropped out.
Some fields need people with advanced education. Some don’t.
As far as Libs/Dems are concerned, saying that college isn’t for everyone will soon become as offensive as saying “Merry Christmas.”
BTW—Merry Christmas fellow FReepers!
I’m seeing a trend toward certification in lieu of college. Program Management, PMI, Quality, APICs, Air-Conditioning, etc. Pay the $400-500, take the test and add the certification to the resume. Some of these certifications are more important than a college degree. Of course, it’s a money scheme too. You have to have “continuing education” credits and pay money to belong to an organization. But, you get to put their logo on your resume.
I think we’re seeing the end of tradition college. Classes and certifications will be available on-line at a fraction of the cost of a brick and mortar school.
Yes, but a heart surgeon hardly needs to sit through 4 years of history or political science or gender studies at a university to learn to be a doctor. Most college courses are a joke and just a repeat of the crap kids are forced to endure in high school. There is absolutely no reason for education to take as many years as it does. The initial push for mandatory education came from unions that did not want young people out in the work force competing for jobs.
Our system of education is horrible, and the worst thing that ever happened to this country was when government basically took over education. We are still doing things the way they were done 150 years ago, although things are even worse, since everything is dumbed down now.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/scariest-chart-quarter-student-debt-bubble-officially-pops-90-day-delinquency-rate-g
I'm still paying for this degree.
I hope you are right! Somehow we have to break free from the rotten government school system that offers poor education, lots of drugs to buy, bullying, stultifying boredom, and then a useless degree from a leftist dominated college.
If you want to get a job with a W-2 and a pretty good paycheck that allows you to become a recipient of the somewhat upper, middle-middle class and forever spin your wheels trying to make that former American Dream of the multiple cars, nice house, summer home, decent retirement, then by all means go to college and get a degree in a meaningful discipline.
If you want to really make it, find something you like to do, hopefully where you can start a business, and work hard. Cheat on your taxes until the taxman comes to your door and tell him “if you complain about the cash I make in this business and deal with, then quit printing the damned stuff.”
Buy a big safe ...keep the cash you make, and use it for your bills, etc. reduce your paper income to the point you qualify for Food Stamps, EBT, section 8, SNAP, SCHIP, EITC, et al. Obama’s voters do it.
Better would be an Engineering Degree, or Business
To learn how to Think Critically
these days the “professors” and highly paid administrators are a huge part of the problem.. When I went to school and law school, a semester was $750 plus books $300 and “professors” made about $40K These days, the “professors” are pigs at the trough making over $100K plus fat benefits, won’t do more than their 2 lectures a week and they make me want to puke.
Georgia Tech is now offering classes free online. Can’t get any cheaper than that.
Not to mention the myth of “the shortage of Highly skilled American Tech workers”. Why would corporations pay an American Engineer with top $$$$ when they can get an Indian or Chinese worker for cheap.
I encourage young people here to learn a trade at the local shipyard or some such, rather than go to college as some sort of default strategy to bide time while they “find themselves.”
Learn welding. Learn pipefitting. Become an electrician, a plumber. Learn small appliance repair. Become an auto mechanic. Learn to do something practical that people value so much that they will pay you to do it.
It would appear that the vaunted college degree is somewhat overrated. That's not to dismiss those who put in the years and worked hard and earned the piece of paper that has opened doors for them that may not otherwise have been options. But if some things can be done by people with no degree that required a degree at some point, then how much money is being wasted by both government agencies and private companies on people with a degree?
CEWL!
All juice, no pits
Just the ticket for a self starter
Once ObamaCare kicks in, most of the “care givers” in this country will be graduates of SEI University’s 3:15 p.m. Thursday afternoon graduating class. Good luck with that.
College offers little to nothing that can’t be self-taught, including doctrinaire Marxism.
Let’s starve the Beast. And save a bundle of dough on the process. I’m letting my kids decide, and pay their own way, should they choose college.
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