liberal indoctrination centers is what I call ‘em.
Big College X must be either Syracuse or Boston University . . .
It doesn’t appear that piece of paper is even worth that.
It's also a familiar song sung by employers in the corporate world.
"You have to have a degree to qualify." It usually doesn't matter what the degree is in, just the fact that you took the time, effort, and expense to make it through college demonstrates at least a degree of motivation to an employer who is sorting through 1,000 resumes for 1 job opening.
There are of course exceptions, but few will get hired into junior executive positions in major corporations without a sheepskin.
Lawyer, doctor, engineer, computer programmer, actuary, CPA, stockbroker - there are many professions where you simply have to go to college. If you want one of these jobs, you have no choice.
I have master’s in Electrical Engineering.
My undergrad years were spent like this: 2 hours traveling on the subway, classes, many hours studying-homework, 24 house a week unloading and loading trucks at a warehouse. At the end of the semester, after the last final, I went out with my friends and had a few drinks. The next day I was back on the loading dock.
Masters was paid for and required by my employer, done after work and on weekends.
College wasn’t fun or entertaining for me nor any of my friends. It was a means to an end. I was not alone.
When did things change?
I have a law degree and I am a reasonably-successful practicing lawyer. I only very recently paid off my law school student loan debt. That debt started around $150k and climbed to over $200k through recapitalized interest due to deferrals until I was able to finally start paying it down. Until I cut several checks totaling in the six figures over the last year, my student loan payments eclipsed my mortgage payments. Plus my wife is also a lawyer who also had six figures in student loan debt (that she paid off before I did).
Those seven years of post-secondary education and mountains for debt ultimately paid off for me. I like my work and I make good money doing it. But I have a client who is the same age as me and who dropped out of college after a year to go work in the mortgage business. He learned the mortgage and real estate business through on-the-job experience. He is applying his now ~20 years of experience in the real estate market making a fortune flipping houses and in other real estate investments.
So yes, the best advice you could give any kid is that they should only go to college if they have a good reason. Or, the related advice I give college students and recent grads who are considering law school: Don’t go for the money. If you are smart enough to make money as a lawyer, you are smart enough to make at least as much money doing something else.
Don’t go to college just to go to college. There was a time when colleges provided a solid “liberal education” (in the traditional, Roman sense of the term), the intellectual foundation to be a leading citizen, but those days are long gone. Now, college must be viewed as purely a financial investment, and it is dubious one at best.
The “Highly Educated” class literally exists only because of the SKILLED HANDS of the TRADESMEN of this world. The lights we see by, the auto brakes that stop us on time, the jet engine that takes us from here to there, the electric gred and/or generators that keep the hospital electronics running are what keeps us alive and in one piece.
Without the greasy hand of the elevator maintainence guy, there wouldn’t be a building over FOUR stories is the country.
When a customer, a single hour ago, walked into my shop to have his watch repaired after driving SIXTY miles, I know something really screwed up. This posting really hits the target.
ML/NJ
Its simple. If employers did not hire the guy from Yale over the guy from The Ohio State University, then nobody would bother with the expense and bother of Yale. And that is doubly true of Bucknell or Johns Hopkins or any other east coast private school that people pay over a quarter million dollars to have their children go to.
The price is even a give away. The price is just for rich parents. Kids themselves or lower middle class parents pay less. Which shows its got a Tiffany’s appeal. “Look what I can afford.” Or more correctly, “look what my parents could afford.”
The reality is that going to a school for a day should be all thats needed. Its not the education that separates you with a Yale degree. Its the admissions process. Your high school transcripts and ACT score shows you are a hard working very intelligent person. Your going to be successful regardless of Yale. See Gates or Jobs who left after Freshman year. Your not taught anything that Google can’t teach you when you are ready to learn it. And of course there is all the unlearning you have to do when you get a job. About the only thing you do learn in these colleges is how bad you feel after 12 drinks. Hardly worth the tuition cost.
Our son is finishing up his senior year of high school (homeschool) and his last year in the electrician program at the local community college (PSEO). All we had to pay for were the tools he needed for the program. At 18 years old he can begin his career as an electrician completely debt free. His best friend did the same thing but in the auto body program. Both graduate this spring with no debt. Both are musicians and can support themselves well while pursuing their passion/hobby.
Our oldest didn’t want to do PSEO, in part due to his career choice (law enforcement) and also because high school athletics were important to him. He has a good job and is able to pay his tuition each semester at the same community college.
I maxed out on student loans and it was a painful life lesson. My kids may not have always listened to us, but they did pay attention to the problems debt brings.
I knew enough about those schools years ago to realize that I wouldn't even pay a $100 application fee to get into them.