It's ingrained in many of our heads from an early age that college is the place to be. Get your degree so you can get a good job; learn lots of stuff so you can speak intelligently among your peers; meet lots of interesting and open-minded people and build connections for your future. Just about everyone has a reason to go. And it sounds like a nice deal, doesn't it? What are your experiences? Does it turn out to be as glamorous as it sounds? Are all of these positives tied exclusively and without fail to higher education? Should they be? Should we not seek to forge the skills necessary to meet new people and make connections independent of environment? Should we not be seeking to learn in and out of school? Is the system serving a purpose? I suspect a debate may happen at some point, but I posted this in general Discussion for a reason. I seek opinions, no matter where they come from. Feel free to speak your mind here. What is college worth to you?
In this day and age(in my opinion) it's much harder to get a job without a college education. Let's look at electronics for a moment. Back in the day(let's say 20-25 years ago) you could essentially be an engineer with little formal education. It was easy enough to take apart a radio, find out what makes it tick, and mess with it until you put it back together again. This is how some great minds were born! Fast forward to today. Try that same thing with an iPod. ...You can't really do anything, can you? Sure you can change a battery, fix a screen, and maybe get a button to work again but other than that you can't really pry things apart and work with the "guts" of it to find out more about it. You wouldn't have the tools or understanding to do anything other than break it. Sure you can Google everything but that's not really doing much to help is it? So if you want to be a techy(techie?) or an engineer, you're basically screwed if you want a real job and don't have a degree. Even if you learn everything you want with the internet, without a degree the majority of that knowledge is just a bunch of garbage until you get a degree. Nobody's going to hire a professor or scientist or *insert decent job here* when the only proof you've got that you have any brains is your word that you've done the research yourself on your own free time. ...Besides, if you start doing that you might as well go to school and learn from someone (hopefully)smarter than you who has experience. That mini-rant was a little longer than intended. >> I'm well aware that it's still possible to make a living without a college education...it's just not very probable that it's a good living(in terms of income). To me, college is great. In upper level courses it can really teach you how to manage time since things get pretty hard very fast if you don't keep up with what you need to do. Tests are a great way to kick the asses of any lazy people and to be honest, you can easily treat school as a job. Instead of making money, your payment is in knowledge. I wouldn't trade in my education for anything. Not everything you learn in school is even related to the classes you're in either.
More on the emotional side; I think there are many paths to success. I think higher education can be a nice way to find yourself if you're not sure what you're doing, and it can be a nice past time and in some cases, better than doing nothing. However, I don't think it's the 'key' to a happy, successful life and I never really have. Some of the most successful people in the world never finished college, etc. I've been told to go to college/university if I ever want to be successful at something but I don't think that's true. We've all been told that by somebody. I respect people who go through University or whatever because they're passionate about something and get a degree and whatever and end up doing something they love. I believe education isn't wasted that way. It's different, though, if someone is just going through more school because someone told them to, or because they want to brag about how amazing they are and how they're somehow more intelligent/deserving because they have a ___ degree in whatever. I guess I believe if you take passion and humility and pair it with education, you'll get somewhere. Just because you have more education than someone else does not mean you'll be happier or you're better than them, imo. Especially if you're going through it just to say you did, without actually having any personal drive or goal that you can be proud of. This is all subjective, though. More on the logical side; With certain professions, you need a degree simply to be taken seriously. With other's though, it can prove to be a waste of your time. Hypothetically, if I want to be an actress or a singer, to be honest I'm not going to waste my time with higher education. With a career like that, if you want it you can literally go out there and grab it. It'd be hard, but if you have no talent, it doesn't matter what degree you have, lol. If I want to be a doctor, I can't just stroll into a hospital and fill out an application and there I go. My major has changed recently, and for what I want to do now, I don't really need a degree. I'm still going after the highest I can get because I have passion and drive for what I'm going into, and will use education to my advantage. I want to know as much as I can know about it so that I can be the best I can be. I also want to be well-rounded. Even though I can get into the field without any education, really, I'm more likely to be successful financially with higher education. Besides, to have that education not only proves that I went through all of the BS to get it and accomplished it, but to some people it proves that I'm capable of doing what they're paying me to do. > Conclusion. College is awesome. I don't believe it's really for everyone. I don't think everyone needs it. I don't think it's the -only- key to success. I don't think just going to go will get you very far. But I don't think it's useless or a waste of time in general. Depends on the person and the profession.
if there is one thing i really think about college is that it's a bit overrated. not saying it's useless by the way. it might just be my field of study, but i have found that many of the skills people have gained along the way were not taught by the university. they were skills they learned while on internships or just developed them on their own. i don't think there is much that college can really offer that you can't get somewhere else. you can attend trade schools or get certifications that are independent of universities. i do think that employers need to stop looking so hard for education level and look for skill sets instead. i actually don't think education level equals better employees. but once again, not saying that college is useless, just that it's not the one and only solution. there are many ways to get success and they don't always include college.
It's good for some people, and usually to have a better salary you need to have a degree to get that. But people can still be successful in life without one. And college/university isn't for everyone. Take me for example. I nearly lost my mind in uni. It was mostly due to the fact that I didn't get to major in what I wanted, and I'd been misinformed of the major itself when I applied, so I didn't have my heart set on a career in business tourism, and I simply couldn't keep up with the rest of the class. So less than four months into the program, I had a meltdown and left. I still don't feel ready to go to school full time, but I am taking classes a few times a week in a profession I'm actually interested in. ^That's pretty much the case for me. I do take some scattered courses in acting/singing fields, since I think that these kinds of talents can always be improved and evolved, but I can simultaneously audition and further my career, and still have enough time for another job to fund me until I can make a living off of acting.
I remember there being a term for this, but basically, (American) society has switched to having this "everyone must go to college or they will end up poor and lonely" mindset, both because parents, who may not have gotten to go to college at all (let alone a really nice one) want their kids to have a better lot than them, and because of the current unemployment rates--people think that going to college is essential. This has led to grossly competitive high schools, however. I read a book for school last year, The Overachievers, which followed some super intense kids that faced pressure to get into ivy league schools, from parents, friends, and their own standards. They were all super stressed, felt there was nothing in this world but college, one was pretty much abused by his mom if he said "no I don't want to take an AP class," etc. All because of that notion that you have to go to college. I understand that parents, at the end of the day, just want to see their kids successful and with good jobs, but it should not be at the expense of the child's identity, individuality, and even innocence (kids being pushed into prep classes instead of being allowed to go out & play). I mean, kids are taking the SAT as early as sixth grade over here. That's just psychotic. Not just the parents are at fault, of course, but there's a key issue that much of society is missing here... that college is not right for everyone. Some people flat-out just should not be in college, and yet they feel ushered in. My sister, for example, has little to no idea what she wants to do with her life. Which is fine, she's still young. And there are dozens of other kids out there like this, who are forced into college by society's standards, forced into majors they don't genuinely want to pursue, etc. They just end up wasting their time and their money. To my horror, I have seen people laugh at going to a trade school. I'm a senior in high school and we're in the college application time; I heard a kid considering going to a trade school of some sort, and people laughed. There is nothing wrong with trade school, I actually think it's sometimes the smarter choice, because they teach you real skills for often irreplaceable jobs (electricians, plumbers, etc). There's also this crazy emphasis on "name brand" schools. Somehow, your personal worth is determined not by how hard you work, but by whether you went to the local community college or Harvard. Which I think everyone can agree is pretty much bullshit--there's nothing wrong with going to an ivy league school, but you can get pretty much an equal if not better education at a fraction of the cost elsewhere. Personally, I do intend to go to college, because the career path I am interested in requires it. And people make fun of me because (not to sound boastful), I get pretty good grades and I'm only shooting for community college. I know I could get into more renown colleges and have a fantastic time at one, but I would rather save money, make sure I'm confident in the major I've chosen, and stay by home than get out of college drowning in debt.
I care not for it. Give me books for studying and offer me lessons if I need them, but I do not need a piece of paper saying that I wrote this many essays and got this many points on them. It is not good for education, and it is not good for a job. If an employer wants to see if I can complete an assignment, then he should have a test for me based on what I will be doing. That is all that I need. Both universities and business are at fault in this. I only need degrees because businesses say that I do. If job applications were skill and task-based, college would be a perk or a luxury instead of a need. They can make the prices so high because people need degrees, and people need degrees both to get their jobs and to pay for the degrees with those jobs. It is a self-perpetuating cycle, and if you find a community that is free of it, then I say take it. You are better off than the rest of us, and you should be happy that your learning is leisurely and so true learning by me.
I can't wait for college. I know where I want to go, and what I want to major in, already. I feel like my whole life is leading up to college as the climax. Even when I was little I would sit in on college courses with my mother as long as I could. I've visited several campuses and have read books on entering into good colleges. My hope is to attend Georgetown and study Linguistic Anthropology. It's really stressful trying to go to a good college though. :c
Well, College does prepare you to be I understand what to do, take responsibility and get it done and all that. As mentioned already, it's in today's day and age almost a necessity to have a degree in order to get a good job. I think it was easier to succeed earlier though. Two people who didn't get a degree who most of us know about is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. (Mark Zuckerberg is the most recent I can recall). So yeah, it's possible if you are actually capable of coming up with something yourself. If you want to go a secure way, you'll have to go to College/University.
i actually used to be one of those kids who laughed at other kids who went to Devry or ITT Tech. yet today, those people are already on their careers and are doing very well for themselves and i would say are probably doing much better than i ever will.
Hi gang so listen at these sweet opinions I'm finna drop down like rain on your little heads and in this scenario I am positing your heads are bald and I mean I'm not saying they're LITERALLY small but I'm way up high for some reason dropping opinions like rain on your shiny bald heads: College educates ya, to an extent. And yeah, a lot of what you learn there you might learn elsewhere. It can humble ya. Depends on the college and such. People with college degrees make a lot more money, on average. It'd be tempting to think it's the education, but it's not necessarily, because people who drop out after 3 years of college make a lot less money than those who get their degrees... If you do go to college, and graduate, employers know you have at least a bare minimum amount of smarts and/or commitment. One or the other. Or both. So if they're screening for applicants, why bother with someone who hasn't been? No reason not to take someone who's proven they're willing to put up with college nonsense and bureaucracy. It's a sign of patience and emotional stability to make it through. A social marker. Now I'm not gonna get all POETICAL and be like, "a social marker, and nothing more!!! ALAS!" because it's often more than that. But looking at lifepaths, I'd have to be one arrogant li'l Sandshrew to be like "yeah, I'm gonna pass up this social marker that people see as a sign I'm credible as an employable person." That's the system. And, if you can afford college, the system is to your advantage. SCREWDRIVER out!
Not in university yet, not even sure where I'm going to go, but I've heard of a lot of things about it. Plus, I'm only fifteen. We're being pushed to think about it already, though. Which is never a bad thing, just overwhelming sometimes. I've been going to a university preparatory school since I was four, because of that we're VERY pressed to go to university and get a degree. We've been taught about it since we were very young. Sadly enough, most people don't even take it seriously where I am. They take it for granted and throw away the education. I'm talking about my class, Grade 9, though. I've noticed most of the people in Grade 11 and 12 have been more persistent in getting good grades and getting into university. Anyways, my thoughts on university due to that: Yes, it is important, if you want a better chance at getting a good paying job. I'm not saying you HAVE to go to university to get a good paying job, they're just very hard to come by without a university education. I've also noticed more jobs are requiring a Master's degree. Not just Bachelor's or Associate anymore. My mother ran into something like this with her current job. She had a Bachelor's degree, which wasn't bad for her job, Computer Engineering. It was acceptable. About three years ago, they raised it up to a Master's degree, now she's been working really hard to get her Master's degree, along with juggling work. Universities are also raising up expectations, which means jobs will raise up their expectations along with that, I presume. This also means high schools are raising up their expectations to graduate. I know mine is, we have to graduate with a minimum of 25 credits. I know we have to graduate with a certain GPA as well, I believe it's in the range of 2.5 and 3.0? I'm not too sure on that, I'll check and edit the post later, when I find out. Apparently this isn't a lot in some cases, but I know it's a lot to us. As far as I know, if you want to get a good job with good pay, you want to go to university. Otherwise they are very hard to come by. Since I'm only starting high school, I more than likely do not know everything about university. These are my thoughts so far. Just please correct me if I have misunderstood something, or have gotten something wrong. Thank you for reading.
