Is college necessary?

[Hero]

I dunno...all I see are people who use that as reasoning for school - get a diploma and get a better paying job. Learn? Expand yourself? Be ambitious? Screw that - I want the cash flow. It's like anyone with real drive has little to show for it, college or no. Like my dad knows enough about cars to be a mechanic, enough about electronics to be a tech for any company, and enough about computers to field basic customer support questions and beyond. He did all of this without college, since he couldn't afford it. Are you telling me all that learning, on his own and of his own ambition, means nothing? Whereas colleges seem like too many people come in feeling as they 'have to' be there - notsomuch drive or wanting to know more as opposed to just being there. It's almost like college has become just like high school...no one really WANTS to take advantage of it, they're just there...just because.

uhg...

[icarusfall]

College is certainly not necessary.

I'm a high school drop out, and on my way to being a college one.

I also work in a funny business.

Theatre/film.

So take that as you may...

[bahn]

College kickin your ass, Hero?

[Master]

Finishing college just shows people you can finish something you started.

If you can show the commitment and work that is shown by going to college, you are all set.

PS: Be cool, stay in school.

[Ichabod]

I made a split second decision to drop out of high school with no build-up or anything, it just snapped, and I left. The point being that round pegs don't fit in square holes. There are many different ways to live your life.

Hopefully this doesn't turn out as sleep-deprived babble, because I can barely read the words in front of my face.

[Cheebs]

Depends on what you're trying to do. I wouldn't try to design a helicopter transmission with a highschool diploma if I were you. I took mechanical engineering in college and learned assloads of new stuff.

[burgundy]

College is a job prerequisite. Accept it.

Educationally, I think you can learn more from reading the New York Times cover-to-cover everyday. Socially, I think college does a great job of preparing you for life out on your own, and in broadening your horizons. Plus, it's fun.

[Wolffen]

I dunno...all I see are people who use that as reasoning for school - get a diploma and get a better paying job. Learn? Expand yourself? Be ambitious? Screw that - I want the cash flow

Screw those other people Hero. They don't matter. Odds are, if they are going to college just to get a better paying job, they won't necessarily get far in life. Trust me. There are a lot of people with college degrees who can't get work, much less good paying work. Hell, I had a chemical degree and couldn't get work for almost a year after I graduated. And my first "chemisty" job was building a database for material safety data sheets. A chemist was cheaper than a computer temp! That's when I went for computers instead of chemistry and haven't looked back.

As I said, just because you have a degree doesn't mean you get a better paying job. I know a lot of humanities graduates (my wife for example) who had a BA in History or English, for example, who went on to be asst. managers in retail or such. Or more likely waiters/waitresses. You definitely don't see them make more money than other managers or waiters just because of a bachelor's degree. You still have to have some drive to get somewhere, even after you degree, especially in this economy. I'd un-ass anyone, degree or no, if they fumbled through their job and didn't give me 100%.

You will see a difference in pay, as MKU2000 mentioned in some places. Old-timers who still run HR, or any government type job automatically pays more if you are degreed. (My cousin is currently doing a crash course Masters degree so he can move up to principal from Band teacher and make almost $20K more a year). Does that suck? Yes. But that's an old attitude from as far back as the 50s, not something recent.

It's like anyone with real drive has little to show for it, college or no. Like my dad knows enough about cars to be a mechanic, enough about electronics to be a tech for any company, and enough about computers to field basic customer support questions and beyond. He did all of this without college, since he couldn't afford it. Are you telling me all that learning, on his own and of his own ambition, means nothing?

I have to ask: does your father have the work experience to back up that knowledge? When I started in the I.T. industry, I got funny looks. I was a chemist. What did I know about computers. If not for the 3 month temp job building the MSDS database, I would never have been looked at for a lowly tech support job that paid less than McDonalds for twice as much work. If your father's resume/prior work experience shows he has experience in those areas, his learning and ambition would mean more to me than a greenhorn fresh out of college. Experience matters more to me than a degree in terms of hiring someone. On the flip side though, I might know a hell of a lot about, say nursing, from learning on my own. If I didn't have a demonstration of that knowledge in a prior work place, I wouldn't expect a hospital to hire me though. I knew a lot about computers when I started in I.T., but I had to start at the bottom floor in the industry to prove myself and my knowledge to others. Because of my knowledge, I was able to rise rapidly through the ranks.

Whereas colleges seem like too many people come in feeling as they 'have to' be there - notsomuch drive or wanting to know more as opposed to just being there. It's almost like college has become just like high school...no one really WANTS to take advantage of it, they're just there...just because.

Maybe things have changed in the last 5 years since I graduated. (See, I'm not that old). Maybe you're at a smaller school than I was. But for me, college was nothing like high school. People were able to get some freedom, to grow and become whoever they needed to be. I am not the same person I was in high school, very far from that person, actually. I'm glad I went to college. Not because I now have a good job (because my degree had little to no effect on what I do now), but because of who I am now, how I think. Hell, I wouldn't have met my wife, if not for college.

The point to all my babbling, Hero, is this: Fuck the other people. If they are there just to be there, don't worry about it. There is nothing that should prevent anyone from going to college. If they want to waste the experience, and treat it like high school, let them. It's how you feel, and what you want to do with it that's important. It's up to you to take advantage of it, not them. That's where they lose. College isn't about just getting a degree to make more money. It's a chance to explore who you are, make a new identity for yourself, experiment, and, hopefully, broaden your mind. (Jeez, I sound so cliche`). Those things to me matter a hell of a lot more than the money.

[Diff-chan]

I dont know where I would be without college. High school was a very bad time for me, and I went to college hoping that it would give me something that I couldnt find in high school. And I did.

I dont know how I got lucky and most people from high school just got nothing out of it and dropped out (after two years, I think half of those who graduated with me and started college are no longer in it). Maybe it was because I associated with ambitious people who brought out the best in me. Maybe it was because I actually took classes I liked. I dont know.

In any case, Ive done a lot of stuff that I would never have thought of in HS or that I wouldve turned away from. When I was finishing up HS I only applied to one college, and got accepted. Totally half-assed. Two years later I applied to five different schools to transfer. I got accepted to two and Im transferring in the fall. And it definitely is an upgrade.

Anyway, my point is that *I* got a lot out of college and Im not even close to done yet. If people just use college to screw around, to get more money, whatever, its their money and their call. But I will never, ever, underestimate what I got out of college, because I got waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy more than I bargained for. Its pretty awesome actually.

[Hero]

Yeah, I shouldn't be worried about what the others think or their motivations, but I was just trying to tackle this idea of 'education' from a different angle. I've seen highschool grads smarter than college students, college freshmen smarter than masters students, and everything in between. It seems that the truly knowledgable are those who aspire for it, which would mean this meansure of 'education' through a college degree is rather abstract, because there are many who get a degree without caring.

maybe in short, all of this was to really say nothing at all, other than run around the idea of what it means to have knowledge.