College

[.Manicrose.]

Quote:The entrepreneurial spirit I had gained as a hungry 9 year old kid never really left me, either. That is, of course, until I went to college. If you have a burning desire to start your own profitable business and you would like said desire beaten out of you slowly and surely, all you have to do is attend a state university. ‘Art History 101′ might as well be renamed ‘Kill Your Dreams in One Semester Or Less.’

Despite what your guidance counselor may tell you, college does not turn people into free thinking individuals who will someday have the whole world at their feet. It turns them into worker bees that will spend their lives in cubicles just so long as they get 2 weeks paid vacation time per year.

Statistics say college grads make double the money as their high school diploma having counterparts. But at what cost? College grads also end up with ridiculously high student loans to pay off. They typically work longer hours, always chasing that elusive promotion or office with a window. Should they discover they despise the work they’re doing, they usually have to suck it up and spend their lives in a field they hate. After all, when you’ve spent $30,000+ on a degree, it’s pretty damn hard to walk away from everything and start completely over. And when all is said and done, most college grads remain a part of the struggling middle class. They sure as hell don’t die rich.

Right now, 6 of the 10 richest people in America are proud college dropouts. The other 4 inherited their wealth. Hell, Dakota Fanning has made more money than most people will make in a lifetime and she’s still in middle school.

We’ve all been indoctrinated into believing that a college education is our ticket to a happy, comfortable lifestyle. But, think about it for a second: how many college grads do you know personally who hate their jobs? How many are downtrodden? How many are on prozac? How many haven’t yet gotten the chance to regret their degrees because they can’t even get a job in their field?

Personally, I’d rather make half the money of a college grad if it means doing something I love. I don’t want to spend my life making some college drop out richer while simultaneously ignoring my personal potential and forfeiting my future happiness.

In some circumstances, obtaining a college degree is a necessary step in pursuing a career that you love. However, in most cases, a college degree is nothing more than a little slip of paper that tells the world you are a certified worker bee.

Sometimes it takes leaving the hive to realize your true potential.

http://www.violentacres.com/archives/235...orker-bee/

VA pretty much hit the nail on the head about college and how everyone thinks they have no other choice but to work at McDonalds without a college degree.

[thewake]

All those individuals cited are outliers.

EDIT:
Stephen Hawking went to college.
Albert Einstein pursued higher education.
Hell, even Adam Sandler went to college.

[thewake]

I'm all in favor of people going to college if they want to, or not going to college if they don't want to. It's silly how teachers say it is the only option, but it is an option and should not be ruled out in our haste to rebel against the society around us.

I would like to take umbrage at one of the facts cited:

Quote:They typically work longer hours, always chasing that elusive promotion or office with a window.

The working poor work about 31 hours a week while people in the general population work about 40. I'm also taking the pretty logical assumption that the working poor have a relatively lower number of people with college degrees in their midst than the population as a whole. What we are finding, then is that these people that are deemed by the market to be of low education and low skill are underemployed.

Some other interesting information:

Quote:The Hamilton Project, a research group in Washington, has just finished a comparison of college with other investments. It found that college tuition in recent decades has delivered an inflation-adjusted annual return of more than 15 percent. For stocks, the historical return is 7 percent. For real estate, it’s less than 1 percent.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/sunday...hardt.html

Also, I know it's not cited in the particular article you posted, but the commonly cited statistic that 45% of college grads don't learn anything significant may not be accurate:

Quote:Just because the amount of improvement in a student's CLA score is not large enough to be declared "statistically significant" does not prove that the student failed to improve his or her reasoning and writing skills. As a matter of fact, the more stringently we try to control Type I errors, the more Type II errors we commit.
source: http://chronicle.com/article/Academicall...-a/126371/

[gore goroth]

Watchy...

[UnschoolShqiponjë]

Higher education is fine. I don't think it is for everyone and now way too many jobs require degrees when there is literally no need for the degree. College is now a scam.

[Faroven]

Yah. I think I'd be a little more motivated to do well in school if there was money invested in it.

[Aya]

Quote: ‘Art History 101′ might as well be renamed ‘Kill Your Dreams in One Semester Or Less.’

I laughed so hard at this. It reminds me of my Acting 101 class where the teacher told us

"You have a higher change of being struck by lightning, up the ass while holding a winning lotto ticket then becoming the next breakout sensation."