Are You College Educated?

In My Humble Opinion
1

The pressure to go to college seems huge to me. The image portrayed seems to be one of a mundane, boring, poor life, unless you go to college and “make something of yourself.”

But, I see plenty of people that are incredibly happy with their lives and families, aren’t in a ton of debt, and have everything they need to live comfortably, that haven’t gone to college at all.

So, it led me to question you guys on how many of you are college educated. By that, I mean having a degree of some sort. How many haven’t gone to college and either regret it or not?

To me, it seems that college just isn’t right for me. It doesn’t make me feel accomplished and it doesn’t give me the satisfaction I expected. So, I’m not going back. And seeing how everyone on these boards is pretty intelligent, I’d like to know how your college choices turned out for you.

Thanks

2

I do not have a college degree. I started college right out of high school, but truthfully I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I was working full time, and by full time I mean 70+ hours a week, while taking 12-16 credit hours a semester. The stress was very high. Then, my father went into business for himself, and being the good son, and fed up with college and my current job, I quit both and went into business with him. I saw it as an opportunity to mend some issues that we had personally, and I have never regretted that decision. It accomplished exactly what I hoped it would accomplish. Eventually, business did not work out as we had hoped, and we both returned to being employed by others.

He went to work as a vehicle damage appraiser, and I eventually wound up as an insurance adjuster, which is a field typically filled with college grads. But I found several companies who were willing to hire me without a degree. I continued in that field for more than 6 years, until I discovered that I really wasn’t that good at it. I then switched to a completely different field and wound up making more money than I ever did as an insurance adjuster. But the lack of a college degree really hasn’t slowed me down that much.

What it HAS done (and this is the surprising part to me) is made me the target of many snobbish college grads who think that you cannot be considered a success in life without a degree. I have known a number of people, including a couple of ex-girlfriends, who delighted in pointing out their academic accomplishments, and who would look down on the uneducated cretins, including me, in a very condescending fashion, all the while insisting that was not, in fact, what they were doing. There have been others as well (who appear to be well-meaning) who like to say such things as, “But you are capable of so much more!!” Some of these people have the same job title that I have.

Still, that being said, I have seriously thought of going back to school. But the only way I would do it is if I went all out and pursued a career field with a SUBSTANTIALLY higher salary than my current salary. Anything less, and it is not worth it. I am not going to go into considerable debt just so that I can make 5k more a year than I currently make, and pay off the school debt over the next 20 years. But of course the biggest problem is the time investment. If I go all out, I would be looking at a degree that would take 7 years if I went full time. With a full time job, I cannot manage that. So it would end up taking 15 years realistically. That is not something I relish.

In the end, I am perfectly happy with my life the way it is now. I love my current job. It is the best job I have ever had. I make enough to take care of myself. I enjoy my life. I have little debt. I can’t imagine if I never get a degree that one day when I am old I will look back on my life with regret.

3

I are.

4

I am, and it’s made my life much better.

Without a degree, I wouldn’t be able to get the visa to move to the country I’ve been living in since I graduated. My career, my wife, my home and my family would all be very different from what they are today.

As far as happiness goes, I have a good job, a wonderful family and no debt. I can also point to the pre-move/post-move halves of my life and label them “unhappy” (or at least “meh”) and “happy”, respectively. The degree made all that possible.

5

It seems to me that some sort of degree or certificate of higher education is required for any kind of decent job these days (or certainly makes it much easier to get one). However, I think thinking that degree needs to be a(t “least” a) bachelor’s is fairly wrongheaded. If you’re entering the professional world in any capacity then sure, even entry level data entry crap jobs are looking for bachelor’s degrees. But for some reason it seems like trade schools have gotten a bad rep. I mean, does anyone really think that a mechanic or a graphics designer (or any number of professions through a trade school or certificate program) is going to make less money than I will with my BA in English? I have no delusions about the kind of money I’m going to make in the teaching field, nor do I believe that I will be working harder than people in those jobs.

I feel like people should do what they’re interested in, as long as they’re willing to accept certain realities about their careers.

6

I went through four years of college and didn’t get a degree. At 38 I went back, switched majors, and graduate in two weeks. My college specializes in adult learners, many of whom have similar stories to mine - did some college, decided it wasn’t for them and went back.

I’ve done very well without the degree - but I functionally have a college education, just never turned in a thesis (I had a strange undergrad degree). However, I’ll be the first to admit I was lucky - and flexible. And I do think the college education helped me learn to think in ways that have been advantageous.

Takeaways:

College at 18 or 19 isn’t for everyone

If you want to go back later, you certainly can

However, you get one shot at being a 18-22 year old “college student.” Adult students have a different, more hectic experience. You don’t go live in a dorm at 30 - and returning learners are somewhat less likely to learn how to use a beer bong.

7

College, yes. University, no. I graduated from a three-year electronics technology program, after trying university and failing. Sometimes I think about going back to university and getting that engineering degree…

8

I’m college educated, and even plenty of grad school, but I don’t place the value on it that some people do.

For me, it was the right decision.

But, if someone told me, “no, I’m not going to college. I’m going to try to start a business, or learn a trade like electrician, or jeweler”, I think that’s a perfectly fine idea.

You’re not going to be any smarter for the rest of your life just because you went to college. And, while college isn’t supposed to be a trade school, I think that if you go into serious debt to go to college without picking up marketable skills (engineer, computer programmer, etc.) you’re a fool.

We’ve somehow arrived at this notion that it makes sense to pay $30,000 a year for the “life experience” that college endows on you.

If you’re a dummy, college isn’t going to make you smarter. There are people who spend a lot of time and money at college to go into jobs that people without educations can do. . .and, a lot of women who have spent 4 years at a school like Sarah Lawrence to work for 5 years and then raise a family. Either daddy paid it, or hubby is paying it off. Either way, not very empowering.

9

I went to a university for a little under two years. Overall, I found it mostly worthless. This was a semi-prestigious institution, and I was in a good program, but I just wasn’t learning very much. I was dismayed to discover that the Computer Science program was just a java-programmer factory that didn’t teach much computer science at all (and the intro classes, which one was not allowed to test out of, assumed you had no programming experience. WTF was I paying private college tuition to sit through three semesters of CS that I already knew? When can I do some cool stuff like functional programming or algorithm analysis? But I digress.)

I didn’t have much luck with the required humanities courses, either. My economics prof, rather than teach economics, would launch into tangential diatribes and repeat stupid urban legends to the class. (“Did you know that more women are beaten by their husbands on Super-Bowl Sunday than any other day?! It’s true!”)

There was one class in my very first semester that I found immensely valuable. Ironically, it was “Introduction to Psychology,” which I only took because I needed an elective and I was late to the signup, and the upper-classmen got priority anyway.

This class introduced me to concepts like hindsight bias, confirmation bias, and the disconnect between correlation and causation. These are things I kind-of already knew, but I didn’t quite know how to express. That class actually had a profound impact on my life, and has affected how I analyze and approach a huge range of things, from duties at my job to financial decisions, and so on.

Don’t get me started about the senile calculus professor, and the chemistry lab instructor who spoke no English.

In any case, maybe I just got unlucky by having a series of lousy professors or going into the wrong program. (Maybe I should have studied liberal arts instead of what I wanted to actually do for a career.) Maybe the fact that being so disillusioned with the experience made me depressed as hell and I slept through a lot of lectures had something to do with it. I don’t think about it much any more. I’ve made a great career doing what I like (software engineer) and I’ve worked my way up to where I’m making a lot more money than all of my friends who took their time to get a degree. So I’ve got no regrets.

Don’t let this diatribe convince you, though. Lots of people go to college and it’s the best experience of their life. I recommend everyone at least try it for a semester or two, but I stand by my opinion that the advantages of a college education are significantly overrated.

10

Yes, I am a college graduate. Yes, it is important.

Having said that, my preferred method of learning is autodidactically, and sitting at a desk listening to a lecture is not.

11

I didn’t go to college right out of high school - which for me was a good thing. I dont’ think I was mature enough at 18 to take college seriously. Instead, I went to the USAF. I spent 4 yrs working 8 hrs in the afternoons and partying hard at night.

When I got out, I started my engineering degree. I still drank and partied a little on the weekends, but I was able to devote my weekdays to school and homework. It’s not unusual to spend 16 hrs straight on campus when you’re working on engineering projects. I don’t know if I would have been able to do that right out of highschool.

I could’ve stayed in the military. It had great job security and benefits. But, I would never make much money and would never know where I’d be in 5yrs. Which makes it difficult to buy a house and settle down with anyone.

I could’ve gone right to work. I spent my summers in college working construction. I could’ve made alot of money doing that as well. But, the work is HARD. Sweating my ass off for 10-12hrs a day isn’t really my thing.

I’m now out of college and have a great job. I get to spend 40 hrs a week in a climate controlled building and am able to even spend a little time surfing the web! :wink:

12

I’ve got a degree. Whether I got educated in the process of getting it is sort of an open question.

One of the solid firm things you could count on in February of 1967 when I was born was that this white, middle class, son of two highly educated professionals who were both standouts in their field would go to college one day. The ONLY thing that could have prevented that from happening was my own damn self.

I didn’t know what I wanted to study. And pretty much didn’t the entire time I was there. But it seems that the checks cleared each semester and at the end I had a shiny new degree. Yay for me.

And it HAS been useful. Often in Washington I’ve heard a BS or BA referred to as a ‘working card’. It is difficult to enter the serious workforce without one in that town. So in that sense it was hugely useful. But I’ve rarely used what I studied and I get the impression that wasn’t the point.

13

I have a two-year degree as a medical secretary.

I graduated from high school, then took a few classes at the community college before moving in with my loser boyfriend and getting knocked up. Then I moved back in with Mom and worked at McDonald’s for a few years, so by the time I enrolled in business college I was really motivated to do well and I did.

I don’t think I learned anything very special there, but just having the papers that showed I had the ability to learn…I think that made it possible for me to get this job, which is low-level but decent.

I work with a lot of extremely smart and well-educated people (and married one), plus I hang around here, so I really wish I’d gone to real college because I always feel like I just can’t keep up.

14

University double major: Economics and Chinese Language. MBA a few years later.

The Chinese changed my life. also, as Sublight says, you often need a university diploma to get a work visa in another country.

You wouldn’t even get an interview at the big multinational I work for without a college degree. Sorry, I’m sure you’re a wonderful human and all that, but if you can’t even figure out how to get a degree then it’s *highly * likely you’re not suited for most corporate jobs (you may not want one either). You’d have to be the most amazing person on the planet speaking a gazillion languages, super sales person, a perfect fit for the team, have an incredible track record, etc before I’d overlook the fact you couldn’t figure out how to graduate from podunk U.

15

I don’t know if I, or anyone else, totallly addreesed what you’re getting at.

Really, the question is, what do you want to do with your life?

In my first post, what I was trying to get at is that it’s perfectly valid to want to have a life that doesn’t require a college education. I think it’s a mistake to tell people who want such a life that they should go to college anyway just because it’s the “right” thing to do.

However, if you want to be a lawyer, you have to go to college.

By not going to college, you are severely limiting your options. That’s just logical. . .it doesn’t exclude you from the jobs you could get if you hadn’t gone to college, but there are plenty of jobs you can’t get if you don’t go.

You’re not going to be an engineer, a teacher, a doctor, if you don’t go to college. Having one of these jobs doesn’t mean your life is going to be exciting, or that you’ve made something of yourself, or that you’ll be debt-free. Not by a long shot.

You can still be a fireman, a cop, a carpenter, a plumber. And, if you want to do one of these things, going to college isn’t going to make your life more exciting, or make you better at managing your finances. It might allow for more mobility within those fields, though.

16

A college edumacation is only necessary if the career you want either requires it, or makes it easier for you if you have one. I do not have one, because my job does not require it and there are job related exams and such that are required to advance within the industry. The whole “but at least you can say you’re a college graduate” spiel is asinine. If I had finished I’d have spent four years and much time and money and it would not have affected my current status one bit.

17

I worked pretty hard for a degree in cell biology, but I might as well have gone to clown college. Until I have a phd I am going to be a slave, elbow deep in pig brains and rat feces.

18

Supposably I am.

I don’t think college is for everyone, and I think at times it’s overemphasized. You don’t necessarily need a college degree to successfully fulfill a number of jobs that “require” one. We invest an awful lot of money on higher education in this country, and I often fear that its main benefit–for a certain number of students–is that it keeps them busy for a coupla years until they grow up more. I’m not sure that’s a real efficient use of those resources.

However, it is what it is. The whole “college is overrated” philosophy may be theoretically sound, but it’s not a practical principle to follow given the attitudes of employers and society. Not getting a college degree is a decision that could narrow your options down the road. It could limit the jobs you can get and the benefits you are offered. It could slow or block your advancement in your career. There may be jobs and fields that are exceptions, but how do you know you’ll stay in that field your whole working life? We can all think of people that have succeeded without a college degree, sure. But the statistics suggest that on the whole, they are the exception to a general trend (at least when it comes to earnings). The world is changing fast, and that kind of credential may end up being more important. For these reasons, it’s hard for me to advise an ambitious, capable person to skip college altogether.

19

Yes, including a graduate degree. My parents pressured me to space them close together so I could finish all of it while I was young and without significant responsibilities.

I felt like education was somewhat like the Neverending Story of Suck but I’m relieved I got it all over with by my mid-20s, mainly because I’m not a very balanced person (I procrastinate and then study like mad, do well on exams by not sleeping for weeks then sleep for two weeks etc.). I’m hurtling towards 30 at a rapid pace and I simply don’t have the energy to study the way I’m prone to doing/did in the past. I got my second law license last year without studying for it and it nearly killed me because I did my usual “I’m not going to study normally but will stay up 7 days in a row”. By the end I felt like I was having a heart attack. I literally could not push the pencil on the third day, it kept falling out of my fingers and I spent the entire second half feeling like I was working through a heart attack of some sort. That never happened when I was 23 and running around for 2 weeks on 4 hours of sleep total.

I have been debating an mba but I’m almost positive that if I go for it I might end up having some sort of health related breakdown.

20

Like Dangerosa, I went back to school as an adult. I got a lot more out of the experience than I would have had I completed my degree as a 22-year-old. This time around, I was mature and responsible enough to do the work and take enough pride in it that I did fairly well. I also got my master’s, which is not essential if I went to work in journalism, but which is a requirement to teach or work in management. I also have the opportunity to work on a doctorate in education.

The whole point of postsecondary education, I think, is to open as many doors as possible. Even if you don’t work in your major or minor, you can find yourself doing any number of jobs. You may also consider an associate’s degree if you’re not sure about a four-year degree.

Robin