Is a college Education Worth It?

[DanDesade]

i now have three degree's but none of which are continued to doctorate.

my assessment of education is you need really good teachers/professors/lectures/those who will invest time with you.

the material cost is nothing compared to what you can earn.

however, i had have friends from school who are trades people and they earn $80 plus a hour. make of that what you will.

then again i once lived with a guy from Persia, which is Iran, and he was paid $225 a hour because he was a IT specialist focusing on communication telco. when he moved into our apartment it took 2 months for him to find a job. for 6 years he worked hard in further education. it was not easy. by the end he became severely depressed because he could not find work. finally he was employed by a outsource company working for com. his fortune and future changed dramatically. so did his outgoing nature and relationships. he again was the person we rented the room to.

[justavictim82]

As someone who has been in a position to hire in the past... 4 year degrees are nothing special anymore. Hell so many schools offer MBA programs anymore that it has inflated the value of even Master's degrees anymore. Unless you have an in for a company or have networked well, a vast majority of people I talk to struggle to get a good paying job out of college much less in the field.

TL;DR: 4 year degrees are nothing special anymore. If you want a leg up, go Master's or Doctorate

[killer04]

If all you do is go to college for a degree, and not doing anything else while in school, you are doing it wrong. Find what you like, find what you are good at, and improve in areas where you are weak. Learn a good base of knowledge that can make you succeed. Find other opportunities to help you get jobs such as internships, volunteering, or classes that have you working on some sort of research or project. I used what I learned in school to make me a valuable intern to wherever I was working. I could have basic to intermediate level conversations with people regarding the work we were doing without them having to explain everything out. Meanwhile other interns were the typical, "hey intern go do some random task because I can't trust you with anything else yet"

While I was in a 4 year undergrad I completed 4 internships, and a 5th after graduation. I had a class where we completed research for the US Gov, wrote a senior thesis type presentation, and had two non required classes where I was constantly conducting large amounts of research for large papers or presentations regarding US governmental policy.

I am now currently sitting on my ass waiting for the US Gov to hire me because of a 3 month long hiring freeze delaying shit in an already super long process....

[scozy]

[Lord Emperor Clot]

That's funny! There's truth in humor.
I met a new guy in my field of work (new to me). A well-educated, practical family. His two kids are good examples of education's future. One is going into medicine, the other is going to tech school to learn welding. Pretty low "snowflake" ratios in those fields and both will find work when they're done. Good stuff.

[shadehiker]

It really does depend a lot on both the person and the field of study. You need to go into it wanting to learn and grow. If it's "just to get my degree" that's all you'll get, and a year after college you'll be no better off than when you went in.

I myself never did any internships in college (because I was a terrible student and lazy AF) but looking back the experiences I could have gotten would really have helped. Now having been in the workforce for several years I find going to college for the book knowledge was definitely worth it given I'm in a STEM field, but it could have been far more beneficial.

(For reference I came out of it with 24k in debt and a bachelors in biochemistry)

[Regent Pancras]

Personally I never went to college or university. If you want to go into a specialist field like law, medicine, pharmacy, sciences etc then it's essential and the cost will probably be repaid with significantly higher than average earnings over your lifetime.

If you want a vocational trade or have no idea what you want to do so get some degree in the history of art or sociology or golf course management or some shit like that you will probably find your degree is either of limited value in terms of available career or that the return on investment (student debt and tuition fees) is marginal due to venturing a low paid profession.

So the answer as many others have said depends on you and what you want to get out of the education system.

I also know at least three hyper intelligent people who have obtained various doctorates but are socially inept, and have no common sense. I genuinely know one guy who designs nuclear reactors but who can't change a fuse in a socket. So higher intelligence doesn't necesirilay make you more adept at practical things.