A Different Perspective on a College Education

Like it or not, employers hire job candidates who have degrees because it shows you can finish something that you started. That's it. Most of the time, it really doesn't matter what you study. Just stick with it and get your diploma. I started out in electrical engineering and ended up with a finance degree and a german degree. Leaving college, I thought I was a huge failure because I couldn't hack it in the engineering school, but now I'm glad I didn't go that route. I'd much rather do what I'm doing now than work with a bunch of anti-social engineers. My apologies to all of the engineers out there!

To all of the kids: I recently quit a job where I mainly hired, fired, and supervised dozens of twenty-somethings. I wouldn't even consider hiring somebody for a ten dollar an hour job if he/she didn't have a degree. In this crappy economy, a diploma is worth something even if your degree is worthless.

Osburn said:

Like it or not, employers hire job candidates who have degrees because it shows you can finish something that you started. That's it. Most of the time, it really doesn't matter what you study. Just stick with it and get your diploma. I started out in electrical engineering and ended up with a finance degree and a german degree. Leaving college, I thought I was a huge failure because I couldn't hack it in the engineering school, but now I'm glad I didn't go that route. I'd much rather do what I'm doing now than work with a bunch of anti-social engineers. My apologies to all of the engineers out there!

To all pf the kids: I recently quit a job where I mainly hired, fired, and supervised dozens of twenty-somethings. I wouldn't even consider hiring somebody for a ten dollar an hour job if he/she didn't have a degree. In this crappy economy, a diploma is worth something even if your degree is worthless.

Click to expand...

Hence the reason college is failing. You only get paid $10 an hour for a $100,000 debt. I was thinking of going to school for computer animation, then I looked at tuition. $45,000 is exactly what I'm looking at for a certification that will take two and half years to obtain. Ridiculous, right? Then I found something out: A program called Blender has a tool used my a massive majority of those in computer animation professionally and, oh look... thousands of tutorials on how to use this program like a professional and it also teaches me how to build a portfolio which I can take demonstration of my actual talent, knowledge, and ability ( as well as proof of my ability to complete things I started) all for the price of FREE!!!!!!! Osburn, I respect your opinion but with the internet, degrees are useless. Now it's time the intelligent people take over and begin to show initiative and learn for their selves and demonstrate this knowledge.

sync0s said:

Hence the reason college is failing. You only get paid $10 an hour for a $100,000 debt. I was thinking of going to school for computer animation, then I looked at tuition. $45,000 is exactly what I'm looking at for a certification that will take two and half years to obtain. Ridiculous, right? Then I found something out: A program called Blender has a tool used my a massive majority of those in computer animation professionally and, oh look... thousands of tutorials on how to use this program like a professional and it also teaches me how to build a portfolio which I can take demonstration of my actual talent, knowledge, and ability ( as well as proof of my ability to complete things I started) all for the price of FREE!!!!!!! Osburn, I respect your opinion but with the internet, degrees are useless. Now it's time the intelligent people take over and begin to show initiative and learn for their selves and demonstrate this knowledge.

Click to expand...

+1

But not everyone is self-motivated like you are and tech jobs are different than most of the service related jobs out there. My brother never went to a four year college. He just learned how to do cad drawings and he made more money in his twenties than I made in my twenties even though I had two degrees. My post was aimed more at the kids who have no idea what they want to do and think they can get doors opened with a smile and a good interview...

The way things are looking, you recent college grads will probably have to go into the Military to get some debt relief and then go to Pakistan to root out those evil terrorists. Either that or dead end $10 an hour jobs so you can live with mom and dad.

Charlie Ventura said:

This is a mind blower:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZtX32sKVE&feature=pyv&ad=6739540474&kw=university

Click to expand...

Is this available in print somewhere? I can't download that much video.

i learned enough in college to realize i wasn't learning anything useful anymore, so i dropped out.

i was 5 classes away from an equally useless degree in spanish, math, or philosophy.

work was great while it lasted, and i would always trade up on jobs until this recession thingy hit. now people expect me to work for less than i did in high school.

no thanks. i'll work for myself and be poor as shit, thank you very much.

edit: what a ridiculous video full of half-truths, embellishments, and straight lies mixed with a dash of truth here and there.

Charlie Ventura said:

So Uncle Buck, what are the "half-truths," "embellishments" and "straight lies?" Care to point them out?

Click to expand...

saying we spent the entire stimulus to create X number of jobs, dividing, and getting a cost of $4 million per job saved or whatever right off the top of my head.

news flash: most of the stimulus did not go into "creating jobs", although that could certainly be a secondary effect of improving our infrastructure or turning the DOE into more or less a huge venture capital fund or giving tax breaks that inject demand back into the economy.

when you tell a bold-faced lie less than a few minutes into the documentary, i can know the rest will be utter tripe. so i turned it off.

i do agree with some of what they pointed out, like how publishers collude with colleges and even bookstores to drive up the cost of textbooks. beyond that, it was more or less a scare film to make us all fear the boogeyman of hyperinflation.

as a man with much debt and a currency that will always retain value, i fully welcome hyperinflation. i just don't see it coming anytime too soon. but who knows.

UncleBuck said:

saying we spent the entire stimulus to create X number of jobs, dividing, and getting a cost of $4 million per job saved or whatever right off the top of my head.

news flash: most of the stimulus did not go into "creating jobs", although that could certainly be a secondary effect of improving our infrastructure or turning the DOE into more or less a huge venture capital fund or giving tax breaks that inject demand back into the economy.

when you tell a bold-faced lie less than a few minutes into the documentary, i can know the rest will be utter tripe. so i turned it off.

i do agree with some of what they pointed out, like how publishers collude with colleges and even bookstores to drive up the cost of textbooks. beyond that, it was more or less a scare film to make us all fear the boogeyman of hyperinflation.

as a man with much debt and a currency that will always retain value, i fully welcome hyperinflation. i just don't see it coming anytime too soon. but who knows.

Click to expand...

Well, thanks for the honesty. You didn't watch it, and yet you commented thusly: what a ridiculous video full of half-truth

Why not go back and watch the entire video, then comment on the "full" document. Not dissing you UB, just pointing out a common problem on this, and most political boards. We, and I include myself here, have preconceived ideas. We jump to conclusions way too fast. Human nature, I guess.

Charlie Ventura said:

Well, thanks for the honesty. You didn't watch it, and yet you commented thusly: what a ridiculous video full of half-truth

Why not go back and watch the entire video, then comment on the "full" document. Not dissing you UB, just pointing out a common problem on this, and most political boards. We, and I include myself here, have preconceived ideas. We jump to conclusions way too fast. Human nature, I guess.

Click to expand...

that is a fair criticism. i got through the first fifteen minutes, only seemed to be getting worse with shit like that. probably won't waste more of my not so precious time.

College is a ripoff. The same thing that happened with the housing crisis is going on now. Free money. Every wonder why prices continue to go up when supply and demand are in order? When you subsidize something you get more of it. Let the colleges themselves make the loans. Prices would drop sharply.
We claim to need all these college educated people yet clamor for the uneducated to come across our borders to fill the need for other jobs. Doesn't make sense.

Osburn said:

+1

But not everyone is self-motivated like you are and tech jobs are different than most of the service related jobs out there. My brother never went to a four year college. He just learned how to do cad drawings and he made more money in his twenties than I made in my twenties even though I had two degrees. My post was aimed more at the kids who have no idea what they want to do and think they can get doors opened with a smile and a good interview...

Click to expand...

Granted this may be true. However, the motivation to learn is actually what gave college degrees their value in the past, because not everybody had one. Secondly, if you don't have the motivation to pursue, than you honestly deserve a dead end job at Mcdonalds (no offense, many people have made successful careers here, I know). Finally, too many people are following the stigma that you have to go to college after high school, and your exactly right, they don't know what they want to do. This is only hurting them because way to many people are dumping their money into a college education and never ever using their degrees. It's a waste.

Parker said:

College is a ripoff. The same thing that happened with the housing crisis is going on now. Free money. Every wonder why prices continue to go up when supply and demand are in order? When you subsidize something you get more of it. Let the colleges themselves make the loans. Prices would drop sharply.
We claim to need all these college educated people yet clamor for the uneducated to come across our borders to fill the need for other jobs. Doesn't make sense.

Click to expand...

I've known plenty of people to take their student loans and cut and run, because it's to easy to obtain. Granted, they will pay for it in their own rights in time, but the rest of us get footed with the bill in the meantime.

Since when are loans free money? Sure, you can earn scholarships (my GF got through her first 3 years without having to take out a loan)... but you still have to earn grants and scholarships with a decent GPA, scores, etc.

UncleBuck said:

saying we spent the entire stimulus to create X number of jobs, dividing, and getting a cost of $4 million per job saved or whatever right off the top of my head.

news flash: most of the stimulus did not go into "creating jobs", although that could certainly be a secondary effect of improving our infrastructure or turning the DOE into more or less a huge venture capital fund or giving tax breaks that inject demand back into the economy.

when you tell a bold-faced lie less than a few minutes into the documentary, i can know the rest will be utter tripe. so i turned it off.

Click to expand...

Sorry Buck, but the purpose of stimulus is http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/the-purpose-of-stimulus/ " first and foremost, to mitigate unemployment. "

I used a Krugman quote. Mame will be happy as a clam.

Parker said:

College is a ripoff. The same thing that happened with the housing crisis is going on now. Free money. Every wonder why prices continue to go up when supply and demand are in order? When you subsidize something you get more of it. Let the colleges themselves make the loans. Prices would drop sharply.
We claim to need all these college educated people yet clamor for the uneducated to come across our borders to fill the need for other jobs. Doesn't make sense.

Click to expand...

Prices aren't going up necessarily because of easy to obtain loans, but because public institutions are legal bound to the 90/10 rule. Schools MUST show that at least 10% of their income comes from a source other than Federal Government financial aid. To ensure they can meet the 10% they raise the prices of everything, then the next year the government allows a bit more money to be borrowed on and on it goes until cost is through the roof.

NoDrama said:

Prices aren't going up necessarily because of easy to obtain loans, but because public institutions are legal bound to the 90/10 rule. Schools MUST show that at least 10% of their income comes from a source other than Federal Government financial aid. To ensure they can meet the 10% they raise the prices of everything, then the next year the government allows a bit more money to be borrowed on and on it goes until cost is through the roof.

Click to expand...

If you raise the price of everything and the student still has to pay for it whether getting aid or not, then you raise the percentage equally as far as Federal and Non Federal aid are concerned aren't you?

Here's an interesting idea, apparently it was first suggested by Freidman in the 50's:

Here’s the deal that Lumni struck with him: In exchange for $8,530 in financing, Sneider agreed to repay 14 percent of his salary for 118 months after he graduated. At that point, regardless of how much he has paid, his obligation terminates. Although this might sound similar to a loan, an “income contingent” repayment plan like this is far less risky for a low-income student like Sneider. If he has trouble finding a job or switches careers and earns a lower salary than expected — very distinct possibilities — his payments will drop automatically. The terms are, in fact, determined based on his expected earnings. If he ends up earning the average salary for nurses in Colombia, he will end up paying the equivalent of an interest rate of 17 percent, which is the average rate in the country for a student loan. And if he ends up doing better, he will pay more, and Lumni will share in his success.

Click to expand...

You can find the entire article here... Seems fairly interesting IMO.

edit: @ND, I completely missed the Krugman quote you got in there LOL. Krugman is correct, blah blah blah... but to be fair, there were far too many tax cuts in that stimulus bill... Krugman actually advocated for a pretty different stimulus than the one than went through, but considering it's better than nothing(the stimulus did help after all)... eh. Just think what a real Keynesian stimulus plan would've done!

edit2: Are you actually reading Krugman, ND?