A Different Perspective on a College Education

I happen to believe a college education is a suckers choice for a large portion of the people who attend and have espoused that theory for quite some time. Nice to see a documentary and hear even the MSM saying the same things.


This might help.
[video=youtube;VpZtX32sKVE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZtX32sKVE&feature=pyv&ad=6739540474&kw=university[/video]

i did college for a while. even a few electronics classes in high school. but it just wasnt for me. ill watch the video later

I'm a fan of opening social networks. Universities open those networks rapidly. If you are naturally inhibited and lack the ability to interact in a constructive way, higher learning will not be overly beneficial.

You can't make a silk purse out of a cow's ear.

On the other hand, if you can embrace the parameters and extract the information that is actually beneficial while maintaining a baseline of performance, your opportunity to blossom is greatly increased.

Universities function like 1000W HPS lights during flower. Sure, you can get great results from a few cfl's, maybe even some LED's. Are you content with a few CFL's?

If so, get to work.

I doubt I would own things with propellers and houses in more than 1 country if I hadn't attended university. Results may vary...

The issue i have had is having lots of experience, no college, then hit a ceiling in my career. No BA no more advancement. The most cost effective way i have seen to make a great living is a specialized trade (we all can't be bankers). Nurse's, any technical field in healthcare, i see tons of ads for job openings. The one thing that i have capitalized on is that when things don't work like the college folks were taught, i can find solutions to the problem because i have not been programmed to think. I was raised in a motorcycle/ machine/ sheet metal shop and problem solving was a way of life. I think way out of the box (i don't know where the damn thing is anymore) and on a modern construction site with a herd of people that lock up when things don't work out like they were told they would, I find the solution.

I think the problem with a lot of people is they go to school because they think it'll automatically mean a high paying job without even knowing what they want to do. it seems like you want to make sure you have a general idea of career options(and check growth in these industries... Healthcare is a safe bet for example), you want to make sure your skill set is suitable for your options, etc.. Too many people are sociology majors and shit.. So many degrees are just useless you really gotta have a plan IMO

right on mame, getting a job isnt about college, its a lot about knowing what to say at the interview really, I went to college off and on in my life and I love to study and research but it really never made a difference for me as far as jobs, the crappy companies I worked for related to my studies did not help me really further my career. It wasn't till my late twentys I knew exactly what to say at an interview and had the right attitude, I got hired at a good company and like most good companies they only really glanced at my resume, my education was in a totally unreleted field but because I was passionate, dedicated, and loyal I was hired at a higher pay then people with a better education. I am on the path to making over 100k a year without even a real degree in my field and much of my friends are in similar situations, my good friend makes 120k a year straight out of highshool after 10 years being with his company. (I am sure you know someone like this)

The important thing find something you are passionate about and just start going to interviews, when you find a good company they will hire you regardless of your education when you claim you have done it as a hobbyist for 5 or 10 years etc and that this is exactly what you want to do with your life, tell them you are looking for a career and not just a job. Tell them you will live, eat, and breathe <company name> and make them a good offer. Since I got a good job and started going back to school on their dime I am having a good time at school an getting paid good, it is my belief you should get a job and start your career before you even really start to take college seriously, a job at a good company comes before college not vice versa.

deprave said:

The important thing find something you are passionate about and just start going to interviews, when you find a good company they will hire you regardless of your education when you claim you have done it as a hobbyist for 5 or 10 years etc and that this is exactly what you want to do with your life, tell them you are looking for a career and not just a job. Tell them you will live, eat, and breathe <company name> and make them a good offer. Since I got a good job and started going back to school on their dime I am having a good time at school an getting paid good, it is my belief you should get a job and start your career before you even really start to take college seriously, a job at a good company comes before college not vice versa.

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Yeah, my situation is that I took a couple years off school and got a decent job.. It's a dead end though, going to school and whatnot get that degree and experience from my current gig should set me up for some decent opprtunities.

for me, it was always easy for me to suck up the information in class. lets say its a math class. once the teacher shows the equation, and maybe how it works, i know it. i never needed to do homework to remember the shit. in high school i NEVER did homework and always aced the tests. so my grades averaged to a C, and i passed. well in college, you cant do that shit. if you dont do the homework, you cannot pass the classes. since im just taking the class to LEARN the subject, i dont feel that i need to do the homework lol. so i usually ended up failing the classes.

if there were classes that just show u how its done, maybe do a few examples, then move on to the next thing, id love that. the classes in college r too slow for me

You can't even work at an Enterprise car rental place full time without a Bachelors degree...

My GF's sister was a security manager at a Target or some shit a few years back and that required a degree(it wasn't in security or anything, she had a completely unrelated degree).

My mom's ex was a sales guy in the tool department(craftsman tools or w/e) at Sears and that required a degree.

That's been the biggest barrier for me as well... Lots of jobs(that pay more than $10 an hour lol), as simple as they are, prefer college educated workers.. Maybe it has to do with high unemployment allowing them to be picky? IDK. Just my experience... I graduated HS in 2008 so I've only ever experienced the current (shitty) job market.

A lot of places say you need a degree, only some of them actually check it out, most of them will hire u regardless if you do good at the interview, doesnt hurt to try, I have gotten a lot of good jobs that "require" a degree without one, you walk in there on the interview different scenario, really it seems like only the shitty companies that actually check lol

some healthcare jobs and IT type jobs you don't necessarily need a degree. The IT jobs pay the best of the two.

Mame - couple tips for your situation - whatever you studied in school just try to land some jobs in that field, go to the interviews and tell them how passionate you are about your chosen field, make them a good offer and tell them you just want to get your foot in the door to start your new career.

deprave said:

some healthcare jobs you don't necessarily need a degree. .

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Hmm i work in the medical field and been in college for some years now and still got a good amount of years to go. I can tell you this much if you wanna be the janitor cleaning up people's shit and puke in a hospital. Or a patient transporter making 8-9$ a hour sure go right ahead apply with out a degree . But if you wanna make some decent money were you can auctually support a family and a relatively luxery lifestyle go to college. Medical certifications/degree dont take as long as people think. Unless your going to get ur M.D or trying to became a R.N, P.A. Then your in for a fun experience

deprave said:

A lot of places say you need a degree, only some of them actually check it out, most of them will hire u regardless if you do good at the interview, doesnt hurt to try, I have gotten a lot of good jobs that "require" a degree without one, you walk in there on the interview different scenario, really it seems like only the shitty companies that actually check lol

some healthcare jobs and IT type jobs you don't necessarily need a degree. The IT jobs pay the best of the two.

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Yeah, this is true lots of people will still hire you(IT and shit, I know a a few people good with computers who got their foot in the door) but like for example a person I know(not saying what the relationship is, weed site after all) works at an Enterprise location and they wont let 'em work full time AND they dont give raises beyond the $10 per hour starting wage without a degree.

And yeah, my plan is exactly what you said... Tell 'em I eat, shit, breathe (shooting for an economics degree... about half of all economics degrees end up in government the rest are between banking, teaching and various other feilds like business, finance)... I feel like one of the smarter kids in class so I've at least got that edge against my peers and I've got real world experience in basic accounting and shit that would help me in the private sector(where I work I'm AR, AP, customer service on orders... plus I do a lot of purchasing, etc).

suTraGrow said:

Hmm i work in the medical field and been in college for some years now and still got a good amount of years to go. I can tell you this much if you wanna be the janitor cleaning up people's shit and puke in a hospital. Or a patient transporter making 8-9$ a hour sure go right ahead apply with out a degree . But if you wanna make some decent money were you can auctually support a family and a relatively luxery lifestyle go to college. Medical certifications/degree dont take as long as people think. Unless your going to get ur M.D or trying to became a R.N, P.A. Then your in for a fun experience

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haha yeah I know what you mean, I am talking about like being a biller, office worker, or working at a place that makes medical equipment...not actually direct patient care or working in a hospital but yeah your right about that its like 14$ an hour max without a degree in the medical field as far as working in a clinical setting for sure.

Interesting. I have a couple of interjections.

It is in a very non-cynical way that I agree with many of the ideas presented in this thread. For instance, I believe that college does not prepare people for jobs, and that college is a great place to begin making important contacts. Good jobs can be had through good interview skills, and even lower earning jobs are requiring degrees. Employers are taking advantage of high unemployment to net more skilled workers, forcing poverty on the undereducated.

If all of these things are true, then why is there a 100% correlation between bachelors degrees and the top decile of earners in our economy?

I have always known that having a job was preventing me from being successful. College is not supposed to prepare people for jobs. College is supposed to encourage entrepreneurship. Many students with an undeclared major, don't know what they want to do, or are just killing time, think that they are preparing for a job. Many students that enter grad school know that they are not preparing for jobs. What these students will produce is capital.
In economics, entrepreneurship is capital. (Not money, but capital). Labor is resource. (Workers are like lumber, tobacco, or gold). In accounting, when an employer pays the employee it goes into the books as an expense. When an employer pays himself it is a withdrawal. In free trade, Core nations supply capital (American Consumer) , and peripheral nations supply material and personnel resources, (Think call centers in India).

The distinction is very important to understand because as an employee, your paycheck is considered an expense. As a natural resource, the worker is replaceable and available as the lowest bidder. As a resource, you have a choice to accept or not to accept a selling price. "I am college educated with a worthless degree, so I am the better fit for that $10 an hour job" does not cut it.

The labor force sets the price for their labor like OPEC sets it's price for oil. We are not fighting in the Middle East to steal oil. We are fighting to keep the oil on the market at a fair price. The students who take out loans to get worthless degrees to flip burgers are indentured by the Federal Student Loan System to keep them flipping burgers, (or providing whatever labor) at a fair price. As a labor resource, an employee should consider marketing that degree for what it's worth and possibly land on the other side of the balance sheet as a capital investment to your company and not an expense.

Things may or may not be all screwed up right now, but if they are, it is because too many bachelors degree holders are not replacing what's screwed up with new ideas, investment, or capital. They are putting the unskilled out of work because they are settling for jobs that are beneath their education level, wondering why they are making unskilled wages with a bachelors degree. Ahem. It is because they agreed to. Hiring a person with just a $50K bachelors degree from Swing Right Community College, brings a $50K capital investment to a company. But you cannot market that asset to the GM of AutoPartsRUs.

yeah, the problem is the overwhelming number of college graduates just flooding the labor supply.

you have a very deep misunderstanding of the current state of affairs.

we have industries that make billions and billions of dollars in profits charging the taxpayer for tax credits, we pay them to make billions in profits.

the problem isn't the lazy, college educated clock watchers at the office.

the problem is deregulation, outsourcing, and a oligarchy which gets smaller yet richer each day that passes....