So who agrees that college is a scam?

[rcracin]

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/re ... l?tickers=^GSPC,spy,COCO,APOL,DV,ESI,^DJI


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-alt ... 09900.html

[RedBattleAxe]

great articles and I agree. you can read all you want, but when it comes down to doing it, experience > books. I have several friends that are still paying for their tuition. one of my cousin's friend went in to study medicine, he ended up working for MickyD instead of a medical field. by the time he realized that that's not what he wanted to do, he was in the hole with the loans he took out. He told me back then that it was a waste of his time & money.

[rcracin]

That's a crazy example, but i'm 100% sure that I will get a job and more than pay off my loans. However I have other options that I want to pursue and know that I could be successful without ever having gone to college. There are also many people out there with college degrees that have done absolutely nothing with them.

[RedBattleAxe]

Agreed.

honestly it's just a piece of paper. I remember a few years ago we had a Computer Science Major that was MCSE certified as well and I had to interview him. I asked him some common DOS commands and he was like huh, what's that? They didn't cover that on the books. LOL. I don't even have a MCSE certification and I knew the answers based on experience. Needless to say, he didn't get hired.

[rcracin]

The worse part is that I really just taught myself. Professors just assign readings and read bullshit powerpoint slides during class. Textbooks are stupid expensine amd I dont even want to describe what I've spent on tuition. It's a major ripoff.

[rcracin]

The really funny part is that i'll just be trained when I get a job. My cousin is working in accounting and she graduated with am English degree.

[k20Whine]

there are many, many employers who won't even look at you unless you have that piece of paper

[RedBattleAxe]

That is true depending on what field u go into. My boy got into JP Morgan back without that paper. They hired him based on his experience. Some companies prefer experience over that piece of paper.

[R18]

True that Stan

[RedBattleAxe]

Don't get me wrong, certain fields do require you to have that paper, especially in the medical field. I rather have someone that went to school and has the knowledge of it than someone who doesn't know WTF they are doing.

[blueroadster]

there are many, many employers who won't even look at you unless you have that piece of paper

That is very true. There are so many people getting Bachelor's degrees today that most employers consider it a minimum entry requirement. To stand out above the rest, you really need a Master's degree if you are just entering the field or a Bachelor's degree and several industry recognized professional certifications.

If you look back to say the 60's, most people did not have Bachelor's degrees as compared to today which made it more valuable back then. You can relate a Bachelor's degree today to being equal to a HS diploma in the 60's and a Master's degree today to being equal to a Bachelor's degree in the 60's.

I went to College but unfortunately have yet to complete the requirements for my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. All I have left is a few electives to complete which made me kind of lose interest considering all of my core courses have been completed for some time.

Not completing the degree has created some barriers in my career that still exist to this day even though I have over 15 years in the field and a number of professional certifications that most of my peers do not hold. Those barriers however were only seen when I had been looking around where prospective employers only had my paper credentials available for my consideration.

Whether or not a degree is considered valuable is really dependent upon what career field that you are pursuing. If the degree is not an absolute requirement or mandate, then IMHO the who you know would apply next followed by the what you know.

[k20Whine]

There are many positions within Godaddy that I aspire to have in the future. A bachelors is required for all of them, no exceptions.

[blueroadster]

The no exception thing sucks.

[k20Whine]

The no exception thing sucks.

not for me as I have one

[blueroadster]

At least I am an alumni.

I'll finish mine some day. At present, it would provide no further benefits.

[rcracin]

I just feel like I wasted the last four years of my life. I have another year to go.

[blueroadster]

I'd suggest just sticking with it and getting it out of the way.

[k20Whine]

if you dont finish the last the you absolutely did waste it

[rcracin]

I'm in no way suggesting that I'm giving up. I just feel like it was pointless.

[bwilliam13]

College overall doesn't teach you anything except "people skills" and how to read between the lines. I didn't really figure out / learn anything in college until it dawned on me one day that outside of hard sciences (calculus, physics, chemistry), it was about what the professor expected that earned you a good grade, not on knowing material. This is why crappy doctors make it through medical school, and end up making ridiculous money as plastic surgeons. This is why crappy lawyers make it through law school, and end up making ridiculous money as divorce attorneys. This is why crappy...<insert other profession here>.

Thus the term; "It's not what you know, but who you know."

People who go to Ivy League schools don't go there because the education is superior. They go there because the people "you will know" after getting done have a LOT of money...and that will just lead to more money.

The material covered in college can be bought at any Barnes and Noble and learned in a matter of weeks, if not days. The experience is about learning to think a certain way and handing in work to a professor in that format.

I took a course recently for a high-level certification for my job as a executive, and it was similar material that I had back in college, but it was 3 semester's worth crammed into a 4-day class with a 6-hour test on the 5th day.

There's a reason to go to college, but the excessive book-learning isn't the overall reason.