Friday, July 2, 2010

College: A Waste Of Time And Money

There is no point at all in going to a college today, unless you’re looking to learn a trade. Or, perhaps, because the people you meet in college might be of some future benefit to you. In other words, it’s pointless unless it’s Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or the like. Because of the classes? No. It’s because the kids that go to such schools are the most intelligent and ambitious “up and comers” – so the connections you make and the patina you get at these places can open a lot of doors.

But if you look closely, the very best and brightest – people like Bill Gates or Steven Jobs – drop out, or don’t even go.

I would suggest that a parent thinking of allocating $40,000 to $50,000 per year for four years of college education instead grubstake their kid with that same money. You could even make it a fraction of that, to be put into actually doing something, like starting a business or trying out different investment strategies, and get a lot more experience and knowledge for your kid as a result.

You certainly don’t need a college to gain knowledge. For example, there’s an outfit called The Teaching Company that hires the very best professors in the world in all sorts of subjects to deliver superb audio courses. I listen to these things all the time in the car. I watch the ones that have important visual components on my computer, and I can go back and repeat anything I don’t understand clearly – when my mind is receptive to it. It’s much more effective than going to college would be, and it’s vastly cheaper. Superior in every possible respect.

More Here.

28 comments:

  1. The article is correct in the sense college has become overpriced thanks to the government backed loans, which is different than a waste of money. For example try to get a job without a degree in the business world today and your daddy better be a partner at the company or you will not even be considered qualified to answer the telephone. Also, there is a big difference between a useful degree and a fluff degree. To many students attend college just for the sake of going to college not realizing that they will be graduating $100,000.00 in debt @ 8-10% interest in a career that will pay $25.000.00 a year to start if you can even find a job then top out around $50,000.00 a year, becoming a debt slave the day you graduate to a debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court. The amount of people I meet that are behind on their student loans is unreal, a generation of sub-prime borrowers that allow Wall Street to just keep tacking on fee after fee.

    Sub-prime America

    ReplyDelete
  2. Going back to learn a trade is risky too. I went back to school in 2005, graduated in 2007 with a degree in Industrial Electricity and have been laid off twice since then. Here's the kicker: the decision to learn a trade was a hedge against losing my newspaper job, which I still have!! It's a topsy-turvy world! The electrical knowledge is great to have though.

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  3. I went to law school and graduated in 2008, and have never been employed full time in the legal field. My law degree prevents me from taking jobs that I am "overqualified" for, but if I leave off the JD and my part time employment I have a huge resume gap that will be hard to explain.

    There are plenty of scam bloggers for law school, including temporaryattorney.blogspot.com and notolawschool.blogspot.com and a few others. Just use the first one and then follow links on the side.

    I wish I had never gone to law school and will never be able to pay back my $100k+ loan debt, which grows bigger every year because I can't make payments.

    The only jobs out there right now are sales jobs usually only commission based, that you'd never need a college degree for even. There are just no jobs out there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 10:01 must be a slacker. I went to law school and have been inundated with work since day one. I haven't had a vacation in three years. I can't imagine going to any town or city in the US and not finding plenty of criminal defense or dissolution work. That doesn't mean you'll live in a house on a hill or drive a Mercedes, but it does mean you'll have a honorable job and will provide a valuable service to society.

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  5. I took 16 years to get my bachelor's and 6 years to get my masters. I was working full time and moving around so that all added to the time it took. I paid for books and incidental costs but 100% of the tuition was paid for by my employer; the U.S. Air Force. If you want a college degree there are ways to do it without ending up with $100,000 in debt.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right, everyone must have jobs and all these blogs are full of slackers. Clearly it can't be that the economy is in shambles.

    Why are you posting here again? Defending crack heads also is not a value to society, legal aid will do it for free though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm a 50 yr. old Female going to College for the 1st time on a Grant. I've checked out practically every Hospital within the Chicago area which all need help. If you don't mind being around every infectious disease known to man. It's not the best money in the World but I'm hoping I'll never experience another lay-off. I'm wondering if the new Health Care Plan will put my salary to $10.00 an hour in 2014 when the plan kicks in though. Time will tell.

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  8. Springfield Shopper headline:

    Prez Says: "School is for losers."

    ReplyDelete
  9. 1:15 is full of it - criminal trial lawyers are dying in my area due to the people not having jobs to be able to hire them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You can also learn for free from The Khan Academy on YouTube. The guy is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Colleges actually know if they report the real numbers of graduates that CANNOT find a job the whole 'Education for better jobs' scam will fall apart. At least they are letting the Kiddos know that if they graduate to expect to be looking for a job approx. one year after getting that sacred degree.

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  12. The economy is really bad right now. I just graduated with my BA. I have good work experience while I was in college, and I currently finishing up an awesome internship with in the criminal justice field. But this still didn't help me. I was denied a full-time position at my fucken internship and every fucken job I applied to ended in failure. It hard to fucken compete for entry level jobs while people with years of experience are competeing for them too, because they been laid off from their jobs. Fuck this ecomony. Fuck Bush and fuck Obama because they both contributed to this fucking mess.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Waste of time and money plain and simple. Liberal arts programs shouldn't be offered for undergrads. An undergraduate degree in Psychology is worthless! "Paid" university advisors for the psychology dept told me over and over again that my degree would be "marketable" because it would be viewed as "well rounded". Come to find out it's NOT!! Oh and i have student loan debt ready to crash down. I financed college on my own. My parents didn't pay for it. This degree has to pay off in some way. Looks like for now i'm screwed.

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  14. Has anyone noticed how much the university system resembles a Ponzi scheme? Universities dangle a "high return investment" in front of gullible prospects, and then leave those same prospects with nothing but worthless paper.

    Bernie Madoff would be jealous! After all, the university scam is perfectly legal, and socially promoted as the cure all for everyone, everywhere!

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  15. Degree industry is a huge scam now based on a broken system and false promises. New economic reality is as follows: Work hard to save $$, AVOID DEBT like the plague, live modestly, avoid consumerism, STAY AWAY FROM CREDIT CARDS!!

    I work in customer service (no degree) and love it, many of my friends have degrees and work in factories or retail (except nurse friends, they all have good jobs) Not going to be a Dr, Eng or Scientist? STAY AWAY FROM UNIVERSITY!! Liberal arts degrees are A WASTE OF MONEY NOW IN THE NEW ECONOMY.

    Read Linchpin by Seth Godin, and then cry as you realize the old way is not coming back :(

    ReplyDelete
  16. Do you know what is really ironic? It is the fact that me, who has just a mere measly high school diploma, lives in a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom two-story HOUSE that has a kitchen, living room, and a garage. My mother, on the other hand, has 3 master degrees and she lives in a dilapidated single-wide one-bedroom fuckin' TRAILER! I one time told her, "Dang, mommy! After seeing all that you have accomplished with all those college degrees of yours, you might as well just take those diplomas you've got & just wipe your ass with them!"

    ReplyDelete
  17. I am very scared of going back to get a masters because I am worried the degree would be "out-of-date" when I graduate. I work as a behavioral sciences tutor for $15.00/hour, 19 hours/week, with my BA. Meanwhile, I have a friend with a masters. How much is he making? $17.25/hr. His masters got him $2.25 ahead of me. THAT'S ALL????????????????????????

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