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College is a waste of time and money for kids

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Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#3
I was with him right until he say not to travel. Travel is the single biggest step in developing a proper perspective of life in this world, and what part you'll choose to play in the future. At 25, you can tell if someone has traveled or not by having a 15 minute conversation with them.

The traveled ones are always much more rational in thought, and open in mind, and aware of the possibilities. Non traveled folk tend to be more rigid, narrow in though and unable to grasp concepts that may be foriegn to their history.

As to the rest, my biggest beef is that he assumes all people are born entrepreneurs - even if he says otherwise. One must remember that although college can be a bore for a bright individual, it can be a saving grace for a person that is, well average.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#4
Hes off the mark by a long shot.

Is college right for everyone? No, and on both sides of the equation. A very small group of people are too smart for it, get too constrained by it, etc. There is a much larger group of people who are not smart enough for it, or don't work hard enough to get there. For everyone else, it makes sense. To say that you won't make up the money (and he says 200,000 - 400,000, that is a 50,000 to 100,000 a year college! There are only about dozen that expensive! I'm in one of the top 20 in the country and it would cost me 120,000 for 4 years coming from out of state, if not for a scholarship), is ludicrous. I'm going to work from the age of 25 to the age of 65 unless I do something spectacular and can retire early, which MOST PEOPLE DON'T. So for most people it is 120,000 divided by 40 years, or $3,000 a year more they would have to make in order for it to be worth it, obviously most college grads are better off money wise if they go. And staying in state is even cheaper. His point is kind of ridiculous, just because he didn't like college, doesn't mean that he should recommend against it. I sure feel bad for his kids who will be trying to make it big on their new version of MySpace when all their friends graduate and start making real money.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#5
I've found that college is great for the 'pluggers' in life. Those kids you remember from high school who asked question after boring question and spent hours on their home work while you spent class time hacking your graphing calculator and spent study hall exploring your high school's network.

Sure they got better grades than you, but instead of an A on your test you got a B- and worked 10x less to get it.

College is also great for the socially motivated who love to party, 'hook up' and generally spend the entire day trying to sleep the previous night's craziness off and plan for the upcoming night debauchery.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#6

I was with him right until he say not to travel. Travel is the single biggest step in developing a proper perspective of life in this world, and what part you'll choose to play in the future. At 25, you can tell if someone has traveled or not by having a 15 minute conversation with them. The traveled ones are always much more rational in thought, and open in mind, and aware of the possibilities. Non traveled folk ten…

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Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#7

I've found that college is great for the 'pluggers' in life. Those kids you remember from high school who asked question after boring question and spent hours on their home work while you spent class time hacking your graphing calculator and spent study hall exploring your high school's network. Sure they got better grades than you, but instead of an A on your test you got a B- and worked 10x less to get it. College…

Believe it or not, you can learn, get decent grades, party and get laid, and have scholarhips all at the same time.

Those people that skip this, are soreley missing a great experience of their life.

Remember, work will be there for the rest of your life. Don't just rush into it. From 24 to 64, that's 40 years or working for most people. you can start your startup just as well as 25, as you could at 20, but probably you would be much smarter at that age.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#8

I was with him right until he say not to travel. Travel is the single biggest step in developing a proper perspective of life in this world, and what part you'll choose to play in the future. At 25, you can tell if someone has traveled or not by having a 15 minute conversation with them. The traveled ones are always much more rational in thought, and open in mind, and aware of the possibilities. Non traveled folk ten…

I'm sorry but I disagree. Traveling is certainly something that is worthwhile, but it's hardly the determining factor in one's personal development that you're making it out to be.

I've been to a lot of places, and I still value things like the books that I've read, personal relationships, real experience etc etc a lot more.

Sometimes all travel contributes to is pretentiousness.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#9
I've taught myself math and computer science topics by myself from books, and I've learned math and computer science in classes, and I can say that you make much faster progress and have far fewer foggy, unclear areas if you have access to a professor.

That's assuming you really take advantage of the teaching assistants, professor, and books out there. If you just party and take sociology classes, sure, college is going to mostly be a waste.

Re: College is a waste of time and money for kids

#10

Hes off the mark by a long shot. Is college right for everyone? No, and on both sides of the equation. A very small group of people are too smart for it, get too constrained by it, etc. There is a much larger group of people who are not smart enough for it, or don't work hard enough to get there. For everyone else, it makes sense. To say that you won't make up the money (and he says 200,000 - 400,000, that is a 50,00…

I still have not learned a lot in college, but I leaned enough about the time-value of money to understand your analysis is deeply flawed.
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