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On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

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Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#351

Post by Radim »

staticelf wrote: post #47
krakensden wrote: post #46

As a culture, we really need to stop telling 17 year olds to not worry about money, go to college, and figure something out. There is always someone ready with a romantic appeal to a classical education, and it is so frustrating for me. Wasting four years is a huge cost. Years, decades of debt is a huge cost. Going to college with no plan about money? The costs are assured. Plus, the degrees people are actually getti…

What about... offering college for free like the rest of the modern world? Then you would only have to worry about living costs and those loans are pretty small. I could pay off mine in like 4-5 years if I really wanted to. Plus, then people still could get an education even if their parents didn't save up for you. What about as a society/culture you start telling people that the country should offer education for fr…

I come from one of your "paradise European countries with free higher education" and it's astounding to me that in the 21st century, people still fall for this "free lunch" fallacy.

You do realize the education is not really "free", right? That word is such a red herring. It's just tying up resources in a way YOU like, at the expense of other people's preferences.

Many people here, teachers and doctors included, are deeply unhappy with what this centrally-planned-one-size-fits-all turns out to imply for their professional status and career prospects.

It seems everyone is freaking about the original article, but I actually see it as positive news. The value of some good/service has been calibrated by the market and rational people are taking note.

In fact, given the recent trend in (some?) US colleges (Bret Weinstein at Evergreen, Nicholas Christakis at Yale, Berkeley...), I'm surprised this break-even point hasn't occurred earlier. Too little bang for too much (tax-payer) buck.

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#352

Post by theWatcher37 »

forkandwait wrote: post #168
krakensden wrote: post #46

As a culture, we really need to stop telling 17 year olds to not worry about money, go to college, and figure something out. There is always someone ready with a romantic appeal to a classical education, and it is so frustrating for me. Wasting four years is a huge cost. Years, decades of debt is a huge cost. Going to college with no plan about money? The costs are assured. Plus, the degrees people are actually getti…

> Wasting four years is a huge cost. At college I: learned calculus, computer programming, advanced mathematics, urban planning, how to communicate like a grown up, and those are just the big topics. I also took acting classes and learned social skills and made lifelong friends. When I graduated, a professor arranged my first professional job which was an order of magnitude better than any blue collar gig I had ever…

Honestly, given everything you listed I'm challenged to think what you learned at all.

So you're saying you went to school not knowing these things? Where did you go to school again?

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#353

Post by Glyptodon »

So... I know the author put a note about it being hypothetical, but I think it bears repeating: I don't believe that most of us who go/went to college would have anywhere near the means to invest what tuition costs if we chose not to attend. Which makes the premise seem only applicable to the wealthy.

I'm far from sold on the necessity of attending college, but befrickenbejeezus, if somebody can study engineering or computer science, get decent grades, and come out with a little debt, it's got to beat working multiple minimum wages jobs for the rest of their life.

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#354

Post by didgeoridoo »

qwertzzz wrote: post #338
forkandwait wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wasting four years is a huge cost. At college I: learned calculus, computer programming, advanced mathematics, urban planning, how to communicate like a grown up, and those are just the big topics. I also took acting classes and learned social skills and made lifelong friends. When I graduated, a professor arranged my first professional job which was an order of magnitude better than any blue collar gig I had ever…

In high school I: learned calculus, computer programming, and how to teach myself topics I found interesting. At college I: learned advanced mathematics (in direct violation of my advisor's advice), discovered that most people are in fact bad at what they do (still trying to unlearn this one), and realised that my professors consistently keyed 10-15% of the questions on exams incorrectly [1]. I went to professors' of…

> This professor was a well-respected researcher in his field.

Well, there's your problem.

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#355

Post by bbcbasic »

codecamper wrote: post #66

I found that investing in bitcoin has outperformed the average post college job. (I conducted my research by comparing 20,000 invested in a college in 2010 vs 20,000 invested into bitcoin in 2010.)

Where 19990 lost their investment due to a forgotten password, a fried HDD or Mtgox. The other 10 however are now chazillionaires.

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#356

Post by bbcbasic »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #298
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying small amounts of many new crypto coins in the hope that some of them goes big is probably possible as well.

I would not risk this though, the failure rate of most new crypto is close to 80% to 90%. Litecoin and Ethereum are the outliers, not the most common cases.

Hence "small", which I took to mean "amount you can afford to lose"

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#357

Post by theWatcher37 »

whyenot wrote: post #136

Tuition at a California State University is only $5,472 a year. That is pretty darn close to free. Many other state schools have low tuition. Nearly 500,000 students in California attend a CSU. Almost twice as many students as attend a UC school. Yet, in these kind of analyses, these low cost state schools always seem to get the shaft when in fact they educate a tremendous number of students at very low cost. https:/…

>$5500/semester is basically free

You're absolutely insane if you think this. Like, how divorced from reality do you have to be to believe this?

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#359

Post by tyrw »

wwarner wrote: post #317

Maybe college is too expensive -- maybe it's expensive because there is a very high demand for well educated people. In other words, in my field, computer science, you will meet very few immigrants without a hard won master's degree or better. They are paying premium prices for these degrees, and they are getting the jobs that come with them. You can't simultaneously argue that the job market is being divided by STEM…

This is a different phenomenon, as advanced degrees are much more likely to land you a visa. Hence the disproportionate representation.

Re: On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

#360

Post by debaserab2 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #350
debaserab2 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, I think there is a problem when naive, often blue collar people, go to college and don't know how to make the most of that experience Huh? Isn't anyone going to college almost always a "blue collar" worker due to the fact that they don't have an education suitable to a white collar environment yet? It sounds like you were in a great position to make an informed decision about how to get the most out of your ed…

> Huh? Isn't anyone going to college almost always a "blue collar" worker due to the fact that they don't have an education suitable to a white collar environment yet? No, most people who go to college are not workers, blue collar or otherwise.

Most people at college don't have jobs? Everyone I know / knew in college did.
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