A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
theatlantic.com
A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
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Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#2I agree with this. In retrospect, a better path for me would've been (in The Netherlands):
- Don't do pre-university in high school but prepare for "higher job education" in high school. Graduate at 17.
- Do a "higher job education", speed it up (instead of 4 years do 3 years) and graduate at 20. Do some web dev/UX-based degree (they exist and speedups are possible, provided you're pro-active).
- Get a job grind away for 3 to 5 years, learn about investing and invest most of the money.
- If you want to go deeper in computer science, because the craft is beautiful then follow a master degree in security.
I'd have missed out on a lot of spiritual/some social development that I wouldn't have gotten at "higher job education" but did get at uni (as I did that for 6 months, a different degree though). However, compared to that, I now have a career setback of 7 years.
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#3A short (and hence inaccurate) overview of the apprenticeship system for the trades in my country:
Apprentices start working one day a week and going to school four. They end up working four days a week and going to school one. Apprentices can switch to a more academic track, at a technical school or university, if they get the desire.
When they finish with their apprenticeship, not only do they already have horizontal ties with their classmates, but they also have vertical ties with their business, its clients, and the master tradesmen who conducted the classroom component and oversaw the theoretical and practical exams.
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#4Most successful people have X.
Government: “Let’s give everyone X!”
Over time the value of X is diluted, loses its status signaling, and overall quality degrades.
Successful people move to Y.
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#5I agree with this. In retrospect, a better path for me would've been (in The Netherlands): - Don't do pre-university in high school but prepare for "higher job education" in high school. Graduate at 17. - Do a "higher job education", speed it up (instead of 4 years do 3 years) and graduate at 20. Do some web dev/UX-based degree (they exist and speedups are possible, provided you're pro-active). - Get a job grind away…
Assuming you're Dutch, but in the context of this article, HBO is college as well (the very clear distinction between applied universities and research universities doesn't exist
in the Americas).
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#6I agree with this. In retrospect, a better path for me would've been (in The Netherlands): - Don't do pre-university in high school but prepare for "higher job education" in high school. Graduate at 17. - Do a "higher job education", speed it up (instead of 4 years do 3 years) and graduate at 20. Do some web dev/UX-based degree (they exist and speedups are possible, provided you're pro-active). - Get a job grind away…
Assuming you're Dutch, but in the context of this article, HBO is college as well (the very clear distinction between applied universities and research universities doesn't exist in the Americas).
Ah, I didn't know! Thanks. And community college is MBO then I guess?
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#7Colleges have become massive businesses whose purpose is to jam kids through to graduation (thus maximize tuition fees). Most kids don't really want to be there. Both parties are incentivized to "get through it". When a large number of young people have degrees obtained this way, is it any wonder the value is diminished?
It's a shame, because I loved (and continue to love) higher education.
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#8A short (and hence inaccurate) overview of the apprenticeship system for the trades in my country: Apprentices start working one day a week and going to school four. They end up working four days a week and going to school one. Apprentices can switch to a more academic track, at a technical school or university, if they get the desire. When they finish with their apprenticeship, not only do they already have horizont…
>Apprentices start working one day a week and going to school four. They end up working four days a week and going to school one.
It's brilliant. And is there any profession that can't be done this way?
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#9Life is a long haul ride, requires a lot of things to get through it well. College education is obviously one part of it.
It would help people to realize any thing one does has an expiry date to it. This is why you need to have a system to remain consistent at some broad goals. Things like good eating, exercise, personal finance, relationships, reading and learning have to be done consistently, and have to be done throughout your life. You won't be good at life, if you don't do some of things regardless of the age, and place you are in.
The loss is in assuming College Degree as an aristocratic right. If you think this way you will soon realize there is nothing special about reading a few books between ages 18 - 22 and doing no learning after that for decades.
To me primary purpose of education is initiation. College degree should be treated as a good head start as an initiation. Nothing more, Nothing less.
Re: A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
#10The four years I spent at my university were four of the best years of my life. I grew academically, socially, and career-wise in ways I just never would have without going to school. However, I have plenty of friends that never went to any higher education than high school, or who dropped out of college early on, and it's not like they're unsuccessful or maladjusted. It seems pretty clear that different paths work for different people.