This guy could totally make a film about his life someday.
College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
11–20 of 195 posts
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#12if you read around on the internet, in various and sundry forums, there is a rising acknowledgement among people that maybe their friends who accidentally got their girlfriend pregnant in high school and then got married and started working right away were the lucky ones... at the time it seemed as if those friends had messed up royally, but in hindsight, looking back over time and it seems as if the ones who got a g…
Turns out, starting work 4 years earlier in your life helps with compound interest.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#13if you read around on the internet, in various and sundry forums, there is a rising acknowledgement among people that maybe their friends who accidentally got their girlfriend pregnant in high school and then got married and started working right away were the lucky ones... at the time it seemed as if those friends had messed up royally, but in hindsight, looking back over time and it seems as if the ones who got a g…
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything more than anecdotal that supports this conclusion.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#14I went to college in the early 90s when it was 5x cheaper, inflation -adjusted. It was the best decision of my life. No way I'd be where I am without it. But times and technology has changed. The antique system that is education needs to be completely upended. And, in the process, be made affordable again.
30 states provide some means of a free community college education (eligibility limits in some case, for all in others). Get the other 20 on board, nuke student loan debt, and no longer have the government guarantee future debt for loans (which will drive down college costs). The system will then provide more value at lower cost to system participants (although it will be a painful adjustment process for bloated institutions that have fed off of government loans for decades).
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/08/free-college-is-now-a-realit...
https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107044086-164943354866...
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#15I'm glad I didn't bother going to college.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#16I'll offer one anecdote of counter-college hate. I went to a local state school, graduated in three years with winter and summer classes, commuted for the second and third, worked the whole time, and came out with a very small amount of debt (maybe 5-10k, been a while now and I don't remember). I made friends in college, I was able to get into a great job via an internship that I got from the school job fair, and got a great understanding of some of the fundamentals of computer science that I wouldn't have otherwise learned (though my practical learning was really done on the job). I also had a child my first year. I don't regret college, and it was certainly a worthwhile investment for me.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#17I went to college in the early 90s when it was 5x cheaper, inflation -adjusted. It was the best decision of my life. No way I'd be where I am without it. But times and technology has changed. The antique system that is education needs to be completely upended. And, in the process, be made affordable again.
I dropped out of college in the early 90s when many of the CS programs were teaching dated material. It was the best decision of my life, no way I'd be where I am if I had waited to graduate before getting started into a career.
IMO, college is one of many possible options to success. They all have trade offs, and there is no universal answer that fits all of the addressable market.
If you do not go to college, you have some benefits (no cost/debt, earlier involvement in an industry), but also some drawbacks (less of a social network, less insight into how some mechanisms of business and career work, etc.).
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#18if you read around on the internet, in various and sundry forums, there is a rising acknowledgement among people that maybe their friends who accidentally got their girlfriend pregnant in high school and then got married and started working right away were the lucky ones... at the time it seemed as if those friends had messed up royally, but in hindsight, looking back over time and it seems as if the ones who got a g…
Turns out, starting work 4 years earlier in your life helps with compound interest.
Yes, if you're saving. But if you have no degree or work experience and a kid to support, your money isn't staying in your pocket unless your parents are willing to help out.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#19Society as a whole would probably benefit from more trade schools, even for many jobs that are typically thought of as traditional white collar jobs. Though on the individual level it’d probably limit options and make it harder to switch careers.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#20My advice: go somewhere cheap, and get a practical degree.
I went to CCU for most of my college career (back when it had just become a standalone university). Wasn't (still isn't) prestigious, but with scholarships, was entirely free for me, and it had the added benefit of attracting some decent professors who had retired to the beach and still wanted to teach part time.
Today, for in-state tuition, it's around $47K for a 4-year degree.
That's about double what it was when I attended, IIRC, which isn't too bad given how long ago that was. Maybe I'm in a bubble, but ~$12K per year seems doable for just about anyone who can manage to work a part time job and / or get scholarships.
If you go through their business school, comp-sci program, marine-biology, or other practical degree programs, my guess is you'll probably come out ahead in the end.