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College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

americandreaming.substack.com

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Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#161

Post by kcplate »

omarhaneef wrote: post #9

One point of view arguing for a non-stem degree is that it teaches you to read, write and think. And there is some logic to that thought. Even if you spend 4 years just learning about, say, Sociology, you have to read up on a debate, summarize the background, have an opinion, be challenged and so forth. And you are on your way to 10k hours. Now film school might have a component of that, or maybe it is teaching you h…

> One point of view arguing for a non-stem degree is that it teaches you to read, write and think. And there is some logic to that thought. Even if you spend 4 years just learning about, say, Sociology, you have to read up on a debate, summarize the background, have an opinion, be challenged and so forth. And you are on your way to 10k hours.

True, but you can also teach yourself to do those things too. For me, the ROI of time/effort/money seems off for almost all degrees other than STEM if you have to borrow money to achieve them.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#162

Post by riazrizvi »

> A degree in film is absolutely worthless for obtaining work in the film industry. What matters are connections, professional experience, and the ability to raise large sums of money. Those aren’t things film school can teach you.

Well you're very unlikely to get a job with any degree without writing a resume, attending job fairs, networking etc., the degree is helpful but not sufficient.

Film school is a place where you've got the equipment, you've got people there who want to work on projects with similar profiles to yourself, and you've got experienced faculty who have been paid to teach you stuff and who are on the lookout themselves for really good students to refer to their industry friends. It's a place you go to to create a fucking awesome portfolio, so that you can be taken seriously when you network. Of course schools don't put that in the brochure, because they are businesses in a competitive field, so they try to talk up what you can get if you go to their place in particular. You have to figure this out for yourself.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#163

Post by christophilus »

the_only_law wrote: post #137
christophilus wrote: post #20

My 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…

> Today, for in-state tuition, it's around $47K for a 4-year degree. Fucking Christ this is cheap? > marine-biology I don’t think this is a very useful degree. Don’t most biologists have to go through the PhD/PostDoc trying before they can find a job in the field paying more than $30k.

It’s not cheap, but for 4 years, with scholarships and a part time job, isn’t some terrible life-changing burden. I graduated with a compsci degree with no debt. It’s totally still doable, and pays very well on the other side of it.

Marine biology was a bad choice of example, I’ll grant you.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#164

Post by omarhaneef »

kcplate wrote: post #161
omarhaneef wrote: post #9

One point of view arguing for a non-stem degree is that it teaches you to read, write and think. And there is some logic to that thought. Even if you spend 4 years just learning about, say, Sociology, you have to read up on a debate, summarize the background, have an opinion, be challenged and so forth. And you are on your way to 10k hours. Now film school might have a component of that, or maybe it is teaching you h…

> One point of view arguing for a non-stem degree is that it teaches you to read, write and think. And there is some logic to that thought. Even if you spend 4 years just learning about, say, Sociology, you have to read up on a debate, summarize the background, have an opinion, be challenged and so forth. And you are on your way to 10k hours. True, but you can also teach yourself to do those things too. For me, the R…

There are some people who can do this: spend hours and hours, all nighters, push themselves with deadlines that have come up with and make themselves put in the work. (I believe it is a lot more "natural" to push oneself with programming where the code can fail to compile and you can just keep at it.) Though even those people would be hard pressed to obtain thoughtful feedback on multiple (sometimes very bad) papers, repeatedly, over years.

However, most people would not naturally put in the same effort and for those people, there is a lot of value in the structure.

How much has a lot to do with the particular school, career path, scholarship money and so forth.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#165

Post by killingmehardly »

horsawlarway wrote: post #60
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #16

I'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…

State schools are where it's at. I also attended a local state school, graduated in 5 years, but doing a co-op program every other semester the last 3, making decent money at the time ($17 an hour) and getting real work experience. I left with no debt, 2 years of real work experience, and a solid degree from a respected university (GA Tech). The college debate is so messy because the outcome is highly dependent on wh…

No post body was provided.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#167

Post by efa »

listless wrote: post #41

You went to college for a film degree and then found out you couldn't get a job with it. This should not be a revelation. We tell people to "follow their dreams". That's a nice sentiment, but it's just not how the real world plays out. If this guy had gotten a nursing degree, his experience getting a job would have been entirely different. I'm not saying higher education is perfect, but it's always been the case that…

I find it hard to believe his degree was a hinderance to him getting a shelf stocker job. Seems like a little exaggeration to make a more colorful story.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#168

Post by the_only_law »

nullc wrote: post #159
the_only_law wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had gone to college I might have ended up with a social life and probably wouldn’t have done much better/worse economically. I have this current theory that there are a lot of domain/industries even in software development are made much harder to get into for the “uneducated” because the companies tend to source less experienced employees exclusively through university hiring pipelines. Now I have no qualms abso…

> when schools were more interested in my high school disciplinary lol what? Do high schools even have those records anymore a decade plus after the fact?

Actually I have no idea, I just know it was required to even continue the application.

Everything about the undergrad process seems designed for a 17/18 year old kid who spent the last 4 years grooming themselves for that specifically.

It makes sense of course, as that’s probably the majority of people starting undergrad, but it does suck for anyone else, especially since the system is very bureaucratic and inflexible. See: how the financial aid system determines your dependent status, hint it’s not what the IRS says. It was pretty akward the first time I v tried to go back, and informed adult who had been on my own for some years at that point having to call up my father and see if he was willing to give me all sorts of sensitive information because despite have it paid my own since 18, the education system related me “dependent”. The only logic behind your status is if you’re under 24 or not (with leniency only for extreme situations such as being an orphan, homeless, or having both parents incarcerated)

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#169

Post by platz »

michaelt wrote: post #140
platz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by what mechanism can they directly apply towards the pursuit

In some creative fields you can just jump straight into doing it. For example, if your creative aspirations lie in youtube, or twitch, or instagram, or tiktok - mostly they just start doing it, self-educating about things like lighting and lenses.

I think people going to college for filmmaking is different from being a streamer.

Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

#170

Post by akamia »

riazrizvi wrote: post #162

> A degree in film is absolutely worthless for obtaining work in the film industry. What matters are connections, professional experience, and the ability to raise large sums of money. Those aren’t things film school can teach you. Well you're very unlikely to get a job with any degree without writing a resume, attending job fairs, networking etc., the degree is helpful but not sufficient. Film school is a place wher…

This is a really great point. My brother-in-law went to film school and did exactly what you described. He networked with his professors and peers, worked on lots of projects, used the software and equipment available through the school, and graduated with a strong portfolio. He has been consistently working in the field since graduating.

Obviously this is just a single anecdote but I think it does show that it is possible to succeed if you really take advantage of the resources that are available to you in school.

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