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More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

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Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#21
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be rude or unsypathetic, but did you think that spending $80K was going to turn you into an artist?

Just because the person did not have a successful art career doesn't mean they aren't and artist and didn't become a better one.

of course, anyone can be an artist (or not). my point is that you don't have to spend $80K to potentially fail in becoming one.

interesting to see that talent might beat out education is no longer an idea here

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#22
post #8

As someone who racked up nearly $80K in debt going to art school, I think they're making the right choice (mostly). In some cases it really makes sense to go to college, but it's a terrible model for many skills.

Did you have fun though? Because imho, that’s part of the point.

There's more fun to be had with 80k than college.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#23
post #17

Being a plumber, for example, is far more lucrative for most people. Military, police, then lawyer route is also very lucrative.

One of those is not like the other in that it requires extensive college. It also happens to be the one that pays more than the others.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#25
post #5

As someone who racked up nearly $80K in debt going to art school, I think they're making the right choice (mostly). In some cases it really makes sense to go to college, but it's a terrible model for many skills.

Not to be rude or unsypathetic, but did you think that spending $80K was going to turn you into an artist?

college isn’t quite equivalent to trade school, it wasn’t really about getting a degree in a career field until it became so outrageously expensive that you needed to constantly consider how you’d pay it back

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#26
College seems to have ~3 uses from students' perspectives:

1. A trade school for technical professionals who actually need specialist education (scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.)

2. A finishing school for the elite

3. A blood sports arena for the brilliant to complete for professorships (almost all of whom will lose and be saddled with 6 figures of debt and 7 figures of opportunity cost)

A lot of people have been tricked into going to general education and liberal arts college programs (the finishing school parts) without the money to pay in full under the guise of "becoming a lifelong learner" or something, and this completely cripples them in the future when they could otherwise have had great careers in fields that don't truly need the education you get from a college.

It's good that students are turning away now. The market is correcting itself.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#28
post #9

I have been programming for a Fortune 500 company for four years. Not long ago, I applied for a job at another Fortune 500 company. HR really had only question for me, they saw on my resume I did not have a college degree listed, and did I have one? I said I went through most of college towards a Bachelors in Computer Science but dropped out before graduation. I did not get the job, although I don't know if that's wh…

I hate to say this but you were probably an unfortunate bait for a labor certification of an existing employee on an h1b visa.

That is generally the only reason companies will stick to the bscs requirement. Normally if you have requisite experience the degree - especially bscs is not needed.

Re: More students are turning away from college and toward apprenticeships

#29
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be rude or unsypathetic, but did you think that spending $80K was going to turn you into an artist?

college isn’t quite equivalent to trade school, it wasn’t really about getting a degree in a career field until it became so outrageously expensive that you needed to constantly consider how you’d pay it back

my point was that "art", while certainly a viable career should you have talent, cannot be taught.

a bit like programming, or anything else, when i come to think of it...

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