College was my biggest mistake
stevecorona.com
College was my biggest mistake
1–10 of 192 posts
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#2I often wonder how many people who write these kinds of posts actually benefitted greatly from college in ways they don't understand. For example, most people who didn't go to college can't write a blog post like this one.
In short, I think most people who can write great posts about how college didn't help them actually gained a lot of their most valuable (if intangible) skills from their college experience.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#3More challenging colleges teach you far more than you can teach yourselves.
A top 5 computer science school churns out a much more capable and knowledgeable computer science major who is both well versed in theory and knows how computers actually works down to the bytes.
Kudos to the writer, his ability to hustle is strong. There is more than one kind of talent.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#4The problem with this line of argument is that it is anecdotal. Yes, it’s great that this guy has gone on to earn a lot of money, but that result is not typical.
This is the data from Australia:
Over the working lifetime of a university graduate the financial gain generated from income is more than $1.5 million or 70 per cent more than those whose highest qualification is Year 12, even after taking into account the foregone earnings of students while they study. (http://www.youth.nsw.gov.au/__data/page/1165/whatpricethecle...)
Bruce Chapman, the designer of Australia's income contingent education loan system, found that the Return on Investment of higher education in Australia is between 10 and 6 per cent. (http://vital.new.voced.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download...)
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#5I commend Steve's effort and hard work.
I am a dropout; and we have recruited dropouts, engineering graduates, MBAs and students pursuing a degree distance a learning program at our startup. The best recruits were actually the distance learning students and dropouts by far.
I always recommend young hackers to take a year or two off before going to college and figure out what they want to do. For most jobs in Internet, a University degree is hardly helpful.
In fact, you can actually learn more by working at start for a year than you would learn in 4 years in college. An undergraduate programmer who can network his way to a job can get salary similar to graduates. The only challenge will be to network and demonstrate your skills because recruiters won't be selling you.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#6Most articles and comments about higher education commit the gravest sin of thought: they assume what is right for one person (namely, the author) must be right for everyone.
I'm enrolled in a public institution pursuing a double major, working two jobs because I'm also middle class. I have a good -- not great -- GPA, and I get to do amazing and interesting things every day; I got into programming after volunteering with a CS major -- I learned about HN, ironically, from my Finance professor. After drudging through a K-12 curricula which routinely belittled the entire point of academia, I get to be surrounded by people who are just as hungry and passionate and brilliant as I am (often, they're more so.) It's unequivocally been the best three years of my life.
A lot of people are realizing college isn't a universal gateway to a better life, and that's good -- I don't particularly think it was meant to be one. I'm happy that the author made his way.
"College was my biggest mistake?" I'm glad you got out, then. But it sure as hell isn't mine.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#7It seems like most of the people who complain about college received poor education or were not receptive to education in the first place.
College isn't for everyone but there are a great number of us whose lives have been greatly enriched by our years at good liberal arts colleges. If you're evaluating college through the lens of some kind of personal business plan then it's not a clear win but if you care about the life of the mind there are few substitutes to studying with your peers under passionate dedicated professors.
Whether or not someone should go to *IT or get a CS degree so that they can pursue a technical career is mostly a function of the person and their capacity to engage in self-directed learning.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#8I commend Steve's effort and hard work. I am a dropout; and we have recruited dropouts, engineering graduates, MBAs and students pursuing a degree distance a learning program at our startup. The best recruits were actually the distance learning students and dropouts by far. I always recommend young hackers to take a year or two off before going to college and figure out what they want to do. For most jobs in Internet…
I think even great programmers who get solid on-the-job training doing a startup job will have major gaps as they progress. There is something to be said for learning fundamentals.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#9Going to college (as an adult) was by far the best thing I have ever done for myself.
I already had a career and thought I knew it all but the experience of working on theory and mixing in with some seriously smart people really pushed me to places that I would never have gotten to on my own.
Also I owe much of my current success to the relationships I formed during my time at university.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#10The problem with this line of argument is that it is anecdotal. Yes, it’s great that this guy has gone on to earn a lot of money, but that result is not typical. This is the data from Australia: Over the working lifetime of a university graduate the financial gain generated from income is more than $1.5 million or 70 per cent more than those whose highest qualification is Year 12, even after taking into account the f…
The problem with such studies is that they don't demonstrate causation: does college make you successful or do most successful people just go to college?