I'm less likely to use twitpic now from the tone of this article.
College was my biggest mistake
131–140 of 192 posts
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
The job lead I got from my college advisor alone was worth the opportunity cost. And the humanities classes opened my mind up in ways wikipedia just can't dream of.
Well, I guess you could take a humanities class...or, you could, you know, get a library card. Believe it or not, there are actually sources of information outside of wikipedia and $1000000000/credit college courses. Amazing, right?
The big difference is the discussions with a group of other people (especially great: of different majors!) and a professor who knows what you're talking about and how to steer the conversation. Trying to understand a book and trying to understand people is very different.
I had a great seminar this semester where we would talk about "knowledge" from a philosophical, historical, theological and physical point of view with the respective students and professors. Often, we were none the wiser about our original question afterwards, but had had a great discussion, and quoting the philosophy professor, "understood the question better". Again, my point - it is not about gained knowledge, and the way a conversation engages your mind is hard to replicate with a book.
But then, I live in Germany and can live off 6000€ including university costs for a year, so YMMV.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#133[deleted]
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#134just goes to show how over-inflated salaries for programmers are. it is not rocket science anymore.
actual rocket science though? good luck without an actual education.
and i sure hope as hell that this mindset doesn't reach the medical field. studying to be a surgeon? i taught myself...yeah, sure...
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#135I think this link started out as a post here on hn[1]. I'm not sure why the author insists on using $175k in debt as a strawman for the discussion. In the earlier thread on HN he stated that $100k, not $175k, was the actual debt figure he was confronted with. It is unfortunate because the discussion of higher-ed/debt is an important topic (I dropped out of law school for similar reasons) and the inflated debt figure…
because I dropped out after two years. if i finished all four, it'd be way more.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
The autor is clearly talking of his own experience. He is not generalizing and trying to convince everybody to drop out of college. My experience is that after 5 years of professionnal activity college is not relevant anymore as long as one kept learning and gaining experience. It is what you've done and accomplished that will make the difference and get you closer to success. Beside 44k$/year + interests is far too…
Reread the article, it is exactly what you're telling me it's not (last paragraph). :( Also, beside that point, this is thrice daily conversation, whether it's Peter Thiel, or KA, or whatever the "anti-college" hit of the day is. As far as 5 years of experience ... It depends on what you spent 5 years doing. The $44K/yr is a non-starter. Sure, it's a big waste of money if you get a .33 GPA, agreed. Big deal. That's s…
My understanding is that being successful means reaching our life goal. If your goal is to make career in the academic or research domain, than a college degree is indeed a must have and a step closer to your success. Otherwise, it's not and a waste of time and money.
Especially, if you think that a college degree provides you a guarantee to get and keep an employee job, or being successful in it, you are plain wrong.
The opinion of Paul Graham or Peter Thiel about college make sense when considering the goal they are talking about for which a college degree is indeed a waste of time and money.
A college degree is good to become educated in some field, but you are spoon fed and you get all the constrains that come with it.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love how so many liberals that would never dream of insulting someone for being poor have this attitude that if you didn't go to college, you are some kind of uncultured hick. Somehow beneath all those baristas with hundreds of thousands of dollars of college debt. >The only thing ever discussed seems to be how job-ready you are at graduation time. This is the opposite of what I saw before the recession. Maybe I am…
Yeah, I tried to warn my friends, but they all looked down on the idea. Now that they're out of college, most of them are working retail. They have no idea how much they owe or when it might be paid off--math is scary, so they just defer and defer and make the minimum payment when necessary. Of course, given their relative inability to comprehend fiscal realities, almost all of them live with their parents. Any free…
>I'm really sick of people treating me like shit for actually getting a worthwhile degree that'll lead to a career that can pay the bills.
you've gotta choose your friends and your peers. I'm not saying you should always insist on friends that accept you for who you are, it can be good to have peers that challenge you, but you need friends that would admire you if you became the person you want to be.
A whole lot of the misery of my younger life can be traced back to that. It's not fun to be in a situation where you have to lower yourself in your own eyes to raise yourself in the eyes of your peers.
>People spending money they don't have on useless status signifiers just pisses me off. So irresponsible.
but... that's a lesson that needs to be learned through experience. Really, that's a big part of why I think the fact you can't get out of student loans the usual way is such a big problem; I mean, when I was that age, making my own stupid decisions, no bank would be idiotic to loan me hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if they were, I'd have ended up bankrupt and the bank would have had to take the hit, as they should, for making such a boneheaded loan.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#138I really wish people the best in their careers. As far as attending college, I know the things that you don't and won't and that is good enough for me.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#139Not that this is a particularly insightful point, but I keep wondering, why does it never come up in these discussions that college is FUN? Regardless of its financial value or lack thereof, it really is an experience like no other.
Probably because many colleges cost like 200K nowadays. Fun's justifiable maybe when you're graduating with, I don't know, 0-10K in debt, but at 200K you've really gotta question whether or not it's worth it. A lot of people have their four years of fun and then end up slaving away as indentured servants to Sallie Mae for the rest of their lives.
It really doesn't need to cost that much though. I wouldn't be surprised if every state in the US has a public school that costs less than a quarter of that. (and obviously college is much cheaper in every other country). To clarify, I wasn't saying I thought that was the sole benefit of college - just one that never seems to get mentioned.
Re: College was my biggest mistake
#140i both agree and disagree.
if IT sector wouldn't be so hungry for developers, author of this article would be called at minimum insane when he asked 100k salary. and it isn't some constant thing. i think that if now would be bubble burst in IT sector, this author would continue to work for 10$ per hour.
i agree with main idea, that college should not be mandatory thing in everybody's life - all job market should be in balance : somebody must work lower-level work, somebody has to do programming, managing, financing. if everybody would be with Professor-level education, who would clean toilets in restaurants?