Preaching 'College is a waste of time' and dropping out of college makes you a Facebook founder, isn't healthy! If you are studying Computer Science, you need to learn Artificial Intelligence or Architecture design, you cannot say it has no relevance to the industry. It does, and it helps to shape up a young mind to look at the BIG picture. YCombi is great, but how can you replace that for College education? Its narrow in scope.
College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
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Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#12Something you might learn in college: 'replace' has a 'p' in it.
Why is this getting that much of upvotes?
That was clearly a typo. Besides, Mommaboy seems to be a new account created just to troll.
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#13Maybe rephrase "College Is a Waste for __fill_in_the_blank__ Majors" Is college a waste for Doctors & Lawyers? Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job? College is a big waste for a lot of majors, but certainly not in general...
I know they're not valued much here at HN, but don't forget the Liberal Arts types. Art History and such may not be my cup of tea, but I'm glad someone out there is teaching and studying it.
College may not do much for the entrepreneur types, but I didn't know I was one until after college, and it took the skills I acquired there to get myself off the ground.
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#14Maybe rephrase "College Is a Waste for __fill_in_the_blank__ Majors" Is college a waste for Doctors & Lawyers? Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job? College is a big waste for a lot of majors, but certainly not in general...
College !== Law School
College !== Medical SchoolRe: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#15Maybe rephrase "College Is a Waste for __fill_in_the_blank__ Majors" Is college a waste for Doctors & Lawyers? Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job? College is a big waste for a lot of majors, but certainly not in general...
Doctors learn medicine in medical school. College is just wasting time jumping through hoops.
As for law, a friend who recently graduated from law school said, "We would spend all semester paying to hear our professors who just liked to hear themselves talk. Then we would spend our summers interning and get paid to learn useful skills."
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#16Maybe rephrase "College Is a Waste for __fill_in_the_blank__ Majors" Is college a waste for Doctors & Lawyers? Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job? College is a big waste for a lot of majors, but certainly not in general...
Doctors do learn on the job. Med School, Residency, etc. When they are done with that they are "practicing".
They also spend time keeping up with the latest research and best practices(we hope).
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#17We are not the mixergy RSS feed. Everything created there doesn't have to show up here [make up your own comments about the community expanding and contentless articles appearing with high upvote counts here].
Also, you're not helping your point: "I bet you that a collage graduate learns more in her first year on the job than she does in all four years in college."
Interestingly though, a "collage graduate" is a good thing. A good university experience will give you exposure to a bunch of a different areas. Hopefully you'll become well-rounded. Then you can start connecting multiple disciplines together in unique ways not many people think to cross-pollinate.
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#18Something you might learn in college: 'replace' has a 'p' in it.
I hate to chime in on an obvious troll, but I have to admit I laughed when I read the title.
The thing about college is that, for some of us, it teaches us to learn. Much like the IB program I attended in highschool, the Computer Science program in college forced me to learn how to learn.
It seems silly thinking about it, but looking back I remember a great deal of my peers in the lower level, general knowledge courses who complained about writing two page papers on something they'd just discussed in class. This should not be difficult. A 5-6 page paper was a single night ordeal for me, and a 2 pager just seemed like a silly thing to worry about. For me, it was a walk in the park because I had already learned to write from my time in IB, and before that in the honors middle-school program.
A trend? Yep.
So after college when I took a salaried job writing ColdFusion, a language I had barely even heard of, I picked it up quickly. Of course, that was thanks to having to learn a ton of languages, constructs, and their memory layouts in college. I had learned how to learn, just like highschool taught me to question things and middle school taught me to write (and enjoy writing).
That said, there is definitely nothing that will ever replace real-world experience. However, that coupled with a college education might just save you from picking up a bunch of bad habits and give you that much more of an edge in both life, and your career.
Disclaimer: All mispellings and terribly grammar are to be politely discarded lest the trolls be fed. ;)
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#19> The truth is that college is one big party I believe 100% this is THE most important part of college/university level education. The education part is minor because if you have a subject interest it will come fairly naturally (I do think if you have to force knowledge in there is no point trying). Partying is socialising, building a circle of friends/associates and generally learning how humanity interacts. Indeed…
As somebody who attended college off and on, and in my 20s instead of right out of high school, I missed out on this. I think you're on to something there, ErrantX. I've been a fan of some required national service for some of these same reasons. I think not only you, but society as a whole benefits when young people are put together and form support groups as part of starting off. It should be encouraged more.
Required National Service is a horrible idea, for a myriad of reasons -- #1 of which is that it's slavery. Notice how whenever anyone talks about national service, it's always aimed at the politically naive (children, and young adults). We don't see required national service for 35 year olds, or 60 year olds.
Now supporting groups for young people to tackle is interesting problems (where they develop character and lasting relationships) is commendable, as long as its voluntary and not looking for a handout.
Re: College Is A Waste. Replace It With Y Combinator
#20If you're ambitious, motivated, and skilled technically, college might be a waste?
I've yet to meet anyone who wholly discounts their college experience, even if they're advocates of alternative, experiential learning (like YC.)
You don't go to college for academic credentials. You go to college to meet people and learn about yourself.