It's easy or fun to hate on college these days, and the critics have a lot of good points, but in spite of debt and indoctrination college is still the best path for the median talented person to attain a good standard of living. Yeah, if you have the necessary luck or connections or domain knowledge or rich parents, then maybe you can skip college or delay it to do something else, but most people do not have these luxuries.
College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
61–70 of 195 posts
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#62I'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…
This is what I tell my younger cousins about college. Getting an education is obviously the goal, but networking with potential employers so that you have a job/internship lined up after graduation is what's most important.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#63One 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…
"it teaches you to read, write and think." Most people learn that by grade 10. College should be for highly specialized skill learning.
People learn to do those things by grade 2.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#64One 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…
"it teaches you to read, write and think." Most people learn that by grade 10. College should be for highly specialized skill learning.
> Most people learn that by grade 10.
We wish! Most of the students I've known outside of stem will make sure they prove you wrong ;)
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#65I really don't get these type of articles. If you want to argue that college is a mistake, you will find reasons to justify it (student loans, non-translating academia to real world). IF you want to argue that college is not a mistake, you will find reasons as well (networks, lasting friends, potential life partner, social credit & new perspectives and fun: late night study group sessions building camraderie you can reminisce if you run into each other through alumni culture, social activities and so on).
Who you were in college/university, what courses you took and how much it cost is missing the point is completely subjective. If you took STEM path but you felt like you could've leveraged your open source contributions to a job, yeah you might be inclined to view it as a transactional loss (which to me is quite predictable and telling of their outlook). IF you did not take traditional STEM path and do not translate into an acceptable level of intellectual challenge/livable wage you will also view it as transactional loss (also quite telling what sort of preferences and outlook this group has).
Who you were in college/university, who you met, what sort of social experiences and relations you had will directly translate into how much you view it as worth it.
What you get out of something is largely what you perceive as valuable and your current situation will play a large role in that. So it is perfectly acceptable to feel at different points, college/uni was worth it/not worth it.
Just for me on a personal level, the friends I have gained through clubs, memories of working late in groups, socializing (pushed myself here), relationships more than made it worth it. My only regret was not pushing myself further to seek potential partner relationships because outside in the real world, there is a loss of innocence and naivete that you could only find in such environments. Everything feels transactional between adults with careers and strings attached although that isn't to say you won't find similar bonding-over-camraderie and aligned interests, you might find even more worth while relationships. It's just that intimate ones seem much harder to come by (at least for me) and that would be my biggest mistake, not exploring/pursuing those because of more problems I deemed more urgent: academia (impacts job), a job upon graduation ( a huge source of anxiety). In reality, I created these urgencies to avoid and limit myself when I should've been all out exploring. It actually might have made me more efficient at studies too. It's the inaction that kills me and I tried to justify it through PTSD, wounds, external things when the correct action would've been to aim to become wiser.
I'm thankful for whatever relationships remain, and I feel lucky to say that I've gained friends for life due to college/university but was only possible because I pushed myself to the extremes of comfort zone. Something that I'm saddened to say, I increasingly avoid as I get older. I'm screwed but having friends lessen that dread more, although that isn't to say you can't find ways to do it yourself without external things.
Rambled on here but seems tough to really limit this discussion without involving some personal anecdotes because the axiom highlighted in the article is completely irrelevant to anybody reading if they realize its wholly subjective.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#66People should treat undergrad more like grad school: don't go if you have to take out loans for most of it. Go and learn as much as you can as soon as you've got the big scholarship or someone (family, employer, etc…) to sponsor you.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#67I'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…
I had the exact same experience at a state school in Texas (Computer Science, graduated 2012). Worked the whole time, paid off what I could, and ended up with ~15k in debt that I paid off within 2 years. I completely understand how college isn't for everyone (or even most people), but it worked perfectly for me. I was not exposed to any CS concepts until college, and probably would never have had this career were it…
Same experience in Georgia, state school and graduated in 2013 after a few years off in between. I wasn't exposed to programming until college. Worked in the restaurant industry throughout college and was only able to find a good job with my degree. Found a company through a college fair and classmates that started my IT/SE career. I was able to graduate debt free through a small grant and partial help from parents.
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#68But one of the special-sauce weapons of the West/US is all these people attempting to make a go of it at creative arts which benefits our economy in the long run compared to super-rigid societies that don't encourage experimentation. Throw enough darts at the board, and a bunch will turn out winners for the benefit of all. A bunch will turn out losers though (anecdote provided by OP). It's probably a losing wager for…
I agree for the most part, but I don’t think many of these creative endeavors are helped by college (and the costs/debt it brings). In fact, there is a counter argument that perhaps there would be more successful creatives if we did not push everyone to go to college and take on lots of debt; they would have more time, energy, and money that they could more directly apply towards the pursuit of those creative dreams
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#69Yeah, that's not so much "college was a mistake" as "I made huge mistakes with how I went about college."
Re: College Was the Biggest Mistake of My Life
#70One 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…
I have a STEM degree from a liberal arts university. Half of my courses were not part of my major requirements and many if not most were humanities type courses. I've always felt that combination has given me a big advantage over others who went got the same degree from traditional universities. STEM curriculum does not have to exclude "reading, writing, and thinking".