If you're academically smart, then college is the way to go right after high school. But what if you're not so smart or just mediocre? By that I mean you did not earn any scholarship to college but instead relied on loans and grants. If you are in higher education debt, like I am (~$25K), with a college degree, do you regret for going to college? If you're making about $30K/year like I am, do you think you could have done better if you had gone into some trade school right out of high school and have a 4-year head start in your career and carry no debt? What is your situation like? Were you or are you in college with education debt? Do you think college is overrated?
depends on the degree you wind up with, your earning potential and if you lived on your own and grew up at all. some jobs you cant get without a degree; trade schools are great and you can earn alot depending on the trade, but you may wind up busting your ass a lot more than someone who went to college.
In terms of public policy, I think college is overrated. It would benefit the country to have a healthier respect for the trades. For an individual, a trade school can make sense if the person understands that it means some career options become a lot harder to attain without the college education. I don't think the debt burden of a college education is so high that it's a good argument to avoid college altogether though. Given the statistical boost to your earning-potential over your whole lifetime, it's still a good investment. Even if you're not seeing adequate reward right now, you'll still be using that degree 40 years from now. And, I think the benefits extend beyond the financial renumeration anyway and can positively affect your well-being in non-quantifiable ways.
Did I read that right? You think that "Not so smart or just mediocre" means you didn't earn scholarships? You can be academically smart, too. You just don't want to be. Stop being lazy. Pay attention in class and do your work.
Not at all. It's not as daunting as some people make it out to be. Crappy public high schools just aren't preparing our youth the way they're meant to. Debt is no excuse. I have just under a quarter of a million dollars in debt for my education; debt was necessary for my career. Hopefully, in the near future it will be paid off, and I will be on sound financial footing.
It heavily depends on the type of degree these days. If your personal traits are hardworking and deterministic, I think you can overcome the stigma of not having a college degree, but you really have to work at the very bottom in order to get noticed. Statistically, non-degree workers earn 3 or 5+ grand less for the same age group, so there is a significant financial gap to consider. Many work skills today are not taught in school and are accomplished through experience and training. As it is now, an undergrad degree is an indication of aptitude, commitment, and an overall gauge in personal preparation. Other than a some employers needing a degree as a requirement, a lot of that can be overcome with time and an honest commitment, but therein lies the Catch-22 for most fields: In order to get a job, you need experience, but without experience you won't be considered for a job, and the most common way to be considered w/o experience is a good degree.
It completely depends on what you "want to be when you grow up." If you want to be an engineer, your ass better go to college. If you want to be a teacher, you better go to college. If you want to work in IT, become a computer programmer or work in an office in HR, or similar. Depending on your job, four years of real-world work experience may be more valuable than college... but if you want to get into management, you better work on your degree at some point. My little sister graduated from HBU over the summer and had grand visions of making $50-60k a year right out of college with a four year degree... but now she's working for $11 an hour. Why? Her degree of choice was political science, so her options are getting her teaching certificate, going to law school or starting at the bottom in an office environment. Right now she's at the bottom in an office environment while working on her teaching certificate. If you want to make money right out of college, go into computer science and make $40-60k a year to start out, engineering and make $60-80k a year to start or get a two year degree in process technology and make $60k a year base and nearly $100k a year with overtime. Just about anything else and you're probably going to start at under $30k a year... but the degree will always come in handy if you choose to progress.
From a financial point of view, it is better for many people who are in college right now to go to a trade school or find some other means to be employable. We push college to hard and people these days think if you don't go that means you are dumb. I know a guy who right outta high school (and a little in high school) started a construction company. He is about 25 now and doin very very well.
Currently, the unemployment rate is at 4% for those with a college degree..9.5% for those without it..so right now I'd say the answer is that it was worth it. Also, many people work their way through college without grants and loans..its hard work and it may take a year or two longer, but its worth not having the debt. But...there are some people that college just isn't for them. We shouldn't look down on them as long as their goals are more than flipping burgers. Trade schools are a GREAT thing for these people..and there are quite a few like the OP's friend that started his own construction company that can make a good-great living without either - a fairly good # of millionaires do not have college degrees. Many started their own companies, or knew a trade and just did smart things with their money.
If you don't have a college degree that doesn't mean you're dumb. Likewise, if you do have a college degree that doesn't mean you're smart. Lots and lots of idiots get college degrees, and they get them simply because their parents can afford the tuition. Likewise, lots of very intelligent people don't get degrees because the initial costs of attending college are so high (seriously, three cheers for community colleges - they're really the genuine teaching colleges in higher education). Also, people who don't have parents who can afford the skyrocketing tuition/textbook costs, if these people do manage to make it to college, end up with a burden of crushing debt that places them, again, at a severe economic disadvantage even after they have a university degree. Universities have, over the past 50 or so years, transformed from elitist scholarly institutions to money-making enterprises. Many universities have lowered their standards for admittance repeatedly in order to bring in more students while, at the same time, tuition rates and textbook costs and miscellaneous fees have massively outpaced the rate of inflation. An equally ugly side effect of these policies is that fewer and fewer students attending university do so out of any genuine intellectual curiosity or desire to learn - they just want to maintain the lifestyle they've become accustomed to while growing up in middle- and upper middle- class homes. Universities have encouraged this idea (note how people speak now of college degrees the same way they spoke of high school degrees 40 years ago - you need one if you want a good job!) and have likewise made cuts in programs that don't have an immediate and obvious impact on students making money post-college. The former bastions of a college-education - history, English, foreign languages, and related fields - are gradually being starved of funds while business and technology departments are getting an increasing share. Note that this makes universities into, more or less, vocational schools. The real question you must ask yourself is not whether you're "smart" enough for college, but whether your family has the money to send you to college. If they don't, you'd probably do better going the trade school route because, if they COULD afford to send you to college, then you'd basically just be going to a more expensive trade school.
I agree. Community colleges don't get the credit it deserves for quality education. It's not taken seriously enough because of its low costs and it's wrongly perceived as a "hand me down" education, but the opportunity is there for those who take it.
Very well put. It seems like most people go to college because it's just the "right" path for them out of high school, without exploring other options. College is a bad investment for mediocre people because the truth is many college grads are not hired in the field they studied for, or even hired at all.
Most successful people have traits that make them successful. They succeed in college, because that is the expectation for those that think they should be successful. 200 years ago, most would have been successful shopkeepers or farmers, or whatever. Today, they are successful businessmen, engineers, doctors, and lawyers. Actually, the people with mediocre character traits and intelligence need college the most. They can get highly-specialized administrative jobs that pay well with a college degree that wouldn't be available without.
Yes....getting a good job or even more importantly, a good opportunity, these days is more about WHO u know and less about WHAT u know. I know a crazy amount of guys who never graduated college but, because of summer jobs they got w family friends etc, they ended up landing great gigs without a college degree and are successful to this day. Personally, I think that there is very little I learned in school that taught me anything about the real world and the street smarts needed to succeed in it.
...or they were born well and just didn't **** up badly enough to get knocked down some pegs on the ladder of economic well-being.
Seeing how you put "Is College Education Overrated?" as opposed to "Is a college education overrated?" I would say... mahaps... I think the modern era its a heavy gamble not getting at least a BS. I'm not saying it's impossible to be successful, I just see it as an unnecessary handicap not having some higher level of education under your belt. Plus, in college you meet people and network in ways that are hard to match out in the real world. I think to pass up the experience if you have the chance is wrong. Student loans are not as bad as people make them seem and the relationships you build in college can be long lasting.
yes it is overrated but not in the sense that you think. i mean its overrated because you can't accomplish as much as most people think if you ONLY have a bachelors degree. most careers will now require a masters. if you are going to go to college then you might as well follow it up with a masters and get a better career. looking for a job with just a bachelors isn't much better than looking for a job without one. mostly you will find entry level 25-30k jobs. i would say either go all the way or choose a vocational school, but you are right that stopping after a bachelors is a waste.
