Is going to college a waste of time?

[socaldude]

I graduated last may with a degree in entrepreneurship and finance and I have to say it was a total waste of time and money. I could have figured out all of this shit on my own with a simple google search or a $15 book. Instead I paid $200 for a textbook and thousands for some teacher to regurgitate information to my face. I was lucky and graduated debt free but the majority are not so lucky.

You graduate with $40,000-$100,000 in debt and now you have to get a job to start paying those first tuition payments and then before you know it slowlane entrapment ensues. Not to mention that you will most likely be a Starbucks barista and barely keep up with your mortgage payment like tuition payments. Now that you are in debt you say "F*ck it" and you finance a car and buy a home and start a family and by the time you know it your entrepreneurial dreams are just that; a dream.

Yeah college has its benefits: friends, networking, partying etc. But all of this shit is NOT exclusive to college. You can do all of this shit OUTSIDE of college as well.

"College teaches you how to think!" Bullshit, you teach yourself how think by participating in reality and using your brain, you don't need anybody to show you how to use your brain especially a classroom. go buy a $10 book on amazon on critical thinking and read it in a weekend.

Buy TMF for $10, a critical thinking book for $10, an accounting, finance and marketing book for $10 each and BAM theres a business degree for $50. I'm DEAD serious.

 

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[socaldude]

DO NOT drop out of high school, just get it over with. it not even that hard. just read a lot on your spare time and get to know some of your classmates, enjoy it while you can. college is not necessary to go fastlane as everything you need to know is freely available. but remember be HONEST with yourself, AGAIN be HONEST. you should only skip college if you are TRULY committed and focused on entrepreneurship. i mean the type of commitment that has people working at fast food joints, and picking up turds in public bathrooms in downtown and saving every penny they earn. I cannot stress this enough, BE HONEST with yourself, again be HONEST with yourself, one more time be HONEST. entrepreneurship is a brutal struggle filled with disappointments and huge set backs, not a happily ever after easy path to riches. college is mainly for employees but if it benefits you and the price is right then go for it. plus if you do decide to skip college you can save a lot of money working full time and work on your fastlane product or service. AGAIN you have to be honest with yourself, way too many people are not. it all comes down to discipline. are you willing to work a shit job then come home and read books pertaining to your fastlane path? are you willing to live in your car to save lots of money on rent? are you willing to save your money instead of buying that ipad or gucci sneakers?are you willing to be busting your butt while all your friends are partying in college and hooking up with chicks? be honest and realistic with yourself, human nature is to either underestimate things OR overestimate things. think about that. im currently in college and i love it, you meet a lot of people. its a great place to learn and grow. im paying my way debt free and then some to save. but dont do it if it leaves you drowning in debt, its not worth it IMO. GOOD LUCK! :coolgleamA:

 

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[biophase]

You know the funny thing about college is that the money spent is viewed upon as investing in yourself.

But if you break it down by classes, you would never EVER spend money on certain classes nor should your parents EVER pay for them. But yet they do, many people do.

Let's imagine that tonight you go ask your parents for $1000 so you can take Classic Civilization 101, or World History 101. Does this actual class give you a positive ROI in terms of money? Probably not, however I would bet that most parents would probably give you the $1000 because it's education.

However, if you ask your parents for $1000 to start a business, chances are they would not do it.

Imagine, one semester later, you want $1000 to take Classic Civilization 202 because you learned so much. Again, chances are high that they would do it.

Contrast to you asking for another $1000 to start a 2nd business because the 1st one failed. They would probably 99% say no. Even though I would bet that you learned sooo much more with that $1000 and first failed business than Classic Civ 101.

 

[Kak]

Yes college is a waste of time. It is a scheme to increase intrinsic value to someone else (an employer). I went to college and I am finishing in may. It will have cost me over 120k all together. My parents though t it was important for me to go so they paid for it. I would have quit a long time ago if it wasnt for them.

I have started a business that I have control of, I control both the time I put in and the leverage. I can also leverage other people's time too. I just can't right now until I graduate. I plan to move and do not think it is right to hire some people only to fire them a few months later.

For the love of god do not do it. I am very regretful of my decision to go to college. I could have read a lot of books and figured EVERYTHING I have learned myself, outside of the classroom.

If I had used that 120k to help me build my business rather than block my business, who knows where I could be right now at age 22. Id sure as HELL be a lot smarter.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

 

[puckman]

want to start my fast track now, not once I get out of college, I am a quick learner and am very "entrepreneurialy"oriented and I truly believe and know I could make it big without furthering my IN SCHOOL education. If anyone has gone through this or just has any advice I would love to hear from you.

Hey Mike, here is some quick advice that I learned over the years.

1) Be familiar with pain. Life is work. Get used to this early, start working hard now, and hold on to your money. Regardless of what you decide to do, you will have to work. Whether thats for yourself, a professor, a boss, your coach/teammates, life is work.

2) DEBT WILL SINK YOU. Yes, student loan debt will sink you, its a fact. Most people dont pay it off. Figure out anyway you can to go to college and incur no debt. How? There are hundreds of ways. All extremely harder than signing a loan application. But since you accept that life is hard and requires a lot of work, you will be cool with this. Get debt and you will have a nagging monthly payment for the rest of your life, for your degree. This monthly payment will greatly reduce your risk tolerance and diminish any flexibility in your life to live on beans and rice if you have to one day to build a business. Do you want to put brakes on your life? Get a dumb degree in a stupid topic that doesn't allow you to get a job, then have it cost you $100,000. Not much else at your age will slow you down.

3) The Degree. Get one thats practical, and allows you to earn money, pay off your debts, and live a good life. Accounting, Finance, Business, Engineering, Computer Science. No humanities or soft sciences(sociology).. , get trained in a real skill, with real market demand. Dumb degrees + Student Loan debt make for one unhappy camper. Like music, art, history? Do that in your spare time, and make it a coveted activity to get away from work. Need a job? The tech sector is hiring like crazy in NYC, Boston, Austin, LA, SF, Seattle, etc. There is a shortage of jobs for college educated folks looking to work for good Fortune 100 companies.

4) Should I go to school or become the next Mark Zuckerberg? Zuck and Bill Gates were attending college when they built their companies. This.. is the actual model to follow. Work... all the freakin time. In class, and at night. Build at night. Class by day. Truthfully business/finance degrees are not that tough, it will give you plenty of time to build. Engineering and Computer Science degrees will almost guarantee that you will have a good life, apply those skills to your business and you are good to go. Be a nerd, partying is for broke losers. Most of the jocks and party boys that I went to school never really did much with their lives, its pretty sad to see and its true. Forget touring Europe, thats essentially a vacation.

In my opinion, people are down on college degrees because of the debt. 15 years later and I still have $20K left to go for a stupid bachelors degree, but without my degree I couldnt have had the career or lifestyle I have.

Again..
Life is hard, work.
Incur no Debt if you go.
Get a good degree.
Work in Class, Work at Night.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The Pernicious Myth that You Don't Need College to Be an Entrepreneur

Sounds like nothing but sour grapes from someone who needs to perniciously defend his ego after wasting 4 years in college and thousands of dollars only to receive a worthless piece of paper.

His argument is based upon the results (or lack of results) of the Thiel foundation. Considering the source (PBS) I would conclude that this is nothing but a state-sponsored propaganda hit piece making an weak argument in favor of an outdated and overpriced institution that will do anything to preserve it's monopoly. Frankly put, anyone with discipline no longer needs to spend $100K and 4 years on college and those that do become complicit to their own economic slavery.

In return, "the state" is guaranteed a continual influx of corporate slaves, milled and machined from the great institution we call college. The poor saps that believe the lie get shackled to a lifetime of debt that can't be bankrupted away-- meanwhile the state is ensured a lifetime of perpetual tax dollars by virtue of your economic slavery to the system by which you willing participated within. All for what? An illusion of a "safe secure" job at some corporation? It's a freaking fantasy and people are waking up to it.

Just something to think about before you take on the cost and the time of college.

 

[Kak]

Social norms are for mediocre people.

 

[dknise]

Yes and no. I'm currently studying engineering at Sydney, all I can say is everything I'm learning is completely useless for what I want to achieve. But the upside is that its providing me with a lot of networking opportunities. Currently I'm working on site projects of my own, and I don't see myself finish my degree. College/university helps you prepare for the real world, its not just about the courses.

You haven't been in the real world yet have you? :smilielol:

 

[Mike39]

Hey, my name is mike, I am 16, and I'm finding myself with very limited time as I go to high school from 7-3 Monday through Friday, on top of that, I play high school lacrosse after school every day that runs from 3:00-6:30 and sometimes have 2 hour games on weekends. To finish off my night, I have a couple of hours of homework and am currently learning how to code, all in all I usually go to bed around 12-2 just to start the process again at 6 the next day. On top of all that, I work selling coupons door to door on the weekends in an attempt to get some start up cash (I'm pretty good and can make around $200 for 3 hours of selling!). There is a question that I have long tried to avoid but it seems to be entering my mind more and more recently, the question is: Would it be beneficial to drop out of high school? I get good grades and am very smart, I could most likely get into a pretty exclusive private college. I really want to start my fast track now, not once I get out of college, I am a quick learner and am very "entrepreneurialy":huh2: oriented and I truly believe and know I could make it big without furthering my IN SCHOOL education. If anyone has gone through this or just has any advice I would love to hear from you.

Thanks, Mike​

 

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[Trevor Kuntz]

The only way college would be a waste is if you didn't plan out your degree, as you can see on a lot of news articles today about students taking out $100k+ for an art major or something like that.

 

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[Pete799p]

If I had used that 120k to help me build my business rather than block my business, who knows where I could be right now at age 22. Id sure as HELL be a lot smarter.

I feel the same way. The worst part is while building my business and going to school I found that both suffered. Not enough time in the day and those 12hr days working on the biz defentitly take away from school. Not to mention the nauseating amount of capital that was wasted on an investment that has no resale value. If I could have sold my degree for 50% of what I paid for it I would have done it along time ago.

I would finish highschool for sure especially if you are getting grades and test scores good enough to get into IVY etc. If you are really serious about being an entreprenuer and as stated before I mean serious then do not go to college you can always go to college if your biz doent work out and if you try and do both you will most likly do a medicre job at both. College can be very successful if you have a purpose while you are there. I passed up on a lot of opportunties for great corporate experience because I was busy with my biz and now wish I had taken advantage of them. Plus if you biz fails you be in college with a much greater purpose then just going to get it over with.

You must understand that building a bizness means putting its success a head of everything else in your life. Get used to telling your friends that you cannot party on a saturday night you have work to do. Get used to your girlfriend being mad at you because your always working. If you arent working on a saturday night you can bet your competition is.

I wish you the best of luck

 

[ubiquitous]

Firstly, I'll list my education so you know where I stand (possible bias alert!):


No name Community College: Took student loan money refund to fund a SAAS start up.
Harvard University: Took Econ & Enterprise Management via Extension School (paid cash).

I literally walked into Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management campus grabbed the syllabus then went on Amazon and bought the textbooks, which I read on my own.

Then later on when technology started really changing education I just bought the textbooks and followed along with Open Yale (Game Theory), Venture Lab [Stanford] (Finance).

Now my primary education is through my Harvard Business Review and Udacity (just to keep things interesting).

My total outlay for my "education": Under $10,000 in cash
My total monthly bill from Sallie Mae: $50 a month

Even though I did miss out on the binge drinking, promiscuous undergrads, and "finding myself" I'd honestly put my applicable knowledge up against 95% of the business undergrad you'd throw at me, and I'd do just fine in 90% of most MBA classes.

The most valuable thing I took away from ALL of my education was probably applying the case method.

Would I have gone 250K into debt to do that? Hahaha

Yet, I find the people who are so dismissive of a formal higher education to be short-sighted. Most "self-educated" entrepreneurs you'll meet would benefit from some graduate level courses and literally are 100% ignorant of how much they don't know. There's a lot more to life than just "knowing how to sell".
----------
I would recommend someone in high school to go to college, just major in engineering, mathematics, or computer science and do your damnedest to go to school for free or close to it. (I wanted to go to college immediately after, but due to some personal issues I had to put it on hiatus).

 

[The-J]

Can this thread please be closed and stickied so we no longer have to have this stupid debate on the forum?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

College is not a waste of time, people will always find brighter future if you have a degree..

You make a compelling argument impervious to refute. I've changed my mind. Everyone needs to go to college.





NOTE: I've deleted all of john20's posts as they were all just a bunch of nonsense, surely a prelude to forthcoming link/signature spam.

 

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[squall74]

It depends. We all wanna get to the Fastlane and be wealthy, but it's great to have a backup as well, or a plan in mind that will allow you to make more choices while you blow up.

There's no shame in getting a 9-5 if it can comfortably support you while you build your business. Living off of 50k at a 40 hour job is a heck of a lot easier then living on 35k with overtime, and gives you more time to focus on getting to the Fastlane.

You could work your job around your goals, so if you want to pursue a business maybe a sales job can help you get some experience.

The only way college would be a waste is if you didn't plan out your degree, as you can see on a lot of news articles today about students taking out $100k+ for an art major or something like that.

 

[sam22]

"You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library." - Good Will Hunting

As a college student myself, that's how I feel. I will be graduating in June from a top-40 university a year early with a high 3.9 GPA and I'll be the first to admit my grades don't reflect how little I learned in college. People with high grades might be labeled as "smart" but I'd argue good grades is largely the result of hard work, a good short term memory, test taking ability and some BS-ing skill (for the written assignments). Those are all things you can learn without dropping $60 - $120k on a "college education."

College certainly won't teach you anything about the fastlane. From my experience, college is a test/grade-focused, impractical training ground and filtering system where employers find future employees (though I'm having doubts about how well it does that too - maybe it's different/better for STEM majors). When I actually want to learn something, I buy books to read on my own. Sad, but true.

Having said all that, unless you have a fastlane business that will take off because you drop out of high school, I would suggest staying. I know that feeling of not be able to do what you really want to be doing - it sucks. But I'll still suggest staying in high school because looking back at those years, I did grow and mature as a person. Of course, dropping out of high school and starting your business will let you grow as a person too - potentially even faster.

It's your call. Hope that helps. Keep up the good work and chase your dreams!

 

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[Kak]

The only thing WORSE than the money investment IMO is the time investment. Here I am, light at the end of the tunnel. More than ever I feel I have wasted the last 4 years if my life.

You people that say you get to meet diverse people are insane. You dont think you would meet people in business? By diverse you must not mean the annoying entitled doushebags around my campus. Or are you talking about professors that have no real world expirence? Why meet people like these OWS crowd? How will that benefit you? Cant you get drunk with friends without paying for a scam?

If you cant learn to live on you own without college you deserve to be homeless.

Some of this logic is totally flawed.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

 

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[Trevor Kuntz]

Here are some quotes about college from a wide range of people that I have found useful over the past few months.

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.
- Frank Zappa

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.
Ray Bradbury

A college education shows a man how little other people know.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton

I turned down a scholarship to Yale. The problem with college is that there's a tendency to mistake preparation for productivity. You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful.
Shia LaBeouf

Not only that - college doesn't particularly qualify you for the outside world. The world is changing so fast, and college is not. It should strive to be more in tune with the world.
Kent McCord

 

[socaldude]

I would bet that you learned sooo much more with that $1000 and first failed business than Classic Civ 101.

sooo true, its two different things to be street smart than classroom smart. you are better off paying $10 for a book at borders and kick back and read. if you are truly set on entrepreneurship than you should go out there and hustle. i would be willing to bet you would be a lot smarter after spending 4 years starting ventures than spending 4 years at a prestigious university. no joke. from the bottom of my heart. lmao

The slowlane cult has the most members after the sidewalk lol. 90% of parents are die hard slowlaners. mostly because its believed to be the most secure route. i think its mostly driven by fear. parents don't wanna see their beloved kids as "bums" or "losers" in life. so to get them on the right track they push you to go to college! yeah sure maybe you wont make a ton of money starting out as an entrepreneur or have the safety of a pay check. but you only have to hit one home run and you basicly have unlimited hits as long as you don't give up.

 

[EastWind]

Wow, I'm appalled by the vast majority of replies in this thread. But I'm not surprised!

I use to believe that college is a waste of time, but I have changed my stance on that. College is exactly what you make it. If you don't take it serious, then it will be a waste of time. If you take it serious, then it will be very valuable and pay off very well. I never finished but still plan to finish, and I'm a life long learning student, and I ask you this. Why should you take anyone's advice on here? Most of these people on here talking about how college is useless, how many of them have a net worth of a million dollars? Or perhaps $10 million? Perhaps one? or two, hell, perhaps NONE!

The truth is that a lot of people like to point to exceptional cases of people who have acquired a lot of wealth without graduating from college, but for everyone one of those, there is probably 90% more that graduated from college and their story is not told because it's not sexy!

Bill gates, Facebook guy, etc. Make no mistake, they don't have college degrees, but they went to college, they were in college and had every F*cking intention of graduating until an opportunity presented itself for them to drop out. Also note, they didn't exactly drop out, they took a break with intentions of going back if things didn't work out and fortunately for them it worked out. If things didn't work out, they would have gone back, and you would never have heard their stories. Make no mistake about it, probability and statistics is on your side for higher earning if you graduate from college. PERIOD!

Now with that said, realize that college is not just about going to take classes like a sheep and mindlessly then hoping that you get a great job when you graduate. The real benefit is taking lots of classes that you will never take. There are lots of classes that you never think are applicable in life until you take em. Simple classes like critical thinking to things like psychology, sociology. Think of Steve Jobs, his going to a college calligraphy class inspired him to have apple design beautiful fonts for the computer instead of the boring monospace one style fonts computers had in the 70s'.

Under graduate classes are not so exciting, but if you push yourself hard and really pay attention to graduate level courses, you will be amazed at what you can learn and how much you can apply to life. You might feel that you are so smart, but you will be in for a shock and surprise, if you push yourself and try to match up with peers at the peak of your field. Your limitation should not be the boundaries of the class rooms, engage your professors, collaborate with students and professors in other schools. Make life long connection. It pays off. If you are soooooo motivated in life to make it, then push yourself and get done with school fast. Most degrees are designed to take 4yrs to accomplish. You can do it in 3, and 2 if you are insanely motivated. Can you?

Pay no heed to these folks on here telling you it's a waste of money, or you are most likely going to end up like most of them. Go to school, don't break the bank by going to the most expensive school. Find a great school that's affordable, take it serious, study, finish your projects, do more than is asked for. Take harder classes, take interesting classes. Take classes outside of your field. Really learn how to write, how to research. Make friends, date girls, have a great time! Party too! Enjoy life. You only get this one chance to do it. You can go back in your 30's or 40's, but it's not just the same.

Have your pet projects on the side, if one gains traction, then take a break, and run with it!

Best of luck. With all good intentions from my heart. Take it from me. It's totally worth it. If I could it all over again. I would have forgotten about money. Just focused for 3 yrs and knocked it out of the way.

 

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[GlobalWealth]

I went to and finished uni in my early-mid 30s after having built a couple of successful multi-million dollar businesses. So my perspective is going to be different than those who went at the age appropriate time.

I dropped out of uni when I was 19 to run my first business (which failed). Then I moved to my 2nd (which failed). And on to my 3rd, which did pretty well. At the time my thought was there was no need to be in business school when I was already in business for myself.

I arrogantly assumed I knew more than the professors and there was nothing to learn there. Honestly I still have an issue with instructors teaching from theory, but that doesn't mean there isn't something to learn from them.

After having completed my uni, I can honestly say there are many things I learned that would have saved me an enormous amount of time and money had I known them before starting my business.

I can also say I was there for the pure education though. I was not there to party and make connections. My entire life has been spent in search of more knowledge and admittedly formal education is only one way to acquire that knowledge.

Obviously it is not a requirement for success as I reached success before acquiring a degree from uni. But I do feel that the path would have been shorter and less troublesome had I finished uni first.

Most importantly though is to understand the need for education. That can come in many forms; undergrad uni, grad school, books, seminars, mentors, advisory boards, etc.

Education is an absolute requirement for success in business and in life. Constantly improving your mind and learning new things should be a lifelong process.

 

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[biophase]

4 years of college and I can get a guaranteed job at $30,000.

LOL, if that was a college's guarantee, nobody would be going. Who on this site wants to make only $30,000?

I will even go so far as to say that if you start at McDonald's flipping burgers, you SHOULD be able to work your way up and make MORE than $30k a year in 4 years. If you are still flipping burgers at year 4, college wasn't going to help you anyway.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

4 years of college and I can get a guaranteed job at $30,000.

Wow, why such lofty goals? Why not shoot for the moon and go for, say, $35K/year?

4 years of Fastlane process and Ill make that in a week, worse case, a couple months.

LOL

X 1000. "Playing it safe", "it's risky" blah blah blah, the battle-cries of mediocrity.

 

[Kak]

I'm a business major, and if I could do it all again I'd spend that $30k loan I got for University on spending 3 years starting a business.

Even if the business failed I would have learnt more in the experience than all the stupid sh*t I had to sit through at university.

You captured my feelings pretty dead on. Except I will have spent 120K on a private university. Yikes. College was a mistake. I will NEVER seek an MBA. Thankfully I only have about 8k in student loans, just for summer school one summer.

I even took courses in entrepreneurship and the mere fact that the only real entrepreneurs that spoke to the class were brought in for a one day lecture really bothered me. I was being taught how to be an entrepreneur by an employee, not just a regular business employee either, a worthless employee of academia.

Now I am going to graduate and I have a crap income from my company and it is all because of the obligation I had to school. 90% of my business success was acquired in the summer with no school.

I seriously will NEVER in my life get comfortable in a business job. I honestly will waiter or tend bar at night to make ends meet if I have to.

SPEED TO YOU MY FRIEND! Screw college and the stupid crap they teach you. I have learned EVERYTHING i have needed to know for my business outside of the classroom.

 

[theDarkness]

I think many people seem to miss the point of college. It's not to help you get a job. It's not to make you smart. It's not to help you fit into society.

It's to get you to think critically about culture. It's to get you to become an informed consumer of culture.

On this forum, which is biased toward making money, the standard answer is "college is a waste of time; it won't help you make money." In this respect, yes, college is a waste of money.

1. Find your goal in life
2. Plan out your path to achieve that goal

If college is on that path, it's not a waste of time.

There are no rules in life.

I agree. I think though it's hard to think about college this way when you really can't afford it. I think of it like the "can you afford it" section of MJ's book. If paying for college means you're going to constantly worrying about that 100K debt hanging over your head, then you can't afford it and the default setting should be that you SHOULD NOT go to college, because just like the slowlaner who finances a bunch of fancy crap but never gets to really enjoy it because he's swamped at the office, your college experience is going to be tainted by that debt. If you have really compelling reason to go anyway (like one of the technical tracks where degrees are a must), then great. But it shouldn't be the default setting.

I won a scholarship that covered all expenses and I was able to study English and was basically able to turn it into four free years of apprenticeship. You can get in a lot of work in four years! It was great, and I had several great mentors there that helped me radically improve and refine my work habits and process, and a lot of those skills I find myself using every single day. I wouldn't have the courage to do crap if it weren't for what I learned from my main advisor.



But many of my friends had way different experiences, and mainly because those monstrous debt numbers meant they couldn't go through any class without constantly thinking "how does this help me land a job, how does this help me land a job." My advisor would be there in class dropkicking them in the face with all these solid-gold "Fastlane"-like truths, and it just bounced off them like rubber. Some would mention not caring about anything but a job and he'd be like, really? I'm sitting here trying to get you to take control of your goddam life and get 100x more value and enjoyment than you ever will doing what you're doing right now, and you're worried about some crappy job three years from now? I think you've gotta be able to unclench to get real value out of college. And you've got to put in the work. I see a lot of people I knew being like "lol 4 years of college and didn't learn a damned thing worth learning," and that only makes me think they didn't really know why they were there, or they didn't want to put in the work to make their college stay work for them. The uni can't strap you to chair and make you seek out high-value activities. If its a decent college then you'll be surrounded with all kinds of brilliant people, and if you can't find one person there that worth learning from, then you probably didn't look very hard. It's a resource-rich environment; you can find something worth your time and energy.


imo to enjoy college - a) be able to afford it or have a good reason for going anyway b) know what you want from it c) put in the work to extract that value from it d) seek out a mentor who will demand your A-game e) don't think anything you do in college entitles you to anything outside of it f) make sure you're mature enough and mentally fit enough to handle it.

I met all those except the last one - had several undiagnosed mental disorders going in, and my stay was interrupted by a somewhat lengthy hospitalization. And as much as I got out of college, I think I would have gotten that much more out of it had I taken care of those issues beforehand. Much of the time I was working at maybe 1/3rd of capacity just because so much time was devoted to dealing with my own crap.

If I ever have kids that want to go I'll definitely encourage it, but will exhort them to fully consider all the options first. Going in with no plan and no idea of how ready you are rapidly turns it into a sidewalk thing - it might work for you, but the odds are against you, and it'd only work because you lucked into the right situations.

 

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[PatrickP]

Kick a$$ on a standardized test and get a scholarship?

Go to a lesser school and get a scholarship?

There's no reason you have to do 100k in debt. You've got the rest of your life to work on businesses. Going to school isn't going to "set you back". You'll get an enjoyable experience. In the end life isn't about the amount of money, its about your experiences. Don't forsake one because you're in a hurry.

Not to mention, if you find out you're NOT an entrepreneur(which many people aren't) it gives you a nice fallback!

Side note: You may find out you're interested in academia / intellectual pursuits. If you want to write papers on physics, you do need a PHD in it.


College may not be for everyone, but I wouldn't give up my years for anything.

I wouldn't give up my time at college for anything either. Heck, the 10 years after I left I kept wanting to go back. The partying, girls etc was MORE than worth the cost of admission. Thinking back on it I STILL wish I could go back and do it all again, it was fantastic!

 

[sandeep]

If you are going to College for the typical American Dream, you will be in a big surprise after the graduation. Many kids are not finding the jobs they desire in their own fields. You will have to fake your way into getting a job.

America is on the decline stage.... Thanks to OBAMA ADMINISTRATION!!!!!

 

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[million$$$smile]

"You don't know what you don't know, until you know what you don't know"

 

[Skys]

For most it is a waste of time because college comes forth out of social conditioning. You are 18 years old, reasonable smart and the normal thing to do is to go to college. You have no idea what you want out of life, you have no real idea what your talents are and you pick an education based on what your parents think you are good at or what your friends are going to do. It's rare for an 18 year old to really know what he wants.

If I could do it over, I would work at the age of 18. I would travel around the world for some years. Get experience, experience that translates into knowing my strength and weaknesses and my likes and dislikes. After I traveld and gained that experience, I might go to college / university or I might not. Not before I know what I want, not before I made sure I need an degree for what I want to do.

If you want to go to college for the experience, I would take something very general, like economics. Getting your MBA. Law. Computer science. That way you have a degree that might actually be worth something to you in the future. Not saying you are sure to have job security. That does not excist anymore.
Getting your MBA at a top tier university is going to help a lot if in 4 year you want to get into management consultancy at McKinsy. Computer science helps because technology will be here for some time. When you are good, you are never without a job (that is with everything by the way).
Don't pick a study that's vague, or because you think it sounds cool / is cool.

When you do go to college, make sure you make friends with smart people (let the losers blow weed and have sex with lots of woman. You will become their employer some day). Make sure you surround yourself with people that want to achieve stuff. Getting very good grades at a well-known university and developing a strong network would never hurt. In free time, have fun.. but develop some skills. Skills that you can show, not skills like 'yeah uh..Im really good with people'. The recruiter will ask you: Ah nice. What else can you do? "Uhmm. Im very friendly?"

See yourself as a start up (great book: The startup of you) and make sure your assets keeps growing.

just my two cents

 

[Kak]

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