Is going to college a waste of time?

[The-J]

People who say college is useless are annoying.

College is the #1 way to guarentee you will get a decent salary, for the rest of your life.

Somebody said that it's crazy that we feel okay asking our parents for $50,000 to go to college but why do we find it offensive to ask for $1000 for a business start up.

Creating a successful business is hard. It's not magic like people seem to think. 4 years of college and I can get a guaranteed job at $30,000. 2 more years and I can guarantee myself $40,000 for the rest of my life. Go all the way through grad school and it's $60,000, and that's just out of college.

Compare that to a business where it will take the average person 8 years to teach themselves and get a handle of the industry and they will have no connections. And the money isn't promised. Yes, you could make millions..... or you will end up like 70% of the others who make nothing and now have no hope because they are married with children and don't have the time to go to college like they should have.

If you have the money, there is no reason not to go to college for at least 3 years to get any sort of degree as back up just in case you fail at business, which most people will.

Tell that to people who got an art degree and are now living with their parents how 'guaranteed' a job is.

For a first post on the Fastlane forum, that sure sounds like Slowlaner advice to me. The truth is, no, you are NOT guaranteed a job out of college. And, if you get that job, you're not guaranteed to keep it. Unless you're talking about getting a job in education, which really isn't all that glamorous.

And who said that because you fail once, you have to give up? Everyone fails in business at least once. Steve Jobs got kicked out of his own company. I'm 18 and I've already experienced business failure. Did that stop me? Nope. Will it stop me? Nope.

I'm sorry, but you're just flat wrong. I'm going to finish off my degree for the social benefits and the experience, NOT for the job security. And I'm in business school.

 

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[Lights]

I just graduated from high school last year and I will not be going to college, now, or probably ever. Right now I work some shit job in the mall to help pay for everything I need to do while my brothers and I build our business, but I will be going full time on my business in the next month or so. The only way I would go to college would be as a part time student taking classes at a CC that will have a direct impact on what I need to do. I think everyone here can agree that the main reason for college is to further you knowledge to become self sufficient. Just take the classes that you know will help you, screw the degree.

just having the book goes a lot farther than the courses too

 

[JASpinnato]

This was just posted on the Rich Dad blog.

5 Things to Do Instead of College

 

[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.

 

[hedgehog757]

I think we all went to college because our parents told us to and that having a degree would help us get a better paying job. But no one back then told us about the fastlane although I am sure some figured it out.

 

[Kak]

I think we all went to college because our parents told us to and that having a degree would help us get a better paying job. But no one back then told us about the fastlane although I am sure some figured it out.

Amen. I know you are supposed to ignore sunk cost... But it is hard not to just finish when i have so much "invested".

Class work and school related obligations have gotten so bad this final semester that i have put my business on hold until graduation. I put classes on just tuesday and thursday. That ended up screwing me over. Sometimes to make a sale i need to talk to customers on those days too. Well im not about to tell the owner of a multimillion dollar company that the porfessional energy consultant they have been dealing with is a "inexpirenced" young college student.

College in my case has probably kept me from a pretty conservative 6 figure income in just the last 2 years. On ine hand im exited to dump 80 hours a week in this bitch, on the other hand im pissed that i couldnt do it a long time ago.

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[april6e]

I'm talking about a "real" major. I'm going to assume everyone knows a degree in art or education based field isn't going to guarantee you any sort of high salary or job security.

People always quote all these people who made it like Steve Jobs and forget the other 50 people who didn't make it who worked just as hard as he did. Note that many of the people in this topic who state college is a waste of time didn't finish college.

It's weird that you are arguing that college is a waste of time as a business major. That's like a millionaire arguing that being rich is overrated. This fastlane/slowlane mentality on this site is bothersome. There are only safe and risky bets. You can take the "safe" bet with a decent college major and be practically ensured a decent salary for life if you are halfway intelligent or go fastlane and deal with the emotions of teetering on the edge between becoming the successful minority or the regretful majority.

Me, I prefer a safety cushion before I make huge bets.

Tell that to people who got an art degree and are now living with their parents how 'guaranteed' a job is.

For a first post on the Fastlane forum, that sure sounds like Slowlaner advice to me. The truth is, no, you are NOT guaranteed a job out of college. And, if you get that job, you're not guaranteed to keep it. Unless you're talking about getting a job in education, which really isn't all that glamorous.

And who said that because you fail once, you have to give up? Everyone fails in business at least once. Steve Jobs got kicked out of his own company. I'm 18 and I've already experienced business failure. Did that stop me? Nope. Will it stop me? Nope.

I'm sorry, but you're just flat wrong. I'm going to finish off my degree for the social benefits and the experience, NOT for the job security. And I'm in business school.

 

[biophase]

I'm talking about a "real" major. I'm going to assume everyone knows a degree in art or education based field isn't going to guarantee you any sort of high salary or job security.

You can ask college graduates in engineering, finance, business and MBA's if they are able to find jobs these days. Go take a look on craiglist at the resumes and you will see a bunch of college grads looking for any type of job.

Even during good times, a "good" degree doesn't guarantee you anything. That's why you hear alot of people going back to get their masters or MBA right after they graduate. It's because they could not find a job.

I don't believe a business major is a necessity to run a business. I've never taken a business class in my life. Last summer, I was with a bunch of students taking business classes. I sat with some while they did their homework, read through their books and syllabuses.

While there can be value in macroeconomics, microeconomics, international business and history of business classes, I feel that the value is very small. The colleges are always going to be behind the real world in what is going on today. Textbooks get old fast. I will bet that you won't learn about social media marketing in the classes these days. I sat in on an Ecommerce class last semester. What a joke. Unfortunately, the world moves so fast now that college courses in the tech field is always catching up.

 

[GlobalWealth]

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

$30k/week? Sure.

 

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[Kak]

I'm talking about a "real" major. I'm going to assume everyone knows a degree in art or education based field isn't going to guarantee you any sort of high salary or job security.

People always quote all these people who made it like Steve Jobs and forget the other 50 people who didn't make it who worked just as hard as he did. Note that many of the people in this topic who state college is a waste of time didn't finish college.

It's weird that you are arguing that college is a waste of time as a business major. That's like a millionaire arguing that being rich is overrated. This fastlane/slowlane mentality on this site is bothersome. There are only safe and risky bets. You can take the "safe" bet with a decent college major and be practically ensured a decent salary for life if you are halfway intelligent or go fastlane and deal with the emotions of teetering on the edge between becoming the successful minority or the regretful majority.

Me, I prefer a safety cushion before I make huge bets.

Well you just basically admitted that you are probably not going to make your business work better than a job.

Its not that hard, just work hard.

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[Lights]

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.

True. There are so many people who work at my place who have been there for many years, and not wanting to be a manager. It's like, "why?". They say it's too much work. Well if you are going to make this your living, then why not a little bit more money?

People are happy with safe, boring jobs... something they can handle. These people have been ask to become manager as well. Maybe they have a secret fastlane business?

 

[Mike39]

I just had a small epiphany, will make a thread later but this may be the one! I will need help on this idea though, check back soon!

 

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[Rickson9]

Daymond John, the founder of FUBU and regular on Shark Tank was running his Fastlane business while serving customers at Red Lobster. You just never know...

 

[Kak]

Daymond John, the founder of FUBU and regular on Shark Tank was running his Fastlane business while serving customers at Red Lobster. You just never know...

Yes sir, and if my business has issues, rather than work at a job that college got me Id be working at red lobster too. I never want to get comfortabke in a job.

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[Mike39]

Yes sir, and if my business has issues, rather than work at a job that college got me Id be working at red lobster too. I never want to get comfortabke in a job.

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But what everyone has been saying is that most likely, even with a college education you would STILL be working at red lobster!

 

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[lightningbob]

This is the college "facts" as i know them.The lowest payed workers have a high school degree. A two year degree will get you ten to twenty thousand more on average and a four year degree will get you twenty to fourty thousand more. NO JOB WILL GIVE YOU FININACIAL FREEDOM! Or really the odds of that happening are extreamly slim (less than 1%). Going to bet four years of your life and twenty to a hundered thousand dollars on that? Most business fail but if look at the odds you'll find that most millionares are self employed with some college education. Notice I said "education" not degree. I have worked with alot of uneducated, unmotivated, uncreative, degree holding losers I would never hire to work for me. Yet they made the decisions that I had to follow.
In short. Should you get a college degree? I can't answer that question because I'm not where you want to be. Find the person who is and ask them ignore all the rest.

 

[Kak]

But what everyone has been saying is that most likely, even with a college education you would STILL be working at red lobster!

I was offered my high paying job because of my business expirence and my enthusiasim, not because of my degree as i could have started without graduation.

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[Giles]

It's weird that you are arguing that college is a waste of time as a business major.

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.

 

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[tdt85]

DON'T DROP OUT! Entrepreneurship is fun but it's risky. Only a small percentage (very small) of population will ever make it. So you have to play it smart.

Finish high school and then go to a community college. While there, you can work on your ventures during free time while at the same time getting at least some education (which you can use for your resume in case your venture doesn't work out). Then if you do decide to go to a university, DON'T go to a for-profit or private school and instead go to a public one (because it's cheaper). Again, while there, work on your ventures during free time. Drop out only when you are sure your venture is working.

I think this is a smarter way to go about it. You have no idea how often it seems like your entrepreneurial idea will work and it doesn't. You should always have an exit strategy in case your business idea doesn't work out.

 

[PatrickP]

I could be happy on 30K a year.

 

[PatrickP]

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.

Might be a little tough. 30k for the 3 years. How much for living and how much to start the business?

 

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[Giles]

Might be a little tough. 30k for the 3 years. How much for living and how much to start the business?

I spent $30k on the degree alone. So what im saying is I would have rather spent all that $30k on starting a business rather then studying business at University.

 

[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.

 

[DeletedUser394]

This thread is a waste of time.

 

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[Kak]

This thread is a waste of time.

Not for someone who could potentially change their plan and save thousands of dollars and avoid sending 4-5 years of their life down the tube with nothing to show for it but a degree that will make them comfortable working for someone that didnt need a college degree because they own their own company.

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[Kak]

Not for someone who could potentially change their plan and save thousands of dollars and avoid sending 4-5 years of their life down the tube with nothing to show for it but a degree that will make them comfortable working for someone that didnt need a college degree because they own their own company.

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Catchin my breath.....


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[Mike39]

This thread is a waste of time.

I don't know whether to be offended or if you have a point to make and you just haven't explained it yet? As of now, offended :huh2:

 

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[Mike39]

So why has nobody taken people who have REAL experience in their fields, mainly successful entrepreneurs, and compiled them into a payment based (maybe free) website that would allow people to get REAL advice from REAL people in a concentrated source that doesn't cost 30k a year??? ANYONE? :cheers:

 

[Kak]

So why has nobody taken people who have REAL experience in their fields, mainly successful entrepreneurs, and compiled them into a payment based (maybe free) website that would allow people to get REAL advice from REAL people in a concentrated source that doesn't cost 30k a year??? ANYONE? :cheers:

What, you mean like this place? Im 3 weeks away from a BBA in entrepreneurship. Ask me what you will, chances are its easier just to look it up.

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