Is going to college a waste of time?

[The-J]

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.

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The problem with your thinking is that you assume that everyone is capable of making the jump from child to self-sustaining adult instantly as soon as they turn 18. Maybe you were, and sometimes I think I am too (it's a jump I'll be making in a few months, by then I will be 19) but the fact is, it's not easy and college provides a cushion; a balance between self-sustainability (living on one's own, learning how to manage one's own money and time) and protection (being surrounded by people in your own situation, parents/government/school paying for your way maybe). It's a cushion that doesn't exist in the 'real world'.

And, yes, most of the people you meet in college will get nowhere (even if you go to a prestigious school). Some, however, will go extremely far. It's not hard to tell who these people are; just look at their mindset and their interactions with you as well as with other people.

Notice how I didn't mention education once in this response post. It was intentional.

 

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[458]

I think it depends on your situation. If you don't have to go into debt, college if anything, gives you four years to just think about life and direction. This may seem silly to someone that didn't go to college but if you did then you would understand. Worth it? Who cares... Life isn't all about worth its.

 

[458]

"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!

3.9 in what? I graduated from a top 20 school for accounting and it was worth every penny.

 

[hedgehog757]

You get out of it what you put into it. College may not be for everyone but I was lucky.I got to study abroad and here at home. You can learn A LOT by doing that. Meet people in other states and countries and make connections that way and find out how other parts of the world and the country live.

 

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[Pinnacle]

College gave me the skills to get the job that financed my fastlane business. This does not necessarily mean I would not have acquired these skills on my own, but it depends on how well you can make the jump (whether rapid or gradual) from child to self-sustaining adult that The-J touched on. If I could do it again, and chose college, I would've majored in something related to business-building, sales, and/or automation. I would've paid the amount of my total college tuition for access to Millionaire Fastlane, or 4-Hour Work Week, or Rich Dad knowledge at that time. I went to both public and private colleges. Hated public college (felt like a second job), loved private college (felt like family time).

Stay in high school. I agree with the advise given so far on your choice of college. Basically, just do what is right for you.

 

[Kak]

If my life isnt totally sustained by my business by may, I am going to be force to get a job. I will never apply to a life draining, dream killing job that a college degree "gets you" It will be simillar to waiting tables on the weekends to pay the bills.

Had I been given just 5k from my parents to jump start my life instead of 120k for college I would have had the exact same effect.


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[InMotion]

Not a waste of time if you actually learn something, most don't. It is over priced to the point that its value has greatly diminished.

 

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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

 

[aBeats]

Depends on what you want to do in life. It's important to really think about what interests you. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, politician, or a similar type of occupation, then it isn't a waste of time. Real world experience at a young age is great, if you are disciplined enough to get it and educate yourself.

I never went to college.

Instead, I went straight into face to face sales and got the greatest education that I could have gotten to prepare me to be an entrepreneur.
I learned, in the real world how to:

- Sell
- Market
- Manage Time
- Face Rejection
- Overcome fear
- Take Action
- Develop & Maintain Relationships
- Manage & Retain Customers
- Resilience
- Discipline
- Goal Setting
- Planning
- Prospecting
- Public Speaking
- Presenting
- Business management
- Structure & Corporate "culture"

...and a ton of other things that I'm probably forgetting right now. I then went into business for myself and learned a ton more. But I was sure that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Maybe the book, "The Education of Millionaires" can help you out as you work towards making your decision. Hope this helps

 

[sam22]

3.9 in what? I graduated from a top 20 school for accounting and it was worth every penny.

Communications and managerial economics (minor). I go to a research university, which means teachers, especially those in the communications department, place a lot of focus on researching findings and theories. Wish someone told me that before I picked a college.

Maybe the book, "The Education of Millionaires" can help you out as you work towards making your decision. Hope this helps

That's a good book!

 

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[Kak]

If you want a job and like the slowlane trading 5 for 2 then college sets you up perfectly for 40 years of mediocrity followed by a mediocre retirement.

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[Kak]

I heard that some people met Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates in college.

That is absolutely true, however the vast majority of people who have met these great entrepreneurs have gone foreward to their lives in the slowlane.

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[Ivan]

That is absolutely true, however the vast majority of people who have met these great entrepreneurs have gone foreward to their lives in the slowlane.

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I think that's what he was getting at. I personally have mixed feelings about college. I think we've got an education "bubble" of sorts happening right now. The cost is increasing but the value is decreasing (more people have degrees now- it works kinda like inflation).

On the other hand, college is right for some people. I think you should go to college if:
- you can pay for it. Junior colleges and state universities are still pretty cheap.
- your degree is a technical one (it's tough to learn engineering or medicine at the library. Would I go to a university for a business degree? Never)
- you are reasonably "book smart" and have the discipline to finish the degree.

It's nice to have a degree/skillset because if your fastlane plan fails, you can fall back temporarily to a $50k/year job instead of a $10/hour job.

One other thing to realize: a lot of college professors don't have a lot of real world experience. I saw this with my engineering professors. One spent 6 months as an engineer in the industry, while another had worked there his whole life and was teaching on the side. The difference was phenomenal. Pick professors who have experience in the real world. They can give you a ton of tips and methods you won't find in the textbooks.

 

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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.

 

[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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[Kak]

East wind. Do you have Millions? I didn't think so. Your point is moot.

College teaches you to be a good employee. It does not match up with the entrepreneurial mentality no matter how bad you and others want it to.

You don't need to go to college to learn all you need to now about business, that is a fact. There are much cheaper and less time consuming methods.

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[Brander]

College was worth it for the memories for me. I will never (probably) have so much fun in life again. It was awesome.

Saying that the amount of money I paid to get those experiences was too high. For that kind of money I could have lived a rock star life for a few years and experience so much more.

What I learned I learned by doing, not attending classes.

Would I attend college again if I had to do it all over again? Absolutely, but I would do it cheaper and smarter.

 

[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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[Pete799p]

Eastwind:

I did not learn anything in College that I could not have learned with a 3 dollar library card. In fact I was educating myself on the side while in College because I was not getting the answers I was looking for. Most was too basic and not really applicable knowledge. However, I did meet a few great people and I had a lot of fun.

For anybody contemplating college my recomendation is to know exactly what you want to do with it. The people that go to college to figure out what they want to do often get random degrees and rarely get the targeted internships or connections that they need to really stand out. Also when you are not sure why you are doing something it become difficult to do it well. I say figure out what you want to do then figure out how to do it.

 

[adiakritos]

He's not saying it'll make you a better business person. He's saying college is a great experience that money can't buy. he's also saying you can find inspiration in different areas in life by going to college. He's right. I never knew I'd love chemistry. I didn't know I'd love economics or biology so much. Once I'm free to do whatever I want I'll go back and learn more chemistry because I love it that much. I might even end up pulling deals together in an industry I never would have otherwise because of the knowledge and inspiration I got from going to school.

Elon Musk. Motivated and inspired by everything he's learned in college. Dude built a company that sends rocket ships into space and licences them out to NASA.

He owns Tesla, selling exotic sports cars powered completely by electricity. Because of his love for science, technology, and a motivation to make the world fossil fuel free, he's created a company aimed at making electric powered cars look more attractive to the average consumer by first targeting the wealthy. Everyone wants to be like the wealthy. If he can make it cool then there are greater chances there will be more demand for electric cars.

He's making a HUGE difference in the advancement of humanity because of the inspiration he gained in college.

The point is that your inspirations from college, mixed with some entrepreneurial characteristics, can send you on projects you may have never otherwise taken on and make a greater difference in the world and be happier doing it. And missing out on college is like missing out on anything that defines a happy childhood.

 

[biophase]

The title of this post is "Is college a waste of TIME?". Let's differentiate that from "Is college a waste of MONEY?"

This 20/20 hindsight is easy for us who are older because based on who we are, we NOW know which classes helped us. So it's alot easier for us to say you should do this or that. When you are 18, you have no idea what classes will inspire you or push you in certain directions. What if Steve Jobs didn't take the calligraphy class and only took all computer courses? I think you should take whatever courses you want to take.

When you are 18-21, you have all the time in the world. I say spend it in college. Take a few classes, hangout, go to parties, go to football games. Spending time in college is living the good social life.

What I don't like about college is the type of classes they require you to take to get a degree. I almost didn't get my bachelors degree in engineering the night before graduation because I failed my Classic Civilization 101 final. That class had no bearing on my job that I had lined up. But I would have been f*cked if I didn't get my degree because of it. Luckily I got a C.

I also don't like the cost of the classes and the thought that if you graduate from Harvard that you will be better than graduating from a lesser college. Just because you pay more for education doesn't mean you will be smarter than someone who pays $80/credit hour. It's all about the person.

I still take classes at the local community college. At the start of the class, the teacher always asks you to introduce yourself and tell everyone why you are here. The majority of students always answer, "It's because this class is required in my major".

Scene from Good Will Hunting -

C: "Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social..."

W: "Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth"? You got that from Vickers' "Work in Essex County," page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or do you, is that your thing, you come into a bar, read some obscure passage and then pretend - you pawn it off as your own, as your own idea just to impress some girls, embarrass my friend?" "See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a F*ckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!"

C: "Yeah, but I will have a degree. And you'll be servin' my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip."

Funny, how people in college talk about just having a degree and how they will automatically get a good job because of it. People who work hard and are smart will be getting the good jobs in the future regardless of their degree.

 

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[Rickson9]

I failed 2nd year engineering lol

 

[Milan]

College is definitely not a waste of time, it could be a waste of money depending on which school you go to and whether or not you have any type of scholarship.

Going to college allows you to be experience a lot of things you might not have the opportunity to do without being a student.

It really all depends on how you want to look at it. Will it help you find a job later? Maybe. Will you regret going? Most likely not.

 

[kimberland]

Okay, I'll try to post again, dang it.
I apologize if this posts twice.

What is your plan?
'Cause without a plan, you're simply wandering in the wilderness, hoping not to be eaten by bears.

How does attending college or earning a college degree (two VERY different things) fit with your plan?

One of my buddies is a brilliant programmer.
However, he came from a small town and had no connections.
So he attended university for a couple years, made some connections (at Microsoft) and dropped out.
Considering he's worth many millions today, that was a great return on both his time and money.

I went to university for my own reasons
and since I was a scholarship kid (there are plenty of scholarships floating around so this discussion should be around time and opportunity cost, not about the price of tuition), it cost me only time.
Also coming from a small town,
I needed the exposure to different people.

 

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[Kak]

College is definitely not a waste of time, it could be a waste of money depending on which school you go to and whether or not you have any type of scholarship.

Going to college allows you to be experience a lot of things you might not have the opportunity to do without being a student.

It really all depends on how you want to look at it. Will it help you find a job later? Maybe. Will you regret going? Most likely not.

You do expirience things in college, true. However think of the opportunity cost of going to college vs diving into business ASAP. I think you would be crazy to think your time and money was better spent on college.

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[sammich]

from my perspective (graduated from college by the way) there are sooo many variables that one would need to factor in to determine whether or not they can justify going to college. It depends a lot on the person's situation, intents and purposes, capabilities, mindset, type of college & location, etc. You really have to look at the opportunity cost and determine which would result in a more promising ROI.
It ultimately comes down to the person and what their core values are.

 

[april6e]

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.

 

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[Lights]

It's useless suckage of time. I wasted 8 months (in retrospect) in college, and now I am done with it. I was debating to earn a certificate to get some financial aid money, but no! It's going to waste another 8 months of my life. I can't deal with it wasting anymore of my precious time. I made this decision right now too. I was thinking... omg it's April.

Do it if you want job security, but that's about it. And that's a heavy if.

Look at that clock, it's ticking. I need to get to the millions as soon as I possibly can.

(by the way my college was free by the state, so it didn't cost me anything)

I now have time to read books, excercise, work, and do all my major plans now that I can be stressfree.

 

[bkypes]

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.