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The Benefits of College (other than making you more likely to get a job)

Aim_Goal

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I got out of poverty already. Not rich but not poor. That is just what I thought college was when I first started.
You are correct, I should have a better attitude. I'm sorry you had to deal with my negativity. Plus the OP asked for benefits and I fire back with being negative. I apologize to the OP as well. I re-read what I said and did not realize how negative and un-helpful I was being. That's not right. Thank you for correcting me and I will be more aware of my words in the future.
We all have topics that we would flip on without knowing because of struggle related to a topic, so I feel you. But I'm rather amazed of how sincere the apology you made was even when you were not really offending anyone + this is the Internet where nobody would care, just shows the amount of development you've had as a person as well as character at such an age. Pherhaps you could give me some advice since we're a bit close in age and you might relate more; I have a have this issue of laziness, and need to develop self-decipline, I must develope myself to where I could make use of most of my time in a day but I end up wasting most of it due to distractions and laziness. I might have circumstances that could or could have affected me mentaly but I'm sure people have went through worst and came through, yet I still feel held back by whatever it is on my mind to worry about to the point where it makes me lazy.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
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Richard Greene

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We all have topics that we would flip on without knowing because of struggle related to a topic, so I feel you. But I'm rather amazed of how sincere the apology you made was even when you were not really offending anyone + this is the Internet where nobody would care, just shows the amount of development you've had as a person as well as character at such an age. Pherhaps you could give me some advice since we're a bit close in age and you might relate more; I have a have this issue of laziness, and need to develop self-decipline, I must develope myself to where I could make use of most of my time in a day but I end up wasting most of it due to distractions and laziness. I might have circumstances that could or could have affected me mentaly but I'm sure people have went through worst and came through, yet I still feel held back by whatever it is on my mind to worry about to the point where it makes me lazy.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I don't want to hurt anyone. It may be just the internet but I care about people I have never even met. I hate to see other people hurt and if I cause suffering whether accidental or intentional I have to own up to it and try to make it right. I'm not anything special but if you think you would value my advice I won't turn you away. Feel free to PM me.
 

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If we are talking purely benefits... irregardless of overall value...

-There is a bit of a polish sometimes to many people that have completed college. Not that it can’t be developed outside of college.

-You will be taken seriously by people who give a shit about college... and I know you might say you shouldn’t care what other people think. Right or not, sometimes this matters in leading.

-Alumni associations and potential preferred networking.

-Obviously some learning will be done. I’d say economics, business law, public speaking were things that I learned in college. Not that these can’t be learned outside of college.

I’m really grasping at straws. College is a very expensive way to learn way less than experiences. It isn’t a very good value, but it is an option for some. I define education very literally, possessing knowledge and wisdom.
 
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• nikita •

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The experience? I wouldn’t pay thousands a year for an experience though.

Delaying independence another 4 years? Making your parents not hate you?

Lol okay in all seriousness, the only benefit would be if you needed a degree to work in a field that NEEDS one and if that career is 100% your passion and life mission.
 
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Kak

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- I learned how to write. Probably the most important overarching skill I learned in college was writing. Sure, I could have learned this in high school (I didn't) or after college, though I probably wouldn't have. Due to my second major in Philosophy, I was forced to write...and to write well. This led to a lifelong enjoyment of writing, which has contributed immensely to my career and financial success;

This is a good one! Though college didn’t explicitly teach much in the writing department, it did hold me accountable for my writing skills for four years.
 

LuckyPup

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I definitely understand that feeling of you do all the heavy lifting and the other person does not care. I've been through that. Heck I went through with that last year from May till January and he owns majority shares lol.

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But the point is you learn from your failures, and even accomplishments, now while you're in this nice bubble called school, even if you have to take a loan. You pointed out all those problems while you are still in college. Imagine identifying these problems when you're out of college and need to support yourself.

I'm pretty sure you have a lot of positive takeaways and rude awakenings from the 2 online businesses. Trust me, they pay off in the long run. I went through almost 1 year of startup hell while in college and later in grad school and ended up leaving because literally everything sucked. The takeaways, I ended up standing up for myself, programming efficiently, debugging code efficiently and gaining people skill to name a few.

Bottom line is the benefits are still the extra time you have in college as opposed to being in the workforce and the "I'm in college card". Use the extra time to better yourself, you'll be surprised how much you will grow in such a small amount of time.
Hahaha, that decribes my MBA group to a T.
 

Real Deal Denver

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Well, THIS thread certainly blew me away. What GREAT insight here!

I know that building a web site is no big deal for some of you young pups, but it's been a big stretch for an old dog like me.

NEVER apologize, and NEVER let them see you sweat. You have FOUR degrees Wenda. You, of all people, KNOW you can find the answers to any questions you may have. I greatly respect people with a lot of experience - so please, don't sell yourself short in any way!

If I had a time machine for college, I would have used all the extra time to learn about starting a business, getting real life experience, perhaps through joining a club that interacted a lot with the real world.

Other than that I've got nothing. You can learn more by yourself. You can literally google anything. And if you're super serious you can actually buy the actual college textbooks that the classes are run from. Pay a hundred bucks or less for an older edition text book and you will learn too much. And no need to go into a ton of debt and waste years of life.

THANK YOU for this! My mantra through life, and it has served me well!

That said, I've read a lot of books in my private time unrelated to the curriculum which have all provided the same benefits I listed above, and I've learned far more from my own reading that the Psych curriculum.

Again - you learn, or if you are really smart, you learn HOW to learn.

but many people seem to connect college and education as if they were the same thing.

I'm going to be using THIS quite a bit. What a load of wisdom in so few words!

I distinguish education from learning. Education is what you get in school, credentials etc. Learning is the knowledge and skills you gain and add to your personal value, which may be as a result of formal education or otherwise (private self directed learning). The latter is far more important in my opinion, since the more you specialize in education, the more you learn about less.

Could not have said it better. Kudos for stating the truth so well.

Apart from that you're paying for the piece of paper to prove your obedience

Been there - done that. I can't believe I competed in that arena - butt kissing to get myself one notch above someone else. Now, I have real knowledge. Needless to say, I've far surpassed being in that waste of time environment.

You only have a certain amount of time in your one life. College doesn't increase life expectancy, it just delays you from entering the workforce. Which I would argue takes time away from you.

Ka bam! This is nuclear!

Personally if you have a business that is producing atleast 3.5k/month consistently. I would just dropout.

What makes you and Michael Dell, and Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg think you're so smart? These "under-achievers" never even finished college.

Not to mention the sluff-offs that didn't even finish High School, such as; Dave Thomas and George Eastman and Jimmy Dean and John D Rockefeller Sr. and Kirk Kerkorian (billionaire investor, owner of Mandalay Bay and Mirage Resorts, and MGM movie studio) and one of my favorites - Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey's Chocolate; 4th grade education. Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, and Richard Branson, billionaire founder of Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, and more; dropped out of high school at 16. We all know Simon Cowell, TV producer, music judge, American Idol, The X Factor, and Britain’s Got Talent. Yep - another High school dropout. Wolfgang Puck - chef, owner of 16 restaurants and 80 bistros; quit school at the age of 14. And, the man that made the happiest place on Earth - beloved Walt Disney; founder of the Walt Disney Company. Dropped out of high school at 16.

I guess education can be highly overrated. Or maybe all these slobs just got lucky? Uh, no. These slobs are my HEROES! I can't imagine what the world would be like if these titans of business had finished a degree and taken a mundane job in some corporate setting - to only drift through life. Instead - look at the legacies they have created. Un. Flippin. Believable!

In the working scenario lets say you work a $10 per hour job full time. You have earned $80,000 over 4 years and gained real world experience.

Imagine what it would have been like to work with Steve Jobs (et al.) for four years. Or for even four months? What kind of person would you be today? I can only imagine.
 
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D

Deleted52409

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I'm a minimalist. The day will eventually come that I will move out on my own. I'll eat ramen noodles and sleep on a futon in a dirty studio apartment without air conditioning if necessary. I've done the math and If I only made $30k a year working a blue collar job/sales job while pursuing the fastlane, I would be doing fine on my own living in the Midwest.

Quite frankly I would rather be on the sidewalk after failing 10 times than to be on the slowlane. For other guys maybe that's not optimal but for me a computer science $50k starting salary is way too comfortable for my tastes. I need to put it all out on the line if I want to make it.

It's different for everyone but for me personally a decent safety net would be a dream killer and that's a big reason why I'm not going.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Keep in mind that Gates and Zuckerberg were smart enough -- and worked hard enough -- to get into Harvard (and start successful businesses there).

Dell was smart enough to take a high school equivalency exam at age eight.

Woz was designing computers in high-school, before personal computers even existed.

Ellison left Illinois Urbana-Champaign (a highly regarded engineering school) because his mother died.

And Steve Jobs continued taking college courses after dropping out.

For the .01% of people with the level of intellect and self-motivation that these guys had, it's probably safe to say that college isn't necessary for success.



I've been part of several meetings with Bill Gates (I've even played poker with him) and once sat in a 16 hour strategy meeting with Steve Ballmer (that was a short one for him). And I spent years working closely with guys who reported to both of them, including one of my mentors.

It wouldn't have been possible (well, much, much less probable) without college...

I'm certainly not saying that college is necessary... I'm just pointing out that for every benefit you can point out of not going, there's likely a benefit someone else can point out for going.

I notice that the anti-college sentiment tends to be pretty strong around here...while I have no issue with that, I'll always make a point to play devil's advocate on this topic.

WOW. YOU have a book in you that's dying to get out. GREAT stories.

What great adventures you must have been a part of. You are in the 1% of the 1%.

But - I am a sponge for knowledge, and I have to say that College sucked the life out of me. Way too slow. They sell it by the hour. Some of us just don't want to sit through the whole damn thing - let's get to the finale! I tend to read a book in a week or two - not for a whole damn semester. So on I go - without the college credits for what I've learned. Don't care. And, I'm in good company ~

When - if ever - we learn to allow people to accelerate at their own speed, AND not saddle them with all the crap courses that they'll never EVER use - then we might once again be a contender on the world stage for being a true world leader in technology and innovation. Right now, college is more like one long a$$ board meeting after another. Been there. You won't every be able to do 20 hours worth of work in 10 hours. You're going to fulfill those full 20 hours. God forbid academia might move at the speed of business. College "is" a business, and that's why they package and parcel it out the way they do. Dollars for diplomas. Some, as you've seen in my earlier post, chose to not play the game that way.
 

Real Deal Denver

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I completely agree. And I think -- for this very reason, among others -- trade schools will become popular again in the coming years.

You are right.

I also hope that colleges would streamline their courses to be much more focused and direct, like trade schools are. But I can hope all I want. I don't think that will ever happen. It's a culture. Get a degree - get a good job. Or, so they say (I know a few master degree people that can't get a job, and it's been a long long time that they've been searching).

And, I dare say, that college might even lose its appeal, as degrees are so commonplace. I see a lot of people diving into a niche business and doing very well at it. Corporate jobs don't have the allure they once had. People are replaceable - there is no loyalty, and very little promotion - the most meaningful promotion is by jumping ship and moving to a different company. I had a corporate job, and although it taught me a lot and matured me, I am glad it's in my past. But I do use lessons I learned there, every day. I will say that I learned the systems they use, which were very effective.

I have a book shipment coming in today from Amazon. It's like being a kid again at Christmas time! In the next 3-4 weeks, I expect to be immersed, and knowledgeable, about eCommerce, among with one or two other topics. What I will learn now, would take me the better part of a year if I signed up for college courses - and their content would not be nearly as updated as the information that I am getting.

PS - when you write YOUR book on what you've learned from your journeys, I will be first in line to buy it.
 
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NadiaZ

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Hello Fastlane Forum members. This is going to be my first post and I do so apologize for adding yet another post regarding college on this forum (I can almost hear someone yelling in my ear for why not to search in previous posts), though I briefly searched if there is a post similar to how I am going to put it but couldn't find one.

Though I am on the balance whether to finish college, stop, or pause for a temporary time like many others. I want to know what are the benefits or things learned in college that are or were useful and helped you in your entrepreneurial career.

For us, those in the balance of either going/continuing college or not, we should already know by now we are the ones making the decision(s), not those who answer us on forums since there will be so many opinions due to to each having their own unique "tool box set" of experiences. A better question is how college would benefit me if there are any other ways to get those benefits without the use of college education or degree.

Benefits (for the entrepreneur) I see in going through college would be:

-Gaining connections (close relationships) to possible future successful people who could be beneficial in your entrepreneurial career.

-A degree could be useful when working in contract/freelancing jobs such as coding and programming.

The reason I am asking this question because I really am on the verge of quitting or atleast pausing my college education, to be quite honest I've been in community college for 3 and a half years and about to transfer to university next semester but it seems to me I learned and developed much more through online resources (such as for code, politics, religion), youtube videos, and books for learning and mindset (such as TMF and UnScripted ) in the past 2 or 3 months than I ever did in the last 3 years, heck even family and friends are surprised and impressed how much I changed after I disconnected from everyone for a month. But the worry is the possibility of a benefit that I cannot see from where I am right now but experienced entrepreneurs who either did or did not complete (or even didn't go to college at all) college could know since they've already walked the walk

Please do tell all the benefits you find and also alternatives to where you could possibly gain those benefits elsewhere.

again I apologize for asking a possibly repetitive question but I thought it could be one that could be for many members to benefit from instead of being situation specific.

Best of regards to everyone, and especially to you MJ, you've helped me to solidify and channel all thoughts that I had and just didn't know what to do with them and I'm sure many feel the same.

It makes you seem legit. I went to a top 50 and every employer I've had looks at that and likes me more even if I have 0 qualifications for the actual job. One job I wanted required 2 years of childcare experience. Had 0 but I went to a good college, so that helped.

Also, it's pretty easy to sell to college students and your friends. My friends in college sold random stuff like succulents and delivered food for them or charged $$$ to have parties in their dorms. Just gotta get creative but the $$ is there and college students would pay $$ for food/being their virtual assistant/prepared meals/helping them move in.
 

Real Deal Denver

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You might be my one customer! I've written three books that have been very popular...but mostly because I wasn't the subject matter of the books... :)

Okay - I have a plan.

Put your book together. Make it real juicy. Like the nights you spent playing poker with Gates, and he is a lousy poker player and drinks a lot.

Give me a copy of the book for free.

Give Gates a copy for free too.

He'll pay you a mill to not publish.

Done. Rinse and repeat. You must have similar stories about MJ, right?
 

MJ DeMarco

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I notice that the anti-college sentiment tends to be pretty strong around here...while I have no issue with that, I'll always make a point to play devil's advocate on this topic.

That's because you're an outlier.

Not everyone gets to go to Stanford and study subjects that have practical applications in real life, while simultaneously getting to hob-nob with the best of Silicon Valley.

The anti-college sentiment here is because it is insane to accumulate $150,000 in debt for a philosophy degree from liberal arts college that no employer gives a shit about.

You can't argue college while selectively omitting its cost/benefit relative to the study and institution -- if the baseline for "college" was getting a computer science or an engineering degree from Stanford (even at a reasonable cost), then yea, you'd hear me screaming for college too.

Just because Bill Gates dropped out of college doesn't mean it's the right decision to drop out (yea, he went to Harvard!) Just because you got extreme value from college doesn't mean it's the right decision (yea, you went to Stanford!)

The parallels are the same.

One size never fits all.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Again, perhaps I'm misinterpreting your comment

You are.

I think when you read "outlier" you flipped and didn't read anything else I wrote.

but it sounded to me like you were implying that I was either lucky or somehow had a competitive advantage over most people who would try to achieve what I did.

Not at all, you should know better.

You got into Stanford and excelled in a competitive degree field.

Luck had nothing to do with it.

It shows you have an outlier aptitude (or at least 1 standard deviation above) for intelligence, hard work, focus, determination, and whole host of other attributes required to make that happen. (And if you paid your own way [or on scholarship] that adds more big feathers in your cap.)

It's like the NBA -- you got to be pretty damn good to just get into the league, much less excel there.

Like wise, Bill Gates got into Harvard -- he had to premise the same things.

For one to say "I should drop out of college because Bill Gates did" is the same logical argument because they're dismissing the quality of your process before you even walked on campus.

I'd argue you would have succeeded either way -- going to Stanford, a JUCO, or staying home and self-teaching.

Had I gotten into Stanford (sorry I was too dumb) I probably would be preaching from the rafters too, "GO TO COLLEGE!"

But for most people, it isn't a choice between an engineering degree at Stanford or staying home...

It's a choice between a Poly Sci degree at Bowling Green (complete with $150K in debt) or staying home.

Hope this clarifies.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Aim_Goal

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Everyone, Thank you very much for all the advice and sharing your experiences!

I have learned alot and it clarifies for me more and more on how to proceed.

I see that alot have different opinions on college with diffrent situations and could say this forum is a gold mine to everyone who is about to go into college (or about to quit).

At the end of it all each person could gain some benefits attending/graduating college depending on their major, university, mindset, and approach in college. there are those who have social skills and utilizing that in a university that is in a hot area (say the bay area eg: san jose state, uc berkeley, stanford) could make use of that; and there are those who the prestige or the ability to show a degree could help in some key situations in life either going up or when doing business and contracting. there are those who might've not tried or could not to make the most of their college (either to inability due to time or ignorance/unseen opportunities) and at then end what they end up doing did not even need the degree which was the main reason to graduate, and I'm sure there are many other kinds of students but i just mentioned what the most typical students would be like.

To sum it all up, everyone will have paid the same COST as any other student in that campus BUT the VALUE gained will vary deeply depending on multiple factors that are relating to both the university and student. and like MJ said:

One size never fits all

.

In my path it seems for me it would be best to gain financial stability and then go to college barely full-time work on the side without relying on loans, make the connections and relationships, and learn more about coding professionally in class while I try to work on my project which hopefully will put me on the fastlane.

Best Regards everyone, and I hope for everyone a successful and fulfilling life!
 
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