The case against college

I dropped out of uni and college - I can't believe its been 10 years and the bubble still hasn't burst. Now there is Private online education with little in the way of standards (especially in the us, its seeping into Canada too), etc, it just shows you the gov't pumps money into the system, so kids can fuck and drink and forget that there is math compounding those loans behind the seens, loans they'll hate after college.

The side benefit is the gov't makes it look like productive activity is taking place, and GDP goes up.

I ran into a guy at the bar a few months back, and he was upfront about the wastefulness of his comp sci. education, and I was surprised, he was one of the few people who had complete his education, realized the career path was a dead end, and found some other field to move into.

But I do understand that a lot of gov'ts and corps require college or you don't get hired. Isn't gov't too, part of the big bubble in wasteful production?
 
Quote from kinggyppo:

I went to school ages ago and got a degree, good times. However these days you gotta wonder:


http://finance.yahoo.com/college-ed...dent-loan-burden?mod=edu-continuing_education

or


http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/434365/Dont-Send-Your-Kids-to-College!-%22Its-a-Scam%2C%22-James-Altucher-Says

thoughts, is it worth it for the keg parties, getting laid, learning, etc?
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Altucher is a very very funny guy.

Here is a scenario.

James meets a nerd like him in college; the person is a female. His interviewer is at the same school.

somehow James figures out how sperm works after he graduates and marries this person, not the interviewer.

James does his super quant stuff for 17 years and has two kids.

He says he can't afford to send them to college without taking on dept (he said this to the interviewer)

He mentions some numbers to the interviewer.

What if the interviewer has seen some prints of trader trading?

Where does the conversation go? Does Jame's 5% ROI hack it for very long?

Why does james have interviews with interviewers like that one?

How does that interviewer keep a job?

Conclusion: James is correct; someone like him should skip college; he didn't learn anything. anyway.
 
Quote from psytrade:

I ran into a guy at the bar a few months back, and he was upfront about the wastefulness of his comp sci. education, and I was surprised, he was one of the few people who had complete his education, realized the career path was a dead end, and found some other field to move into.
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If he got a degree from an average or worse university, or did poorly, then he was the problem, not CS. Which in the world other field is something else to move in to? Art? History?

As to dropping out of college, what job exactly should someone expect? The US has lost over 1.2 million manufacturing jobs just since 2007. Construction unemployment is over 30% in some areas. Many industrial towns are lingering on their last factory, praying it too does not go under:

New Ghost Towns: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-01-townhangingon_N.htm?csp=hf

College grads make 50-100% more than HS grads on average. Not getting a degree comdemns most people to a very bleak future. Many employers will take a college grad over a HS grad for blue collar work. Production work has gotten more technical, and they want people who have some math, communication, ands thinking ability.

The following article (2008) The unemployment rate for high school graduates not enrolled in college was 26.7 percent, compared with 14.9 percent for graduates enrolled in college

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm

HS grads are going to be suffering bigtime over the next 30 years.

Almost every field is getting hammered now. That is what happens when you belch up 10 million jobs as a country. There are even unemployed nurses, now. In fact, the Philippines now has something like 500,000 nursing school grads who cannot get jos in other countries. This is due to a rapid expansion in Phil nursing schools and the horrible world economy.

But a career is about a 30-35 year span, not just about a couple of years
 
The case against college? How about a focus on engineering and science?

Classes like business, management, and art have become just a waste of time, with standards that are set way too low. These colleges need to fail students and get rid of the waste, it's really a flawed system in itself.

At the university I went to, business, art, management etc showed the highest percentages of enrollment. Those classes are bullshit, resulting in people who don't produce anything, you find that out very fast once you get into industry.

When I was in engineering school you see a completely different side of things. For instance, I remember my first circuits class. The first thing the professor said was, look to the person to left of you, now look to the person on your right.. one of those people won't be there at the end of the semester. It's called weeding people out.. other majors should try it.
 
Quote from MaklodaSux:

The case against college? How about a focus on engineering and science?

Classes like business, management, and art have become just a waste of time, with standards that are set way too low. These colleges need to fail students and get rid of the waste, it's really a flawed system in itself.

At the university I went to, business, art, management etc showed the highest percentages of enrollment. Those classes are bullshit, resulting in people who don't produce anything, you find that out very fast once you get into industry.

When I was in engineering school you see a completely different side of things. For instance, I remember my first circuits class. The first thing the professor said was, look to the person to left of you, now look to the person on your right.. one of those people won't be there at the end of the semester. It's called weeding people out.. other majors should try it.
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This article seems to support what you are saying. I do not want to debate whether college is worth it or not. There are too many factors involved for each person.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...llege/IsYourDegreeWorth1million.aspx?page=all
 
Quote from jack hershey:

Altucher is a very very funny guy.

Here is a scenario.

James meets a nerd like him in college; the person is a female. His interviewer is at the same school.

somehow James figures out how sperm works after he graduates and marries this person, not the interviewer.

James does his super quant stuff for 17 years and has two kids.

He says he can't afford to send them to college without taking on dept (he said this to the interviewer)

He mentions some numbers to the interviewer.

What if the interviewer has seen some prints of trader trading?

Where does the conversation go? Does Jame's 5% ROI hack it for very long?

Why does james have interviews with interviewers like that one?

How does that interviewer keep a job?

Conclusion: James is correct; someone like him should skip college; he didn't learn anything. anyway.
More...

This was hilarious. One part is true: I didn't learn anything at college. The rest is far from the mark.
 
If any government had half a brain they would focus on creating education that taught real skill sets instead of bullshit theory. The majority of my experience has been that schools and colleges only teach academic subjects well and the only thing adults I've talked to have said that is worthwhile about it are the connections you make and the social side.

Government education has and always will be a load of crap, it was originally made so that children could be provided the most basic skills of English and Math but then the government decided they could get a god complex and put any subject they like into it without considering the consequences or the fact that it brainwashes and teaches nothing to kids.
 
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