Posted on 09/11/2010 1:05:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Well I didn’t take a day of college and I’m far more successful than the vast majority of people who do what I do - electrical engineering. I employ other electrical engineers with degrees - but I don’t require they have one. I only care about how well they do what they do.
A college degree isn’t enough, if you are in an industry which is government-related (or receives government-awarded contracts).
I have seen numerous intelligent professionals whose “fairer” color skin caused them to be passed over for promotion (and associated rank & benefits) in favor of less-qualified persons of a “bolder” skin tone.
(The “winning” candidates, then delegated to “fairer” lower-level individuals the actual work assignments). True story.
Don’t forget not having to pay their taxes.
“Many high-school graduates are not ready for independence and adult responsibilities, and college provides a safe place for them to grow up — for a fee.”
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There was a time when if you were not ready for adult responsibility at eighteen it was a sign that you never would be.
I think there’s a lot of truth to this article. We are in an education bubble. The gvt has thrown a bunch of credit at the education system. Prices have spiked and the supply of college graduates has spiked too.
A contrarian would say it’s time to invest in something else.
Any organization who fails to take advantage of their on hand talent because the human resource department requires a degree for a particular position (short of those mandated by intrusive government) has let the bean counters/bureaucrats take control and is probably on its way to decline.
“I never went to college and I retired at age 52.”
If you enjoy your work, why ever retire?
I used to deal with truck drivers on a daily basis. I didn’t know one who wasn’t making more than $28,000. It isn’t what it used to be but many truck drivers make far more than a lot of college graduates. In fact quite a few of the ones I knew WERE college graduates but drove trucks anyway. Government regulations have screwed up the industry but for a time truck drivers were very well paid indeed.
The difference would actually be much less than 22k anyway because of taxes. You have to remember the truck driver is earning money those six years the other guy is going to college so by the time another six years have passed that is twelve years that the driver has been driving, by then he could be an owner operator. It isn’t as simple as you make it.
If you want to do something professional (law, medicine, engineering, science, or education) go to college. Otherwise, try your hand at the real world first. I am a college professor and most kids there now are just wasting their parents (or the Government’s) money.
Lots of corporations, like Nike where I work, won’t even talk to you w/o a degree.
There are ways to get a degree without going into such huge debt. Heard a guy on the radio, on Hannity I think, who did this and ended up in his 20s owning 2 condos, one to rent and one to live in and no college loans.
What is the annual tuition at Hillsdale?
That college educated graduate is going to have to be open to living somewhere else like in Rio de Janerio, Shanghai or Bombay, just to name a few.
That was me as well. I was in sales and in the top 1 percent nationwide. All my bosses loved me. However they are also unemployed now. Wells Fargo has decided to hire someone for my territory now a year and 1/2 later and because it is really the old Wachovia Auto division, I am starting from zero and can’t even score an interview. I was number 3 nationwide. Was in top 3 % every year I worked for them. Means nothing.
a little skill? Jobs that require only a little skill are usually done by the homeowner. These are not unskilled labor occupations.
I hope Hillsdale is better than most, otherwise when your son graduates he won’t have what used to be a public high school education fifty years ago. I know this for a fact. The biggest shame is that it takes a four year degree now simply to get the kind of job that used to go to a high school graduate or even a dropout. I have had conversations with recent university graduates who MAJORED in history for instance and they could not pass the history test to get INTO high school in my day. They literally did not know the history that I can still remember from my first EIGHT years of school.
College is a scam for most fields. I left in my junior year to become a steel erector because of the idiocy I was exposed to on a daily basis in the classroom at my expense. It seemed to me it was an exercise in taking common sense and applying nonsensical reasoning and verbiage to justify the existence of the entire enterprise. As I moved up in the construction field my sense of the purpose of higher education was confirmed. Meetings consisted of engineers with multiple degrees making problems as complex as possible and counting on solutions coming outside the meeting room from people with real world experience and common sense-— usually without a college degree. But, the big money went to the problem makers because they were in the ‘club’. They deposited their checks, occasionally answered technical questions by referring to computer programs they could have learned in high school, and let the great unwashed make it all happen.
What kind of ACT/grades do you need for Engineering at Georgia Tech? Also, does the Georgia Hope scholarship actually cover most of the in state tution? We have a facility in Georgia that might be tempting as my daughter’s approach High School graduation.
My fourteen year old is playing with the idea of being an engineer (Biomedical in her case) just like her old man (Mechanical in my case). I am not sure that I would advise her that way, but she would make a heck of an engineer (also a vet or a doctor).
My youngest is set on Med School. I have already told her to start thinking Armed Forces Medical Scholarship - it is a great way to go.
But you failed to take into account the value of the postmodern, multi-culti brainwashing you get with your college degree!
espouse
No college but I graduated high school with c+ b- average and I hope you have a sense of humor. ;-)
That is great. I am very happy that you are a success. It’s just that some people need that piece of paper to make a decent living. I believe that your drive and determination and initiative helped you. Being a FRiend on this site makes this statement most likely true. FREEPERS obviously care about family, work and country as well as God.
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