I just can’t get on board this anti-college stunt. I cannot imagine the three in my family not going to college. What would we be now? College is important. Perhaps if those that are not good students went to a community college for two years that would at least help. I agree with the fact that some students feel that they are Ivy League types but are not really intelligent enough for it. Let’s put it this way. Some here say that college is not necessary but lets say you have two students. One does not go to college and goes right to McDonald’s....he works for four years and makes 400 a week. Now you have a guy that goes to college and needs a job. He goes to McDonald’s too and because of his business and Management degree he is hired as the manager for 800 a week. In this situation, it is STILL worth going to college. I just think that some of you have this big blanket of NO COLLEGE because it is not worth it.
My grandson is a third year engineering student. Co-ops with an Engineering Firm, and will probably be offered a job with them when he graduates.
Of course he needed to go to college. You don't learn to be a civil engineer at McDonalds.
And what if, instead of working at McDonalds the 1st student gets a trade? There are good apprentice programs and most pay the student. Another route if none are handy is to start as a helper – carpenter, plumber, mechanic etc. and work up the chain. In a few years it’s good money. I know several people who took this route and now own their own businesses.
Lets say that student doesn’t work for McDonalds, but gets a job wher he learns to be a Plumberor electrician or a Diesel Mechanic. Works hard learns his trade opens his on business and becomes a millionaire and hires your son to be his accountant.
Thousands of self made millionaires never went to college, working for McDonalds isn’t the only job out there.I have a friend who is no brain trust, He started out pumping septic tanks, bought Jiffy-John toilets, cleaned them himself, He is now a Millionaire. Another friend went to college , taught school and is now retired and working as a carpenter to make neds meet and hasn’t two dimes to rub together.
College is only as good as what you get out of it. If you go there to play Foozball and get laid you may as well take that job at Mickey D’s.
I am getting long in the tooth and came from another generation, my parents could not afford to send me to college, and my grades weren’t that great anyway. Back in those days the thought of borrowing $20,000 the cost of college in 1960 , to go into debt right out of High School was unthinkable.
Today the thought of a parent being able to send their kid to college is ridiculous, unles you are a millionaire. College is entirely too expensive,because they have filled themselves with useless course’s, and Professors who couldn’t do a real job if they had one. Those who can —do, Those who can’t -—teach. That’s a little extreme , but it isn’t dead wrong either.
“I just can’t get on board this anti-college stunt.”
I’m with you. These days you need an Associate Degree just to be able to prove that you can do basic reading and math. A high school diploma means NOTHING, except that the principal got tired of seeing your face in the hallways. And employers KNOW THIS.
If you want someone that can actually read well and write at least fairly well, and knows math almost to Calculus, then it takes a Bachelor’s Degree from a legitimate college (not University of Phoenix, LOL). An accredited school will not let you pass through without learning...not if they want to keep their accreditation. Public high schools don’t have that concern.
Now, before you all tell me how your little Johnny went to public school, got into a great college, and had a great career, I’m referring to the other 70% or 80% of people in high school. These are the people that get through high school, then find out that they need to take remedial classes at a junior college, and then figure out that even those remedial classes are beyond what they’ve been taught. Those are the high school graduates that EMPLOYERS see showing up at their doors...and the ones that most of them simply cannot hire.
To look at it another way. 45 years ago, a person graduating high school had about the same capability as a person with a Bachelor’s Degree today, and an 11th grade dropout still had the capability of an Associate’s Degree today...they simply would not have made it into 11th grade if they didn’t have that capability. Hence the requirements for college degrees.
And one other way to look at it. A typical high school graduate needs about two years of remedial to start taking real college-level classes in the United States. In much of Europe and most of Asia, that same high school graduate has COMPLETED 2 years of college-level work, before even starting college. In other words, they start out 4 years ahead of us. The only things that keep us from going Third World just due to this is that we still attract very smart people from around the world, who were educated properly (it’s really not that hard to do), and we have Home Schoolers that don’t take the government school Kool-Aid and educate their kids at Asian levels (or beyond even).
Depends how much your hypothetical McDonald’s manager is paying to service his student loans, too.
It isn’t as aimple as college vs no—college. But colleges need to get their costs under control. Continually escalating tuition at several times the official inflation rate is no answer. Sooner or later, online universities & community colleges are going to become the norm.
“I just can’t get on board with this anti-college stunt”.
Granted, not everyone is suited for college. Some people are better with a tech school. That being said, many professions demand a college education. Want to be a nurse? You can’t be one without a college degree. Want to be an engineer, doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc.? You simply can’t be one without college. Unfortunately with the economy, many families are scrambling and trying to figure out just what to do. A two year program at a community college and then transfer to a university is one option. Having the student work part time and summers to assist with tuition, fees, etc.. is a good option for many reasons. Having the child live at home while attending college is a third. What I fear is this: the gap between the “have’s” and “have nots” will increase dramatically in the coming years based on college attendance. It is that simple. There will always be the “exception” of someone who becomes wealthy without a degree; however, that isn’t as common as we would like. So, yes, I have a hard time jumping on the college isn’t worth it board as well.
You seem to be living in and romanticizing a long gone past. Certainly if you are going to be a doctor or an engineer you need a higher education. But as a whole, higher education has developed in to a scam with many tentacles, each with millions of parasites living on them.
As the article mentioned, there are phony diploma mills like Kaplan University. This "University" is nothing more than a scheme to use gullible young people to rip off the tax payer, and would never exist if not for federally backed student loans. That's where all the money comes from.
Then there are apparently respectable institutions all over the country, including the Ivy League and other apparently respectable places. But if you take a close look, you see that these fine places are packed to the gills collectively with hundreds of thousands of parasitic, know-nothing, do-nothing professors and administrators; especially in victim studies and other worthless disciplines that offer students nothing useful for making a living or being learned in general.
To top it off, they corrupt young minds with nonsense that actually holds them back in life and damages a free society. Even hard science students are forced to indulge some of this nonsense, and certainly subsidize it. Countless very foolish, and sometimes downright stupid, people are paid very well to do nothing of value, while tax payers and parents are being stolen from. The collective scheme makes Madoff look like a kid stealing gum from the corner store.
Whether you want to admit, the entire system is now more corrupt than not. The sooner it crashes and burns, the better; hopefully before my kids finish high school.
My husband tried the no college way. It was 30 years ago, and he knew all about computers. The only job he could get was a crappy job at AT&T. He worked for a year and then decided to go to college. Since he had to pay for it himself, he went to community college first and then transferred to Cal-poly. It took a long time to get his degree because he was working the whole time, but it was worth it.
He’s now director of software for a major company in the silicon valley, and he has taken very good care of us.
He says that college didn’t teach him too much, but it opened lots of doors that were impossible without the degree.
Currently, in this area, an enterprising, hard working youngster can knock down upwards of $20/hour with overtime by going to work in the oilfields. College is a tough sell for those who haven't a chosen career in mind.
Of course, they can double that with a degree in engineering or geology, but after a few years of roughnecking, they can afford to go to school and pay cash if they are careful with their money.