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Saying No to College
The New York Times ^ | Friday, November 30, 2012 | Alex Williams

Posted on 12/02/2012 10:30:41 AM PST by MinorityRepublican

BENJAMIN GOERING does not look like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, talk like him or inspire the same controversy. But he does apparently think like him.

Two years ago, Mr. Goering was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, studying computer science and philosophy and feeling frustrated in crowded lecture halls where the professors did not even know his name.

“I wanted to make Web experiences,” said Mr. Goering, now 22, and create “tools that make the lives of others better.”

So in the spring of 2010, Mr. Goering took the same leap as Mr. Zuckerberg: he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco to make his mark. He got a job as a software engineer at a social-software company, Livefyre, run by a college dropout, where the chief technology officer at the time and a lead engineer were also dropouts. None were sheepish about their lack of a diploma. Rather, they were proud of their real-life lessons on the job.

“Education isn’t a four-year program,” Mr. Goering said. “It’s a mind-set.”

The idea that a college diploma is an all-but-mandatory ticket to a successful career is showing fissures. Feeling squeezed by a sagging job market and mounting student debt, a groundswell of university-age heretics are pledging allegiance to new groups like UnCollege, dedicated to “hacking” higher education. Inspired by billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider themselves a D.I.Y. vanguard, committed to changing the perception of dropping out from a personal failure to a sensible option, at least for a certain breed of risk-embracing maverick.

Risky? Perhaps. But it worked for the founders of Twitter, Tumblr and a little company known as Apple.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


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To: Pining_4_TX

How many 18 year olds know they want to be doctors. My son is 18, and a freshman at Texas A&M.

He’s currently majoring in economics, but he’s thinking of changing to physics. He went to a great private school in California, but his science teachers just never inspired him. In college, he loves his astronomy course. He says that he would rather work out problems than just memorize facts.

My 30 year old nephew dropped out of college, and he’s struggled. He’s got a good job now working for Haliburtin, but it’s a very manual job. I can’t imagine him doing that in 20 years.

I also think you have to be smart about what you major in. My son did theater in high school, and he has lots of friends majoring in it. I think they will have a difficult time.


21 posted on 12/02/2012 11:04:12 AM PST by luckystarmom
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

If you want to be a scientist, you cannot self-teach yourself.

Colleges have wonderful labs and equipment, and you have to learn how that equipment works.


22 posted on 12/02/2012 11:08:35 AM PST by luckystarmom
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To: HangnJudge; Pining_4_TX

Kurt Vonnegut once advised aspiring writers to avoid English or literature classes. He said the best education a writer could have would be in one of the practical fields (IIRC he studied engineering).


23 posted on 12/02/2012 11:08:48 AM PST by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: Arm_Bears

-— As far as Libs/Dems are concerned, saying that college isn’t for everyone will soon become as offensive as saying “Merry Christmas.” -—

It’s still legal to sneer at the mention of college in our personal interactions. I do. It’s fun.

Why not enjoy it while it’s still legal?


24 posted on 12/02/2012 11:10:18 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: Atlantan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera


25 posted on 12/02/2012 11:10:51 AM PST by HangnJudge
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To: MinorityRepublican

For much less than the price of college, you can hire their best professors as private tutors/mentors.

Also, with larger classes you can sit in for free without enrolling, as long as they do not take attendance, which they usually do not.


26 posted on 12/02/2012 11:14:02 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant
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To: Gen.Blather

There’s certainly a lot of certification in IT.


27 posted on 12/02/2012 11:18:47 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: luckystarmom

Schools waste a tremendous amount of time. What they do accomplish, and I think most education occurs in spite of schools rather than because of them, could be done in a few short years. Children should be allowed to move on when they have mastered a subject and not be marched lock-step with a group just because they are all the same age. That would also allow kids who take longer to master a subject to have more time to do so without being labeled failures.

Congrats on your son being an Aggie! I love College Station. It is one of the friendliest towns I have ever visited. One of our kids graduated from A&M and got his Ph.D. there. BTW, even that is not enough these days to land a good job, because there are so many foreigners who will work for peanuts. Caveat emptor.


28 posted on 12/02/2012 11:20:00 AM PST by Pining_4_TX ( The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else. ~)
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To: luckystarmom

Also, a kid who finishes high school at 16 probably ought to get some kind of job for a year or two and he will have a better idea of what direction he wants to take from there. Work is far more edifying than just about all the nonsense that is taught in schools.


29 posted on 12/02/2012 11:23:38 AM PST by Pining_4_TX ( The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else. ~)
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To: MinorityRepublican

All a college education is for most people, not all, is to show a future employer that you are willing to work with the system.

Almost everyone I know that was hired on after getting their diploma now is in another field entirely and was taught on the job. Advanced computer skills, common sense, punctuality and a good work ethic can get you a pretty good life if your smart about it.


30 posted on 12/02/2012 11:24:32 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: luckystarmom

Acting is one of those “Winners Take All” field, if a person wants to be an actor, fine, but most likely will struggle to make ends meet and have to wait tables to pay the bills until they become the next Matt Damon. Or not.


31 posted on 12/02/2012 11:26:11 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: freemama
Not going to be the first in line to get heart surgery from a doctor who dropped out.

The health care industry is now a subsidiary of the US feral government.

You have no say in what number in line you are, but from here on out skin color is going to be the most important factor in who gets into medical school.

How do you feel about getting heart surgery from an affirmative-actioned MD?

32 posted on 12/02/2012 11:31:47 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Labor unions are the Communist Party of the USA.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Instead of saying no to college, what they should be doing is recreating the college curriculum, so that it reflects what students need and how they can get it.

As things are now, college is very overpriced and bogged down with useless information and time consuming distractions.

To make a successful college, *begin* with a career placement assumption within six months after graduation. If courses and majors cannot offer this, almost to the point of a guarantee, then dispense with them.

To a great extent this means “college as on the job training” for a select handful of corporations. Much like being an intern, students would actually be working for the company, while at the same time doing high intensity learning for promotions within those companies.

From the start this would mean doing established, non creative jobs while they create a portfolio of their *proprietary* creative work, to prevent exploitation by supervisors.

Then on graduation and retention, they officially show their creative work as “poor man’s patents”, for peer review, so they get all the credit for it if it flies, along with royalties if the company adopts it.


33 posted on 12/02/2012 11:32:05 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Pennies and Nickels will NO LONGER be Minted as of 1/1/13 - Tim Geithner, US Treasury Sect)
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To: Abathar
...common sense, punctuality and a good work ethic can get you a pretty good life if your smart about it.

Bingo! And sadly, they don't teach those things in college. Actually, they teach just the opposite. IMHO.

34 posted on 12/02/2012 11:32:15 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Don't tax me bro! Tax that guy over there!)
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To: freemama

Red lights and stop signs are for people that don’t know how to drive.


35 posted on 12/02/2012 11:32:24 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Go to the Voke, learn how to pull a wrench in the, Non Union Trades, if you are good and are willing to work you can make a good buck.
36 posted on 12/02/2012 11:34:18 AM PST by Little Bill (A)
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To: MinorityRepublican

For the costs involved, college, for the most part, is a waste!


37 posted on 12/02/2012 11:38:52 AM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: freemama

You didn’t read the whole article, did you?


38 posted on 12/02/2012 11:41:02 AM PST by EEGator
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To: 9YearLurker
"There’s certainly a lot of certification in IT."

IT is certainly one of those fields where a diploma is worth little more than to wipe your ass with. Certifications and experience is where the $$$$ is. (being in IT, I know this for a fact - and I HAVE a degree in 'IT')

39 posted on 12/02/2012 11:46:28 AM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: freemama

What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class in med school?

“Doctor.”

Feel better about that credential?


40 posted on 12/02/2012 11:47:11 AM PST by NVDave
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