With college tuition and fees rapidly increasing and hovering at an average of $7,605 a year, it’s becoming easier to question whether or not it’s worth putting yourself in debt for the knowledge and connections.
Jesse at PF Firewall went to college and pens a post advising youngsters not to follow in his footsteps. Buried in student loans, Jesse says he went to school for the wrong reasons – a love of learning and because he was told he needed a degree to get anywhere in life.
College grads, what did your degree for you, and would you do it all over again if you could go back in time?
Why I Went To College And Why You Shouldn’t [PF Firewall]
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I went to college twice. Once at a large state supported institution, where I spent 5 years drinking beer and chasing girls. I had 5 majors in 5 years and manager to earn about 95 transferable credits and $10,000 in debt. I finally wised up, dropped out and joined the Navy.
After six years “haze gray and underway” I left the Navy and got a job in the IT field relying on my electronics experience from the Navy. I ended up working for a software company that also manufactured some data collection devices. Within about 4 years I had transitioned to pure software support, and was making about $50K. Two years later the company laid me off, but I was able to find a new position making over $100K with one of the clients of my old company.
I finally deciced to complete my degree using an online program from an accredited for profit university. This time I was able to cover the expenses with my GIBill.
I wasted my time and a lot of money the first time I tried college. I wasn’t ready, I didn’t have the study skills, motivation or any clue as to what I wanted to do. Six years in the Navy matured me quite a bit and I learned the value of hard work. College the second time, cost more than perhaps it should, but then I was married with kids and working a full time job with a schedule that didn’t mesh well with a traditional classroom approach.
I think this debate all depends on what you want to be or what field you want to be in. I think some fields experience will get you just as far as a degree, while others relay heavily on education. So figuring out what you want to do and where you want to go first, will help you make the decision if its worth it or not. As for me, getting my BS hasn’t shown me anything accept more bills to pay.
One of the problems with the emphasis on college is that too many become used to classroom only learning. They can only learn in a really formal system/enviorment. They want someone to tell them what to do to learn. This is part of the problem with business/customer service today. Unless there’s a formal meeting and memos even if many have somekind of empowerment they won’t do squat.
Then there’s the opposite type-I don’t need no stinking school or books/manuals. That’s no good either. There are too many that have not updated themselves in their trade/industry. You have professionals(white and blue collar) relying on what they learned decades ago in college or trade school. Unless they have actually learned from their real world experiences they’re in deep crap.
I guess the best way to look at college or real world experience is how to make the combination work for you. Which would be the better tool in your situation.
If I could go back, I’d major in computer science (the degree I’m almost finished with now) instead of molecular biology (the degree I first got). Lab work SUCKS! My advice to anyone entering or in college: if you don’t like the stuff you’re doing to get your degree, then don’t be afraid to switch majors to something else. It will save you time and money in the long run, and also help keep you out of a career that you hate.
If you wish to get into the education field, you will get no further than a classified employee without a minimum of a BA/BS. That is not to say that classified staff can’t make a good living (this includes custodians, secretaries, cafeteria, groundskeepers, etc) after working for a few years and paying into the public employees’ retirement system, however, when cuts come around (and they come around often), you and the non-tenured teachers are often the first on the block.
Bachelor’s degree = 33% increase over non-degree wage.
Master’s degree = 214% increase over Bachelor’s degree wage.
Both times, I sat down, looked at my options (which included looking at the career paths on the jobs I liked and wanted to pursue which all required a degree), figured out where I wanted to be, and made it happen.
Jesse in this article didn’t have a plan nor other skills, that was the real problem.
Regardless, one has to sit down, evaluate their situation and make the best decision to meet their needs. For some, that will be a degree, for others it won’t. The most important bit is to find the path that works for you and not take any one person’s situation as the end all be all.
The joke goes, do you know what they call a guy who graduates dead last his class in medical school?
Doctor.
I have no qualms about my degree, and I’m sure in some circles it would catch the eye to see it’s from a well known university, but it isn’t. It’s just a degree – the best that in-state tuition money can buy at CUNY.
I’m a college professor- couldn’t have done it without several degrees. SO it worked OK for me. I see dozens of students just aimlessly wasting their time getting a degree in an area because it is interesting, or easy instead of an area where there is application and employment. Come on-cinema? french art history? You’ve got to be kidding!
Life long learning is fun-if you are independently wealthy- the rest of us have to pay the bills (and hopefully get benefits).
I most certainly would do it all over again. With a liberal arts degree, I eventually became an IT professional, and I have been very pleased with how things turned out. In fact, honestly, I would have taken out MORE student loans so I could have enjoyed the experience and absorbed all I learned. Although my scholarship covered 90% of my tuition, it was still a very expensive private school. I was so busy working full-time while going to school full-time (to cover the remainder of tuition, books, living expenses, etc.) that I graduated as a burned-out, depressed, sickly, miserable person who made some foolish personal decisions. Yet there I was congratulating myself on having a car, a nice home, & no debt (as I’d paid the student loan off immediately) to notice how sick I really was.
The college degree these days is like the high school diploma of yesteryear. This has had the effect of (1) driving a lot of people to college because their job prospects are nil without one; and (2) churning out far more graduates than are necessary for the job market, thus causing companies to think “gee, since there are so many graduates out there, I can probably require a B.A. or B.S. to weed out the chaff.” The problem is that otherwise qualified persons who don’t have degrees are often overlooked in the application process while those with the degrees end up in jobs that don’t pay enough to warrant the initial investment.
While it’s true that you don’t necessarily need a degree to make money, the vast majority of us lack the entrepeneurial necessary to ascend (I certainly don’t think of myself in the same category of Bill Gates or Dave Thomas). Thus, for a large number of folks, degrees remain a necessity, regardless of whether they pay off.
I worked overseas for 14 years, and wouldn’t have even received a visa if I didn’t have a college degree. My current position also requires a college degree. So, bollocks to any advice that college wasn’t worth it.
I graduated in ’08 and haven’t seen a single benefit of having a degree yet. It may be too early to call it, but I’m definitely leaning toward it being a waste of time & money. I’d probably have the experience I need to get most of the jobs I’m looking at if I wasn’t locked in my bedroom studying for the last 5 years.
I went to college in my 30s. At the time I graduated, I was a senior program manager at a Fortune 100 company. I was “upper middle” management.
I went back to school because, as I worked my way up the ladder from customer service rep, I realized that my smarts and talent wouldn’t get me an interview if the company and I parted ways. I didn’t have “20 years’ experience” to offset my lack of degree. Quite simply, a degree was a check-box to get a position. No interview and it doesn’t matter how good I was at my job. Luckily, I kept it (kept moving up, in fact) until I graduated.
I was fortunate enough to be both good at and interested in a field that has good employment prospects and good wages. It involved a career switch, which made finding entry-level pretty hard (“You want to start in an entry-level engineering position? But that’s a huge cut in pay…”). I knew a few years in and my employment and wage prospects were much greater. Today, I make double what I was making before, and I still have only up to go.
Totally worth it for me.
For those knocking a liberal arts degree, it’s all about how marketable you are able to make yourself.
I have a B.A. in English. I’m not a journalist. I’m not a teacher. I secured a job for myself (waiting for me post-graduation, of course) three months before I graduated. I love my job, and yes, I get to use the skills I learned in college every single day. I’m not living in a box, either. I’m VERY comfortable, and I’m lucky enough to love what I do and continue to be challenged by it. College totally helped open doors for me that would not have been available otherwise.
Why do I think I’m here? I made myself marketable. Yes, it would be fantastic to do nothing but write novels all day, but very few people are successful when they take that road. So before I even entered college, I thought long and hard about what I love to do. As it turns out, I’ve been in love with computers for years. A technical minor, therefore, was my solution. Turns out I’m pretty good at explaining how to use computers and software. Some engineers are not so blessed. Therefore, they need someone like me (a technical writer) to help them explain it. And quite honestly, I can write the next great American novel in my free time, but for right now, I’m happy tinkering with words and software.
I also took out loans, to the tune of $30,000, because my mother couldn’t afford to send me. Of course, I attended a physical university (and a good one, at that). I also worked minimum-wage jobs to keep that cost down (and yes, I had many sleepless nights and early mornings to keep on top of everything). I earned scholarships. I took on internships. Yes, college was a risk, but it was one that paid off. I don’t think I could have felt good about myself without a degree.
In short, I was very, very, very busy, but when I look at where I am now, I know that it was all worth it. Without the connections that I made at college, or the skills that I was able to pick up (yes, in that same liberal arts program that so many of you love to deride), I would not be here right now. Period.
This article is confusing. First off, the writer went to an ONLINE college, which is not really going to college, but more like sitting at home in front of a computer. Sorry, but he has no wisdom to grant as far as what the college is really like. The title should read “The Best Lesson I Learned at ONLINE College Was ONLINE College Wasn’t Worth It”!
I went to art school for photography. I had a blast, but NO WAY would I do it again. There are so many one-off, local classes I could have taken to learn the exact same stuff, without the hefty tuition. I took out $35,000 in student loans, and will have them paid off in December — 9 years after I finished school. I can’t WAIT to be done with these stupid payments. I have a thriving photography career, but my degree had absolutely nothing to do with it. I should’ve spent a fraction of that amount and gone to a state school for a degree in accounting instead. Now THAT would’ve been helpful!
I don’t have a college degree, but I am one of the smartest people I know. I’ve been told repeatedly by the few people who are willing to let me in the doors of interviews without the degree that I am more than qualified for the position, but they cannot hire me without the degree. Now I am working a minimum wage, thankless job and attending school simply to get in the door of these interviews. Sure, Jesse, you might regret it now, but what was your major? If you went in for an art history degree with no particular life plan in motion, yeah, I can see regretting it.
Sorry, guys, you DO need that paper and those connections.
There are degrees that pay for themselves in 5 years, and then there some that will rarely result in a penny more on the job.
I knew a guy in college that chose ‘outdoor recreation’ as a field of study. Had one heck of a time trying to find a job with his $70k education.
If you go to an expensive school, and you are paying with loans, you simply MUST consider the financial implications of your choice of major/minor.
I double majored two business fields, and have no regrets. If I could do it all over again, I would have spent more time socializing with my classmates in the last year or two.
I think one of the things that messes people with a degree in the real world is that working for someone else changes the job wether it’s a budget, working conditions, work rules, who you have to work with, benefits etc. You might be hired by a company who likes or could use your major. But do they really need it or know how to use it/you.
I guess what I’m trying to say is in the working world what is practical, a neccessity or a management whim are all different things. This is what makes the do what you want do thing a useless platitude in most cases.
I still say work to live and not live work, that’s reality and obtainable.
I got nothing out of my Bachelor’s in Computer Science.
I paid off the last of my student loans after 10 years, having dropped out, working retail and kitchen jobs. I’m sad to say that most of my pals with degrees are working the same sort of jobs I am but I’m debt-free, while they owe lots and lots of money.
This article really hits home for me because having gone to a top tier school of my dreams I learned a lot but very little of it was from class. I dropped out of college by my last year for a few key reasons:
1) It became too expensive. At $40K a year the scholarships and financial aid I received barely if at all covered any of what was needed. Footing me with the bill and making that up in hefty loans. By now I owe nearly 100 – 200k in loans that I struggle to pay back in this economy.
2) I was no longer learning. Many of the courses I had taken did not benefit me in any way. Likewise it felt like a very narrow minded system was in place for giving guidance. I had about 3 guidance councilors for whom 1 was more focused on the pre-law and pre-med kids. 1 was too swarmed by students to adequately give any feedback. 1 was so jaded by people in my major that she would rather ask you “Are you sure you want this major?” as opposed to giving proper guidance. Leading to the classes where only some of the courses benefitted me and my learning and others felt like an excuse to cull the herd and fill up 4 years.
——
In all honesty I am torn a bit when it comes to college since I know I learned a lot but it never felt like it was enough to warrant the disparity in cost and aggravation versus that learning. Likewise I really can’t say that those 4 years were at least not enjoyable, but that was more because of the people I met along the way.
Since dropping out I have fallen into a mountain of debt that makes me regret having gone in the first place but likewise my lack of a degree hasn’t stunted my job prospects as much as one would think. Sure when I try to apply to some places they ask for a B.S. in my field, but if I go in as a freelancer no one ever asks questions and still pay me what I need.
Either way, thank you consumerist, this post really resonated with me.
Story from the other side: I dropped out of college after a year (state university with 400-person classes, dorm living with hooligan party kids) and went to work at three part-time jobs. After three years, I landed a $35K a year IT job, and after changing jobs a couple of times, find myself 35 years old and making more than double that. I had no student loans to pay off, bought a house when I was 28, and work with peers both with and without degrees. It’s worked for me, and I think far too much emphasis is put on college degrees by HS counselors, college administrators, and frat-boy HR recruiters.
It really depends on what you want to do. If you’re going to work in an office or some kind of bureaucrat then an associates is probably good enough. But if you want to be an engineer or scientist then a degree is essential because the skills you learn aren’t the type you just learn on the job.
I got a bachelor’s in English. Now I work at a wine shop. I’d agree that majoring in something you love rather than something practical probably won’t make you successful.
I went to college at Ranken Technical college here in STL, So far if I had to compare to what I spent and to what my sister spent for college vs. what money we are making, I think I came out far better than the rest. I had a 2 year technical degree and have some FCC licenses and radio certifications.
I know guys that went to ITT that still work at burger king.
I did a lot of hard work to get here today, but am glad I made the journey.
My degree got me a good job.
I really enjoy all of this discussion about degree vs no degree, but doesn’t the type of degree count for something? An econ major isn’t qualified for an MD’s post while anything I’ve ever seen for engineering requires engineering degrees.
Am I wrong in assuming that this applies to people who majored in fields that really require a PhD to be able to work in that field?
College, yes. Grad school? Maybe not. Kept me out of the job market during years when jobs were plentiful, and I can’t help but think how much better off I might be financially if I’d been working – likely at a higher salary than I currently earn – for all those years after earning my BS.
Still, I no longer hold to the common wisdom that you have to get a college degree to make your way. Sure, college grads are employed at a higher rate in this economy than those with only a high school diploma, but there are far too many college grads mired in debt and underemployed. Who is really better off? A kid earning $25,000 a year with no debt or a kid earning $30,000 a year with $100,000 in debt?