This article has been contributed by Daniel Ameduri of FutureMoneyTrends.com
Colleges Continue to Scam Parents and Students
By Daniel Ameduri
As I sat down to enjoy some smoked salmon at a recent BBQ I attended, I ended up at a table with two recent high school graduates.
To my disappointment, when I asked them what their plans were for the summer and beyond, both said they were heading to college.
With student loans and a wasteful four years in front of them, I couldn’t help but ask why.
Is there really anything that takes 4 to 8 years to learn or become an expert in?
Seriously, what a waste of time. Even Ham, the first ape that went into space, only trained for 2 years.
Colleges have convinced nearly everyone that you need a degree to be an effective employee or higher-income adult, but this is just not true.
I can tell you as an employer that I’ve never asked a single person what their grades were and I’ve never asked to see a degree.
The ugly truth is the ones with college degrees usually end up writing SEO articles for $15 an hour and the skilled workers who’ve been writing code as a hobby or editing videos for years on a MAC end up as managers making $75+ per hour.
Young people today who sign up for college are committing to 3 things.
1. Debt: It’s pure insanity that you’re required to pay for information that is freely available to all.
Think about it: a Google search, a 6-week or 6-month course, on the job training… All of these beat the price of college tuition.
Why anyone would borrow money for a college degree makes no sense. Unless the government has screwed your industry with a mandatory college degree in order to get some sort of license, like to practice medicine or law, what exactly is it that you need to pay the college for?
2. Four unproductive years: Ouch! One of the biggest negative effects is that you’re detouring a life for 4 full years or more.
It’s totally unnecessary at this point. When I was 18 years old, I made $55,000 while my peers sat in a classroom learning things that were forgotten before they even left the campus that day.
By the time I was 22 years old, instead of having a degree, I had made $260,000 working at a job for the past four years, I owned two businesses that cash-flowed, and I had over 10 rental properties, not including about $400,000 I had made from flipping homes as a side gig.
3. A workforce that isn’t there: Let’s be honest, colleges are preparing our young people for an economy that no longer exists!
We live in a global freelance economy. Employers want results for the lowest possible price, and they have the entire world to hire from.
The entitlement mindset and enormous false expectations a college puts in a person’s mind are only setting them up for failure.
Summary: The disservice in teaching people that education comes only from school has put millions of families in debt.
The college bubble — both the 1.2 trillion worth of student loans and the lie that you need a degree — is literally coming apart at the seams.
If you know a young person, help them get ahead by not going to college.
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The school of life is the best education I could have ever wanted.
I too studied in the ‘school of hard-knocks’ and looking back, I have no regrets. Having said that, not everyone has the ‘gift’ or aptitude that the writer of the article had. That is amazing that he was able to make so much money at such a young age. But, it isn’t that it is not possible, look at Mark Zuckerberg. He became a multibillionaire within the span of 10 years! But, how many can do that? It is still worthy to spend the time and get a college education if you can do it. Hopefully, study in a field where there is innovation and demand. Computer science, life science, medicine, nursing, etc., still has a lot of demand. The most important thing is to follow your passion, listen to your heart.
Louisiana Eagle
Laeagle, uh, I love what you do, but I have to respectfully disagree about any college degrees still being useful. Way too much political garbage in the curriculums these days and they are supposedly required courses. I don’t think college is worth it, but that’s just me.
The four years I spent at college was not a waste for me. I partied all the time. Four years of awesome parting, and when I awoke from my drunken stupor, I had a degree!
I was smart enough to pay as I went, so no debt for me.
I even found my wife at college, married 27 years and counting.
For me, college was just like the movie Animal House, except I didn’t get kicked out at the end.
Well worth the experience. People should not be in such a rush to grow up.
John it’s simple dicks like you that suck out all you can, at the cost of others. I would bet you haven’t done a productive thing in your parasitic exsistance .
Braveheart,
Sometimes it takes time to figure things out. Look at Steven Jobs, he went and studied ‘Calligraphy’ of all things! What kind of a job could you get doing that! Yet he found it interesting and he attributes it to having helped him to develop Apples iconic system:
“Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.”
“None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.” From the commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs. This is a must read. Really a classic! He ends by admonishing the graduates to “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
In my humble opinion, education should only add value to you as a person. ‘Gender studies’ may seem useless to most of us but under the right circumstances it could be invaluable to someone or some situation. I agree that there is a lot of detrimental stuff that is being taught and purveyed but it is up to the individual to glean the good out of the bad.
Louisiana Eagle
Laeagle, that’s an interesting story about Steve Jobs. Your last paragraph is especially true, as long as it’s the RIGHT KIND of education. I don’t think it hurts to examine gender studies aka the ideology of the feminists in order what’s going through their minds and what kind of intentions they’ll have toward men. It’s especially true that the individual has to determine and separate the good from the bad.
Just google “S.C.U.M. Manifesto” by Valerie Solaris, and you have the gist of feminist studies. She’s the one who shot Andy Warhol. Her evil essay has become the basis of almost all Women’s studies. The Hildebeast was inspired by it.
If only I is went to college I could have been a supibisir in this here security firm. Now looks at me, my cousin from Georgiaa wouldn’t be live in off me preps I drive down once every three months in me mini van.
Nofilter78, you sound more like noBRAIN78. BTW, what are you smoking? I might want to try some. [SARCASM]
Does “the school of hard knocks produce: engineers, physicians, pharmacists, scientists, geneticists, or architects? I have never met one.
How many of those professionals you mentioned are needed? How many grads coming out with those degrees?
Mark Zuckerberg when to college and stole a classmates social networking project, and turned the other guys ideas into his own fraudbook business. Go look up the facts. Mr Z. is an intellectual properties thief. You too can be a successful thief, just go to college like Gews do, and steal other people ideas, or work in the government and sell Military secrets and patents to China. Bill Gates also stole a lot of other people’s computer processing ideas and work and intellectual property. Intellectual property theft is the most costly of all thefts.
Like NAFTA, We sent all our tooling, blue prints, ideas and patents off to China to exploit, so we could get crap for 15% less at Wallmart. See how well that worked out for the US and our people.
Men who can->do, men who can’t->teach
Meanwhile, over in the People’s Socialist Thugocracy of Illinois,some facts you can use:
1.) http://www.bettergov.org/news/six-figure-pension-payouts-soar
Over the past year, the number of government retirees in Illinois drawing a yearly pension of $100,000 or higher has ballooned by more than 18 percent, putting added pressure on the state’s underfunded pension systems, a new analysis shows. The number of government retirees getting six-figure retirement payouts grew to 14,320 – up from 12,056 the year before. Those getting six-figure pensions include retired cops, lawmakers, judges, teachers — and an oral surgeon from the University of Illinois at Chicago believed to be the state’s only half-million-dollar-a-year government pensioner. Leslie Heffez, 59, a former UIC professor now in private practice in Highland Park and Chicago, is believed to have the highest public-employee pension in the state — $547,862.
2.) Mapping the $100,000+ Illinois Teacher Pensions Costing Taxpayers Nearly $1.0 Billion
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2016/04/22/mapping-the-100000-illinois-teacher-pensions-costing-taxpayers-nearly-1-0-billion/#420ecd87237e Includes this “gem”: “In 2014 I wrote in Forbes about a pair of union lobbyists who substitute taught for one-day in the public schools and then started collecting over $1 million of lifetime public ‘teacher’ pension payouts.”
3.) Full database of pensions in IL. Nice non-work, if you can get it: http://www.bettergov.org/pension-database
4.Who’s collecting the biggest IL pensions: https://rebootillinois.com/2015/04/16/whos-collecting-the-biggest-illinois-pensions/
True, but there are enormous opportunities to screw cheerleaders at schools?
Very true. That and sorority girls, keg parties, loose female grad students . . .
Actually the contempt the author shows for education shows me that he sucks at math. Has no respect for people better than himself. He only got lucky on a few house deals (if he is not lying) but he surely did not invent a laser or high speed microprocessor. I have no respect for him.
Life happens whether you are in college or not, so you always get that experience one way or the other. College and University exposes young people to new ideas; some useful some not so much, but either way they expand a young mind and present possibilities to that mind that it would otherwise not experience.
University need not be an expensive experience. Go to community College and live at home. Take classes in business, anthropology, history, or psychology to provide you with a new perspective. Pell grants will pay your full tuition to university and those grants are there to really SUBSIDIZE the university, not the individual.
Work part time and buy a used car.
A couple years at a community college gives a young person an opportunity to grow and mature and experiment with both new and classical ideas that might fit your natural aptitudes.
I was in my own apartment and working part time as a senior in high school at 17.
Work is good, but school is better at that age. That education need not be college or university unless you are planning on a professional career as a lawyer, doctor, professor, etc which professions require a degree. Everyone has a particular skill set with distinct aptitudes.
Find your passion and pursue it.
BTW, my posse and I single handedly turned our University into the NUMBER ONE PARTY SCHOOL IN THE NATION ( according to Playboy Magazine) by the time I was a senior while working my way through and making the Dean’s List. It’s not that hard if you apply yourself. 🙂
Written by someone with a college degree. Does everyone need to go to college, no. But some should and do. Who cares about the rest of the idiots?
The worst managers are those with no degrees. They carry a chip on their shoulder that they don’t have one.
written by a true jackass that thinks his degree makes him smartest jackass in the room, BUT really it is just braying like an ass. School of hard knocks taught me about these jackasses.
I tried to have a conversation with my son’s girlfriend who was distraught because her wages had been garnisheed because of unpaid student loans. I asked what was her degree about. She answered Gender Studies. When I asked what job application required that degree as a prerequisite I was labelled a racist. And any further questions I had such as did you decide this course on your own or were you pressured into taking it will just have to wait. So I am a racist with white privilege because I asked a simple question.
BTW she cleans campgrounds and clerks in a convenience store presently.despite the Albatross around her neck.
Grandpa, it sounds like your son may need to cut her loose. She’s obviously been brainwashed with the leftist feminist garbage. If she really believes that garbage, she’s going to be nothing but trouble for your son.
I agree DB but what is that old saying that love is blind. It reminds me of what my own dearly departed mother said about such, “kissin don’t last, cookin do”.
Like that Guy I met who was on a cross country biking adventure, He said his college degree was in Philosophy.
I asked him if he ponders every day, “To be or not to be?” “That is the Question” As he peddles his bike daily on the trail.
Smart
Grandpa, I just hope your son wakes up and smells the coffee before making any serious mistake. I wish him the best.
Exactly, any dipshit who would get a degree in Gender Studies has got to be the dumbest person in the world.
There is no converting that person. She will be working at Walmart for the rest of her life.
These kids are just conduits to gain access to their parents and future employers money. Nothing more than “tools”, so she qualifies.
JS, damn right. Especially if she’s a full-blown feminazi. Sounds like she already gives people reasons to avoid her.
i think gender studies would be an interesting subject– considering the fact that some men are dominating and abusive to women, thus destroying the balance between the feminine and masculine energies, which are extremely important in order to the avoid the destruction of the earth.
Basically, we need the masculine energies of power, go-get-em attitude (courage and forging ahead), rules, laws, reason. However, without the female energies of love, compassion, intuition, etc, we end up being too aggressive, too selfish, and fight to the death (like two bulls, destroying each other). We need balance.
The neocons, obviously stupid, ruthless and concerned only with their own needs, are hell bent on destroying the earth. They care nothing for us! Without compassion and love, our world is nothing. We need balance between the male energies and the female energies. God is Love. However, He has certain laws, which if we don’t obey, will lead to our destruction. He has the divine qualities of the two– Male and Female energies.
You have got. To be. Shitting me.
Really????
Wow. Kool Aid.
Jehovah God gives mankind every thing he needs to have a happy and prosperous life. His word the BIBLE contains all instructions for every life situation, if only mankind would read and obey those instructions. It’s all there for you, but some are too lazy or like their life of useless habits too much to make the change. It’s not about self, but about respect and giving to others without expecting something in return. It’s about being a caring human being. Just think what the world would be like if every single person had this kind of genuine attitude toward others. I’m not anywhere near perfect, and I have done my share of selfish sinning. I do try harder now because I finally learned the hard way that I did not know what was best for me. God knows what’s best for us, after all He created us. Listen to Him. Waiting
Even with its drawbacks, a college education is still something most high IQ people should have. Those with an IQ of 95 to 110 might be better off with a trade. Trades people apprentice which is a kind of education in itself.
A person with an IQ above 135 can easily do just about anything they want. A college education for these bright people allows them to “qualify” for positions requiring a degree. And many jobs are closed to those without one.
My friend studied philosophy before switching to Science. What is a waste of time and money for some, is absolutely necessary for others. One size does not fit all.
And for those who want to get a degree in gender studies, don’t laugh. They may wind up making alot of money. I have been doing my own research on YouTube. What I have learned is awsome. Some differences between male and female include:
The shape of the facial bone structure. Males have large jaws and bigger teeth. The brow ridge above the eye is pronounced in the male. Males have bigger ears and longer arms. Males have straight backs, higher belly buttons, small hips, skinny thighs with thigh gaps. Males have thicker necks with an Adams apple. Males have an indent in the hip area. Males have larger hands and feet. Males have larger heels than women. Males have a longer ring finger than women. Women have longer index fingers. Women have rounder, wider hips which are wider than their shoulders. Men have broad wide shoulders and the hips are narrower than the shoulders. Regardless of height, these things are proportional.
Men have more testosterone and women more estrogen. By giving these hormones to pre pubescent children, one can suppress the formation of the natural shape of an individual. Depending on how young when treatments are begun determines how much one can manipulate the outcome.
There are many brain and psychological differences between male and female.
Male and female are designed to be complimentary.
__There has to be some gold at the end of the rainbow so one spends one’s life chasing rainbows. Maybe that’s why a rainbow is a perfect symbol for men who want to be women and vice versa.
__
__
B, interesting post. Sounds like some people have been playing God.
You didn’t know that men have an Adam’s apple?
Wow.
All I know is, women who want to become men have to have a surgical procedure called an “adadicktome”.
Archivist:
I’ve always known that men have an Adam’s apple. What I learned is that a woman given testosterone will grow one. I also learned that men can have there Adam’s apple reduced in size but upon close inspection there remains in most cases a smaller tell tale Adam’s apple.
__
See, she learned to identify a$$holes and racists in college. That is worth something. I teach classes in trigger control and fast sight alignment.
These gender studies assholes are fascists.
How about a degree in fucking Eugenics while we’re at it? Same shit.
Anonymous, you nailed it. This was a damn good article that every kid considering college needs to read. Besides college being a scam, there’s way too much libturd politics in the curriculums. Plus they have become totally anti-male and in some cases anti-white. A good vocational or trade school is someone’s best bet these days. All of the snowflakes out there will melt. They don’t stand a chance.
Take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots.
It’s not much to ask for the price they paid.
Remember: freedom is never free!
Interesting article about those who signed the Declaration of Independence.
They Signed For Us
“At the end of this column, you’ll find a link that will take you to a free copy of the book, “They Signed for Us.” You may read it online or download it and print your own copy. The file also includes a list of all of the signers and the states they represented, plus the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.”
http://personalliberty.com/2010/07/02/they-signed-for-us-2/
They don’t need us anymore, that’s why they plan of getting rid of the extra surplus, as in the 300,000,000 on our continent. The numbers don’t match up. From what I was told, from my scientist buddy, its that the elites would have to literally replicate identical cities, meaning that you would have to build and construct 4 more cities the size of Houston all over Texas, and create the same 5 million identical jobs. What does the people do next, breed and over populate those cities, take, eat, eat, take, destroy, and pollute the environment. No matter what the elites do, the humans keep breeding in mass numbers, then the fecal runoff in the oceans, rivers, atmosphere will be over the top leading to global environmental destruction, which then leads to planet wide ecosystem collapse. He tells me, that they ruling elites and extra terrestrials that control them, told them, that if they don’t get this under control, that they will come down here to remove us by taking planet wide military action. Laugh all you all want, I am just telling you what his was told.
HCKS.
I’m not laughing, Houston. Considering there are infinite number of planets in the universe, to think we are the only intelligent life forms would be ludicrous! Of course there are other life forms in the universe!
However, the experience I’ve had (not personally but close contacts) the ET’s are friendly! Much more advanced spiritually, much more highly evolved than us. Read, for example, Shirley MacLaine’s book, “Out on a Limb”. Laugh all you’ll want but the ETs she described in her book (a close friend had a close encounter) were the EXACT SAME DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ETS my close friend had!!! And my friend told me her story decades before Shirly’s book came out!!
Not only were the ETs identical in appearance but also in personality, their concerns, admonitions, etc.
I agree except, We are not an intelligent life form.
With one microscopic chip implant into the brain you become a walking encyclopedia.
Knowledge is NOT going to be learned, it will be downloaded!
By 2045 it will be reality….!!!!!
Get ready for UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME…!!!
Those dreaded humans multiply like bunny rabbits. Insects even.
Nukes are like roach spray for people. Thank the ET’s for giving us nuke technology.
It’s all part of the depopulation experiment. I’m not laughing. Everything happens for a
reason. They can’t abort all of us so they need warfare to thin the herd.
Compare a university to a car manufacturer. A car maker produces a whole line of vehicles: sedans, coupes, SUVs, pickups, etc. If a certain type of vehicle doesn’t sell, the inventory builds up and they shut down the assembly line. If they can’t fix it, they stop producing that vehicle. A university turns out graduates with different types of degrees but there is no feedback. The graduates end up in their parents’ basement. If they are lucky, they get some kind of low-salary job and start paying off their student loan. The Universities continue to churn out graduates with that type of degree. There is no real feedback.
Agreed, but there are exceptions. My son graduated 2 years ago with a BSN – 4 year Nursing Degree. After he passed the State exams, he got a job the next day. He is currently being pursued to work other places for substantial more money. Male nurse, BSN. It was worth it; however he went to a local university and did some time at community college. No student loans. Unfortunately some of his friends did not make similar wise decisions.
I skipped college for a year out of Highschool, and worked in a factory. After a year of that, I decided to go to college and learn something, so I would never have work in a factory again. Then after a year I found College to be a waste of time, because I liked making money, and I like work, and will do most anything. But to make a living, I want to be in charge of my destiny. After trying lots of different jobs, and then going back again to finish college in my late 20’s with a high GPA, I have been self-employed in the financial industry for over 25 years. I made a lot of money and spent a lot of money, and have had the time of my life, including world travel and plenty of women and boats.
Now I want to be retired, but find I am just tired. lol So am working when ever I want still at my own business, to build up some accounts and live off the monthly residual incomes. And no its not selling Insurance.
Advice, Never accept a no, persistence pays, stay curious and if you need to know something, go do the research and learn it. Buy New, Buy Quality, then you won’t have to waste your life and income away by fiddling and having to constantly fix old shit. Especially Autos. With a newer car you will always be to your career on time. And 90% of success is just showing up. Be propt and on time and do what you say, and deliver more than you promise.
You can either go to a job you hate, punch a clock, and work to make a living, wondering if that week will be your last week and paycheck, or go work for yourself, and do something that you enjoy to do, to make a life, come and go as you please, no schedule, you will never fire yourself, and having that flexibility in time management, opens up your life to take advantage of opportunities you find along the way no matter what time it is. Educate yourself enough to be an expert in field you enjoy. Successful people do the hard shit, lazy and dump people fail to want to, or know how to do.
You don’t have to go to college to be smart, and being self-employed for all these years, If I wanted a raise I would go find more business, so the earning potential is unlimited. I have never asked for my resume or asked to take A DRUG TEST. HA. Self Employed Business Ownership has its privileges. College teaches you how to learn and do research and write a paper or letter and present it professional. Street smarts with an education teaches you how to adapt, win an be successful. If you are not a very competitive person, you need to go work for someone else, to be told what to do and what time to show up to do it. Keep your life simple.
CSS,
You make some excellent points! I like it. I also appreciate where you are coming from. Your story would make a great graduation speech! Develop it a little more and you could be the next one to inspire millions!
Louisiana Eagle
Is the author SERIOUSLY telling me that my degree in 18th Century Belgian Lesbian Musicology, which I took six years to complete, was not worth the $100k I spent to fund my leftist socialist professors?
Gee… NOW you tell me!
About this article.
1. “Debt.” If you can’t pay you can’t play. Simple as that. What you are paying for is the concept of the university. It is not that the knowledge isn’t freely available, but how are your supposed to separate the real from the fake. That is what a university professor does. Knowledge is how it is organized.
2. “Four unproductive years.” Excuse me? The best sex of my life was had regularly during my college years. The women were young. They had not be completely f*cked with yet and were still open and not all bitter and angry. Plus, in college you could still close the door and stay in bed for three days straight. All I have ever learned about women came from women. Those 4-years were the best education I have ever had. Try putting a price on that. You can’t.
3. “. . . a [U.S.] economy that no longer exists.” That statement has practically been a truism since the tech crash of 2000. The fate of our economy was sealed by the Crash of 2008 – 2009.
Since my parents graduated from college in the early 1960s taxes have doubled. Doubled. Think of it. When an income tax was first established in 1895 the marginal rate was 1-percent. Now taxes eat up almost 40-percent of all incomes.
Pensions are now non-existent; that is your job. Your options are all lies. The 401Ks just expose people’s old-age nest eggs to risk. Obama with his myIRAs was just establishing another revenue stream. Same with Obamacare.
Just look at what happened during the Crash of 08-09. Most people lost on the average 40-percent of their life savings. Those already retired were screwed. How is anybody supposed to save for anything when all we are are revenue streams for the U.S. Government? Sheep baby. Sheep being led to the slaughter. You will never retire, except homeless, under some highway overpass.
So basically you spent 4 years in a whorehouse learning about whoredom? Good for you. Hope your daughter has a similar education.
One thing about life and death, here in Florida you sure don’t want to die outside, like in your yard or have heat stroke or a heart attack. The Turkey Buzzards will be all over you shortly, striping your body to the bones in a days time. I see road kill stripped and eaten by a dozen birds within an hour. Nothing left but bones. How’s that for advice on “where not to die.”
And if the Vultures can’t eat you all by sunset the Wild Pigs and Boars will have you finished off by next day light.
I am glad I got my degree, it proved I am not as smart as the author. That’s something at least that I learned.
In the words of Josey Whales ” Buzzards have to eat. Same as worms.”
Unfortunately, to rub salt into their wounds, how many of them will wind up working for a boss/owner whom didn’t even finish high school?
what do they tell them in schools these days, i didn’t pay attention at the time. Do they lie ? They probably lie by omission, but really this country has become a scam in almost every way
I fully agree that college is not for everyone. Most kids get useless degrees that cost just as much to get as a STEM degree, but don’t earn squat for income.
I guess the real question is, what do we do with all our idiots?
The solution thus far is to give them preference for government, teaching, law, and management jobs.
Because we have so many idiots, industry has gone over to robotics, reducing the need for troublesome workers.
So we now have big Government, bad schools, overbearing litigation, unethical corporations, and a lot of people that can’t, or don’t want to earn a living anymore.
I should propose a solution, but I’d sound like Pol Pot,
so I won’t. I suspect nature will take care of the problem,
natural selection and survival of the fittest sort of stuff.
Don’t worry the snowflakes will self destruct.
If the empire is in its terminal stage, why bother with college. SHTF University.
Colleges have convinced nearly everyone that you need a degree to be an effective employee or higher-income adult, but this is just not true.
Tell that to my corporation.
You want in to private sector, oh yes you do. They’re in collusion. Shit I’ve seen lately people needing Master’s to do shit design work that arguably a high school student could easily do.
You want in to .gov that’s a totally different story. Go trade school and self train on the job, you’ll be miles ahead of anyone else if you’re self motivated.
I look at a teaching degree as a screening process.
You want just any idiot on the street in a classroom??
I didn’t think so–my gripe was the core classes, the BS classes; I gained knowledge from only a fourth of the classes–yep–one year would have done it.
If you can’t get what’s needed to succeed in teaching in one year, then there ya go, bud–you didn’t make it–the screening process worked!!!
College is not a waste as long as the attendee pays his or her own bills & loans. It is a waste when the graduate comes home, plays video games all day and lays around in a Marxist fog.
My son, an average ‘C’ student in High School, now 20 years later, through hard work, owns and runs a multi-million $ construction company.
My daughter, straight ‘A’ student in High School, college degree in ‘Communications’, earns an average salary, works in an office and hates it. Just lives for the week-end. (The term ‘TGIF’ sound familiar ?) My son takes several extended vacations each year, a world traveler, always First-Class.
Learn a Trade !!
Your son owns the office. Your daughter just works in it. That us the difference.
A Brit friend told me that England uses what we call High School thru grade 9 or 10, then either a university prep, or a vocational prep that can be industrial, construction, medical or many other fields. It seemed to work very well for him. Just think of all the high-priced trade “schools” in the US, after one struggles thru algebra & so many other subjects.
It depends on what your getting a degree in. If its Math / Science loaded it will pay off. A friends son studied insects, he was fascinated by them. He was just shy of a 4.0 GPA. No jobs in that field so he applied to Medical School but was turned down do to a lack of biology courses. He took them and was then admitted to Medical School. He has a rural Kentucky practice and while just a GP his “speciality” is diseases from insects. He accepts barter, gold and the like along with more conventional payments as some of this patients don’t have insurance or much money. My nephew sells commercial insurance and makes close to $200K yr. His degree was in economics and he has average grades. His employer would only hire college graduates.
Generally this article is correct but Engineering, Medicine, REAL Sciences are still good fields and do require an education. Going for the humanities and worse is an economic dead end. My son is an electrician and earns a comfortable living that will in all probability be in demand throughout his life.
College degrees are way over rated. For every student that has been successful there are about a thousand who cant find a high paying job. At one time a High School diploma was a desired thing. It would open a lot of doors. And back then a HS diploma was worth more than a college degree is today. This nation is in decline and with that decline those college degree jobs will diminish. I know two brothers who are a bit younger than me. Both where very smart. They got degrees in Engineering. Worked for a Brand name outfit in Milwaukee Wis. And the company gave them the boot because they could outsource the engineering to India cheaper. They are now driving truck. If that scrap of paper was so great in value those students ought to be able to pay off their loans and move out of their parents house..
If I were 18 today, I wouldn’t even go to college; I’d go to a tech school and be a welder or oil rig worker or robot repairer; you’ll be in more demand than most engineers and save all that tuition.
if you live on nothing, you could be set up to retire by 35 and then go get the wife and kids and some easy ass teaching job with summers off to supplement.
I wish I did this about once a month.
in the future, if you can fix things, there is money to be made. most of the brainheads can’t use a screwdriver. best trades are electrical or automotive, go price a mechanic or electrician. if you can’t fix your problem yourself, you are going to pay.
Old Guy,
My personal experience says differently.
I earned my degree later in life (age 34).
GI bill and employer tuition re-reimbursement paid
for a really expensive private school
education.
That education was worth around $300,000
in increased earnings by the time I retired.
That’s $300,000 for 7 years of part time
school effort, that someone else paid for.
Granted I’m a Real Time software systems designer
and Electronics engineer. They don’t replace
American educated people when they have
good ones close at hand.
They replace Coders which is a two year certificate
(I have one somewhere), but the kids these days
don’t want to do that sort of work and the ones that
do that work, are like longshoremen, paid way to much,
because they are “special”. I have a ILWU card somewhere
and I don’t think I’m special.
My point is, a college degree worth having
is a really, really hard thing to earn.
Pick the one that suits you the best and one that will
earn the biggest return on your time and efforts.
If you want to be a stupid lazy shit, then I really don’t
care for you and your $100,000 Poly Sci or Law degree.
my father and stepfather both went to school pursuing not degrees that helped them define who they are or to better connect with the world or some other BS, they went for degrees that they thought would make them a good living in engineering and business.
Took me a while to find out what that will be for my life but I have been in it now for 20 years; computer programming, about the only thing I think I might be more financially successful in over the next 20 years would be robotics.
i’ll get in touch with my feelings after I have a big bank account and some hard to take away from me revenue producing assets like real estate.
I started college at 13… by 15 when I started looking for a summer job, I realized that my degree was utterly worthless. But… I was stuck, because I couldn’t go back and start 9th grade at 16… (I skipped from 8th straight into college)
The only things I learned at college:
The cost is absolutely absurd, Where does all that money go?
Professors that have research grants following them can do ANYTHING they want.
College DOES NOT teach you HOW to do anything. No matter what degree you have, you’ll be wholly unable to perform ANY job. My programming classes… Never taught me how to program. They taught history behind some commands, then threw you in a lab and told you to write a program… and you have to learn that on your own.
English classes never taught how to write essays… they just told you to do it, and learn it on your own.
With a Computer Science degree, I had to take Differential Equations (a step above Calculus)… And in my entire life of high level IT, I’ve never once used DE, Calc, or even Algebra. And guess what… if I need it, I’d just look it up. -_-
And why do history books need new revisions every two years? It’s not like 3,000 year old history changes all that often. -_-
College is a scam.
I was top of my class school of hard knocks
Kind of like Trump and his idiot supporters insisting that coal is the way to go. Coal is a dinosaur from the past. Move on from it. Adapt or die.
While a store manager at wal-mart..we had cashier’s with master degrees making $7.50 he..just because you have a college degree.does not mean you will be successful in life..and I know people who quit high school that are very wealthy..
Good points made but don’t leave out Career Technical Education (CTE, in the old days known as “shop”).
People learn actual skills they need to get real jobs. Auto mechanics, water treatment operators, dental hygienists, etc.
CTE is also Cinderella to the wicked step sisters because to college snobs, it isn’t “real” college. There is more PRESTIGE in a degree.
Any bone head can get a degree these days, even the higher degrees. The bar has been so far lowered that nobody can do the limbo under it.
My son learned the modern hard way. He spent a few years doing an humanities degree (just finished) and picking up a £60K debt along the way. He worked at Starbucks and other places(the most usefull entry on his CV) and rarely attended lectures working mostly from the internet. As I told him he now realises he has been scammed and that his degree is fairly worthless. His plan now is to do a Masters and pick up more debt.
Hopefully he will choose a usefull higher degree that might make him employable. I am not too optimistic. Still the UK really does have a fairly decent economy not being in the Eurozone which gives him some hope of an economic futre – for now..
“If you know a young person, help them get ahead by not going to college.”
This is one of those generalities that is presented as if it applied to everyone. Depending on what a young person wants to do, they may or may not need a college degree. If they do, they also may or may not need a graduate degree. Just about everything in medicine, law, science, math, education, and engineering REQUIRES a degree even to get an interview.
There are many good-paying jobs that are skilled positions that do not require a college degree. There are also people who are not a good fit for a college environment and who will waste their time and money trying it.
There are many good community college programs that can train people to do various necessary jobs that can be quite rewarding. Welders, auto mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, machinists, and others can make very good money if they have the right skills.
So, while college is not required for many good jobs it is for some. Avoiding the one size fits all approach to job training would be an excellent 1st step.
One must have a marketable skill set period. High school is not enough. I work for a community college. A fully researched career path with applicable certifications or degrees is essential to gainful employment. There is success outside of traditional education paths but it always takes money to make money. Education is an investment. If I did not pursue a graduate level degree my earning potential would be sorely decreased. Stating the obvious. Good luck to the young ones- it’s a tough job market out there with no signs of improvement on the horizon.