Apsara
Captain Cackle
With rising costs of formal education and online learning options available, many people are questioning higher education's value. Do degrees still guarantee success? What do you think?
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off-topic Is College Still Worth It?
- Thread starter Apsara
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For threads discussing subjects unrelated to the main forum topics.
I believe that degrees are still useful in today's world. There are still standard organizations that require degree certificates as one of the qualifications to work for them.
Though it is best to add skills certifications to it.
Though it is best to add skills certifications to it.
Degrees were never meant to guarantee anyone success. It was an illusion that was created in the past. But reality has set in now and we have many college graduates with degrees that don't even have a life to start with. The value that one has to offer is what guarantees success nowadays.
Only if you have a goal.
You should never go into debt unless you have a goal to make more than what you have spent. College is the same thing. If you won't use it, don't go into debt learning something you'll never use.
You should never go into debt unless you have a goal to make more than what you have spent. College is the same thing. If you won't use it, don't go into debt learning something you'll never use.
Shortie
Captain Cackle
Here in the UK, education for those under the age of 19 years old, the government funds that education to help them get a good start in a career. Due to the government funding, most take advantage and go to college to get the qualifications they need to ensure they have a solid future.
With the cost of living, though, I can understand why, if they have to pay for college themselves, they would much rather not and instead, skip college altogether.
With the cost of living, though, I can understand why, if they have to pay for college themselves, they would much rather not and instead, skip college altogether.
It is high time we start to preach to people to gain relevant skills and experience because it can be a powerful path to success. I am not condemning the degree, yes it can pay off too especially when combined with the relevant skills.
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I have told myself that my kids must not go to college as I was forced to compulsorily do so. Any child of mine that doesn't want to go to college would always have my support to pursue whatever interests them that have a commercial value. What is giving livelihood now is not what I studied in college.
A degree needs to be in an employable skill with high demand, or, yes, it can be a regret, unless you can build some successful blog etc. around philosophy or another job challenged degree.
How do you suppose to learn without going to college. You sure can build skills from real world or short courses but to develop through knowledge you need to go to college. However, unless you want to pursue academic career, for a lot of people going to college can be useless. For instance, if you want to become a waiter, why do you have to go to college for 4 years?
The college experience is fun for everybody, but you need blogging as a backup in case your major isn't employable.
The only course that I can go to college primarily to study now is a practical tech related course. That's the only kinds of course of course that can be useful to me. The rest are just waste of time and I won't go to college to study them. B
Do you all feel college was pushed in western countries due to the greed of colleges?
I don't think so. As far back as I can remember, college was always pushed as an up-and-out way to get ahead in life. The greed only came in when the government started heavily subsidizing (predatory) loans (side note: the government always messes things up).
Since the loans were government-backed, colleges could increase their prices for the same service, and because the mentality of the up-and-out life a college could give someone still exist(s/ed), they could continue to push the envelope in pricing as well as introducing new areas of study, which, for the most part, were degrees that added no value to society.
I could tell you from experience, everything in my MBA education is now on YouTube. It's just that you won't have that fancy title if you choose to learn it all elsewhere, nor the piece of paper that title is written on. There's no way that you can prove you have the same level of education, if not better, without that accredited piece of paper.
The problem with this is that every degree can help you pay off the debt. I emphasize help because the aforementioned predatory loans that people go into debt to get a degree have such a high interest rate. If you're not financially savvy, which you should be after college, you will never pay it down before that interest starts racking up to be more than the principal. You need to pay more than the minimum payment or you'll be paying 2-4x the balance over the lifetime of the loan.
I don't know why people don't understand this concept, even after getting a $150,000 law degree, that they need to take their $75,000-90,000 starting salaries and live below the means, like live at an income level of $60,000 in that case, to smack the loan down before it gets out of control.
They somewhat do guarantee you getting your foot in the door, in the US, at least. It might not be the job you want, but it's something until you can get experience to tack on your resume, along with the degree. It's really up to you after that.
As far as college still being worth it today, it's really dependent on the field. A STEM degree? A law degree? A medical degree? All worth it, even at the exuberant prices, if you do well in college and have the mindset to pay for it. Other degrees, not so much.
Though, for the most part, AI has ruined the education system. The fundamental system is now broken and needs to be revamped to ensure that students are learning the curriculum.
Sadly, a lot of young people aren't doing this. I was one of them. I owe a lot and always will because of it. I can't change that. All I can do is try to get my 19 year old to make better financial decisions. She is doing that, too. She is even investing in the stock market - proud of her!
No one should go into debt because they were trying to go to college. I don't even understand the need to go to college right now unless you are sure that what you are about to study won't become useless in the future as a result of AI emergence.
ActionAce
Major Mayhem
College degree is worth it. I wouldn't completely knock it off but dealing with a significant student loan needs caution. However, there is great importance in pursuing a college degree and it's very possible for college graduates to land high paying jobs.
Some degrees are more employable than others, (might be different now with AI), but nobody wants to do them because they're too hard.
Most degrees, even if you don't plan on entering that specific field, have some weight in the job market. It shows that you can apply yourself and get something done, so you are ahead of other applicants without a degree for many jobs.
Specifically speaking, for government jobs, you can start in a grade a lot higher with a degree than without a degree because they don't all necessarily look to see whether you have a degree in that field for that pay grade, just that you have a 4-year (or graduate for higher grade) degree. You may be able to negotiate steps a step or two higher (more pay in that grade that is typically earned by years worked in the grade), especially if the degree is for the field and there are no other suitable candidates.
Don't get me wrong, though. There are worthless degrees that don't carry over to anything other than teaching for that worthless degree. If you have a degree that's not in high demand, you might as well double-major with a general studies degree so you can put that on your application instead as a fallback.
Hard work pays off, though!
Elon Musk is reported to have said "I didn't go to Harvard but Harvard graduates work for me." I believe he said this to prove that practical experience and intelligence matters more over traditional schooling. However, he does have a degree from the University of Pennsylvania. I have a Master's in Business Administration degree from the local university. However, I wasn't taught anything that I do as a marketer in my university course.
Some people manage to build knowledge through self learning and experience, but for most of us college and university are the centers of knowledge. If you want to run a roadside tea stall you certainly don't need an MBA but if you want to work for Microsoft, having an MBA can be helpful.
I'd just like to expand on the nuance of that statement.
If you want to run a roadside tea stall, you don't need an MBA to do so. You could just brew tea and sell it on the street, provided it's legal. However, if, for instance, you're in New York City and want to become a street vendor, you might be lucky enough to get a permit for $200. Though that is very unlikely, and you will have to rent someone's permit for $15,000-$200,000+. To do so, you now need the capital to start a tea stall. And, an MBA could be critical to securing that type of funding.
Now, not everywhere is NYC.
However, the premise of working capital to start a tea stall remains the same.
Who's going to buy the cups, tea, etc., before you begin? Unless you have saved money, that money is not just going to be freely given to you to start a venture. You're going to have to prove to someone that you're capable of making that money back. For a tea vendor, it might not be much, and the funding is readily available. But, if you step it up to needing fresh meat or vegetables daily as another type of vendor, those expenses are going to be much greater than tea.
That's where the pivotal role of some form of higher education may come into play.
Very much understandable.
Even if you need a bank loan and you are already giving your property as a collateral, you need an educational background to convince the bank that you have the capacity to run the business. While traditional education does not guarantee you success, it is the basic foundation for knowing how to do things.
I get your point and I am glad that you also understand that there are certain degrees that would add little to your value as a person and it is more disheartening when you are staying in an environment where such degrees are not valued.
I have two Master degrees, one being an MBA. I found getting a career with them to be the hardest thing I've done. One employer said I was overqualified with the degree. I didn't even ask for that much.
Awesome! I was going to get an International Relations degree with a focus on International Business or Terrorism/Counter-Terrorism, along with my MBA (leaning towards C/CT as IB would work for the private sector, but not much here), but I felt the courseload would be too much while also pursuing my MBA. Although I did my undergrad in about 2 years by doubling my work, I knew it might be possible. In retrospect, I probably could've done it, and it was a missed opportunity; however, I would've also suffered severe burnout for a while after, as I did with my undergrad.
I hear this quite often, and it's usually from people applying to small businesses. In these cases, I think it's a matter of them having some guilt in hiring you because they know the position doesn't quite live up to what an MBA can provide over what they are willing to give.
For those positions, I would just recommend putting your undergrad on the resume. If from that, they question whether you're really qualified or not, you could pull the MBA (or other graduate degree) out and let it be known then.
It's much easier with government jobs because the education qualification is clear: You either meet that for the grade, or you need the experience for it, with no in between.
Yes, exactly (in regard to choosing difficult degrees).
But then again, no college degree is easy, but for some reason, people don't want math or science.
