Topic: Is College Worth it? So many graduates In Debt/Underemployed (Read 4883 times)

I agree with this.
I did study for over 4 years but most people I've seen are very naive and blind about reality.
I am now working in a field that have nothing to do with my studies and since few months I make more money in cryptocurrencies than in my job.
I know a lot of +5/+10years of studies people that are still doing internship or are just unemployed.


Even when college is free (in some college of some country, it is not everywhere in Europe !) you have to pay your food, rent and bills for years and that make European college far from being free (and I'm not including partying).
It is indeed a big difference but the result is about the same : unemployment & frustration.
The gap between what you expect from studies and reality is growing exponentially.


This.

The more important is to be able to learn fast and adapt to the word you live in.

I'm not aware of standard college curriculum's requiring a person to take physics or logic/rhetoric classes. In fact I think that would be quite rare if there are any that make such classes mandatory. Most colleges' "core" requirements consist of a mix of classes, many of which are really just making sure you learned everything that you should have learned in high school (ie basic to intermediate math, english, an art class, a couple foreign language classes, etc.)

The idea that people who go to college are somehow more refined or something probably was more valid back when only a small percentage of people went to college. Now that nearly everyone with a pulse goes to college, there would logically seem to be the same percentage of fanatics and lunatics with degrees as there are in the general population.

Depends on one's own capabilities, if you can not benefit from higher education, why burden the system? We need more training for those in non degreed areas of employment.

An education system can be managed on several ways. I would not want a "system of truth", a system where whatever bullshit they teach you you must assume as an unquestionable certified ultimate truth, but they do exist and are implemented pretty much anywhere, not just Madrassas, those are just too obvious as "a school for make a retard out of you".
In the end then "education" just means a system to teach you something, not that something is actually worthing it or even properly though.

Madrassa? LOL. I don't even call that education. I more had the typical four-year curriculum in mind, forcing you to have at least some familiarity with such things as constructing a logical argument, the basics of physics, the arts, and so on--at least introductory, not necessarily cutting-edge stuff.

Sorry, here depends on the education system. You can't say someone with a Madrasa's degree is in anywhere resilient to superstition, actually he most likely dumber at school end then at its begin.

There are really two questions here.

Whether college is "worth it" to the individual in a narrow, monetary sense is often a tough call, the exact answer depending on context. There are certainly cases where an individual can end up financially worse off in life having gone to college than if s/he had not done so.

It is a different thing altogether from society's standpoint. Better educated people are better citizens; they are trained to think better; they are less vulnerable to superstition, fraud, and charlatanry, political or otherwise. Educated people are also more interesting to be around, all other things being equal. Society is stronger and more civil when its members are better educated. This may not be much consolation for the poor guy with a PhD in literature or physics who is waiting tables or driving a taxi; but it is nonetheless true.

I mean if you really think about the jobs out there, there are a lot of jobs like:

-Customer service
-Sales
-HR

These are just a few examples but honestly what do people learn from college that is necessary to do those jobs?

Another good example is IT. If you don't already dick around with computers and you actually know so little about them that you would benefit from the low-level IT shit they teach you in college IT classes, then you are never going to be even so much as a half-way decent help desk employee let alone a real IT professional. If you do already dick around with computers, then you have nothing to really gain from the classes.

Programming is similar in that honestly, what they teach you in college programming classes pretty much goes right out the window when you start a job programming. I think it would be good to have taken like 2-3 classes just so you are familiar with the basic concepts of programming, but after the first couple all the higher level stuff they teach you doesn't wind up applying at your job at all. When you get hired by a good company they teach you from scratch how to code the way they want it done. If you work for a bad company they just expect you to learn it on your own and the college stuff you learned still doesn't help any.

Yet in all of these examples, if you look at job postings for these types of positions they all want college, and people with freaking master's degrees apply to these jobs it's absurd.

We had a funny one around not that long ago, a local administration office was hiring an undertaker where the minimum scholarship requirement was a complete high school. Not yet a degree, but still... why in hell do you need 12 years of school to dig with a shovel?!

For decades the Las Vegas area was a place where middle class workers could find stable high paying jobs without a college degree, but that changed radically when The Great Recession started.
Nationwide/globally the world needs to stop requiring a degree for basic level supervisor (and other) jobs.

This is pretty much good summary of what is going on. There is too many college graduates in the first place. There is not really job for everyone after college, also 'higher education' is overrated. Only practice at work actually makes you a good employee not years spent in college. Finally demands of employers about future employees are so divorced from reality that it is not even funny anymore.

The problem is pretty simple but difficult to fix. Companies are looking for more and more education as a way to "screen" applicants. Not because they really need people with degrees, but because they need a way to filter through the massive number of applicants they typically receive. I have seen job listings for positions that honestly don't legitimately even NEED a person with a bachelor's degree, yet they are requesting candidates have a Master's in order to apply. Ludicrous!

Since you basically need a bachelor's degree or higher unless you want to work at a gas station, everyone has to go to college, regardless of whether the 4 years of "learning" will actually help them do their job better or not.

If this is going to change, the first change will have to come from hiring organizations, because as long as 99% of job listings for any kind of decent job making a living wage list college as a requirement or strongly desired criteria, then people will keep feeling like their kids MUST attend college.

We must separate two views here, the European and American.
Americans need to take a loan to get to college, Europeans have it nearly free but paid by all with taxes.
Still can't figure which is worse, if put analphabet farmers paying others' college or slam dunk youth into deep debt.

Mainstream view:
You need a degree to compete for the best jobs.
If there is any way to get into college you must do it.

Rebel view:
If you are old enough to apply for college, and you haven't yet figured out how messed up the system is, then you have serious issues.
College is 4 years of indoctrination and partying.
Even if you like to party, avoid college to save a huge amount of money and student loan debt.

Summary:
If you are confident in your ability to start a successful business and/or learn valuable skills that do not require college, then college is a huge waste of time and money.

If you have the drive and are the kind of person who focuses on a goal and gets it college may not be the best for you.  You most likely will find away to succed IMO.

I agree that the current debt/exponentially decreasing acceptance rates make it difficult, but I can say as a current college student that I am better off learning what I am now than just taking my high school diploma and running with it.

It would be smart to attempt to figure out what kind of career they would be interested in, before spending thousands and thousands of dollars on that education.

Could be worth it to you, but you have to look at it, is it worth it for everyone. Would a better system be better?

Unfortunately you need a degree to get certain good jobs.

Yes in short it is worth it!