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gambrinus
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Location: Boulder, CO
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 Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:57 pm |
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| CubaLibre wrote: |
| I wouldn't really recommend college to anybody, except maybe engineers. Unless you find a school with an alternative curriculum that actually teaches you things (like mine), you're basically going for the piece of paper at the end. Whether that piece of paper is worth it to you is a decision you should make apart from cultural norms. |
I understand this point of view, but heavily disagree with it. You're never going to get a better opportunity to focus on learning about a broad variety of topics than in your college years. That educational background ultimately makes you a better, more capable person. Believe me, in my daily working life, while I interact plenty with people who didn't go to college and were still able to become perfectly competent at their jobs, you can tell they don't have the same understanding of why they do things the way they do, and probably will not be able to make the jump to a higher level. That said, I think it's important to put some effort into your schooling, since it's easy to coast to a degree with mediocre grades and never taking any classes that hold much interest to you. I much preferred going to a large public school where I could find just about any class I could think of, and personally think going to a smaller private school would be extremely limiting. |
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gambrinus
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Location: Boulder, CO
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| Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:13 pm |
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| CubaLibre wrote: |
| This makes some sense, but when you really think about it treating a typical college in this way is a moneysink. You've already pointed out that it's easy to coast to a degree and never put any thought into it, but if you've got to put your own thought into it to make it worth doing then you could do just as well on your own without the college. Perhaps college forces people in some small degree to have a broader range of knowledge than they would obtain on their own. But anyone who could really take advantage of the opportunities presented by a typical factory-college (and the public/private distinction matters very little on this point) could just as well take advantage of those opportunities by studying on their own time. |
I thought about this while writing my original response, but while it sounds good on paper, I think it rarely works in real life. While you certainly could learn everything you learn in a classroom through self study, motivating yourself to do so without someone prompting you to do so, and the added incentive of not wasting the significant amount of money you are spending on your education, is somewhat unlikely and would take an unusual amount of drive. Plus there's the fact that you may not know what would be most productive to study, since you don't have someone helping to craft your curriculum. It's kind of like hiring a personal trainer to get in shape. They're not going to do it for you, but they can make sure that you're being a lot more productive with what you're doing.
But of course, what you get out of school depends on what you put in, and I imagine certain personality types get a lot more out of it than others. Others might argue college is worth it just for the social aspects (although I think those who do not pay their own way are a lot more likely to feel this way). One important point is, though, that while I personally feel like college is a valuable thing that's well worth the investment, I do absolutely hate the cultural bias these days that says everyone has to go to college, and furthermore, that everyone should do it right after high school. It's a valid choice to skip college if you don't think it's right for you, and it's not like you can't come back to it. And most people I know who've done college later in life have been able to get more out of it, because they have more of an idea of what they actually want to do with their degree. (Also: people just sheeping their way through college lowers the competitive advantage my own degree provides, so maybe I should just argue that everyone should stop going and sit at home and smoke pot all day)
edit: last line first paragraph |
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