it is becoming less and less a smart investment

Oculus Spirit [81061]

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I've heard this argument a lot.

Nov 15, 2016, 9:41 AM

"If you take that same money and go to work..."

Well sure. But if you had all that money up front, and could go to work, why would you need the college degree to begin with? I don't know about you, but nobody I know sending their kid to college has $120K+ waiting for them to start college. Maybe that's a new thing, but after 2 siblings in front of me, I was lucky I could work to pay for it. If I had that kind of cash up front to dump on college, than gambling on the ROI of it might make sense.

And if college doesn't prepare someone for a job, what does high school do? Even with say, some basic networking and sys admin classes (I've heard Wando HS offers that), what marketable skills does a high school graduate really have?

I'm not about to let a 17 or 18 year old kid start changing router or server settings on my network the day he graduates high school. He's going to have to show me some pretty valid Cisco/Microsoft/VMware certs before I let him in the door.

But I agree with you--sending kids to college who have no business being there isn't helping anyone. I said this the other day, but have a few friends with high school graduate/college aged kids who are floundering, and I've suggested tech school and the military to them--on deaf ears.

One of them is a senior in high school and was going to join the marines, but now is backing out of that. I thought that was a great idea for him, as he wouldn't make it in college--he has no discipline. The other kid graduated last year and said he wanted to be a marine mechanic and go to school for it in Florida, but he's never been around boats. I went and talked to my marina manager and got the kid a job at the marina if he wanted it--but he said it was too far to drive to go to work everyday. I think he's working at Mellow Mushroom now or something.

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degree. That's why the return on a college degree is at an all time low and costs are skyrocketing (one of many reasons). You have a relatively stagnant pool of jobs, of various levels of difficulty both physically and mentally. And of those jobs, probably 1 in 5 requires someone capable of doing calculus, physics, chemistry, writing, or understanding history. We always need garbage men, roofers, electricians, plumbers, landscape guys, whatever. But everyone seems dead set on being a billionaire and everyone thinks when you get that college degree, you're guaranteed success. Well, you have to find a college-degree necessary job first. I literally made my own, but if you can't do that, you need to find one and make it your own.

Also, colleges have standards and they have to maintain those standards. So there's only so many they're going to let in no matter what. And as demand for those student slots is huge, the college must maintain their standards by denying more and more students. That DEMAND in turn creates an increase in price.

The most important thing in education, from K-PhD, is that you learn HOW TO LEARN. It's not WHAT you learn, as much as that you learned HOW TO LEARN it. For some, college helps them make that final step of learning how to learn. It is merely proof to an employer that you can adapt into whatever task they have for you. For others, they're job ready out of high school.

I use very little of my 17+ years of education in my job. No biology needed. No math to speak of other than simple arithmetic, no real calculus, no engineering, no physics, no philosophy, no history. Nope. I use none of that. But at one time I forced myself to learn all of that to get my degree. Now I force myself to learn how to do my job better and better each day.

93% of parents think a 4 year degree prepares their kids for

And the 21% Biz Owners are not necessarily

I've heard this argument a lot.

wrong - it's a great investment for a huge majority

Re: it is becoming less and less a smart investment

i don't understand how a lawyer can't find a job

Re: i don't understand how a lawyer can't find a job

Hard to believe that many parents still believe this.

i dont thnk you need a degree but you won't even get an

certifications are a start.

true***

That's because only 21% of the workforce requires a college

The most important thing?

For a job, or to get good grades and a degree

I guess none of those parents own businesses

I'm strongly of the opinion that any government backed

Why should the government back any loans, scholarships, or

Really?

I'm wondering why CA would support those gov't programs.

Free college for those who major in areas where we have....

You get prepared for the workforce by working yet

They should shorten undergrad to 2 or 3 years anyway.*****

Of course, that isn't really what a college degree is for

This is pretty simple. If businesses are not rewarding

But businesses are rewarding having a degree. Almost all

But that's not what the survey said.***

Smartest thing to do is go military for four years

Talked about this very thing to my seniors the other day.

Re: Talked about this very thing to my seniors the other day.

Re: Talked about this very thing to my seniors the other day.

Re: 93% of parents think...

I've said it before; its one of my only regrets in life.

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