College is a scam

Colleges charge so much because people can take out extreme amounts of money in loans.  They start charging higher when that increases.  Loans being taken out go up to cover even higher costs, so loan limits get increased even more.  Rinse, repeat; an endless cycle.  The kicker is that in the end a good chunk of money goes to padding pockets more than helping to benefit students - even professors don't see much increase in salary unless they're tenured, and that's getting rarer and rarer these days.
 
1. Self-teach
2. Create business
3. Succeed.
4. If you don't feel like being the boss for some reason, sell out to some big company.
5. ???
6. PROFIT!
 
If you'd asked me a year ago, I would've said that is crappy advice.  Get out there, make connections, start doing things.  There are other alternatives out there to college that I wish someone had told me about before I'd gotten out of high school, that I wish people would talk about because four years of earning debt isn't a ticket to success.  Oh, if only.
 
Nuke said:
1. Self-teach
2. Create business
3. Succeed.
4. If you don't feel like being the boss for some reason, sell out to some big company.
5. ???
6. PROFIT!
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Indeed. I started up a film website which netted me all sorts of connections. As a result, I now have a pipeline to sell screenplays that I've written. And promote an upcoming web series as well. And all of that stuff naturally brings advertisers sniffing around. You mix that with your adsense money and other ad revenue, and you've got a pretty sizable income. Only you're doing something you love, not something you dread dragging yourself to every day.
 
Australia actually has quite a good system where the Government pays for your fees until you enter the workforce. From there, they just take a little bit out of your tax each year until it is paid off and there is no interest like mortages or credit cards. It's literally just borrow some money and pay it back when you can.

Good guy Australian Taxation Office.
 
This is so true, unfortunately the degree is what you need to get started most places. I'm doing a computer course which is one sector actually doing well and is one where people coming out of college are actually wanted. Not like so many other things where you see a position open, but on further inspection it says "5 years experience required". I don't understand how someone coming out of college can ever get started in a job like that, they'll have to do work experience with a firm to get their experience, and of course they probably won't be paid for doing this. So that's another few years of their life down the drain. Just hope I don't find myself in a position like that.

If I was to do something successful while in college, say create an App that became successful I would probably just leave. The only reason I'm in college is to get those qualifications on my resume.
 
You will find a job that barely pays above minimum wage with most college degree.  The average salary of college degree is skewed by the few college graduates who become millionaire/billionaire.  College degree is now required by increasing number of companies .  It is better to have one.  However, you should not drown yourself in debt.  
 
So in conclusion, we all should try and become reality t.v. stars in order to get rich. So do any of you guys live crazy enough lives to warrant your own reality t.v. show?
 
NickJ said:
So in conclusion, we all should try and become reality t.v. stars in order to get rich. So do any of you guys live crazy enough lives to warrant your own reality t.v. show?
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Well, my life is crazy enough for a television show but a better solution may be to become an Australian citizen and study here instead. ;)
 
I think many reality shows are fake, and actors on the reality shows follow scripts, or they find an interesting people who arer involve in "Treasure hunting, and building motorcycles", and they make a reality show out of it by following the people around.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I think many reality shows are fake, and actors on the reality shows follow scripts, or they find an interesting people who arer involve in "Treasure hunting, and building motorcycles", and they make a reality show out of it by following the people around.
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Or dysfunctional teenagers. We have reality shows where teen moms and their dramatic, messed up lives are taped and documented. Sad on two levels, Exploiting an unpleasant situation, and exploiting themselves and their babies as well.
 
My life would be more fitting for a soap opera, really.  Affairs, people dying everywhere, drugs, drama!  Actually, it might work out as a reality show, too.

I think we also need to take a moment and examine the people who go to college for ridiculous degrees.  Okay, I get that women's studies are pretty important, but getting a degree in that, what career options do you think you're going to get?
 
My life would be more fitting for a soap opera, really.  Affairs, people dying everywhere, drugs, drama!  Actually, it might work out as a reality show, too.
 
I think we also need to take a moment and examine the people who go to college for ridiculous degrees.  Okay, I get that women's studies are pretty important, but getting a degree in that, what career options do you think you're going to get?



I imagine politics, social work and police work would be potential career choices for people with those qualifications.
 
If it's one thing I immediately agree with, it's that tuition costs on average are way, way too steep. I'm not a socialist, but I believe education and health care should be rights, and on the other hand, I see how problematic they would be to provide for everyone by default. The only reason I'm not currently in college is because I am petrified by the thought of being so steep in debt from the get-go, even if I go for a degree that has good job prospects.
 
BitesizeCrayons said:
If it's one thing I immediately agree with, it's that tuition costs on average are way, way too steep. I'm not a socialist, but I believe education and health care should be rights, and on the other hand, I see how problematic they would be to provide for everyone by default. The only reason I'm not currently in college is because I am petrified by the thought of being so steep in debt from the get-go, even if I go for a degree that has good job prospects.
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Oh well, you could start a business of your own to pay for your fees, Honey.
 
If it's one thing I immediately agree with, it's that tuition costs on average are way, way too steep. I'm not a socialist, but I believe education and health care should be rights, and on the other hand, I see how problematic they would be to provide for everyone by default. The only reason I'm not currently in college is because I am petrified by the thought of being so steep in debt from the get-go, even if I go for a degree that has good job prospects.


It's not even difficult to implement, you just raise taxes a few dollars. (Inb4 nooooo taxes). It's better than having thousands of people not in the workforce being tens / hundreds of thousands in debt.

Australia does it and had demonstrated that it works.

Education and good health should definitely be avaliable to all, not just the privileged.
 
I heard stories a lot of people who get less-popular degrees are able to still find work, but in unrelated jobs. Companies at least know you finish school.

Rowan Atkinson who played the famous Mr. Bean has a degree in Electrical Engineering. http://www.listal.com/list/actors-with-degrees

Matt Mullenweg attended the University of Houston and majored in Political Science, and he dropped out to create the massively successful WordPress Blog Software which is one of the top opensource blog software on Wordpress.com, and many other blogs in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mullenweg

Maybe being a home or small buisness owner like app maker, website template maker, selling stuff on eBay and Amazon Marketplace and Craigslist, and making custom printed T-shirts with cool designs could be a better choice these days since you get back what you put in instead of hoping to earn enough to pay back huge loans after school, and if you don't make much, you can try something new like making a better app, or selling your app on different marketplaces like the Apple App Store, and Blackberry App store..
 
Sanaki said:
Oh well, you could start a business of your own to pay for your fees, Honey.
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That sounds good on paper, but there's definitely some risk there as well. Still, no risk, no reward, right? xD
Aside from that, I don't have the funds to start a business, but maybe someday.
 
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