How to Understand "College is a Waste of Time and Money"

“ College Is A Waste Of Time And Money.”

 

 “The ONLY reason I would go to college is cause of the College Diploma. The thing that sucks in the world today is that college graduates are usually seen as "smarter" than people with a HS diploma.”

“ We have a hard time meeting both ends, we have two on college now “

“ I’m just hanging on until she finishes and get her degree, and then she can help us, with her younger siblings.”

“ Ma, I’m at the bottom of the priority list , it’s the congressman’s undergrad godchildren  they’re considering.”

Sounds familiar ?

Here are premises I gathered from analyses of my readings and experiences regarding the "college ": 

It creates a debt pit for the hopeful parents,and for the students themselves.

Students today finish school  with their parents in big debt after they survived their children on college that  they lose their independence and become servants of their debt of gratitude from people who helped them enough to pay their children’s college education

In the Philippines , parent's sell carabaos, cattle, or any other valuable in time of exams to pay for allowances and tuitions. Some students, work and are indebted to their patrons just to finish their studies.

The curriculum is always outdated long before it’s updated.

When I was in college, learning about the internet meant understanding how to do Paschal and Wordstar .These were dead technologies today. That’s the problem with a 4-years school system that operates in a world that changes every 3 months. I bet you that a college graduate learns more in her first year on the job than she does in all four years in college. People learn by doing, not by sitting in a class and being lectured to. To top it,most if not all subject matter on college can be found on the internet plus with vivid examples and directions .

College gives false hope and self-image to the successful wannabes

College is not a guarantee to be successful in life. I’ts your attitude towards professionalism at work or business that do it. What’s the use of a certificate if you are not ready technically on your  job?

Here in the Philippines most of the time, a college diploma deters a prideful bachelor to work on blue-collar jobs as a start . This self-pretense is a negative attitude towards finding and starting a living. This is the reason why many college graduate are still jobless, for they are waiting for the perfect job offer that usually don’t come.

Most graduates never used their degree on the real work they have after graduation .

Whe're have they gone ? 

Some pursue business; most of the girls got married and were not given the chance to work anymore ; other's became overseas workers that does not require a diploma ,and some worked on a totally different field than they studied for four years.

What do you think?

- If you went to college, do you feel it was the best use of your time and money?

"College is a big waste of time and money If you are looking at it only as a means to get a job. If you want the best job preparations, you can always go to technical school and become an apprentice somewhere."

College education isn't a guarantee for job preparations. Most of the times,it’s even the job training that’s gives you the practical skills on the real work. College is just for enhancing critical thinking skills. The reason many employers require a college degree isn't because the graduate knows the latest in technology (that can be learned on the job, or on the internet ). Rather, employers want people with problem-solving and critical thinking skills, they think are adapted by college graduates. Unfortunately, colleges today do not encourage critical thinking anymore. Moreso, in the advent of google ,copy, and paste.

This might sound subversive of the system, but take time and listen to college students now. Or just take a peek at their Facebook accounts. 

Personally, if I had my life to do over again, I would not  go to college but would pursue a special learning advancement on stuffs  that excites me (writing, research, painting, music, film, photography ,whatever...) and then seek out influences in those areas and share and learn from them.

That's what pristine sportsmen do do. They don't go sit in an athletic classroom for four years; they find mentors and coaches, get out, and do it. 

Maybe , I say this only because my preference is self-employment and entrepreneurship – I don’t want  to climb the corporate ladder in some fancy company and become a corporate pawn.

I build my own empire.

( I did’nt finish my Broadcast Communication and Psychology. I started working as a radio beat reporter on my senior college years, married  one of our interns, dropped out of school later, peddled business on the street, and the rest is history)

Of course, a college degree is needed for select professions like law , medicine, teaching, etc. If I need a heart surgeon, I want someone who has the experience and the degree credentials!

Bottom line: One size does not fit all. College is great for some. For others, entrepreneurs, who succeed by being independent thinkers, college may not be so useful for them.

But it's up to each person to identify who they are, what they want out of life, and the best way to achieve it. Don't let parents, the media, friends, spouses, career counselors, or even bloggers make your decision for you.

 

Here are excerpts from Caroline Bird essay on 1975  for additional reading :

“college is a waste of time and money”

“ In fact there is no real evidence that the higher income of college graduates is due to college. College may simply attract people who are slated to earn more money anyway; those with higher IQs, better family backgrounds, a more enterprising temperament. No one who has wrestled with the problem is prepared to attribute all of the higher income to the impact of college itself. Today, the false promises are easy to see:

First, college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, or liberal. It’s the otherway around. Intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal people are attracted to higher education in the first place.

Second, college can’t claim much credit for the learning experiences that really change students while they are there. Jobs, friends, history, and most of all the sheer passage of time, have as big an impact as anything even indirectly related to the campus.

 Third, colleges have changed so radically that a freshman entering in the fall of 1974 can’t be sure to gain even the limited value research studies assigned to colleges inthe ‘60s. The sheer size of undergraduate campuses of the 1970s makes college even less stimulating now than it was 10 years ago. Today, even motivated students are disappointedwith their college courses and professors.

Finally, a college diploma no longer opens as many vocational doors. Employers are beginning to realize that when they pay extra for someone with a diploma, they are paying only for an empty credential. The fact is that most of the work for which employers now expect college training is now or has been done in the past by people without higher educations.

 College, then, may be a good place for those few young people who are really drawn to academic work, who would rather read than eat, but it has become too expensive, in money, time, and intellectual effort to serve as a holding pen for large numbers of our young. We ought to make it possible for those reluctant, unhappy students to find alternative ways of growing up, and more realistic preparation for the years ahead."

One last note:

I’m not saying going to college is completely useless .  

My argument is, some line of work require a college degree and really need a good college education to have acquired the necessary credentials in order to perform a profession. 

Pursuing a college degree for a well to do family is also out of question. It’s up to their preference or whim.

I am just raising this topic as a reference to parents and also students  to weigh the probabilities and the necessity of a college education in order to have job or to self sustain a living.

Consider this just as an alternative way of seeing things and not just following norms that are sometimes way too unapplicable wholly  in this present  pop culture.