Too many kids go to college
Great debate
Debate: TOO MANY KIDS GO TO COLLEGE from Intelligence Squared U.S. on Vimeo.
Trending Content
| +46 | Interviews Are So Fake | 28 | 16h | |
| +33 | 2024 UK Election - Tories finished? | 21 | 20h | |
| +29 | Being Christian in investment banking | 14 | 1d | |
| +27 | Non-Competes Banned | 27 | 24m | |
| +22 | ADHD ! | 5 | 5h | |
| How do I become Sigma | 15 | 12h | ||
| +19 | Moelis has the cutest Analysts? | 4 | 1d | |
| +18 | Best NYC neighborhood for single 30M | 12 | 3d | |
| +16 | Underage intern, drinking? | 7 | 1d | |
| +13 | Secretive vs Universal Prestige? | 7 | 1d |
Career Resources
Our society has ingrained in the youth that you have to get a college education or you are a loser.
Meanwhile technical school for electricians costs $10K, takes six months, and you can start earning $100 for the first half hour +100/hour after that.
The f*ck are you talking about, electricians don't make that kind of money.
Source: my dad is an electrician
My dad is a small-business owner; A trade similar to electricians.
I've worked summers since I was 17 (23 now) and part-time the rest of the year, and You can definitely make a decent amount of money - but it's small time in the long-run.
The only way I was allowed to work for him, was under the condition that I would attend college. Basically, that was my plan throughout community college - to get a 2 year degree and go full time trade - and hence the bad grades (I just didn't care enough to do well.)
But after a time, I realized my dad was right - the best way to get ahead is through school.
And now I'm trying to get into IB lol, when I have the skills, license, and experience of a technician - enough to start my own business if I wanted.
Just figured I'd share.
IP you're WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY off. It takes 6 years to become a Journeyman, and then you're making about 45 bucks an hour.
Trades don't require nearly as much formal schooling (most of those 6 years are spent in the field earning money instead of spending it) and they are in high demand right now, but the top earners don't make anywhere near what the top earners in professionals services make.
I think that's obvious, but it's not like everyone in the country is going to be pulling down 300K every year.
Too many kids go to college...to study the wrong things. If students were majoring in quantitative subjects, or majors that at least related to a certain job, it would be less of an issue.
Students only go to college to get decent jobs, many of which needlessly require a college degree. Certain jobs can benefit from a degree requirement, such as medicine and research. But many jobs (even a few forms of engineering) just use college as another screening tool.
I think way back in the dawn of the HR department, some peon noticed their college graduates were more productive than their high school grads, then made the correlation = causation error. The peon then made it policy to prefer college grads when hiring, not realizing college grads were like (1) older (2) from wealthier backgrounds (3) more motivated.
In truth, most jobs that require a degree would be best taught by apprenticeship. Even in finance, we still kind of operate on the apprentice model. Most banks and AM firms don't care what you study, because they know most learning occurs on the job.
Agree with OP and west coast to some extent.
Too many intelligent kids major in the wrong thing...but too many kids overall go to college.
Think about urban schools where they sell college like it's this golden ticket...then a lot of the kids who actually make it go to some city college or for-profit garbage and major in bullshit like psychology or family and community studies, or fail out by hanging out with the same people they've always hung around with. Oh, and they racked up a shitload of debt in the process.
Meanwhile they, and their friends' who didnt go to college, would have been better served learning a trade or entering a vocational program instead of focusing on nonsense standardized tests and sleeping through classes that will do nothing for them down the line.
I don't know how you change the message without demeaning a certain population but everyone would be better served by giving them the hard truth.
Jesus Christ. Watching this now. The first guy's voice could put the audience to sleep.
college is great. best collection of tight and innocent pussy all up in one place.
i cant wait to go to grad school and fuck college women over and over. that is, if i ever break up.
Not gonna lie, I do agree with this sentiment.
But, for me, personally, I think I'm better off going to school.
Thanks for the post. The disconnect is that there are handful of colleges that are worth the big bucks and the rest charge you but don't provide enough value. So the system is flawed or outdated or fraudulent, whatever you want to call it.
Second, people go to college to have an experience, enjoy life before the real life, which causes them to fuck up. You should have great social life at college but never forget that the reason why you go to college is to get educated, learn as much as possible, experiment with knowledge you gain --- not too party. So if you fool around and fuck up don't blame anyone but yourself.
Hey, Morons.
Not every one is smart enough to major in a quantitative subject.
-Blastoise
I say college becomes expensive so less kids go and my degree becomes worthwhile
I've been saying this for a long time. Of course, I'm biased because I myself did not attend college. But when my boys graduate high school, I'm putting them on a merchant ship for a year to work and sail around the world. At the end of the year they'll have the required time and experience to get their captain's license.
If they want to go to college after that, more power to them. At least they'll be interesting people having sailed around the world, and not your average dickhead freshman who couldn't find his ass with both hands. If they decide against college, they'll have a trade that pays the big bucks if they want it. Let's face it, ocean transportation isn't going anywhere.
sallie mae + parents ignorant to the cynicism of the education industry + financially illiterate students = big ass mess we have today
you got to college to get these things
the ideal is something like MIT where you hit em all. or you can major in politics at harvard and get 1+2. if you are a wealthy dumbass you can go to Rollins College or the like to get 1. if you are a poor, smart kid you can go to a good state school and get a 3 and a little bit of 2.
the losers in this game are the ones who pay full sticker for shitty 4-year liberal arts colleges that were previously converted from land grant normal schools. you get none of the three for the low low price of $150K which will follow you for the rest of your low income life. same goes for overpriced and shitty state schools that are raising their tuitions up to private school levels.
I love the Economist's op on what's wrong: In the beginning the whole federally backed college debt idea was a great thing. But it ballooned out of control pretty analogous to mortgage debt. In the beginning, Pres. Lyndon Johnson started fed-backed college loan services of up to $1,000 per student in the 1960s ONLY FOR business, trade and technical schools. Now its ballooned into a monstrosity with people paying for all kinds of economically useless education, e.g. "liberal arts" (if you're not smart enough to read and write eloquently by high school graduation than stop wasting your time)- and the more the fed government loans the more the universities demand. At this point, we have by faaaaaaaaaar the wealthiest universities in the world that often still require well over $100k for a bachelors degree. It's a vicious cycle that desperately needs to stop.
Look up "Nope, just Debt" in the latest issue of the Economist to read the article.
All three are never equal everywhere. For instance, in this situation, the 1+2 at Harvard are often far more lucrative than the 1+2+3 of MIT.
But yes, generally, I agree. One should go to a college if they feel they will be a getting a decent amount of at least two of the three, and will not be more than 30-40K in debt afterwards.
Et qui unde ea rem consectetur cum non nostrum. Labore eum quo perspiciatis aut dolorum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...