Is college the best 4 years of your life?

Depends how much you love partying and/or learning. 

It depends how many girls you smash 

I don't think there should be a best 'time' of one's life. It should all be enjoyable, except what we find enjoyable/ rewarding changes as we age.

Your time at college is as fun as you make it. Same goes for the other time in your life. The best years can happen any time

College has been okay so far. It would have been better had I not been religious the first year or so and if I had moved away. I expect  the rest of my twenties to be the best time of my life though as I’ll have more money (hopefully) and be truly independent. You still have three years left so make the most of them and when you graduate and start “real life” make the most of that too.

The "best" is such a subjective measure. In a lot of ways yes, it was a super special time regardless. But I have a ton "freedom" available to me now than I ever could in college by virtue of my developed skills and income. Your life is what you make of it.

That's so subjective. I had a lot of fun in high school and college, and at the time thought they both were the best things ever. They were both awesome in their own ways and I couldn't really pick between the two. Post-college (I'm 25) has been up and down, with the downs being how much I work and COVID, but I'm excited to get back out there. I think any time or experience in life is what you make of it. I look back on HS and college very fondly, but as someone who really wants to have kids in the next 5-10 years (ideally on the earlier side of that), I can imagine that will be another awesome experience that could be better than both. Time in between now and then could be lit as well. I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. You mentioned getting an MBA--I have heard how much fun those programs can be and a lot of my coworkers reflect on their MBAs as a big party. Idk, the "best years" can happen at any time in your life.

I think a lot of people like their college years because they had no real responsibilities, except for showing up at class and passing a few exams. It really isn't that difficult to manage, you have a lot of time, everybody is young, attractive, and careless. Everybody is funded through their parents or grants/scholarships and are having fun.

This changes once rent/mortgage, bills, and children stack up later in life. For many, this is at the end of their 20s/early 30s.

If you took a lot of ap exams and college coursed during the summers in high school you should be able to finish college in 1 1/2 to 2 years.

You will never be around that many single coeds in your life again. Also, stress. College is stressful, but it's a totally different kind of stress than the grind, and it gets worse as you age. 

I went to military school so first year kind of sucked a lot, but the experiences shared with classmates forged an unforgettable bond between us. 

“Give me a boy oh God ... who is willing to learn the true value of honor, the necessity of perseverance and loyalty, and the meaningfulness of devotion to God and country. And I shall take this boy as does a blacksmith take a crude piece of metal, and place him over a forge whose liberating flame of education is fired by the bellows of strict military discipline.

Into this ingot of a man I shall temper self-respect and self-discipline, fear of God and respect for mankind, appreciation of freedom and awareness of what sacrifices must be made to preserve freedom, and above all an insatiable desire for truth and honesty. And when all these things I have done, I shall brand my finished work with a ring of gold to let all of humanity know that I have given back to the world ... a Citadel Man.”

If you're worried about having fun it's no big deal.  My college was in a millennial city and there are a million bars and stuff that young adults go to.  My dad and uncles went from alcoholic frat boys to clean cut engineers overnight, but I don't really think it's as black and white nowadays. 

But I can't stand booze or parties so I'm not an expert

College was fun, my 20s have been even better and I imagine my 30s will be insane. Full speed ahead.

It only gets better if you made the right decisions.

Nihilistic take here -- the posts here are obviously revealing the age of WSO which is very young, including me. But honestly, I'm gonna go contrarian here, I do think the college years and 20s are the best time of your life within reason. It's comically obviously no one here has spent time around their parents or old people in general and sees what aging can do to someone. 

Your body composition and looks start to peak around early to mid 20s. Your energy in your 20s is super robust -- you can day drink all day and be outside, go crash at 3am and still wake up the next day ready to do it again. I remember on family vacations my dad was always napping when he had the chance. Also this is a severely underlooked thing, people treat you extremely well at these ages because you have that youthful/charming/innocent look and demeanor to you, once that fades you are kind of invisible and people treat you like a no body. Women get the worst end of that stick but men do too. I feel like that's what turns the kind/jovial person into a sour-bag. Uh what else, yeah no responsibilities. Like 99% of college students their parents foot their bills and shit, you just go to class, takes notes and you're gtg and do whatever you want outside of it. The little things like being able to go to the beach or park at 1-2pm are great. 

I am one who wasted his college years. I remember making posts like these and reading these posts of people saying comforting stuff like "no bro! life is way better later on partying is a meme!" and instead of taking action and pushing myself out of my zone I listened to these posts instead. You should definitely take advantage of the college years and early 20s because it starts to dwindle from a biological standpoint. Don't just sit back and take comfort from randoms online saying it gets better.

You only missed out on a year, assuming you're a freshman you have the next 3 years to have fun. Maybe do the whole 5th year thing, one year is a drop in the bucket in the whole grand scheme of things lol and no one will notice or care about it. I wouldn't worry about it but just start having fun and enjoying what you can. You'll be happy you did. 

Hell no. I had suicidal and depressed roommates. Lots of boy trouble that I still think about randomly. 

college is only the best 4 years of ur life if you are a fucking loser. Seriously, think of all the CEO's, President's, Celebrity musicians. Would you say that college was the best years of their life? Certainly not. 

College was definitely some of the best years of my life, but I think there are several windows which are all special for their own reasons. College specifically, I was a bit of a finance tool which served me well as I was focused and very content/working on a path towards something that I didn't know I'd end up hating lol. It was a great time meeting a ton of people, constantly being around some of my best friends, partying, studying, and giving 0 fucks about anything outside of that, especially once I locked down my full time gig. You won't ever have a time like that again, with such little real responsibility besides maintaining a 3.5 or whatever the fuck gpa.

I'd caution against solving for your MBA being one of the best times of your life. I made some of my best friends during that period but felt like the people who came to MBA as college 2.0 experience were generally dweebs and lots of students referred to them as FTC (first time cool, basically a bunch of sad try hards). If you do an MBA, you will have a blast because you'll be more set in who you are as a person and what you want out of life/be surrounded with like minded folks but its a different experience than UG.

Personally, I've really enjoyed life after IB when I'm not working -- getting paid/laid and clowning with friends in a major city is pretty tough to beat

The way I like to think about it is that each part of your life should be great in a different way rather than being the "best" overall. I very much enjoyed (pre covid) college and there's aspects of it I'm sure are not replicable at later time periods. But I was also broke on full financial aid, so I'm hoping actually making money will open the way for great times as a young 20s in the big city with disposable income way that will probably be different than the broke college kid living in the dorms type of way. 

if you do it right, then no. if you do it wrong, then yeah.

My college is extremely fun, but it would be really depressing if the next 60-80 years are necessarily worse. I think you're able to be satisfied by different experiences at different points in your life. Happiness isn't about a constant state of euphoria; it's about short peaks of intense positive emotions with the relative absence of extreme pain in between. Considering the standard of living a lot of us will likely attain, it could be much worse. 

Yeah for people who peak in college lol

Depending on the college. If someone really wanted to go-then yes, it was the best 4 years of his life. In my case, I was 5 years old, I studied at a medical college.

If you don't have a future, maybe

People always say this and it's kind of a sad thing to say IMO.

College is only the best 4 years of your life if you let it be. I had a ton of fun in college but I'll be damned if I don't intend to continue doing dope shit for the rest of my life

naw

Any other non-traditional students feel like they missed out on "the best years of your life"? 

After high school I did Peace Corps then joined the army, I was 26 when I got out and started my freshman year. I went to a commuter state school non-target. The kind where most students commute to campus from parent's house/apartments, go to class, then drive home. Didn't make a single real friend in 4 years because I was 26+ and they were 18+. 

Now I'm headed to grad school at a target but not for banking, but I'm married living off campus with my wife, so that's still different. Whatever "college experience" there was to be had I definitely didn't have it. 

College was fun. Fraternity was lit and there were a lot of good memories. From formals in Vegas to the carefree nature of not having real responsibilities. Definitely a good time.. At times I reminisce.. but truthfully the first few years of "real life" have been better. I can afford to take real trips, IE rent a house for a week in Jackson Hole to ski with a bunch of buddies and significant others, week of raging in Thailand for moon festival, and many other good times in between..  As the real responsibilities are starting to form.. example, house, work, discussion of children, etc.. I look forward to the future. It will be different.. but I'm confident it will be better. Earnings will continue to rise as will the responsibilities that will hopefully afford new and rewarding experiences. All depends how you look at it.. Currently mid 20's and I am optimistic the best is yet to come. 

Side note, I think staying in good health plays a large role in this. It would be much harder for me to be optimistic if my health was fading and energy levels depleting. That being said, try to prioritize your physical fitness while you're still relatively young and have the opportunity to engrain life altering habits with ease. You won't regret it. 

lol I am most definitely not a boomer, but have graduated uni and worked for a couple of years. College was nice, but being out of student debt and having my own $$$ is better imo :P

I'll bite and take a shot at this. I personally have met many people that wish they could go back to college/high school and relieve the glory days. I can confidently say that I am not one of those people. The reason being is because when I was 17 working as a lifeguard one summer, one of my coworkers was a 50 year old ex con who went from millions to NYC pool lifeguard. He and I got to talking and I'll never forget the wisdom he passed onto me. He said to me, "Life just gets better as you get older. The food becomes tastier, the sex becomes better, the parties get wilder. Yeah you'll be busier and sometimes it'll seem boring, but believe me, life is more fun and exciting the older you get." And I never forgot that and I honestly think it's never been truer than today. Has life gotten harder the older I've gotten? Sure, absolutely that's what gaining responsibility and being and adult is about. But has life become more fun? Absolutely, because I live my life the way that I want to and pursue the things that I want. So I want to say that, don't look at college as being the best 4 years of your life, because that's just stupid. Why should college be the best 4 years of your life? I've found that a lot of people that say that are also the ones that have no sense of control in their lives and partied so hard that they never learned how to apply themselves. I think the best way of living life is with this quote, "The best is yet to come." And you should live that way as well. I have a friend who always reminisces about HS (we both went to the same school) and he always says how it was so easy and everything was so fun. But I think he has peter pan syndrome because he works a job he hates, does things he hates, and doesn't ever try to push himself or to try new things or go explore new pursuits or avenues of interest.

My point is this, life is an adventure, it's up to you to either stay put, or go out there and explore and live it. Those that say college was the best 4 years of their lives are honestly living a bozzo life and have the power to change it and make it better but refuse to.

College was absurd. I don’t really ever think about what it was like anymore, but this thread got me thinking and it was such a uniquely incredible time.
 

I think a lot depends on what school you went to - I got lucky that I went to a big party state school living frat life while still made it to where I’m at. A lot of colleagues worked a whole lot harder during school. I lived with my 10 best friends, classes were a joke, had no responsibilities, frat sports leagues, party 3-4 nights a week, most access I’ll ever have to tons of hot girls who are also just looking to party and hook up. All incredible once in a lifetime stuff. The first couple years after college in banking were fucking brutal and I often would have done anything to go back to school. But all that being said, now that I’m hitting my comfort zone in the real world, it’s hard to say if I’d rather have my current life or go back to college. There’s something really fulfilling about settling into who you are, what you like to spend your time doing and who you want to spend it with; and having the funds to make that life happen and the maturity / confidence to avoid any other bullshit. I only see this / my life continuing to get better and better the next 5+ years. Maybe I’m trying to talk myself into it, but I still think I can build a life where the best is yet to come.