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I don't regret going to college but I wish I had a better of idea of what I wanted to do before I went to college.
Teens usually aren't directly exposed to various careers so the only way most of us could PREDICT what field we wanted to be in is by guessing based on which classes we liked and watchin youtube videos.
I haven't decided what field I wanted to be in until my second semester of my Junior college year; and to be honest, my mind still isn't totally 100% made up. I'm currently a senior going into my 2nd semester.
You are incorrect that "no one was pushing college in the 50's, 60's or 70's". College was being pushed (I, for one, wouldn't have thought of going had a Guidance Counselor and a Biology teacher not grabbed me one day for a Come to Jesus talk), but only to the College Prep kids, not to everyone with a pulse. I can guarantee you that we were the only ones that heard of the SAT or AP classes or scholarships.
Okay, so college wasn't being pushed onto everybody, just a select few. Majority of students back in the day graduated high school and did other things other than go to college and graduate with a bachelors degree.
I don't regret going to college but I wish I had a better of idea of what I wanted to do before I went to college.
Teens usually aren't directly exposed to various careers so the only way most of us could PREDICT what field we wanted to be in is by guessing based on which classes we liked and watchin youtube videos.
I haven't decided what field I wanted to be in until my second semester of my Junior college year; and to be honest, my mind still isn't totally 100% made up. I'm currently a senior going into my 2nd semester.
This is very true. At least today, though, the web provides much better opportunities to at least learn something about possible careers. Still, I think that many traditional students (18-22 years old) miss great career opportunities because 1) they erroneous think that they can't do the work for major X or 2) they don't even think/know about major X. It's a case of "you don't know what you don't know".
When I was in high school, I really didn't know what engineering was. I was a farm kid whose family was all either farmers or factory workers, and the town I lived near wasn't the kind of place where you'd find engineers living, so it wasn't like any of my friends' fathers were engineers, either. The guidance counselors at my school were dynamite in helping you find financial aid but in steering students into careers that fit them? Not so much.
Of course, then there's the issue of new careers that aren't around/well known when you're in high school, so you don't even think of them. When I was in HS (1964-1968), programming computers was the stuff of NASA and science fiction, not for "ordinary people". A dozen years later, computer programming was an up-and-coming STEM field where women weren't just tolerated but welcomed (thank you, Grace Murray Hopper, the inventor of COBOL!). I took a computer course because I read just that in a women's magazine. BEST.CAREER.ADVICE.I.EVER.GOT!
The thing is that there are lots more career paths out there today like IT was in the 1980s. If you've gone to college and have a degree, you may be able to parlay that into something totally different a few years down the road if some new field opens up. I think many good paying careers in the 21st century are going to require people to be in continuous learning mode all their working lives.
Okay, so college wasn't being pushed onto everybody, just a select few. Majority of students back in the day graduated high school and did other things other than go to college and graduate with a bachelors degree.
College wasn't being pushed like it is now.
Yeah, those "other things" were so much better ... like working in the hide house at Moench Tannery or being a patient aide at the State Mental Hospital or a waitress at The Spinning Wheel or fighting in Vietnam. There's a real myth among younger people that the 1960s-1970s had so many more "opportunities" for those kids who chose to not go to college, but the reality is that those "opportunities" were never as good for most people as people today think they were: not everybody got to build Fords and Chevys and were paid accordingly. Moreover, many of those "opportunities" were relatively short-lived, leaving a lot of workers in their late forties or fifties scrambling to find other jobs.
Yeah, those "other things" were so much better ... like working in the hide house at Moench Tannery or being a patient aide at the State Mental Hospital or a waitress at The Spinning Wheel or fighting in Vietnam. There's a real myth among younger people that the 1960s-1970s had so many more "opportunities" for those kids who chose to not go to college, but the reality is that those "opportunities" were never as good for most people as people today think they were: not everybody got to build Fords and Chevys and were paid accordingly. Moreover, many of those "opportunities" were relatively short-lived, leaving a lot of workers in their late forties or fifties scrambling to find other jobs.
Sorry, but there were other opportunties out there besides the select few you mentioned. My dad graduated high school in 1966, my mom graduated high school in 1975. Both said there were more opportunities back then compared to today. Dad went to college for 2 years, didn't graduate, and went to work at Southwestern Bell. He got three dollars more an hour since he had some college under his belt compared to those who only had a high school diploma and no college. Wasn't bad at the time.
My mom was also working at Southwestern bell in 1976. Within a few years, she was about to be a manager but had my older brother. She never attended college either. Doesn't sound all that bad compared to what you mentioned.
Yes, I regret going to college. Although the process of moving away and living in another city, going to school, and doing things are interesting, the bachelors degree I obtained in 2005 has no value. As I write this, I just got home from a job where I make 14,000 a year.
There are only two reasons why people go to college:
1.) The job they have in mind requires a degree or several degrees
2.) They've been told by society countless times since they were young that the only way one can make it in today's times is to get more education, so they go to college believing in they graduate with a degree, any degree, they will have a better job than getting paid 9 dollars an hour.
If the whole point of college is to get educated, then why would someone spend tens of thousands of dollars then? Why would someone need to spend 40,000 dollars for a bachelors degree for an education? Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to go to the library or buy and read books about something that interests you?
No one was pushing college back in the 50's, 60's, or 70's. If one graduated college back then, they were ahead of the game and got a decent paying job. Sure a few of them had to possibly scratch and save for a years while working at a low paying job in bad economic times, but they eventually find themselves in a much better job after a few years. Now, maybe not so much.
The push for college has been going on for a good 15 years, maybe more. It's still going on.
Again, if the idea of college is to get an education, then why is society still pushing the idea of going to college when it costs a lot of money? Why are colleges/universities costing tens of thousands of dollars other than the fact they can? I understand the idea of trade schools and learning how to do something. But why is it tens of thousands of people every year graduate from college with a bachelors degree or higher even if the degree doesn't directly link them to a job?
I doubt very seriously people are going to college for the sake of learning something and educating their minds. That's too stupid of a conclusion. If they wanted to do that, they could have gone to the library and read books for a lot cheaper.
You've made several broad, sweeping statements which are not true and cannot be substantiated.
Well, regretting your choice of a major is different than regretting going to college. I'm sorry that I didn't major in civil engineering but it wasn't offered at my college, and honestly, it wasn't considered a career for women back then anyways.
Oh no, I don't regret schooling. If I were to do it over, I'd have just as much or more schooling.
The problem is ... you're throwing these kids who are 18 years old into the frying pan and having them pick majors with them having no idea of how the real world works.
The most important factors of a job/career for my $ are, in no particular order...
1) How much you enjoy the job
2) Pay
3) Stress & work/life balance
4) Job Security
Nobody has any clue of what quantity and distribution of these factors they want when they are 18 years old and have never sat in a cubicle or paid rent and food out of their own pocket.
This idea that we have to send people off to college at 18 is part of a broken system ... a system that ruthlessly pigeonholes you into performing the same very specific tasks for the duration of your career.
Let some people try some different things, and then let them get more specific training when they have a clearer idea of what they want. 90%+ of the jobs out there can be done with less than six months of training and an intelligent high school graduate.
Instead, sometimes you need a Masters Degree in certain fields to even get an internship. At that point, you've gone through six years of schooling, and it still might not be what you want.
Both said there were more opportunities back then compared to today.
I bet they say music was better then too, right? Nostalgia distorts reality.
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This is very true. At least today, though, the web provides much better opportunities to at least learn something about possible careers. Still, I think that many traditional students (18-22 years old) miss great career opportunities because 1) they erroneous think that they can't do the work for major X or 2) they don't even think/know about major X. It's a case of "you don't know what you don't know".
