Is college even worth it anymore? (master, economy, earnings, graduating)

[sheena12]

Not ALL younger people have a "sense of entitlement" I have met my fair share of hard working, honest goal directed and serious younger people who are able to defer instant gratification in favor of long term goals.

The ones who are "entitled" tend to have parents who are also entitled. Parents who exempt their children from the rules, and act as though there is a "clause in life " for their children.

Entitled parents spoil their children and blame the ills of society on "other people". Never on themselves.

[Rubi3]

No point using Bill Gates as an example for doing without a degree. Bill Gates revolutionalized the world. Some other child going to college isn't likely to do anything remotely close to that.

[warren zee]

Originally Posted by Rubi3

No point using Bill Gates as an example for doing without a degree. Bill Gates revolutionalized the world. Some other child going to college isn't likely to do anything remotely close to that.

Yes Rubi3, the job of "Bill Gates" seems to be taken by none other than Bill Gates. Since I know that he and his wife do not want their children to sponge off of them, I'm betting that the Gates children will be headed off to college.

At this point in time, the argument against a college education is beginning to sound a bit foolish.
Every statistic and every shred of evidence that exists will show that over the course of a life time, the better educated that you are, the more accomplished you will be and the more money you will earn.

Quit trotting out "exceptions to the rules". There are always exceptions to the rule. But the important thing to remember is just that, they are just that - exceptions.

Then there is "The Rule". To be safe, play by the rules as they exist in the 21st century.

In my generation, and especially before, many people in show business did well and did not go to college. then the fame college. Today, child stars are attending college in droves and the ones who do, seem to do better than those who rest on their laurels and do not attend college.

Compare Lindsay Lohan who did not attend college to Jodi Foster (Yale) who did.

Here are more who went to college after successful careers as child stars who are still successful who entered the iron gates to the Ivory Tower. Some names you will remember, others not so much, but they are employed inconspicuously in other fields, alive and well -

Ben Savage (BA Stanford University)
Fred Savage (BA Stanford)
Elizabeth Shue ( BA, Wellsley College)
Josh Saviano ( BA Yale University,Benjamin Cardozzo School of Law, Juris Doctor)
Danica McKeller ( UCLA, Mathematics)
Mindy Cohn ( Loyola Marymount University)
Rider Storm ( BA, Columbia University, MFA, Bennington Collrge)
Larissa Oelinik ( BFA, Sarah Lawrence College)
Joseph Gordon -Levitt ( BA, French Poetry, ColumbiamUniversity)
Natalie Portman ( Harvard College)
Jonathan Taylor Thomas ( Columbia University, General Studies)
Angela Chase ( Yale University)
Mayim Bialik ( BS, MS , PhD UCLA, Neuroscience)
Brooke Shields (BA, Princeton University)

Ms, Shields had something interesting to say about her education vs fame and money "Princeton gave me something that never can be taken away from me, it taught me to think".

By contrast, here are some child stars that did not go to college

River Pheonix ( deceased)
Corey Haim ( deceased, drug related)
Gary Coleman ( died destitute, worked as a security guard)
Danny Bonaducci ( living, has reality show, in constant trouble with the law and suffers from substance abuse issues)

I mention child stars because they are notably at a higher risk for drug addiction, substance abuse, and mental health issues after their stardom wares out, and fame becomes a distant memory.

[ryhoyarbie]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

Just look at the lifetime earnings of the average person with a high school degree

vs

The average lifetime earnings of the average person with a college degree.

I don't have the chart, but last I looked highschool grads average about $600,000 throughout their whole life compared with $1,000,000 for college grads their whole life. So is $20,000-$40,000 worth of debt worth it to make at least $400,000 more over the course of your life?

Unless you have an extremely well paying job without a college degree, the obvious answer is, yes.

Sorry, but that 1 million dollar claim has been exaggerated to great lengths. Here you all go if you want to know the lifetime earnings of those with college degrees versus thouse with just a high school diploma.

Earnings Gap Between College and High School Grads Small - WSJ.com



Taken from the article towards the bottom:

$450,000 is actually a more reasonable estimate of the difference in lifetime earnings

The problem is with the estimate of lifetime earnings and the percentage of college graduates who are gainfully employed is that it doesn't breakdown by who all is employed full time versus part time and what job they are doing. Is the person who is employed making 40K a year teaching 5th grade or working two part time jobs for 55 hours a week and making 25K a year?

A lot of people like to claim that college is great and that getting a college degree will open doors for you and increase your salary, assuming if the college you go to is a meaningful school, the degree you get can help you, and you're a good worker. All fine and dandy, but they also fail to account those people with college degrees who simply fall through the cracks and don't make it for one reason or another.

For example, I don't know if a company is going to take a college graduate seriously for an entry level job that requires a college degree that's been out of college for 7-10 years and has a bunch of low paying jobs on their resume (retail work, substitute teacher, call center, etc.).

[Declan's Dad]

Originally Posted by automobilist

We've taught our three kids what we believe, now it's time for them to establish their own beliefs, and really figure out what kind of person they want to be. Go to college to become EDUCATED. Not merely because you think you'll make more money.

You're a conservative christian couple and you think college will help young people establish their own beliefs?

As someone who's graduated from college in the past ten years and been on many many different college campuses it's been my experience that most colleges are nothing more than leftist indoctrination camps where the uber liberal faculty and administration foist there leftist world view on the impressionable young students while creating an atmosphere where any thought or expression even slightly right of center is ridiculed and silenced.

[Rubi3]

My college education had little to do with making more money during my lifetime. I'm like Brooke Shields in that my education taught me how to think and how to not be ignorant. Those who don't go, have no clue what they are missing. I loved it all for a variety of reasons and had I had my druthers, I'd have more than the two degrees I have. I could easily have been a professional student.

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by ryhoyarbie

Sorry, but that 1 million dollar claim has been exaggerated to great lengths. Here you all go if you want to know the lifetime earnings of those with college degrees versus thouse with just a high school diploma.

Earnings Gap Between College and High School Grads Small - WSJ.com



Taken from the article towards the bottom:



The problem is with the estimate of lifetime earnings and the percentage of college graduates who are gainfully employed is that it doesn't breakdown by who all is employed full time versus part time and what job they are doing. Is the person who is employed making 40K a year teaching 5th grade or working two part time jobs for 55 hours a week and making 25K a year?

A lot of people like to claim that college is great and that getting a college degree will open doors for you and increase your salary, assuming if the college you go to is a meaningful school, the degree you get can help you, and you're a good worker. All fine and dandy, but they also fail to account those people with college degrees who simply fall through the cracks and don't make it for one reason or another.

For example, I don't know if a company is going to take a college graduate seriously for an entry level job that requires a college degree that's been out of college for 7-10 years and has a bunch of low paying jobs on their resume (retail work, substitute teacher, call center, etc.).

You can take the lowest claim which is 300k and it's still an easy choice.

[Declan's Dad]

Originally Posted by Rubi3

My college education had little to do with making more money during my lifetime. I'm like Brooke Shields in that my education taught me how to think and how to not be ignorant. Those who don't go, have no clue what they are missing. I loved it all for a variety of reasons and had I had my druthers, I'd have more than the two degrees I have. I could easily have been a professional student.

So anyone who does not go to college is ignorant and incapable of thinking?

[lmw36]

College is necessary if you desire to work in a field where a degree is mandatory.

If you genuinely want to learn, there's a thing called books. The internet.

My grandmother never went to college, but she was extremely brilliant. She read the dictionary for "fun" and practiced 5 new words daily to build her vocabulary. Just saying this for the sake of "going to college to get educated".

[ryhoyarbie]

Originally Posted by Gatornation

You can take the lowest claim which is 300k and it's still an easy choice.

That's fine. I never did say that one's life time earnings had to be 400k or more. What I did mention in what I said earlier is that articles fail to breakdown what college graduates earn, what they're doing, and if they're full time or part time. It's pretty fair we all know what someone who is a doctor earns or an electrical engineer, those claims I'm not trying to argue against. Unless the writers of articles go state to state, city by city and get information that shows what college graduates are doing and making other than the obvious careers we know of , I'd take everything with a grain of salt.