Is College Still Worth It?

[redguard57]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

Take this from a guy who was always very "bookish" and never good with his hands, etc.

I enjoyed college and graduated when I was 24 with an economics degree. I'm 29 now and this is the first year I've reached a positive ROI.

If you enter a program that directly trains you for industry like nursing, you'll be okay. General degrees are much tougher, and if you graduate in an area with a bad economy (like most of the South) or in bad economic times, it's truly a tough road.

Generally my experience too. My degrees did pay off because the position I now hold requires them at a minimum, but I didn't see much return for about 5 years and felt frustrated about that.

In the long run, though, totally worth it.

A lot depends on what the individual wants to do, how flexible he or she is, how competent he/she is.

I have friends that now manage stores, ie: a friend of mine that's the general manager at a Petsmart, pulling in 60-80K. He started as a cashier not long after we graduated high school about 15 years ago. Another friend started as a sales associate at a tire shop. Now he manages his own tire shop and can pretty much move with ease to management at any tire or automotive shop he wants.

The big question is... do you want to work a job like that your whole life? College enables you to do other jobs and skip (some of) that 7-8 years of paying dues toiling as a low level associate before you move up. You can also leverage it to do a job that you actually want to do, not just can do.

So yeah, you can start at Petsmart with no college degree and later on manage your own Petsmart.... but as my friend puts it, "then you have work a crappy job your whole life." He hates his job and I think the way he tolerates it is that he hires only the hottest young women when any low-level position opens up. Whenever I go into that store, it is him and a bunch of cute college-age women wandering around the sales floor.

[kodiakbearcountry]

Just have to put this out there -- today I was hired for a part time job in my profession I'm attending college for (accounting). I didn't seek this job out as I'm still a year away from graduation and probably going to complete my master's degree. This opportunity would not have existed without returning to college so yes, worth it, definitely.

Previously I was working a thrift store and not enjoying it at all. It was what prompted me to return to school. Yes, I may have been able to find a job that I would have enjoyed. Or I might have gotten stuck in dead-end menial retail jobs for the rest of my life till retirement and that just wasn't something I wanted to suffer through.

[PanapolicRiddle]

Originally Posted by kodiakbearcountry

Just have to put this out there -- today I was hired for a part time job in my profession I'm attending college for (accounting). I didn't seek this job out as I'm still a year away from graduation and probably going to complete my master's degree. This opportunity would not have existed without returning to college so yes, worth it, definitely.

Previously I was working a thrift store and not enjoying it at all. It was what prompted me to return to school. Yes, I may have been able to find a job that I would have enjoyed. Or I might have gotten stuck in dead-end menial retail jobs for the rest of my life till retirement and that just wasn't something I wanted to suffer through.

But the problem with the contemporary economy is that many college grads wind up in these low-wage, menial jobs anyway, while also being saddled with major debt. In other words, they get the worst of both worlds.