I have 5 friends who didn't go to college. 1 is VP of Sales for a national company making 250K plus bonuses, stk options, etc. 1 sells IT stuff and makes well over 150K most years. 3 own a business together that has 400 employees. I assume they're doing rather well. College is likely to get you a job, but very unlikely to get you a high paying one. Of course high school won't get you much either. The truth is smart people win regardless of education and they make up about 5-10% of the population. The other 90-95% will probably do better going to college but they'll never be well off.
You could just join the Advaita Fellowship and cease to believe you actually have any say in your career choice.
I have been following this form for the past weekend; I recently learned about options trading. I have to say possibly due to my lack of knowledge or due to true merit that I am impressed with the breadth of knowledge and skill in understanding/applying it many of you seem to have. I have never had difficulty learning new topics and practically applying them academia or in the real world. However learning options for me is very challenging. That said I'm really disappointed by all the replies. Basic economics will tell you that a degree greatly increases your earning power and your potential int his world. People seem to forget that 4 years at a university cramming your head in textbooks and learning from experienced professors imparts with you abilities and skills you wouldn't have learned without that degree and make you worthwhile to employers. This is in addition to the fact that most high paying jobs require degrees and most successful(as in not impoverished) people hold degrees as supported by the facts. We also exist in a knowledge economy, a 100 years ago our productive capacity was based upon simple goods; each generation new technological demands and higher demands require more talent/skill/knowledge thus degrees. We're in a recession so the job market is tougher now and people seem to be reevaluating their view without taking that into account or would you guys say ignoring the intrinsic value? ALot of people major in poorly chosen degree and cry when they fail to find a job. This could be because you went to a mediocre or bad university or maybe because you failed to take 10 minutes to go to the BLS.gov or even your state labor department. They both will supply(I believe very accurately) current job demand and predictions. What are my chances of being hired? Is it average, poor, great? Maybe I shouldn't invest a 100,000 dollars and 4 years of college in a degree where I stand a low probability of being hired. People love anecdotal examples; oh wow my friend owns a business selling hot dogs and one is a VP at a hamburger company; hey that's great but those are outliers, extreme examples that don't in any way represent the norm. You can succeed without a college degree but your chances are very low. That said you could chose a degree with upward potential, say some corporation like wal-mart. Start as a cashier, work for 20 years and become hired as a manger making 100k plus bonuses. Or sales, selling insurance for aflac lol or used cars or whatever other non-degree sales job. Joining the military could be a decent choice; starting salary is effectively below minimum wage as you work about 60-80 hours a week but if you make it a career your prospects improve. uhmm I can't really think of any other careers besides owning your own business but that usually requires alot of capital. So bottom-line you should go to college.
So how many qualifications have Gates and Buffett ? Not counting honorary degrees by the bucketful I guess the figure may be between say 0 and 1 Same goes for Richard Branson etc. Maybe you are either a natural or just another also ran, no matter how many degrees Get others to actually do the work under your supervision of course. Masonyes - you are turning yourself into just another worker for $100,000 bucks and 4 years slog ? Get smart
I own a small business and im slowing realizing business is about two things. cashflow and productivity. people say its about innovation and people and ideas and marketing, which is somewhat true, but only true if you've mastered the first two things. Its the same with school, some people see their education as a way to generate cashflow, and to be more productive. I think either way everyone and every business hits a wall, and the only two things that will carry you over are productivity and cashflow. so I'd recommend saving, and learning skills which will make you more productive- something along the lines of David Allen or Leo Baubata. http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/ The problem is that the US and other countries need a dynamic workforce, but the education is system is creating these WWII production era employees. Its not these old skills are no longer required, rather people and businesses need to become more flexible, and uncorrelated. So people will have more part time jobs, more self-employed people who juggle more than one business idea at once, etc. Expecting to find the perfect solution to ones credit and cashflow problems by way of a job in itself isn't the ticket. The ticket is in getting acquainted with a permanent set of tools that will make you quicker to make key decisions, faster in your learning etc.
Definitely one of the more dumber threads on this site. If your too stupid to go to college, go hang yourself.
Oh, the irony Seriously though, if you're making the case for college, at least make sure that your post doesn't make you look like a college dropout. More dumber? Your instead of you're? Come on, that's basic English, and it is not even my first language...
Great example, idiot. Love how idiots always cite these 2 poster children (Gates, Branson) for not finishing college and being incredible financial successes... It's like pointing out the lottery winners (rare exceptions) and not the millions who lose but are never heard about. In fact Gates/Branson are the result of "survivorship bias". Needless to say, they can now each BUY Harvard Fact: 1/ Gates COULD HAVE finished his degree at Harvard - but chose not to. He had a $300 BN company to eventually run. If he had waited even 1 yr before leaving voluntarily, there would be no Microsoft. Comes from a rich, influential family. 2/ Branson Yep...comes from a rich, influential family of mostly judges, lawyers. 3/ Buffett has an MBA from Wharton In short, regardless of having a piece of paper or not, Gates & Branson would not be starving, and would still be better off than most people given their family's connections etc. It's also not a stretch to speculate that Gates/Branson had more confidence and appetite for risk than if they were from a poor family, knowing full well they still had a safety net should they fail.
Per your assessment of risk, depending on the degree, the risk makes plenty of sense. While many who do go through the degree process never gain any real skill sets, the hard sciences offer analytical skill development and actual "real world" knowledge. Straight out of college, a kid with a decent degree and ok grades accomplished something. They showed up on time, dealt with superiors (i.e. admin staff, teaching assistants, financial issues etc). A college grad. has already shown that they are an adult who can handle responsiblity at some level. I personally don't discrminate based on education, but I do discriminate based on maturity and intelligence. A degree shows a certain level of both *most* of the time. Of course a bright kid with a solid head on his shoudlers would show the same level of these traits, but then I'd want to know about those hard analytical skills - those take practice and developing them in a structured environment is one way to practice... In terms of property tax - think of it as a blessing in disguise. It keeps the people residing around you at a certain standard of living. If you removed the property tax you's see a bunch of loser/lazy types just mooching of mom and dads hard work... essentially wasted ecomomic capital. The drive to improve ones community and keep the "riff-raff" out is soemthing one develops when they have a vested (read monetary) interest in ones surroundings. Mike