The College Bubble

everyone knows that a college tuition is over priced... it goes up at something like five times the rate of inflation each year but am i still willing to be educated? ... yes.

i think education is important and i do not think it is a conventional right. everyone has the right to be happy but not everyone has the right to a college education. personally, i worked damn hard to have someone else besides myself or my parents pay for my education. academic scholarship is the beez neez. the arguments that insinuate that people who go to universities end up grossly in debt do not apply to people like me.

therefor i will stay in school for as long as i can so that one day i can educate your kids and tell them about how college is not a waste of time and go on to tell them that anyone who says otherwise probably wasted their time in school, not the other way around.

 

Just because someone says college is a waste of time does not mean that they themselves wasted their time in school. They could have a valid point.

Myself, for example - college is totally unneccessary. I want to work in health, but what I want to do does not require a college degree - but trade school. Personal training, pilates instructor, massage therapist. These things I can and will become certified in, ready to perform a job I enjoy in a much shorter time frame than in a university, and for a fraction of the price. I'll be able to pay for the school myself rather than rely on student loans.

I went to college, and I just found that it was not for me. The environment was not my optimal learning environment and living environment. I think its our culture's sheepishness and lack of individuality/independent thinking that makes us believe that there is a ONE SIZE FITS ALL holy grail of education/life path, and that's college. The truth is, it is NOT mandatory for everyone to go to college in order to have a successful life.

If you passion, drive, vision, natural voracious thirst for knowledge, standards of excellence - you will be successful in anything you try to undertake. College does not prepare one for real life, it is a sheltered bubble itself that teaches you a bunch of facts and memorization but is not neccessary for real life functions much of the time. (with exceptions of course).

 

[quote name='"LittleJacob"']
Just because someone says college is a waste of time does not mean that they themselves wasted their time in school. They could have a valid point.

Myself, for example - college is totally unneccessary. I want to work in health, but what I want to do does not require a college degree - but trade school. Personal training, pilates instructor, massage therapist. These things I can and will become certified in, ready to perform a job I enjoy in a much shorter time frame than in a university, and for a fraction of the price. I'll be able to pay for the school myself rather than rely on student loans.

I went to college, and I just found that it was not for me. The environment was not my optimal learning environment and living environment. I think its our culture's sheepishness and lack of individuality/independent thinking that makes us believe that there is a ONE SIZE FITS ALL holy grail of education/life path, and that's college. The truth is, it is NOT mandatory for everyone to go to college in order to have a successful life.

If you passion, drive, vision, natural voracious thirst for knowledge, standards of excellence - you will be successful in anything you try to undertake. College does not prepare one for real life, it is a sheltered bubble itself that teaches you a bunch of facts and memorization but is not neccessary for real life functions much of the time. (with exceptions of course).[/quote]

I think it all depends on personal interest and person experience, but also some other factors. As you said, you found college not for you, which is absolutely fine. Instead you found a better route.

Like I said, it should vary from person to person. If someone wants to major in history, law, med, etc, an University education is a must. I also, in my philosophy of life, believe the more you know in general, goes a long way. I see the world all connected one way or another, so even if I'm not majoring, or looking in a degree of History, I still enjoy and can learn from it, and personally use the information learned, on a day to day basis.

My view is that college brings in a new window of life, new perspectives. If an individual is willing to be interested, and has the desire to think differently, college is for them. But that doesn't mean that professors and the whole institution is going to do it for you. Think of it this way, professors give you the pieces, you figure out the puzzle. You take the information, and put it in your own way.

Of course, every university is different, so there's always the chance of certain universities having bad teachers, staff, and environment. And everyones' interest is different, so the situation of social and educational experiences are going to be different.

I just think that the cost for all of this is ridiculous. I think there should be a certain cap on tuition that the government should put. Or at least some kind limit on a financial burden in college, as they do in Europe. I also believe it somewhat of a right. I think everyone should have the opportunity to a good education.

 

Bump.

Awesome thread, btw.

 

Are these the people that are supposed to keep the housing market going?

 

that video is extremely misleading. he says at one point, "like healthcare, the government has taken over." i am not sure what he means by that but i do know this,,, in 2002, in the state of tennessee, the state provided "overhead subsidies" to institutions of higher education. on average, for every one dollar a student put in for tuition the government subsidized four dollars. this made tuition very affordable for young college students because the institutions did not have to levee over head costs onto the students. now, for every 52 cents we put in the state subsidizes 48 cents. over head costs are through the roof and the result? well, the school i go to used to charge about 1000 dollars per semester. now, they charge nearly 6 grand. (in-state tuition figures) im on scholarship but none the less... that rise in cost is tremendous. so no, tuition is not taken over by the government like the video suggests. and yes, students leave with huge debts and guess what? other citizens get to pick up the bill either way. we choose that route because we are all supposed to value education. it is a marker by which you measure a successful country.

 

I agree with your post...my granny didn't finish high school....she started a construction company in the 70's and made many many millions of dollars with it.

That being said if all you or anyone get's out of college was memorizing facts and memorization then you missed the point of college and or you went to a shitty fucking school.

College is about learning how to think....how to figure shit out, not fact memorization.

 

couldn't agree more. it is about valuing your education. it is about knowing that education is something that no one can ever take away from you. it is about taking pride in the hard work and effort that you put into yourself.

also, this is my experience as a grad student. i cant remember the last time i had to forcefully memorize something for a test. i do research and write papers, give oral presentations, and try to make sure that freshman understand the importance of history. As an undergrad i went to class everyday and took detailed notes. i payed attention and absorbed the material. it essentially memorized itself. "all school is about is memorization." that just rustles my jimmies because school is about learning for peats sake. sure memorization is the father of learning,,,,, but ,,,,,if you think all you did was memorize ,,,,then you might not have taken the time to learn.

 

That's what college is supposed to be. I think his point is very few colleges actually achieve that goal. And very few colleges operate that way. They tell you WHAT to think, not HOW to think. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many college grads that are damn morons.

 

that is where we differ. to me, college is always worth the cost. to me, it is not simply a means to make higher pay rates. i want to teach. i have a passion for learning. i could do that on my own, and i do, but i enjoy the bonds i form with my professors and i love some them to an extent. i love being in an environment that's sole purpose is learning and discovering. i just cannot wrap my head around the idea of school not being worth it.

sure, i will bitch all day about rising costs. and sure i do believe that there is a bubble of sorts being created. but i also believe that the bubble is growing because a rising number of the wrong types of people are in school. just like the housing bubble grew because the wrong sorts of people were getting the wrong sorts of loans. in laymen's terms.

 

in my experience it is far more honest to blame the student rather than the professor. i think very few students achieve the goal despite the university's best effort. my professors stress thought process and reasoning and do not say what to think because everything in history has multiple interpretations and is always up to new forms of thought.

i have a BA in history and political science and am pursuing my masters in American history right now. for what it's worth.

 

It is neither the student nor the professor's fault. It is the system's fault. The culture's fault. From kindergarten onward, through gov't approved indoctrination, you are trained on WHAT to think, and not HOW to think. It is very rare that a person goes through 13 years of indoctrination with a free mind at the end, so when they are put into a college, that they were TRAINED for, they follow the orders of the authority. They've lived their whole lives that way, why would they change? I think the phrase is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And most people don't realize they have been broken. It's the only way it "works." We live in a faith-based society. And I'm not talking about God and religion.

 

I was just re-reading and this caught my eye.

Despite it still being worth it to some of us it doesn't negate the fact that the soaring cost is an absurd crock of shit making higher education less accessible to anyone except the privileged. I had a god damn GI bill and still wound up 30 in the hole.

All due to the gubbmint....b/c if the fed will pay you an asshole fee why charge anyone any less?

Same could be said about our ridiculously over priced HC system...

Werd...I'm retired and my income/lifestyle is not dependent on a degree which probably explains why I see it as the masturbatory activity that it is and why I chose biology. Not exactly the degree one picks as a pathway to financial gain lol

Mmmmhmmm...I went to a pretty nice school, even there I ran into a few "Think this way" professors...not surprisingly my favorite was a femnazi History prof. The entire semester all we talked about was how much america hates women. WWII got like a 30 second blip in class.

I wrote an absolutely FLAWLESS paper on how the feminist movement destroyed America and actually became a misandry movement...not one red mark on the entire paper....got a C




Lot less of that shit in the sciences.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOWUZbgg5ao&feature=youtube_gdata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaNlow-vmyA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Yeah if you choose a worthless degree and don't get experience before you graduate, expect to be poor or unemployed.


Im studying accounting, have an internship in DC this summer, and will be fine.

I won't immediately be a millionaire, but Ill have a steady job with room for advancement.


If you want to major in management, get no experience, don't think you're about to be the boss of a business at 25 LMAO.

 

Unless you start your own business....but then again those folks aren't the ones QQ'ing are they?