

The Biggest Rip-off In History - surplusunit

After spending 5 years at an accredited university and receiving my bachelors in business with a degree in finance, having spent thousands of dollars and countless hours doing work and studying and stressing for tests and other fun-filled projects, I can wholeheartedly tell you that it was all A COMPLETE FUCKING WASTE OF TIME.<p>Thank god I went to a relatively inexpensive university with scholarships to pay most of the bills, because if I had thousands in debt right now, or hundreds of thousands like some people out there, I'd probably shoot myself in the face. The worst part is these debts are inescapable; the wages from your nonexistent job will be garnished for eternity. You can thank the U.S Gov. for that. Then when you ask yourself what you got out of it- a bunch of lectures, outdated powerpoint presentations, and useless tests- that's when things get really depressing. And that job you were supposed to get when you got out? LOLZ. It disappeared quicker than the smoke from your first bong hit from when you joined Lambda Alpha Shmelta freshman year. Recessions are a biatch. Now you get to join the hordes looking for jobs in their $60 monkey suits and empty briefcases.<p>When I think of college now, I think of big fancy institutions with nice looking buildings and nice looking equipment, with incredibly over-paid professors that are half-teaching naive kids stuff they won't even remember, or won't even be useful by the time they graduate. In most cases, it's stuff you could have learned on your own, buying an $8 used book off of Amazon and reading it in a few days. Yet students are forced to buy $300 dollar textbooks, because their professor got kickbacks from the publisher to require the 22nd edition of their Art History text.<p>It's all a business. Period. Under no circumstances should an education cost $30,000 or more a year. Unless members from an advanced alien race flew down in a spaceship and landed in my backyard, promising me that they would show me the secrets of the universe and an internship in another galaxy for $30,000, I might do it, but I would still try and bargain with them. But people go to second rate universities all the time and pay that kind of money for degrees in Fine Arts and Liberal Arts. LMAO. What the hell kind of job are your going to get when you graduate? Listen kid with a film degree, no one in Hollywood gives a shit about your short film about a kid with werewolf syndrome who finally accepts himself through the help of a retarded child. You might land a job as an assistant for some under-funded productions company somewhere, but you could have got that without any degrees.<p>Even more noble degrees are turning out to be more worthless by the minute; most science degrees, urban affairs degrees, even some degrees in business are about as good as a G.E.D. Look, the whole point is, you're going to college to get a good job and make money, right? The thing is, those jobs are vanishing by the day, and even if there are openings, there are more qualified people with experience and hundreds of others with the same crappy degree applying for them. If you want a job so bad, you're better off learning Chinese and moving to the Nanchang province, because that's where they all got outsourced. And if you're going to college to just learn, there are far cheaper, faster, and exponentially more effective ways to learn about whatever you want, not just the crap they have chosen for you already.<p>Forget about the status you will gain or what people will think about you if you go to college or not. If you're going to college to make a lot of money, just know that no one gets rich from a job. You get rich by owning assets, and by producing and selling things. Unless you really want to be a doctor, lawyer, or in high finance that requires a degree, then consider skipping college all together. Figure out what you really love doing/creating and find a way to sell it to people. And if you want to learn, there is boatloads of inexpensive and interesting books, unlike ridiculously priced college text books. There is also the internet, which used correctly, can make you ten thousand times smarter than the guy who graduated from Thomas Jefferson U. Then, if it requires, you get a mentor who can actually show you the ropes. College will never do any of that, and therefore is a giant ripoff and waste of time.
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msredmond
I agree that college is overpriced in general. However, not getting a degree
is just not an option for most people. It's not just lawyers, doctors and high
finance -- entry-level jobs in most professional fields including sciences,
engineering, education, nursing, psychology, journalism (I can go on and on)
require at least a bachelor's degree. Yes, people can learn a lot on their
own, but without that piece of paper, many positions will be completely out of
reach for you without it (not saying its right or wrong, just that it's
reality)

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surplusunit
Yes this is true but the main thing is jobs are very tight or are being
undermined everyday- in almost every field. I'm saying to the ppl who are
still trying to figure what they wanna do to rethink things

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mark-r
Bitter much?

The value of a college education hasn't changed in a long time. It has never
been a guarantee of a job. It has never been the only way to learn things. The
only thing that has changed is the cost: the price of college has outpaced
inflation for many many years. Only a small part of your rant covered that
aspect.

Success comes to those who demonstrate their worth. A degree is only a part of
that process.

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surplusunit
First you say the value of education hasn't changed then you say the only
thing that has changed is the price? Not sure but that sounds like a
conflicting statement. Also people do go to college thinking they will get
jobs when they get out. While that could happen, their degree offers no real
advantage in many cases.

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ohashi
How has your experience biased you with regard to high end universities? You
say yourself you attended an inexpensive school, thus we can assume it wasn't
a top tier school. I am not sure I would fully discount the name-brand value.
More doors open because of brand value.

As a whole, I found this post was rather bland and didn't offer much real
insight.

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actionbrandon
this. and I went to a shitty school.

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Yaa101
This is just one of the symptoms of a country that is paralyzed by it's
continuing corruption. You are part of the solution, good luck to you and your
generation with trying to get rid of some of that corruption. (not meant
cynical)

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Tomek_Kopczuk
Don't underestimate the biggest advantage of going to college - people you
will meet.

Other than that - I agree. If you seek knowledge - just pull your finger out.
College won't do it for you.

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mobiplayer
You always can come to countries like Spain, with badly paid professors and
poor equipment but almost free education. It will cost you less than 1k
dollars per year :-)

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veyron
just like law school, the value comes from connections and the piece of paper.
If you look strictly at the value of the education proper, it will always be
overpriced. That's why its worth spending money to go to an ivy or mit or
stanford.

When I was raising money, it was easy to leverage pedigree (top school) and
connections (lots of rich friends) to reach my target. These are benefits from
college that aren't reflected in the degree.

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surplusunit
If you liked this blog follow me at advancedinsight.blogspot.com

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actionbrandon
what a waste of time. i cant believe i commented before reading this...

