

Ask HN: Should I Go Back To School? How Important Is It? - throwaway_nyc9

In my Junior year of college, I dropped out in order to pursue a startup idea. It was innovative and ultimately had a good - not spectacular - exit.<p>I'm now located in NYC and it's always bothered me that I didn't continue and get my college degree. I've applied to and gotten into some of the "non-traditional" education programs, most notably Columbia's School of General Studies.<p>I want to know:<p>a) Is it worth it? I've been out of school for about 4/5 years with significant experience.<p>b) How is Columbia GS taken? Is it seen as a "joke school" or "joke degree". It's rather expensive, so I'd rather know now what it looks like.<p>Thanks.
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kls
Are you going to go into management? Do you ever want to work in a large
company that you did not build, as anything other than a developer or
development related discipline like developer, admin or architect? Do you want
to do scientific research? Do you want to teach at the university level?

If the answer to any of those is yes then you may want to consider a degree.
If the answer is no, then you should really consider the value proposition of
higher education. Keep in mind that many believe that there is an ongoing
bubble in education and that the prices and value of education will continue
to decline. The influx of regulations and lending has caused significant
inflation in the cost of attaining a degree while at the same time reducing
the real world value of that degree.

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hluska
Hi there....

I cannot speak to question b, but I have some very direct experience with
question a that I would like to talk about for a moment.

Like you, I dropped out after my third year of an accounting degree to pursue
my own business. It was the late 90s, the world of technology seemed to be one
of limitless potential, and I got the entrepreneurship bug. So, I dropped out
and followed my dream - this particular company (like yours) did fairly well
and I got to exit with my head held high.

After I sold my company, I spent the rest of my twenties working some
interesting gigs and honing my skillset. But that unfinished degree kept
plaguing me - I constantly wondered how much further I could go if I had a
piece of paper behind my name.

So, I went back to University and finished a marketing degree. I didn't learn
a whole lot during the degree - business degrees are about as useless as you
can get. But, I definitely gained value. Being significantly older than anyone
else in my classes meant that my peers were other more mature students with
work experience, graduate students and professors. That network is worth way
more than the cost of tuition and made going back to school incredibly worth
it.

As an aside, that network actually helped me start my next business, which I
launched a few days after convocation. That business failed miserably, so
either the network wasn't worth all that much, or I was a bonehead...:)

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apas
\-- Don't let your schooling interfere with your education. --

Nevertheless, education is vital. For everyone. The more educated you are, the
better. I don't know specifically about _that_ degree you're talking about,
but as an American (most presumably you are, that is) think about the option
to finish your college degree, let's say in Germany (Berlin has an awesome
startup scene coming on, too) or in the Netherlands (Amsterdam is rocking big
time, too).

I referred to Germany mainly because their education system is public (the
fees for some unis are $500/semester, pretty decent, most of them are free --
depends on the state) and their unis are rocking big time.

I don't know what you were studying before you drop-out but as a technical
kiddo, pardon my word usage, consider also studying something different now--
let's say philosophy or something.

If I were you, I'd try to study. A guy with a college degree is always more
"better" (with a very broad sense) than a guy who hasn't a degree. Well, not
always -- especially in the IT field, BUT generally speaking, I consider a BSc
a vital thing for to posses.

And remember, it's not always what you will be taught in uni -- you mainly get
to understand how to think properly and not for example how to program
fluently in Python. They teach you how to think.

And thinking is vital.

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rdouble
If you ever want to work overseas it helps the visa process. Likewise, if you
ever want to do something other than programming, having a degree usually
helps. For instance, I wanted to teach a programming class at the university
extension in my hometown, but they wouldn't let me because I do not have a
master's degree. They wouldn't have even bothered telling me that if I didn't
have a bachelor's degree.

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brudgers
The fact that you are even asking this question and that you are as far along
in the process as you are (i.e. you have applied and been accepted) indicates
that it is important to you - and that's as important as anything gets. School
is often wasted on the young, it sounds like you are in a position to
appreciate it. Good Luck.

