Not Going To Happen 'Cause I'm Not Harry Potter (Impossible Patron Requests)

[MariaE]

I also told him that going to uni puts your life on hold, and that when you get out you'll always be behind your peers who don't go.

Really? I'd scarcely say anyone I know wh went to university is "behind" those who went into the workforce straight from high school. I do no one very intelligent person who is, 25 years later, still handicapped professionally from lack of a degree.

I noticed when I left university that people who went into the work force instead were ahead of me career wise while I had a long agonizing job search that didn't go anywhere. DH didn't go to university and he's in a stable full time job.

But this just might be where I am.

I think it must be. In Denmark you're much better off when it comes to seaching for a job if you have a uni degree... Well, a uni degree in a practical area anyway.

[Katana_Geldar]

That many people have uni degrees these days it's almost not worth it.

[jedikaiti]

I also told him that going to uni puts your life on hold, and that when you get out you'll always be behind your peers who don't go.

Really? I'd scarcely say anyone I know wh went to university is "behind" those who went into the workforce straight from high school. I do no one very intelligent person who is, 25 years later, still handicapped professionally from lack of a degree.

I noticed when I left university that people who went into the work force instead were ahead of me career wise while I had a long agonizing job search that didn't go anywhere. DH didn't go to university and he's in a stable full time job.

But this just might be where I am.

Too many variables. I once (long ago) worked a PT job with a guy who was very proud of the fact that by skipping college and going straight to FT work, he'd be making $25k a year in another 4 years. 2 years later, after I graduated college, I started my first FT job at $25k a year.

In some areas, and some fields, it's hard to even get an interview without a degree in SOMETHING. For me, the degree was worth almost as much as the experience - for my 2nd bachelor's, I was able to get a great internship, and a great p/t job as a student, both of which were instrumental in obtaining my current awesome employment. Had I not gone back to school, I don't know where I'd be - quite possibly still unemployed, or having changed careers to something less interesting (to me) and possibly less $$.

[Hillia]

And it depends on your field.  If your goal is to be an auto mechanic, then yes, your degree in history won't do much for you - but you still would probably be better off with a trade school certification, if one exists in your area.

[Thipu1]

And it depends on your field.  If your goal is to be an auto mechanic, then yes, your degree in history won't do much for you - but you still would probably be better off with a trade school certification, if one exists in your area.

That's what the son of a friend did.  Everyone assumed he'd become a teacher.  He went to College for one term and hated it.  He then went to a trade school to become an auto mechanic.  He's making good money, has a home of his own and is quite happy. 

[MommyPenguin]

Part of the problem sometimes is that jobs require a college degree because they can't count on a high school diploma being worth anything.  I had a job that really shouldn't have required a college degree, but it did.  Lower level jobs that didn't require a college degree had major issues finding qualified applicants because people couldn't alphabetize, add, write coherently, or other really basic skills like that.  If high schools actually turned out graduates who could do those skills (in that particular area, schools were terrible), then maybe they wouldn't have had to require a college diploma, and you'd have 4 more years of earning time *plus* no student debt.

[greencat]

I briefly worked for a hotel restaurant where the manager insisted that the lowest-level front-of-house staff at least have an associate's (2-year) degree.  His reasoning was that they were interacting with the guests and needed to be reasonably well-spoken.

He did not manage to reason that the reason why he had higher-than-usual staff turnover was that, for someone with a college degree, waiting tables was the dead-end-job to make ends meet while searching for a better position, not something they were ever planning on sticking with long-term.

[RegionMom]

 Somewhere I heard that a college degree basically means that you can get yourself up and dressed and sometimes to class sometimes.
It means you have proven somewhat responsible.

[Jocelyn]

In many ways, a university degree is a union card. If you can't get your dream job without one, it's worth it.  People need to think ahead to the job they want, and research what employers are wanting, before deciding they should go. My BIL went to vo-tech school, and, as my sister says, when you go into the hospital for a MRI, do you hope the MRI was installed by a man who knows how to do that job correctly, or by one who has read Beowulf? I think he would have enjoyed college just for the opportunity to learn, but it wouldn't have advanced his career any. Would he have chosen a different career? Possibly. But we shouldn't look down on people who are doing jobs we want done, just because they don't have a degree. We still need people who can install and maintain the hospital's equipment, and who can come out in the middle of the night to change the bulb when the stoplight's bulb burns out.  Well, actually, the one who changed the lightbulb was my sister, because the controls in the bucket were wonky, so he had to stay on the ground to make sure the person in the bucket got back down again. So apparently in their town, the city electrician has no college degree, but his assistant has a master's. 

[RingTailedLemur]

The trouble is, it's very difficult to know exactly what you want to do and how at 17.

[Tea Drinker]

I briefly worked for a hotel restaurant where the manager insisted that the lowest-level front-of-house staff at least have an associate's (2-year) degree.  His reasoning was that they were interacting with the guests and needed to be reasonably well-spoken.

He did not manage to reason that the reason why he had higher-than-usual staff turnover was that, for someone with a college degree, waiting tables was the dead-end-job to make ends meet while searching for a better position, not something they were ever planning on sticking with long-term.

I think he's also missing the point of what's covered in most colleges, since rhetoric is no longer part of the required curriculum. From accounting to zoology, there aren't a lot of classes that will make someone well-spoken if they weren't already.

*wondering suddenly whether he had a college degree, and if so, in what*

[greencat]

I briefly worked for a hotel restaurant where the manager insisted that the lowest-level front-of-house staff at least have an associate's (2-year) degree.  His reasoning was that they were interacting with the guests and needed to be reasonably well-spoken.

He did not manage to reason that the reason why he had higher-than-usual staff turnover was that, for someone with a college degree, waiting tables was the dead-end-job to make ends meet while searching for a better position, not something they were ever planning on sticking with long-term.

I think he's also missing the point of what's covered in most colleges, since rhetoric is no longer part of the required curriculum. From accounting to zoology, there aren't a lot of classes that will make someone well-spoken if they weren't already.

*wondering suddenly whether he had a college degree, and if so, in what*

Not that college trains you to speak, but professors do demand that the work you turn in displays a certain amount of grammatical correctness, and learning better written grammar usually comes with an improvement in your speaking patterns.

[jedikaiti]

The trouble is, it's very difficult to know exactly what you want to do and how at 17.

I know I didn't have a clue. College right after high school was as much about exploring options and figuring out what I wanted and was suited for as getting training.

[Jocelyn]

The trouble is, it's very difficult to know exactly what you want to do and how at 17.

And no one says you have to go to college at 17.
If someone has no interest in any occupation that requires a college education, it's taking a crap shoot to send them to college just to take some classes and explore. Some students will find themselves, others will flunk out. I had an advisee expelled for having a GPA of .2 this year. No, the decimal is not in the wrong place. I've seen it happen too many times with kids sent to college because they'd graduated high school, when they had no idea what they wanted to do, or study. So they sat in the student union and played cards during class, because no one was going to make them go to class. I remember telling this young man that the University could and would expell him for bad grades, and he was stunned. He felt like as long as he could pay the bills, he should be able to make whatever grades he wanted to. Would it be in his favor for the school to take that attitude, and let him exhaust his financial aid while creating so many hours of F that it would take him years to re-take those classes? If you don't know where you're going, getting in your car and driving in any old direction probably isn't going to get you to your destination. Likewise, if a student really doesn't know what he wants to do, taking a few years to work and make up his mind isn't a bad plan. Or taking a vo-tech course, and having a trade at which to work while he attends college. If you know you want to do A, B, C, or D, and all of them require a college degree, then yes, start to college, take some classes in those departments, and make a choice. There's nothing wrong with changing your career plan after you start college but I sure don't recommend sending a kid who has NO idea what he wants to do or study.

[RingTailedLemur]

The trouble is, it's very difficult to know exactly what you want to do and how at 17.

And no one says you have to go to college at 17.

Almost everyone who goes to uni here does it straight out of school, and the choice is made at 17.  Going as a mature student is uncommon.