<p>I've known some people who went to college and chose to do a construction trade. I've also known people in construction who are either working towards a college degree or plan on it. </p>
<p>There's probably a "grass is always greener on the other side" effect going on, but some people are also more suited for the trades, whiles others are not.</p>
<p>Agree/disagree with julliet</p>
<ol>
<li><p>College is a waste of time for the majority of people, especially if they can't afford it. You'd be an idiot to set yourself back 50 grand on a global studies major just so you can get a BA. Unless you plan to get a graduate degree down the line, you should be finding a trade you want to do instead of wasting time grabbing loan after loan.</p></li>
<li><p>I agree that a bachelor gives you more options, but who cares about options if you have a lucrative trade. My friend who graduated Honors English with a 3.85 at the University of Minnesota's options were between Target and Best Buy. Who cares about options if they lead nowhere.</p></li>
<li><p>I do agree that attaining a bachelors degree could help you move up within a company. But do you think the auto mechanics getting paid 50 dollars an hour care about moving up. They'll retire by 50 with a pension while the Bachelors degree in Business Management with 75k in debt won't have his student loans paid off until he's 50.</p></li>
<li><p>A trade isn't always physical work. Information technology, computer networking, etc. are various trades.</p></li>
<li><p>A degree may make you a more well-rounded person, but that doesn't mean its worth going into 50k of debt for. </p></li>
<li><p>My younger sister's friend was talking about how her undergrad was going to cost her 85,000. I asked her what major, she said Art History. I just shook my head. We lost. It's been beaten into are heads for years and years and now we will give away everything for something as stupid as art history just to say I have a bachelor degree. Where the hell did we go wrong. Guarantee she never pays off her student loans and lives poor the rest of her life. Debt is debt.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I employ construction workers. For most of them, without a degree they feel their options are limited. As was mentioned, when you are 20 you make great money and don't mind climbing high ladders, being in a bucket all day, etc. Fast forward twenty years and it is a lot less appealing. Fast forward twenty years and you aren't making much more than you were at 20 but you have way more financial responsibility ie a family to support, a mortgage, etc.
As far as the ignorant post about no one with a college degree working at Target, I won't even comment.<br>
There are lots of posts on the parent pages about what adults did/are doing with their college degree. Most of us have taken paths where we have diverged multiple times from what we first went to school for. And there are definitely those with degrees working at Target.<br>
That would be another good reason to go to college. Get out of your small town mentality</p>
<p>I think a lot of these people on here just think the skies will magically part for them when they graduate and they'll land a well paying job. Unicorns, rainbows, and on and on. Just wait until that first bill comes in the mail after you've had 30 resumes out for months waiting to hear something, and then you'll come to a more realistic conclusion, that conclusion will be the sales department at your local Target like my 3.85 Honors english friend had when he was desperately trying to pay his mortgage(college bill) and have food to survive.</p>
<p>Let me say a couple things:</p>
<p>First of all, your statements needn't be so 'definitive'. College is an extremely subjective process. Many people go to college for different reasons than having career prospects, I will agree that it may not be the most practical thing, and college these days has certainly a feeling of expectation to it, but seriously. I have a friend who wants to study linguistics in college. She says she knows it's not a lucrative field of study, but she loves it, and I quote, 'doesn't care if she has to live on bread and water the rest of her life'. She's looking at going to a school that would easily put her $150k under. I admire her greatly for her attitude and fully support her, and it's not my place to tell her any different.</p>
<p>Secondly, I have friends/relatives like you -- people who operate almost completely without thought to anything but what makes sense, what's practical. I can understand that, but it frustrates me so much. The worst thing is that because practicality is your only criterium for judging the benefits of going to college, you're right -- you wouldn't get half as much as someone who is excited about going and making the most of opportunities. I apologize if I seem a bit harsh, but seriously. You're not right because the numbers say so.</p>
<p>Thirdly, my personal feeling is that rather than being empowering, trade school employs a certain defeatist attitude. This may not necessarily be true, but it seems as though you're learning to work under somebody else. You're not becoming an independent person, though financially you may be 'set'. You are learning to become part of the mix, the daily grind. Where's the benefit in that?</p>
<p>What I will say is that if making money is your primary concern, or if you love driving trucks or working on cars, you have a point. But you have no basis otherwise to be saying college is a waste of time.</p>
<p>I say this as a person who is 100% set on grad school.</p>
<p>End rant.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Thirdly, my personal feeling is that rather than being empowering, trade school employs a certain defeatist attitude. This may not necessarily be true, but it seems as though you're learning to work under somebody else. You're not becoming an independent person, though financially you may be 'set'. You are learning to become part of the mix, the daily grind. Where's the benefit in that?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As opposed to going to college and working under somebody else... ?</p>
<p>Why can't I go to trade school, learn to be a mechanic, and run my own garage? Why can't I go to trade school, learn to be a software developer, and run my own consulting business? Why can't I go to truck school, learn to be a truck driver, and own my own trucking business? Why do I have to work under someone if I want to learn a trade? You think a philosophy major has more knowledge of how to run a billion dollar company then a truck driver who's been in the business for years that wants to run his own trucking business? You can't be serious.</p>
<p>And sorry man, but that girl who is willing to go 150k under is stupid. She is just not realistic and doesn't understand how much 150,000 is.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt a truck driver or a philosophy major (unless he/she went to law or b school) would ever be in that situation.</p>
<p>I think we need a massive overhaul of our educational system. We should have HS graduation at 16. Then people either go to trade school or college. Wont work becuase unions are to invested in more years of education.</p>
<p>GiggitusMaximus, just so you know, you don't have to be a college graduate to run a business. That may be a surprise to you, but it's the truth.</p>
<p>Yeah but a billion dollar one? That's an unrealistic example.</p>
<p>True.</p>
<p>My point is though, this idea that I can't do anything with my trade degree except work under someone is stupid. I can open up my own garage, or run my own trucking company, or be a consultant for somebody, etc.</p>
<p>Our nation suffers from a disease called Credentialism. Its stoked by elitists. Many of whom became Captains of Industry and have lead us down the garden path to our own narcissistic destruction. The brightest minds worked on wallstreet and in the mortgage industry which lead us to the armaggedon of financial disaster we are seeing now.</p>
<p>Ditto for the brilliant minds of government in Treasury and on Capitol Hill. So much for an Ivy League education.</p>
<p>"The little princes and princesses of Wall Street" have basically destroyed us.</p>
<p>Go figure.</p>
<p>i think a lot of people are viewing college as solely a way to get a job. it certainly is that for the most part, but there is a lot more.</p>
<p>college is the intermediate step between living at home and being thrown out in the world. it gives people the chance to learn to live on their own, but still with support. i know that if was thrown out into the world without college, i would have no idea what to do. college is a chance for students to learn about managing money, being responsible for themselves (no mom to wake you up for class or nag about doing homework) and many more skills that i don't think you can really get anywhere else.</p>
<p>also, while its nice and very practical to learn a trade, college allows students to study a wide range of topics. i'm sure there are plenty of mechanics who have other interests, and maybe would have enjoyed studying a foreign language, or literature, or something. college and a liberal arts education allows you to explore a range of studies that may not relate to a future career, but are still interesting.</p>
<p>basically, college is about more than just getting a job. there's an experience there, that while not right for everyone, is important to a lot of people and therefore not just a waste of time.</p>
<p>you guys are missing the point of college though.</p>
<p>College is our last chance to be kids and have fun before we enter the scary, mean adult world.</p>
<p>It's the last chance to tailgate at a college football game and get drunk with friends in a dorm, it's our last chance to take interesting classes and make lots of friendships.</p>
<p>Seriously, college is the best time of your life, and if you're going to ditch it just to make a little more money, you're crazy and have your priorities all messed up.</p>
<p>actually, contrary to the op's original claim, more and more ppl are realizing that college is NOT a waste of time.</p>
<p>That's why more and more people are applying.</p>
<p>theendusputrid is very right. if you take those same people who you asked when they were last asked about college and ask them about college, 99% of them will say it was the best time of their life. i know people are going to say "but is it worth 50k a year just to have fun for a while?" and i think the answer is absolutely yes. if its really the best time of your life where you make friends that are often lifelong friends, i think thats a pretty good investment.</p>
<p>More and more people also buy into the notion of owning a house makes them middle class. Look at the mess we're in because "more and more" do this or that.</p>
<p>"Why can't I go to trade school, learn to be a mechanic, and run my own garage? Why can't I go to trade school, learn to be a software developer, and run my own consulting business? Why can't I go to truck school, learn to be a truck driver, and own my own trucking business? Why do I have to work under someone if I want to learn a trade? You think a philosophy major has more knowledge of how to run a billion dollar company then a truck driver who's been in the business for years that wants to run his own trucking business? You can't be serious.</p>
<p>And sorry man, but that girl who is willing to go 150k under is stupid. She is just not realistic and doesn't understand how much 150,000 is."</p>
<p>I didn't say that you couldn't do that. But once again, that's not the attitude a trade school necessarily employs. Would you be willing to concede that isn't the thought many, many trade school students have? Maybe I'm completely wrong, but that's the feeling I get. Trade school attendees where I am are not typically very high achievers and certainly aren't the kind I'd trust to run a business well. And no, you don't need to go to college to run a business. You don't need to go to school to learn how to work on cars either.</p>
<p>And she isn't. On the contrary she's worlds smarter than most kids and headed for a very good school in the fall. You're just focused, focused, focused on the money. That's FINE. Just don't tell everyone else they need to be, too.</p>
<p>"I guarantee if you go to Target right now you will not find anyone working there with a BA with the exception of MAYBE the store manager or general manager" Thats funny, I DO work at target, in the little starbucks part-- and yes we are owned by target not starbucks aka no starbucks benefits-- and just out of the 8 workers in there 2 have their BA's and 2 are on their way to getting them. I also know that many many many of the people who are employed at just my target DO have their BA's, and I'm NOT just talking about the Store Managers. And for the record, there is a greater female population than there is a male population, and the gap continues to grow. There is something like 3 females being born to every male and thats right now. Eventually--somewhere way down the road-- men will no longer exist.</p>