<p>I'm beginning my junior year and I've been realizing that I want different things out of life than most college students. First off, I don't want a steady career in anything if I'm doing the same thing over and over for the rest of my life. Having a lot of money isn't high on my priorities, I just want to survive. Learning is high on my priorities, but I prefer self-learning through books or the internet to college classes, and I can already satisfy my learning needs almost whenever I want this way, and I'm more likely to learn because I'm genuinely interested in whatever writing that can motivate me to read it. Ultimately I just want a way to live off of expressing myself and I have many plans to try that kind of thing, just no time during school. The more I think about it, the less valuable a college degree is (especially in art, which is often useless, and in graphic design, which I can't tolerate for too long; those are my current major choices) to me, and since I've had to take loans each year, it would be an even bigger waste of time the more time I spend here.</p>
<p>I can drop out, work, start a career in creativity on the side, try out a few possible online business plans, and pay off my debt so far, instead of having to pay twice as much in a few years. Afterward I can work towards other careers that I'm more interested in for the long run, they happen to just require an investment upfront instead of degrees.</p>
<p>I can always return to school if being on my own without a degree is too hard, there's always that option.</p>
<p>I think you need to seriously think about it and decide what you want. Only you are going to know the proper course of action in this situation; no one else is.</p>
<p>Both choices have severe pros and cons. If I were going to tell you what I’d do, I’d stick it out and just get a degree in something (a degree is always better than no degree, no matter what it’s in) but that’s just how I personally am. You know what you want to do.</p>
<p>Some students are never self reflextive and never see the big picture, and some are and can. It’s not specifically an art thing nor a design thing. An engineer or even an accountant can see the big picture, and realize that what will then ensue after their college education(or if they complete it) is a monotonous life, especially if they keep following the path to the “taught/expected” lifestyle. That lifestyle being the one that consists of going to college(for the sole purpose of getting a job/career), finding a spouse, getting married, buying a house, having kids, etc and then what? You end up stuck in this life that you then can’t change because you’ve made so many more choices in life that require you to be not give up and be responsible.</p>
<p>As someone who went through an art school program for a design major, I can relate to what you’re going through. I personally couldn’t see myself living out “the realistic” life of the design industry and doing the same thing over and over, especially when in art and design, much more is demanded(for less pay) than simply sitting at a desk entering data and that required no college education. I’m not sure if you’re at an art school or at regular 4 year college/university, but if you are at a 4 year college/university, have you considered simply majoring in a liberal arts major to finish your degree. If you say you love learning for the sake of learning, you could learn more than you think than by self reading in some areas like Literature, Art History, Philosophy, etc… I don’t know how much you may be taking out in student loans, but if its a manageable amount, you might just stick it out to the end until you graduate.</p>
No ****, I kinda meant to imply that lol. And I am well aware of my current losses.</p>
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<p>Thanks yeah that’s also what I mean, I’m realizing that more college students want to do the boring get married and settle down routine than anything else, when I used to think going to college was all about opening your mind to different lifestyles, for the future as well as the past. I’m realizing a degree is catered more to people who desire the same kind of lifestyle. I’m at a regular 4 year, a mediocre one at that, and yeah I’ve considered switching majors. But I meant that I love learning subjects that interest me, and that means I tend to have ADD with other subjects, and it also means that I only like to learn these subjects, as in read an article and be done, not learn in the traditional school sense with all these tests and essays, I’ve gotten sick of those. I would consider philosophy just to finish, but first of all that’s an even less valuable degree, and secondly I can learn all I want about philosophy for free whenever I want, but learning specifically the important names and periods of the subject just for the sake of structure is not what I can look forward to (I took phil 101 already). What did you end up doing if you don’t mind?</p>
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Not at my current school We’re known mostly for accepting anyone, having the most nontraditional students, and for having the one of the longest average amount of years it takes to graduate.</p>
<p>I see a dance here. It seems like you already know what you’re going to do or not going to do. There isn’t any advice or comments that can really help you because you’ve already decided what you are or aren’t going to do. You mention a philosophy degree would be a less valuable degree, but so what? Your whole post was about liking to learn for the sake of learning, and simply wanting to do that, if that “was” the case than the value of a degree shouldn’t even be mentioned. Majoring in something that you think results in a “less valuable” degree is just like learning whatever you like learning on your own. You’re probably not going to end up using either education for a specific career, but you do it for the sake of learning, and at the end of actually majoring in something you’ll at least have something to show for it. For some companies/employers, all they care about is you simply having a degree, they don’t care what that degree is in.
Lastly, if you’re going to stay in college, you have to be open to simply learning and putting up with what you don’t like or think you may not like. I’ve personally taken classes that I thought I would have no interest in, and they have ended up being the best educational and rewarding experiences for me. If people stay closed in on their mentality of what they’re open to liking or taking or learning about, they never challenge their perspectives or what is and isn’t. I’m currently at a 4year school(i transferred from an art school and community colleges) and I thought I for sure would end up majoring in art history, but then it switched to philosophy, and now it has switched to literature. I never liked literature, nor enjoyed the act of reading(i still don’t) but I find learning about different human experiences(even one’s that i don’t think I’ll enjoy) so rewarding. Some people may argue that the study of literature can be done or studied alone, but at least at my school, the classes or lectures bring much more perspective than just surface level story/reading. I also personally hate midterms finals exams and papers, simply because I frankly could care less about the system of grading. I put up with it because to be able to live my life at this time where I basically live to learn I have to show something for it(for my parents, be it the grades or a degree at the end of my education).
Lastly lower division classes(presumably philo 101) are survey classes. You won’t get into the depth of the philosophies or topics because the point is to introduce things to prospective people into the major.</p>
<p>There are so many people in Community Colleges that are 30, 40 even 50 years old that say, “I should have stayed in school when I had a chance.” and express the fact that they didn’t because like was “good enough” until they got laid off and wasn’t able to get hired anywhere else. And even then it took them a year to go back to school only because there unemployment ran out.</p>
<p>Bottom line is you need a degree these days. There was a time (1920-1985) when not having a college degree wasn’t a big deal when applying for jobs. Now its tough to even get considered without one. Just finish with something. Maybe try an accelerated program.</p>
We’re known mostly for accepting anyone, having the most nontraditional students, and for having the one of the longest average amount of years it takes to graduate.</p>