<p>As admission notifications are getting closer, I am just starting to wonder about the whole college thing.</p>
<p>Firstly, my parents can afford to pay for it. However, about 200k$ is HUGE whatever the family's resources.</p>
<p>More importantly, I just wonder "is it worth to go to college"? After dropping law university in France, I have been working for the past two years.
I came to realize that much of what you do is not really about what you have studied but rather, who you are.
Of course, if you want to become a teacher, a dentist, a lawyer or a specialist on romantic litterature, an education in college will be immensly precious. But given that I want to work in business: what will college teach me? I know what hard work means: I have been working more than 50h a week for 2 years, and sometimes more. Initiatives? I have worked in lots of places, been in different countries, and I therefore know how to adapt and what to do. Eager to learn more? I speak 4 languages (french english spanish and intermediate in Hindi) and am going to learn hebrew. I learnt lots on Economy by myself. Plus, I read tons and am very curious.</p>
<p>So I just wonder: is it worth paying 200$ for something that, in the end, is just a diploma and one line on a curriculum. (notwithstanding the whole college experience, the friends, the parties, the teachers, etc)</p>
<p>I don't know if it helps, but we're in the same boat...
... maybe because people who are going to hire you want to see a diploma as your business card?</p>
<p>So, no diploma, no business card?</p>
<p>Wow, man, in the end it's just one line on a curriculum, but... what a line!
(unless you can be like Bill Gates and start a business on your own)</p>
<p>In the end a college degree won't automatically get you anything. What is will do is keep you from being held back in your career for NOT having one. As you rise within your company or industry, eventually you will come to a place where you will run serious risk of not getting the next promotion or plum assignment because they want someone who not only has the experience and skill but also has the credentials to go with it.</p>
<p>A college degree may be only "one line" on your resume, but often it proves to be a huge one.</p>
<p>It depends whether you want to work for yourself or work for someone else. For most people, if they want to work for someone else, a college degree is necessary for a high-paying job. There are exceptions, of course, but that is the general rule. It may be that you need a graduate degree on top of the college degree, for the highest paying jobs, but the college degree is a prerequisite even for that.</p>
<p>If you want to work for yourself, though, there may be little benefit. Especially if you can invest that $200K into a business, either now or in the future.</p>
<p>Statistically, it's worth about 250% more in lifetime earnings than a high school degree. But IMO there are even more compelling reasons for the college experience than the financial ones.</p>
<p>Well, I just parralleled something I read on Forbes and my personal experience.
Forbes states that 2/3s of 1125 billionaires in the world are self made. I don't quite know what does "self-made" exactly involoves, but in my understanding it is "without prior education".
To make up my mind, I have used their diaporama of some of the billionaires. Most were clearly described as "without a college degree". Not word by word, but it was the idea.
I am not billionaire, but I have been doing relatively well without being "college educated" (just 1,5 year of Law in France).</p>
<p>Clearly, unless I were a genious I could not work in Finance without a college degree. But I am entreprenarial and resourcefull. What if I borrowed 100k of the money originally intended for College, and go to India to create something. I am intermediate in Hindi, have spent 2 months alone in Northern India when I was 18 so I know a bit of the Indian culture (without the pretention of "knowing" it!)...</p>
<p>I have many ideas, I am just afraid that going back to studies will be somewhat rough since I have been doing everything by my own for the past 2 years...</p>
<p>I'd rather have 100K to invest in a business, then 100K later to go to an inexpensive college if I need, rather than 200K for an expensive college. But that's just me.</p>
<p>^^ Now teach yourself Respect.
English is not my mother thongue. Rather than being disrespectful, what about not sending anything or correcting the mistakes I made?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if "self-made" has anything to do with education.
That said, I completely agree with what you are saying. College is neither necessary for sucess nor a must for everyone. Even though I'm glad I'm going to the university of my dreams, only an arrogant fool would think a degree indicative of personal worth or potential success.
Personally, the driving force behind my going to college is my love of learning. While success is nice and all, to me it is but secondary in terms of what really matters.</p>
<p>A young person's peer group is the primary influence on his or her goals and aspirations, both professionally and personally. People without a degree can certainly make money, though statistically, those with degrees are likely to make much more. But if learning to evaluate the world around you critically, to function comfortably in a world defined by cultural diversity, and to appreciate the inter-connectedness of disciplines that at first glance appear to be discrete are keys to personal effectiveness and enjoyment of life - and to me, they have certainly proven to be so - then a quality college experience with peers who are experiencing the same intellectual growth is worth far more than just the projected earnings differential.</p>
<p>Pecoisne "self-made" means that the wealth was accumulated by that person in the family. In other words, the money was not inherited through a trust or will. That is self-made. Some people take the definition further and define it as only people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps from the slums and became wildly successful. But by no means do they not have schooling.</p>
<p>As someone else said. If you're working for yourself, then don't bother. If you're working for someone else though (in a firm), then it's absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>Also, if it isn't too much to ask, what've you been doing the past 2 years so we can gauge what you're interested in?</p>
<p>I went ti India in 2006 during 2 months for a photography trip.
I have done Finance throughout 2007 (in the currency market)
and right now, I am working up my spanish in Madrid (as a waiter first, then later I am planning on working in real estate. But nothing concrete yet, first I need to be perfectly fluent in spanish). I'll be there until june, and I'd like to go to India for 2 months before college to work on my hindi.
Then, hopefully, college will come.</p>