<p>What is the purpose of going to college? Is college useful or not?</p>
<p>Two lines of thought (at least) on this subject. 1) You are going to college to expand your knowledge of the world in general; or 2) You are going to college to learn a skill to lead to future employment.</p>
<p>I would imagine that many go to college for a combination of the two lines of thought, one or the other lines of thought would probably be the dominant one. For example; Future engineers go to college to gain the skills and knowledge that they will need to enter their fields but the school will require that they get “breadth” to their college experience (although trying to get some engineers I know to appreciate art is like trying to get a pig to sing, others do appreciate things outside of engineering).</p>
<p>So is it useful? Yes, if you are gong to learn a skill. Yes, if you are going just to expand you knowledge; but does it make economic sense and truly fit into your life goals is a question you have to ask yourself.</p>
<p>It is useful if you make it useful. If you don’t know why you’re going, it’s probably not useful to you.</p>
<p>Most 17-year-olds realistically do not know what they want to do as a career, and college can help them identify areas of strength and interest that high school may not have provided the scope to explore. However, unless they are academically prepared, self-aware, and self-disciplined, college may be an expensive mistake. But as long as one does not take out a lot of debt to go to college, there is not much opportunity cost at this time for a 19- or 20-year-old to be there, instead of working at a minimum wage job. You have to ask yourself what else you would do with yourself if you did not go to college. What are your options? Trade school? Military? Family business?</p>
<p>To be an inexperienced 22-year-old with a bachelor’s is probably better than being a 22-year-old without one. Just don’t borrow 80K to do it.</p>
<p>
Pretty much. And for some of us, knowledge we learn because it is interesting overlaps greatly with skills that lead to future employment. For many who major in CS, software development is both a hobby and a job, and becoming a better developer is a path to income and a path to satisfaction in life. To many people, mathematics is both a skill set that leads to income and a framework for understanding the world in a way that leads to satisfaction in life.</p>
<p>College is something of a package deal that gives us many ways to learn these things that help us on the job and make us more intellectually satisfied.</p>
<p>@HPuck35 Going to college is not the best way to gain knowledge of the world in general. We dont go to college learning how to eat, how to make friends, why raining, why the airplane can fly etc. In fact, we just use computer google it and find out the answer of your questions or we can read books, books can tell u a lot. U also gain the knowledge from people around u, and maybe you dont remember what the teacher said in the class, but you still remembered what your friends said five years ago. If U get or going to master degree, the knowledge you will learn will get deeper and deeper on only one area. When people ask them about other areas, they will know nothing about it. </p>
<p>@HPuck35 I dont think skills u learn in the college will lead you to something except some specific majors. We assume someone improved his computer skills and writing skills and everything he needed to learn during four years of college, but after he graduated from college he could find a job, so the skills he learned only can help him fill out the form asking help from government.</p>
<p>@Halogen I will use your example to answer u. He majored in CS, and he found a job after he graduated from college, but his salary was $10000 after taxes. He spent four years and 100000 dollars to get a job only worth 10000 dollars. Skills learning from college could not support him, and it means nothing to him.</p>
<p>As a hiring manager I find this thread very disturbing. Regardless of major, there are many skills learned in college that companies look for, not the least of which are communication skills both verbal and written. If I am presented with a candidate with a college degree I know that person has a history of completing assignments with minimal supervision and the ability to prioritize those assignments for example. The list of intangibles goes on and on. </p>
<p>The discussion of if a college education is worth the expense should not be about whether or not to go to college but about whether or not to spend the extra money on a fancy private institute or go to a very affordable state school. The only way I will consider a candidate without a college degree is if they were in the military. Anyone else need not apply.</p>
<p>
Who is “he”?</p>
<p>@Halogen I am not talking about some specific people. I imply to a large group of people who face the same kind of situation.</p>
<p>the reason why I post this thread is because I saw a same kind of question on another website, and I started to think about these questions. Is college really useful? why we should go to college?</p>
<p>It’s clearly not useful for everyone. I think the political fashion now to get all kids to go to college is misguided. Some kids just aren’t cut out for it; they drop out; they end up deeply in debt and worse off than if they had never gone at all.</p>
<p>There needs to to serious attention given to offering kids feasible alternative paths to success, not just push them all into college…</p>
<p>@isaacyinn: Well, what would this hypothetical CS graduate earning a net 10K after college be doing if he hadn’t gone? Also, his qualifications give him a chance at better employment down the line with experience. </p>
<p>If your sole interest in life is a job, any job, then there are certainly more efficient and cheaper ways to achieve this goal than going to college. However, you have to think carefully about the trajectory of your life and the quality of the work you are going to be able to get without a degree. A lot of people with aching bones and health problems in their 40s wish they had prepared themselves for white-collar work down the line in their 20s. Just saying.</p>
<p>Some people do look at college primarily as a financial investment. Every investment has risks. I could take all my extra money and hide it under my mattress instead of investing it in stocks and bonds. I wouldn’t lose it, true. But I’d be guaranteeing my own poverty down the line because my money would lose value to inflation and a changing world. Going to college is a similar risk. There is no guarantee that you will be continuously employed with a high-paying job if you get a bachelor’s. But what are your options if you don’t?</p>
<p>Personally I believe there are other reasons to go to college besides the immediate post-grad financial ROI, but as this seems to be your primary concern, I’m addressing that aspect.</p>
<p>@NJSue My concern is not on the financial problem, actually my primary concern is that do we really can learn things useful from college or we just waste our time and money to sit on classroom for other four years.</p>
<p>For most Americans, the most desirable jobs require a college education. It’s really that simple. If you would rather build houses or roads (these are just examples) a college degree is not required.</p>
<p>If your family can afford $200,000 to send you to college, it is possible to invest that money instead. At 8% interest, if you can stand working a low-skilled job for 20 years, your investment will be worth almost $1 million.</p>
<p>And my response is that if you personally see no useful value to college, neither intellectual. social, nor practical, then it’s probably not for you. Don’t go. Problem solved. Fortunately we do not have compulsory tertiary education in the United States.</p>
<p>Some people probably do waste four years of time and money because they don’t benefit (tangibly or intangibly) from the experience. That, however, is their own fault. Another cliche that has a grain of truth: “college is what you make of it.” The cost-benefit balance differs for every student. </p>
<p>PS looking things up on the internet is in no way a functional replacement for a structured course of university study.</p>
<p>I agree with this succinct summary by @HPuck35 – “Two lines of thought (at least) on this subject. 1) You are going to college to expand your knowledge of the world in general; or 2) You are going to college to learn a skill to lead to future employment.”</p>
<p>But a third line of thought is equally prevalent: 3) A college degree is a credential that many employers look for, and is also a prerequisite for advanced preparation in many professions (science, law, medicine, engineering, etc.).</p>
<p>While it is true that you can have a “successful” and “prosperous” career without a college degree, you need only look at the unemployment stats and the lifetime income stats to see that your odds of prospering and finding good jobs are much better if you have the college credential.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to imply that a college degree is only a credential. Most people actually learn a lot from college, both in the classroom and outside. And they have a chance to sort through a variety of subject matters and career alternatives if they have a well designed curriculum. Not to mention, they actually do pick up skills that are useful and marketable.</p>
<p>But don’t lose sight of the credentialing effect of a college degree.</p>
<p>The reason why I post this thread is because I saw a same kind of question asking on other website, and I started to think about this question which I never thought before. I know this question sounds ridiculous, but this is that question not a large amount of people talk about on the daily life, so this is a tough question to everyone. This question is just asking people about the purpose of going to college, and we can ask a lot of questions related to this question like what is the purpose for this thing or that thing or is it useful for us to do this. People should ask these questions whats the purpose and is that useful for me before they do things. </p>
<p>For some people, spending the time and doing the studying and discussing in college helps to polish their innate skills, and keep their thinking logical, as opposed to going in circles. It depends on the person, and what innate skills he possesses.</p>
<p>Going to college probably has positive benefits for everyone. Whether those benefits exceed the cost of going to college (time spent, and out-of-pocket costs) is an open question for many. This is true of those who will have a career in waste management in their hometown as well as it is true of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. There are two sides: 1. What incremental value does college add to your life 2: What incremental cost does attending college extract from your life.</p>
<p>I do think there are many colleges that don’t add much. There are others that add a great deal. </p>
<p>If all you are doing is “sit on a classroom for four years” you have no idea of what college is all about. There may be lectures but the discussions and labs are equally important- those can’t be achieved with only online learning. You also will never fulfill the requirements to graduate. Also- if all you did in HS was that you have no love of learning. While in college there is a lot of learning in and out of the classroom. College is not for everyone. Even if the typical college freshman doesn’t know what path they will take, what their major will be they usually grow into it. The exposure to new people and ideas changes one’s thinking.</p>
<p>NJ Sue’s post just above mine (wish they still numbered posts, sigh) is good. The internet is a source of information, it is not a way to learn critical thinking skills or a host of others learned by interacting with others. Do you trust everything you read on the internet? I sure hope not. How do you know which information is valid, or how to find something you haven’t heard of? Do you want to be in charge of your life or let others with more abilities (gained from college or other skilled training) to always direct your life? Twenty years from now- where do you want to be? Subsisting or having options?</p>
<p>So much more. But, if you have limited vision, save the spot you could take from someone who values it for that person. You won’t know what you missed.</p>
<p>PS- most computer science majors will earn high salaries. The anecdote you site is extremely atypical. Your example of one is the outlier. </p>