<p>im in my second year of college and i still don’t really feel like i “go” to college. to me college still feels like extended summer vacation which hasn’t ended since high school did most of the time. its a nice a feeling. i want to hold on to it and so far i am. like i only have classes two days of the week this semester and of all (3) of my classes i’ve only been to each of them twice, and this is my FIFTH week. of course my mom doesn’t know this. there was just no point in going a lot of the time since i was behind in the homework, and what’s the point in going to class aside from turning in homework or for midterms and finals?</p>
<p>Thinking more intelligently and making smarter and better decisions in life have little to do with school. You make smarter and better decisions by learning from other people’s mistakes and your own as well. As a result, when you have to make a decision you use your own experience that you gathered from viewing your mistakes and other people’s to give you the best choice.</p>
<p>also what is ‘the purchase’ that snugapug is referring to, anyone know?</p>
<p>i sort of like college life more now because i actually recognize posters on it. before it seemed like the college life crowd had never ever posted on hsl. but this year i’ve seen like 10 people who posted on hsl a lot now in this subforum. these are pretty “old” ccers since they were on cc from before they were in college.</p>
<p>When I was growing up, my teachers made me believe that going to college would result in a better job and earning more money, but this is obviously not true nowadays due to the fierce amount of competition. Once I realized this, I noticed that more and more people were going to college with this belief. I’m pretty sure that eventually our generations will have to go to college out of necessity, or have no chances of employment at all.</p>
<p>I do feel that if I didn’t get a college degree of some sort, I wouldn’t be making the necessary amount of money I need to support my goals in life. Hey, I want a big family. Those don’t come cheap and I doubt I would make enough money to support them otherwise by forgoing college. I’m going to be the first in my family history to ever get a college degree anyway.</p>
<p>Why would a person need to? And yes, the statement is completely true. Cut the crap with your fantasy idealization of people who didn’t go to college. As a whole, the college-educated group are better adults (better temperament, happier, better socialized, more mature, etc) more than people who didn’t go to college. </p>
<p>Now can individuals differ from an average? Obviously. There are many non-college educated people who are better adults than college-educated people. But I’m not talking about individuals, and neither is the Buzzfeed President - it’s about the groups on average.</p>
<p>^^ Is this <em>because</em> they went to college, or is it the case that better tempered, happier, better socialized, more mature young adults <em>go</em> to college? Maybe they value education and exploration more than people who are ill-tempered, immature, etc., and thus choose college. It’s the chicken or the egg story.</p>
<p>I do agree that choosing a trade makes one very specialized and narrow-focused, such as being a plumber or electrician, whereas studying history, psychology, or other liberal arts fields will provide a more broad understanding of the world. But I don’t know if I think college makes one “better.” Not everyone with a college degree is mature or open-minded, or happy. Some people without degrees make more money and have a better quality of life than those with a degree. There are too many factors that come into play to make a blanket generalization like that. Especially when we don’t know if these people were “better” or “worse” before college and what the actual change was that occurred over 4 years.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to disagree with what a few posters are saying about college and learning. Formal education is invaluable in learning and appreciating the world. It can’t be replaced by experience, just like experience can’t be replaced by formal education. Experience teaches you one thing, college teaches you another. By saying that formal education plays a significant role in thinking “intelligently” doesn’t undermine experience, or vice versa. Formal education teaches you analysis, and experience teaches you common sense.</p>
<p>^ but wasn’t snugapug implying by saying that in this thread that for all of us uncertain about the value of college or the worth of even going that we are promoting some kind of “anti-intellectualism”? he said his kids would be going to college “no matter what” whatever they did. now he might not say that about everyone’s kids so maybe he means smart kids and its only all smart kids which should go, since to be an esteemed and successful smart person you have to be college-educated. but that does seem very elitist to me so i don’t think migraine was far from the mark. he might not have been saying exactly what migraine said - that everyone must go - but it sounds like he would look down on you if you didn’t go when you had the opportunity because you thought it didn’t have much to offer you. and how is that not an elitist idea, i wonder.</p>
<p>i read an article last night where a yale professor and advisor explains how colleges, and in particular elite ones like yale, make “careers”, not “minds”, and why that is. (and i don’t even search things out like this to read. what happened was a waterloo university student posted it to her blog, and since i REALLY like her blog - it’s hardly political so i was in no way expecting to read something like this - i resolved to read what she posted). </p>
<p>and look what he thinks: that it’s actually the best college educations which are profoundly “anti-intellectual”, rather than resisting any college education at all.</p>
<p>My original post’s referring to “10 years” was directed towards the Law, Dental , Medicine and other graduates. </p>
<p>I wasn’t implying anything with the original post! It was only referring to the in-life responses I’ve received from peers and even counselors. </p>
<p>I’m happy to see that some people actually enjoy what they learn, and I also enjoy that others also love the aspect of learning! I am also an advocate of learning fantastic new concepts while striving towards that job-related degree.</p>
<p>On a different note, higher educated individuals seem to differ from their peers. My politics teacher told me that more college graduates changed their political views once they graduated. College can definitely change a person, both positively and negatively(depending entirely on the person). A degree will not define who you are; It never will. </p>
<p>As humans in this modern economic world, we focus on maximizing our own utility. However, we must step back and change the whole world for the better. May you be a college graduate or a high school dropout, you have the power to change the world. Use it.</p>
<p>I used to despise the system so much since I thought it was phony of students to act like they really value an education, but they’re actually doing it for the money. However, I guess something struck me that I won’t be getting that much money or having that great of a future without much of a college education. I think my mindset changed when I visited Vietnam, my family’s homeland, for the very first time this past summer. I’m a first-generation American. I didn’t think I would enjoy the trip so much, but I actually did. I thought it was amazing how happy my relatives and family’s friends seemed, despite the fact that they didn’t have much money. I could see that they were happy due to the company of each other.</p>
<p>I guess I just felt motivated afterward since I know that I wouldn’t be able to help them out as much as I’d like to without money. I also realized I wouldn’t be able to afford to travel as much as I’d like to without money, and traveling is one of my hobbies. I guess you can say I was that rebellious kid who questioned the educational system and called these Ivy League hopefuls “phonies” for doing volunteer work, internships, and so on just for the money and not for the love of it. However, I changed, and I guess I’m more of the majority of college students now. Sadly, it’s primarily about the money because money allows us to do a lot of things. I changed.</p>
<p>Because I’ll never dig my son and I out of poverty if I don’t go. I see my 62 year old mother working full time at Walmart and not making enough to pay for her own place to live (she was a stay at home mom throughout her 23 year marriage until my dad left her for another woman). I will not let that happen to me. So, here I am, almost halfway done. In 2 years I’ll be a teacher. I won’t be rich, but I’ll make enough to live on.</p>