Idiot Rage

[Pope]

To be fair teenagers are led to believe that college is a necessity, the more prestigious the better as long as you get a degree. Finances and loans won't matter because you have a degree from Columbia, recruiters will be knocking at your door the moment you graduate.

Not saying that this is the case but the astronomical costs of college and rising student loan debt is becoming a major problem. People in their 20s can't afford their own homes because they're tens or hundreds of thousands in debt while making essentially entry level excrement money at their 9-5s

[Tommy]

To be fair teenagers are led to believe that college is a necessity, the more prestigious the better as long as you get a degree. Finances and loans won't matter because you have a degree from Columbia, recruiters will be knocking at your door the moment you graduate.

Not saying that this is the case but the astronomical costs of college and rising student loan debt is becoming a major problem. People in their 20s can't afford their own homes because they're tens or hundreds of thousands in debt while making essentially entry level excrement money at their 9-5s

You'd think people would get wise to this though. Having a degree from a prestigious school can open doors in the beginning, but you still have to be good at what you do in order to excel and get ahead. The degree means nothing after a few years. Without one, you won't have a glamorous job at first, but if you work hard and learn the ropes, your opportunities will get progressively better.

[Miamipuck]

I wish they would get actual HR people into high schools and give the kids some honest to goodness knowledge of how the real world works. Academia for the most part is not the real world. I mean it's a fantastic experience to get a college degree. However, it's prudent for students to not set their finances back 20 years just to do it. There needs to be a better job done to finance schools for the average student or make available more vocational training to help a student get a leg up in the early years of their careers.

 Ask any HR person worth their salt and it's just like Tommy said, "the prestigious schools get you in the door initially." However once you're a few years into your career the quality of your school takes a back seat to the quality of your work experience and core talents. Of course there are always going to be bastions of the powerhouse schools that will only allow entry to a certain privileged few, but there aren't enough to make student debts of $200,000 palatable.

[Tommy]

Also it depends on the company, but some don't want kids from prestigious schools. I've spoken to many hiring managers and seen it for myself. The more prestigious your school, the more your student loans, the more "too good for this job" you'll behave, and those are the worst kinds of employees. Give me a city college grad from a working class family any day of the week.

[Miamipuck]

Tommy, it's like Bojanglesman, it for sure goes both ways.

[Pope]

I'd be a big fan of sending high school graduates to a 2 year general-education community college type school. Once you've done that you can move on to the field/degree of your choosing at another university. That and vocational schools for those that aren't academics.

Stupid to me that we make 17 and 18 year olds decide the next 50 years of their working career by choosing an educational discipline.

[bojanglesman]

Tommy, it's like Bojanglesman, it for sure goes both ways.

That was college, I was confused.

[Badger]

You'd think people would get wise to this though.

Not when kids are told for 18 years that they need to go to a good college to amount to anything, regardless of cost.

My own high school guidance counselor told us we should go wherever we want, and to not worry about the money. Thankfully I went to a state school anyway.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

The bigger issue is the demand.  Too many jobs that shouldn't require a college degree now do.  That's not the case in a lot of countries.  We need to stop pretending that everyone should be going to college.

[Ignatius J Reilly]

I'd be a big fan of sending high school graduates to a 2 year general-education community college type school. Once you've done that you can move on to the field/degree of your choosing at another university. That and vocational schools for those that aren't academics.

Stupid to me that we make 17 and 18 year olds decide the next 50 years of their working career by choosing an educational discipline.

Vocational schools are the best idea in here.

[Tommy]

Not when kids are told for 18 years that they need to go to a good college to amount to anything, regardless of cost.

My own high school guidance counselor told us we should go wherever we want, and to not worry about the money. Thankfully I went to a state school anyway.

I'll admit that I fell into that too, despite my previous post being pretty condescending. The only thing that stopped me from going out of state for a lot of money were my shitty grades and my parents refusing to cosign for a parents plus loan. They didn't understand why I would pay $40k a year when CUNY and SUNY schools were a fraction of that.

"But dad! Those schools are excrement. You guys don't care about my future!"

[Tommy]

Vocational schools are the best idea in here.

Why? At least a 4 year college gives you a balanced education and allows you to form your own decision within that time on what to focus on. Vocational schools are pretty specific. I wasted a year and a half at a technical school for computer networking before deciding that I really didn't like it. Hardly any of my credits were transferable, so it was essentially wasted money.

[Pope]

Why? At least a 4 year college gives you a balanced education and allows you to form your own decision within that time on what to focus on. Vocational schools are pretty specific. I wasted a year and a half at a technical school for computer networking before deciding that I really didn't like it. Hardly any of my credits were transferable, so it was essentially wasted money.

Computer networking is a bitch to study because the material is written in an unnecessarily complex way. They're like lawyers in the sense that a straightforward concept is made verbose and confusing, technical legalese if you will. (FU KOZ)

Real-world hands-on networking I think can be very rewarding. As you start to learn and master the fundamentals it's really cool to know how information gets from point A to point B

[Ignatius J Reilly]

Why? At least a 4 year college gives you a balanced education and allows you to form your own decision within that time on what to focus on. Vocational schools are pretty specific. I wasted a year and a half at a technical school for computer networking before deciding that I really didn't like it. Hardly any of my credits were transferable, so it was essentially wasted money.

The fact that you didn't like computer networking doesn't mean there shouldn't be schools that don't waste the time of a guy who wants to go straight into it.  The attitude of 'everyone should have a balanced education' is part of the problem.

[Tommy]

The fact that you didn't like computer networking doesn't mean there shouldn't be schools that don't waste the time of a guy who wants to go straight into it.  The attitude of 'everyone should have a balanced education' is part of the problem.

I don't know what the solution is but a balanced education isn't a bad thing. Though it is funny how majors mean nothing for the most part. I have coworkers who do the same thing I do with degrees in history, marketing, English, finance, and I have a dual degree in Economics and East Asian Art History, so there's no real sense behind it to be honest.