Is getting a college degree worth the effort?

FFS search the forum, some retard asks this question every week or so....

Ste Fishkin said:

FFS search the forum, some retard asks this question every week or so....

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search tool is hard to use and doesn't provide accurate answers, i always end up sifting through a ton of junk to find nothing useful.

If you want to be an IT freelancer, you don't need to waste your time and more importantly money with college. Get some good online courses, start learning and start coding. What you'll learn by doing will be quite valuable and if you do this hard for 4 years, you will most probably know more than if you get a degree. Neither being a freelancer, nor being an entrepreneur requires a degree, so it makes a lot of sense to just avoid the dept.

But the time you will waste in college will probably be some of the time of your life, so that's that also Partying, making friends, getting wasted

Bleght said:

If you want to be an IT freelancer, you don't need to waste your time and more importantly money with college. Get some good online courses, start learning and start coding. What you'll learn by doing will be quite valuable and if you do this hard for 4 years, you will most probably know more than if you get a degree. Neither being a freelancer, nor being an entrepreneur requires a degree, so it makes a lot of sense to just avoid the dept.

But the time you will waste in college will probably be some of the time of your life, so that's that also Partying, making friends, getting wasted

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Thank you for your input, i guess im worried about not going to college because its what is socially expected of me. I dont understand the last part. Are you saying i should go to make friends and get wasted? lol

kittykut said:

search tool is hard to use and doesn't provide accurate answers, i always end up sifting through a ton of junk to find nothing useful.

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I doubt you have the ability to get a degree anyway if this is the case.

Question answered.

I think it's worth it. You never know where you might end up in 10-15 years. Since you're young and have the time, now is the time to do it.

Build a few good websites and they'll make money for you while you study

Same thing is happening in my life. I don't want to get a job, but getting a degree is a undesired life achievement for me.
I see my college life as a hurdle in my IM journey, but I also see it as a backup plan.
If you are not sure about how you will do in future with IM, don't leave your degree.

Okay mate, I'll try to answer your particular question.
As a senior in college right now who is studying a computer science related degree, My advice to you is wait at least a year before you plan on going to college. Unless you are absolutely sure that's what you want to do--hold off on going.

When I started, I was a naive 17 year old who made a blind jump into going to college because of alot of social pressure to go. Now, I'm not even completely done and in debt. IMHO getting a degree is just a catalyst to getting a job. What you learn there may or may not be beneficial to you based on your career goals. And to be honest you can learn pretty much anything that you want to learn (in CS at least) online.

As far as the SAT and ACT scores I'd suggest to try to score as high on the test as possible. They basically test you to see whether or not you are a good test taker and not necessarily whether or not you are intelligent, so be cognizant of that.

Like you, I similarly wanted to do freelance work and start a company. If I could start all over I would skip college for a couple of years or so and apply myself in the business that I plan on creating. So my final piece of advice to you, albeit a little biased, is to learn the things that you need to know for your business now. (Whatever it may be HTML, CSS, Java, JS, Python, PHP, Ruby etc) and start with your business, learn what it takes to start or start freelancing. Then after having been working in your own business If you find that what you learned on your own is not adequate and it would be more beneficial to learn from an institution then either change your focus/strategy or go to college.

Good luck. Hope that helped.
-xSoulbane

No, @OP you don't need a degree to work at McDonalds.

Best Regards,
Jaymien.

xSoulBane said:

Okay mate, I'll try to answer your particular question.
As a senior in college right now who is studying a computer science related degree, My advice to you is wait at least a year before you plan on going to college. Unless you are absolutely sure that's what you want to do--hold off on going.

When I started, I was a naive 17 year old who made a blind jump into going to college because of alot of social pressure to go. Now, I'm not even completely done and in debt. IMHO getting a degree is just a catalyst to getting a job. What you learn there may or may not be beneficial to you based on your career goals. And to be honest you can learn pretty much anything that you want to learn (in CS at least) online.

As far as the SAT and ACT scores I'd suggest to try to score as high on the test as possible. They basically test you to see whether or not you are a good test taker and not necessarily whether or not you are intelligent, so be cognizant of that.

Like you, I similarly wanted to do freelance work and start a company. If I could start all over I would skip college for a couple of years or so and apply myself in the business that I plan on creating. So my final piece of advice to you, albeit a little biased, is to learn the things that you need to know for your business now. (Whatever it may be HTML, CSS, Java, JS, Python, PHP, Ruby etc) and start with your business, learn what it takes to start or start freelancing. Then after having been working in your own business If you find that what you learned on your own is not adequate and it would be more beneficial to learn from an institution then either change your focus/strategy or go to college.

Good luck. Hope that helped.
-xSoulbane

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Thank you for your reply that was very helpful.
i think i will take your advice and wait a bit before going to college, i dont see why everyone is rushing off to waste their life's savings on a worthless degree. Ill starting making money and save up/invest for a few years before i decide if i should go or not.
how has your college experience been in general?

Why would you get $100,000 in debt to get a degree?

You never heard of CLEP, Going in school to community college and then in state university to finish the final 2 years?

Capo Dei Capi said:

Why would you get $100,000 in debt to get a degree?

You never heard of CLEP, Going in school to community college and then in state university to finish the final 2 years?

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no i never heard of CLEP, just researched it a bit and it looks like a good option, if you wait to go to college you could study during that time and get the credit for free

There are many countries where education is cheap or free. I suggest you to study outside of the U.S.A
Going to a foreign country & studying there will open your mind.

So for me it was not, I left high school because I was offered a job making more than anyone in my family had made ever at 17 years old.

I'd say hands on real world experience is worth way more than a degree.

From the last thread on this: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/blackhat-lounge/827687-uni-no-uni.html

IS COLLEGE WORTH IT?

College was the most exciting, carefree, laid back four years of my life. I wasn't in a frat. I didn't party (except for a few times from the confines of our dorm rooms). I didn't hook up with randoms (was in a relationship with the woman who is now my wife).

What I did do was go on adventures. I took long walks around campus at night with friends. I got incredibly good at Call of Duty: Black Ops (one). I started building a successful business. I met a lot of professors and fellow students I still talk to to this day. I excelled and learned. I got an internship at an amazing out-of-the-box place and got to see $100 million in cash, like that scene in Breaking Bad. And when it was all said and done, I got a diploma and a line on my resume saying that I did it, and I did it well.

I got so many small scholarships that I owed $0 when I got out. My wife actually got paid $5k a semester to attend college because she got so many scholarships. Rare for the US post-secondary educational system. Of course medical school (for her currently) is a completely different story. I try not to log into the student loan site, because when I do I'm greeted with this monstrosity: http://i.imgur.com/eR0b5zn.png.


But college was incredible. I miss it every day. Sometimes I take a jog at work and go to the local college campus and just walk around. Just to get that feeling again.

BUT I'M ALREADY MAKING MONEY.

I was making a steady income while I was in college. Here is why I stayed:

1) The income was not a guarantee. It never is in the real world. So it was good to know I had a degree to utilize if I needed to re-enter the job market at any point. i.e. as several other posters have said, a backup plan.

2) The experience. Networking, making friends, and spending time somewhere with thousands of other people in the prime of their lives, just trying to expand their horizons in any way possible. Having a 10x16 dorm room to call home caused a lot of time to be spent exploring. Hikes to waterfalls, short weekend trips, walks, disc golf, geocaching, hanging out at an abandoned airstrip at the top of a mountain overlooking the entire campus, going out to eat at the on-campus dining options every evening.

3) The education. If I had the funds to spend, and I wanted to learn mechanical engineering, I would not spend my time in a dark room watching YouTube videos. I would go to a college and find educated professionals who are paid six-figures to teach what they know to others, and I would walk out with proof that I did so.

But I don't think these will sway your opinion, and it's fine if it doesn't. Everyone is entitled to one.

College is awesome, but if the OP can't figure out the search tool, he should probably just dig ditches.

If you're like me and are over prepared i'd strongly suggest you get some asset built or start with your Internet Marketing dream before you get into schooling.

I dropped classes because of my mom passing and decided to keep with building up my endeavors because it was the only thing on my mind while preoccupied with it at school + my mom was planning it before she passed (In regards to leaving this state and relocating with the progress I've made online, not having to go to school.)

Again, if you have 2 dreams you are best to stick to one. It always overlaps and interferes at the wrong time.

I also got school for free because of scholarships / foreign funding and chose to hold off on it until my life is fully situated or go with a girl to have more fun with it.

No need to go to Uni, just make websites, even retards make websites these days.

It depends on your plans for future, if you dedicate some of your time to learning seo or webdesign you can start your own business, but if you want to get employed that degree will help you for sure.