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[Mondai]

My college experience was a big waste of time for me , I still regret even finishing my degree , I should have joined the military sooner than I did. Only good thing about my college experience was meeting my now wife.

 

[Tams]

4/10.

I was mostly paying someone else to teach myself.

I only liked a few modules and felt like there was little help available if you were struggling.

The social life was alright. I particularly liked the sports clubs and the societies were fun.

 

[Mossybrew]

Mine was a waste of time, never got a degree, had a scholarship too. Turns out getting high and fucking my girlfriend were my priorities and sitting in a classroom was a real buzz kill so I just quit going.

 

[Days like these...]

College? I didn't even make it through high school. I had to work in the fields.

 

[Trunx81]

University was fine, had some great tutors.
Only "downer" was that I had a relationship during that time .. so many wasted possibilities.

 

[Drake]

Which time? The first time I went through and partied like an animal. Barely tried, got ok grades, but a bullshit degree I couldn't do anything with. Went back a 2nd time in my early 30's, got a degree in a very marketable field, worked my ass off to get good grades, but lived like a monk for 2.5 years. The 1st time was definitely more fun, but finding good paying work was next to impossible. That being said if I would have gone for Computer Science (my 2nd degree) during my first run through college I would have failed miserably.

 

[Billbofet]

I feel I took it all for granted and if I could do it all over, I would have really put more effort into it and appreciate it more.
I don't really apply any of my learnings or degree in what I do now, but I feel that's more on me than anything else.
It was fun as hell though!!!

 

[IntentionalPun]

I had a full ride and threw it all away to party and sell drugs. Didn't go to more than a few classes then just basically had an apartment at a school for a while after that lol I did keep working at my job though for some cash, but my scholarship paid for everything.

All in all, was pretty great.

 

[AlteredForms]

AmericaCollegeGAF be like:

 

[PaddyOCanager]

 

[Danknugz]

the general educations requirements were a scam. psych 101 i showed up on the first day, the midterm and the final and i still passed

 

[Rival]

Was just having this discussion with a coworker earlier. It was fun at the time and probably worthwhile but we both have the same job and he didn’t go to school so which one of us is smarter?

 

[violence]

It was kind of a waste of time. I should’ve just played World of Warcraft and saved the money.

 

[Winter John]

It was pretty great. I did 4 years at the Culinary Institute. Got in on the bill. Otherwise I would never have made it to college. They put me up in an off campus apartment with 4 other vets which made life easier. Back in them days the C.I.A wasn’t all prestigious like it is now. Catering was where the freaks, burnouts and generally unemployable washed up. So I fit right in. One of the instructors was this old German guy. He used to get drunk as shit and tell us the most disgusting stories about the bars in Berlin where they fed the strippers bananas. Those were good times.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Waste of money but I enjoyed it much more than high school

 

[Putonahappyface]

I studied Forestry and Aboriculture and had a blast.

 

[Mattdaddy]

It was the best time of my life lol. I went to a pretty big school where football dominated and the social scene was pretty nuts.

My only regret is that I probably focused too much on having fun and I definitely could have focused harder on setting myself up for professional success lol.

It took me a several years post graduation to rebound and really get going.

 

[Muffdraul]

I literally don't remember it. I remember hanging out with my friends and going to gigs and partying and getting laid etc. but I don't remember anything about college itself aside from some very vague images. I was an English major and I graduated in 1991. My degree might have helped me get a couple of shitty jobs early on, but I know for a fact it didn't help me get the two best jobs I've had for the entirety of the last 30 years, because those were down to nepotism and knowing the right people. I've forgotten everything I learned, it was a big waste of time and money imo.

Funny thing is tho, right after I finished college I thought "Time to become a bona fide adult" and I had this sort of checklist of things to do for that. One of them was to get a line of credit established. Long story short, part of that scheme involved buying a Super Nintendo. I hadn't played video games in like 7-8 years, but I ended up getting addicted to Super Mario World and that's literally why I'm here on neogaf right now.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

As far as an experience 5/10 it was fine, learned some stuff, made some great friends.

As far as life 8.5/10 , I work in the field my degree is in and that paid piece of paper got my foot in the door

12 years later no one cares where I went to college but my experience matters, without my degree this would have been very difficult

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Pretty much professionally it was a good intro to lots of useful people (my class and the years above and below have a lot of people who now work in a competitive niche industry) and I did some work experience that got me my first job and again introduced me to a bunch of really useful people.

But, growing up, learning to be an adult, etc. That stuff was invaluable.

 

[Durien]

I'm digging it and I think it is because I am super interested in the field of psychology and I am tired of tech. Granted, I am only about to finish my transfer degree and I did take "some waste of my time and money" classes but I love learning. My biggest pain in the ass moment was doing labs over zoom and getting in a group of students who would wait until the last minute to turn stuff in.

One thing about going to school now is the professors are looking for ways to make books cheaper for students. My tech text books cost me hundreds of dollars and so far my psych textbooks have been less than 100 a piece...

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Content wise, most stuff you learn in business isn’t relevant to the real world except for very high level and vague ways. The content that most resembles real life is accounting theory and all the admin work.

But it was fun for me. Made great friends where my best buddy (that isn’t family) is from university and there’s many more I contact or see here and there. We’ve all done road trips together, help each other get jobs and go to each others weddings.

Well worth it.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

the general educations requirements were a scam. psych 101 i showed up on the first day, the midterm and the final and i still passed

Business programs are impossible to fail as long as you show up. It’s one of those kinds of programs as long as you can skim textbooks and write a case study well you barely have to put any effort into it. I didn’t. I was always one of those study the night before guys. Although the only class I’ve seen people flunk out even with effort is finance and economics. If the prof doesn’t bell curve the class, if you suck at numbers and can’t remember the formulas then ya you can get 0’s on test questions. But all the written case study stuff everyone should be able to get at least a C with little effort.

 

[Cohetedor]

Pretty much a complete waste of time for me. Really didn't know what I wanted to go into, got a scholarship for chemical engineering but suffered brain damage during my third semester and had to drop out. Took enough general math/ science to get my associates then never went back.

 

[Durien]

But suffered brain damage during my third semester and had to drop out.

Dude, metaphorically or physically?

 

[Durien]

I studied Forestry and Aboriculture and had a blast.

Is that gif you during class?

 

[drganon]

I went to college online, so I had all the bills and boring lessons, but none of the fun stuff. At least I had no debt when it was all said and done.

 

[Durien]

AmericaCollegeGAF be like:

Lol when I went to college in 1995, I just got out of the military and was 22. Started going to college and was wasted all the time. I vaguely remember the night before my history blue book final drinking half a bottle of gold schlager. I was still pretty tipsy and must have reeked of alcohol. The professor looks at me, shakes his head, and hands me the test. Pulled off a C+. Lol I thought I was going to just pass out in class.

Note: Now that I am back at school trying to actually accomplish something besides drink and get laid, my GPA through almost 2 years is 3.8. Never in a million years would have I ever thought of getting a GPA like that lol

 

[yet_another_alt]

In terms of being useful professionally, well, I'd say most of the stuff I use in my job I learned during my associate's and my master's. The bachelor's lives up to it's BS acronym.

One thing about going to school now is the professors are looking for ways to make books cheaper for students. My tech text books cost me hundreds of dollars and so far my psych textbooks have been less than 100 a piece...

A lot of my professors gently hinted that "electronic" copies are available.

 

[Putonahappyface]

Is that gif you during class?

No, but I have reenacted that scene with a Husqvarna chainsaw.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I was annoyed. Started off at a tech school, which was too expensive for what it was. Spent 38k for an associates. Went to Community College and had a good time. This is where things get excessive. I went to Creighton University for a year an a half, which is very expensive private Jesuit college. From there I went to the state University. After that I went to nursing school that’s part of the state. I didn’t cut it out as a nurse, so I went back to what I liked, which was IT. I ended up back at the state University and graduated with a bachelors degree. This was in the span of 10 years.

My actual career wouldn’t have required any of that. I have so many courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Genetics and health sciences. None of which interest or benefit me at all. I paid off all my college debt, which came out to be 90k, that’s with paying for community college out of pocket. I feel stupid about it, but I also learned a lot from it.

I always had this dream to go to DigiPen out in Washington state to study AI programming. I’m studying for certs and etc.

 

[ReBurn]

I worked full time to pay my way through school. It wasn't really a college experience as much as it was working my way into a stable career.

 

[Cohetedor]

Dude, metaphorically or physically?

Physically. When I was 2 weeks old I had fluid on my brain and surgery to put in a shunt/drain. Only so much tubing can be put in a 2 week old and I'm now 6'4", it just chose that time for the drain to break in 3 places.

I'm left with an enlarged swelling of the ventricles of my brain just behind my right ear, I have a minor tremor in my left hand and have a hard time concentrating like I'm in a permanent daydream. Could've been a lot worse as I was home alone when it happened.

 

[Sleepwalker]

It gave me my wife and my best friend + a few other friends and key memories so I remember it fondly. I only graduated in 2016 but time flies.

As for the paper, yeah I never used it, but I don't have student loans so its alright.

 

[RJMacready73]

I've seen a ton of Reddit posts about how Americans are saddled with an enormous amount of dept through going to college, is it really that expensive? Over in the UK/Ireland it's cheap as chips in comparison but you guys seem to be saddled with a house mortgage at the end of it or does that only really apply to those studying to be a Doctor at Yale or somit?

Random fact, my niece's best friend ended up with a free international student scholarship to Harvard, cunt landed on his feet there, I imagine you'd need to be one smart cookie...

 

[Durien]

I've seen a ton of Reddit posts about how Americans are saddled with an enormous amount of dept through going to college, is it really that expensive? Over in the UK/Ireland it's cheap as chips in comparison but you guys seem to be saddled with a house mortgage at the end of it or does that only really apply to those studying to be a Doctor at Yale or somit?

Random fact, my niece's best friend ended up with a free international student scholarship to Harvard, cunt landed on his feet there, I imagine you'd need to be one smart cookie...

A year at most of the public 4 years in Washington state are around the same cost which is around 12k. The community college i am going to is about 8k thereabouts. It gets expensive when you go to an out of state school.

University of Washington's tuition is $12,242 for in-state and $40,740 for out-of-state students.

 

[dave_d]

A year at most of the public 4 years in Washington state are around the same cost which is around 12k. The community college i am going to is about 8k thereabouts. It gets expensive when you go to an out of state school.

University of Washington's tuition is $12,242 for in-state and $40,740 for out-of-state students.

Private universities are expensive as hell too. Figure 50-60k a year last I checked. Of course there's need based financial aid at privates so unless you're a foreign student you're not paying full price. Of course I'd make the argument easy loan money is what really drove up the cost of college.(Plus everyone going) And I always like to bring up the fact the federal government nationalizing the student loan industry in 2009 didn't seem to fix anything.

Quick question for those of you not in the US. How hard is it to get into university in your country, such as UK/Ireland? (It's really easy to get in here and it also easy to take a completely worthless degree which doesn't help you once you get out. That's made worse by the fact that universities try to convince people the worthless degree is a good thing.)

 

[dave_d]

As for my college experience I'm another one of which time? My first time probably a 2/10. The deal is I went to a major private research university. For those that don't know research universities are in the research business, not the education business.(Education was job 4 or 5.) Once you got in it definitely showed. (Yup, I'm not supposed to notice that profs had office hours 8 in the morning and the few times I tried to go there they were of course not in.) So pretty much my attitude became "If they don't care about my education why should I?" and I sunk into a black abyss of misery. (I reflect back on it and think the issues I had probably could have been fixed if handled early on. The university was unfortunately more than happy to just let you flounder.) Of course don't get me started on worthless education requirements. Anyway long story short I have little good to say about them. (It didn't even open doors for me which was the final of what I consider many kicks in the figurative crotch.)

The second time I went I went to a public university. Yes, they were more into that whole education thing so I did way better even taking classes in physics and organic chemistry. (They must have done something right, when I took the MCAT my percentile was 88-92 which I think is pretty good. Unfortunately I didn't get into med school but last and current job, they like the fact I've taken classes in chem, physics, and bio. So I actually consider the second one my alma mater even though the first has a higher rep and is the one I actually have degree from.) I'd give them an 8/10.

 

[Aesius]

My first two years were at a private university in my hometown. It was okay, but it didn't feel like college with me still living at home and all.

I transferred to a big state school for my junior year and it was the best move ever. I ended up stretching out my last two years of college to four to "make up" for the lost time of my FR-SO years. Academically I did fine. Could have done better and been more engaged (and chosen a more lucrative major), but I was just enjoying life and didn't want to kill myself with studying (didn't help that I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living). I didn't have the greatest high school experience but felt like I really caught my stride at the state school. Had a great group of friends and partied a lot. I also ended up meeting my wife as an indirect result of going to that school.

 

[DeafTourette]

One word: depressing

 

[TheDreadLord]

Pretty useless. I’m a quite good professional nowadays but not due to my time in college. I guess it is a matter of time before a college degree becomes just another thing you put in a résumé. In some areas like dev it seems to be a trend already.

 

[yet_another_alt]

I've seen a ton of Reddit posts about how Americans are saddled with an enormous amount of dept through going to college, is it really that expensive? Over in the UK/Ireland it's cheap as chips in comparison but you guys seem to be saddled with a house mortgage at the end of it or does that only really apply to those studying to be a Doctor at Yale or somit?

Random fact, my niece's best friend ended up with a free international student scholarship to Harvard, cunt landed on his feet there, I imagine you'd need to be one smart cookie...

It's because there's some ridiculous notion that you should be completely independent the moment you leave high school. People go to universities out of state so not only do they pay out of state tuition, they also have to find a place to live. A lot of people also look down on local community colleges but they're significantly cheaper compared to universities. Yeah, it's true that most fields want a bachelor's degree at minimum but there are associate's degrees that are quite valuable such as nursing. Heck, the signing bonus of a nurse probably covers half of the tuition needed to get an ADN.

 

[M.W.]

Had a fucking blast first, got a degree second. And my loan was forgiven so weeee

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Had a fucking blast first, got a degree second. And my loan was forgiven so weeee

My grad program was good. Made great friends as well i still see to this day and even get an Xmas card from out of province. I remember we each agreed to do a cooking contest to see who was the best cook. I didnt give a shit and just ordered pizza for my day so my day wasnt serious. But for others they cooked up the shittiest food ever. I couldnt even get through two of them. One guy cooked up the spiciest food ever nobody could get through. Then another day a girl made some homemade bread or some shit and it was gross. But hey, I still speak to them today!

I never got 100% loan forgiveness, but I got $6000 of bursaries! And all I did was fucking apply on a form! lol. There were zero conditions. Just apply and hope you get something. $6000 worth! I dont even remember if I had to apply once per semester or once in total and it covered me during the entire grad degree.

And for my undergrad, I did a similar thing. I applied for loan forgiveness just to see if they'd randomly give me something. That was back before the net had everything and I still got a paper copy statement. Then one month it says -$2000 (loan forgiveness). lol. Free money.

All students have to do to get some free cash is just apply to random shit and hope you get something. At worst you get declined. $8000 total and all I did was submit a few forms!

I give credit to my dad. He was the one egging me on to look and apply for shit. He did grad school too way back and he'd tell us to apply to anything reasonable. Schools have buckets of money they got to give away every year through grants, busaries etc....., so just apply to ones that require no work or projects and see if you get a piece of it. Yup. Daddy-o was right.

 

[fran.fernandez]

I didn’t learn anything I used for work but, the degree did indeed help me find all my jobs and get visa in Japan / Taiwan and etc.

 

[wondermega]

I am sure I have answered this question in the past 6mo in another identical thread, but oh well..
Went to school in the mid-90s, which was an absolutely idyllic time for so many reasons. I was a nerdy introvert up to that point with not much of a social life, being on my own & "around my crowd" finally helped me snap out of that. Music & culture was super cool as hell, relatively, and this was of course just as the Internet was finally starting to become what it is now (approachable by many, not just a super-niche thing relatively) but of course social media, smartphones and all of that was still quite a ways off so the world was SO DIFFERENT but honestly much better in many ways..

I worked really hard and learned a bunch other than getting my social life up to speed, and that set me up for a decent career right out of school. Of course now it's a few decades later and my career has kind of bottomed out and I am kind of wondering what I could have done differently, but that is a different story.

 

[Sabotage]

Absolute waste

 

[Mistake]

Waste of time. People there didn't even know what a negative number was. I'm not joking. So I said screw it and quit after a semester, then traveled half the world before covid

 

[Hudo]

Waste of time. People there didn't even know what a negative number was. I'm not joking. So I said screw it and quit after a semester, then traveled half the world before covid

Maybe they were all natural numbers.

 

[AJUMP23]

I had fun with friends and dated a lot. I enjoyed college. My degree has paid dividends, but I use little of it in my career.