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Did you find going to college/university as being worth it?

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I found college to overall be very important for me in terms of education and learning things about the "real world". I'm not real sure it'll be all that helpful in the long rule, especially since I just graduated last summer, and am still struggling to find a job, but I don't regret going to college, especially since I did graduate with good grades.

Some of the classes that I took in college I didn't find to be very important, in fact, I complained about some of the English classes I had to take, but I suppose they were a "necessary evil".

I'm not sure it'll be very helpful to my career when it comes to films, though, but honestly, I kinda expected that. I've gotta earn the right to get involved in media entertainment, it seems.
 
I drank lots of alcohol, smoked lots of weed, missed a lot of classes then met a girl who would become my wife. Got a part time job to pay for retaking failed classes which turned into my permanent career. Left with no degree and didn't even pay for the bit of paper that my qualification would have been.

So in short, yeah uni gave me everything my life has become without giving me the thing I went for.
 
The economical side of tertiary education must absolutely considered. If the costs are reasonable (in my case, less than 1000€ per semester) or your company is paying at least a part (like my cousin got it), then it's worth it.
 
Currently at University.

Worth it to work towards my degree and a profession. Not worth it since it's put me in crippling loneliness.

Worth it overall.
 
I took film production, so no. I got to use cool equipment and practice stuff which I wouldn't have been able to do - but getting a job is connections and who you know more than anything.
 
Aurongel said:
Wouldn't have gotten a job without my degree but I certaintly didn't learn a fucking thing from my undergrad program.

Programming curriculums are a bit of a mess and my professors were lousy. Got my knowledge from search engines and forums.
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100% the same experience.
 
I hopefully should be graduating in May.

Overall, my favorite years was my freshman and sophomore year of college.

I've learned alot and have met alotta people so... yeah. College is great if you dont lose yourself.
 
Yes it is worth it but like anything else in life you get what you put in it. Also a college degree continues to be the baseline requirement for most jobs.
 
Generally people with degrees earn more and achieve senior roles faster (not always of course)

Generally people gain a lot socially at the same time (not always of course)

Thus I'd say yes it's worth it. You don't need one if you've got real drive/talent and a clear view of what you're going for but in general for most people it's both a passport to a better career with side helping of social fun and personal growth.
 
For me, yes. My job needs multiple degrees.

If I just wanted to earn money and had no interest in science, I would have done an apprenticeship. Paid to learn, get working experience immediately relevant to the job you're in, and generally, most companies pay you to go to university a couple of days a week too. Sure it takes 5 years to earn a degree, but you also already have a well paying job and no loans.
 
I would have been happier doing a trade license such as an ASE mechanic, but those have been massively privatized.

If I could do it over, I would double major in a science field, so to make med school or a PA a reality.
 
A very large percentage of employers use degrees as a "screen" to separate out those they're going to hire from those they won't.

There are PLENTY of fields where it doesn't matter how good your skills are, without a 4 year degree your resume goes in the trash.

Even a "useless" degree from a state school is going to put your average graduate in a better position than a high school graduate with a 4.0 that didn't go to college.

a university degree is potentially the best investment you can make with your money- PROVIDED you actually finish.
 
Engineering here. Degree was a requirement for the jobs I have gotten/applied but the school time itself was useless as far as learning goes. 99,9% of the stuff that are important in work life wasn't taught in engineering school.

I also have to add that I live in a country where education is free so I got my Master's totally free, not even having to buy books so considering this it was very well worth it in the end.
 
Rad- said:
Engineering here. Degree was a requirement for the jobs I have gotten/applied but the school time itself was useless as far as learning goes. 99,9% of the stuff that are important in work life wasn't taught in engineering school.

I also have to add that I live in a country where education is free so I got my Master's totally free, not even having to buy books so considering this it was very well worth it in the end.
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I am an engineering graduate and i agree with you to a certain extent that the material taught in universities is 99% irrelevant to most jobs. However, the University teach us many skills that we take for granted like:
-Writing technical reports
-Research
-Objectivity
-Ways to approach a problem
-keeping a log book
And many more! I feel that an engineering course is not meant to make you an engineer but to make you think like one. Work is meant to mold you into an engineer.
 
Went back to college in my mid-30s after dropping out at 19. Graduated last month. In the span of three weeks, I've gone from "I want a career in the field I studied for!" to "Maybe I should get a job to tide me over until I can find something in my field."

On the plus side, I learned more about myself during the last four years than I had during my 15+ years working menial labor jobs. I value that self-awareness a lot.
 
Not really, wasn't suited to academia so I didn't learn a whole lot and left me depressed quite quickly so I didn't really enjoy the social aspect ethier.
 
Yes,of course even at worst you got yourself an education with lots of experienced teachers and useful tool for knowledge,honestly should be a human right and not just seen as a tool for job hunting
 
I think a reasonably priced one is a good experience. You do learn useful stuff.

If you get co-op stuff at your college/uni, then that's a HUGE help in getting you a job. That's a good way to get past the first employment hurdle where employers turn you down because you don't have enough experience, when you need a job to get experience in the first place.
 
I'm a teacher so I needed a degree. I did find a lot of value in my Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology; learned some interesting things and had a great time taking a study abroad for a semester. Ironically, I didn't enjoy my post-grad degree to get into teaching. I learned a lot from the teaching placements but the coursework seemed insufficient. People involved in the academia of teaching and education seem removed from the realities of actually teaching.
 
yepyepyep said:
I'm a teacher so I needed a degree. I did find a lot of value in my Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology; learned some interesting things and had a great time taking a study abroad for a semester. Ironically, I didn't enjoy my post-grad degree to get into teaching. I learned a lot from the teaching placements but the coursework seemed insufficient. People involved in the academia of teaching and education seem removed from the realities of actually teaching.
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I want to get into teaching and I hear that teachers college is awful doesn't teach you much and in Canada it used to be a one year and now it's two years.
 
Nope, not for me.

I didn't need a job to get where I'm at and even more so, my future career doesn't require any degrees. Sure, for others they might need that but for me? Nope. I'm glad I never went.
 
Yeah it was worth it for getting a job, they also hooked me up with my first one right after I finished.

In terms of knowledge I learned most of what I know on the job.
 
On my case, it was a requirement for me to get a job in IT.

The things I've learned in my college (cisco networking, some robotics, etc) aren't being used on my profession today (oracle developer). Job hunting with those skillset as a fresh grad was dead. So I settled for software development.

Sucks because I was good at cisco networking stuff back then.
 
I have a lot of work experience but no college degree. It's actually really frustrating when looking for a new job and jobs with less pay than I currently make require a degree. Like $14/hour jobs.
 
mcfrank said:
Yes but not an expensive one. Go to your local school where tuition is cheap, no need to pay 50k a year.
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Basically. My annual tuition for the first two years was 3k, and then 6k for the last two. Ended up leaving with only 5k in debt. I didn't get a full time job right away, but I wouldn't have gotten the opportunities that led the way if it weren't for school. You gotta put in the work while you're there and after graduation, no one is gonna hand you what you want.

Wish I could go to grad school but the tuition for the program I want to get into is insane.
 
Worth it for the experience. That was invaluable. The degree itself? Useless.

...Well, people like to see that you *have* a degree. But other than that? Yeah, useless.
 
In the sense that my current employer wouldn't have looked twice at my resume had I not had a B.A. stamped on-top of it, sure, it was worth it.

In the sense that I learned hard skills and knowledge that I wouldn't have otherwise, no, not really. I do front end web design, but I have a degree in digital video production. I rarely touch the latter anymore, and the former I learned entirely as a hobby while I was in college, as I needed a way to showcase my crappy little video portfolio online. In doing so, I learned I actually enjoyed fiddling with HTML, CSS, and Javascript more than video so I just spent most of my free time learning that instead of playing Spielberg like most of my peers were doing.
 
My degree, while in a related field to my career, meant absolutely nothing to where I am now.

I started working for a bank while in school, climbed the ladder through experience, then changed banks based off my success rate as a manager. My school was barely a footnote on my resume when I came to my current employer. The interview (just like previous places before it) was all about how large the deposit base was and how strong your production was there.
 
Aurongel said:
Wouldn't have gotten a job without my degree but I certaintly didn't learn a fucking thing from my undergrad program.

Programming curriculums are a bit of a mess and my professors were lousy. Got my knowledge from search engines and forums.
Click to expand...

Basically this. I need the paper to prove my worth to employers, but in reality I learned very little from school to help me in a real work environment.
 
Yep, but not for the education

For the alumni network and contacts I made which got my foot in the door and started my first career

For having a good football team to root for

For the endless supply of promiscuous women
 
I've done a Bachelor's and a Master's. Yes, both were 100% worth the expense.

For my Bachelor's:
20% of value was the University prestige
20% of value was developing a fluency with math and Excel.
30% of value was developing my work ethic
30% of value was the co-op program

For my Master's:
30% of value was the University prestige
10% of value was the content
60% of value was networking/career centre
 
There is a small part of me that wonders how my life would have turned out, or what experiences I missed out of by not going to college/university.

I dropped out of high school at the end of grade 10, and went to work as a laborer then took up a trade. I now own my home, cars, truck, motorbike no student loans with a job that pays well above any of my friends that went to university for finances, Engineering, teaching.

So while I do believe I may have missed out on certain experiences, in my circumstance I am farther along in life than I would have been if I had gone.

At my current rate I can fully retire at 50 to 55 depending on interest rates, that is a pipe dream to anyone I know that went and got a degree.
 
I would definitley say it has. It gave me a whole new social sphere and introduced me to a bunch of alternative directions I could take the way I live my life.

On top of that I got to learn a lot about what I want to do in life: developing video games. I gained a huge new skillset, met other driven people and collaborated on work that I'm still proud of to this day, and as a result I got to come out of college going right into one of my dream scenarios for starting my career.

There's certainly cases where college isn't always a net positive but it personally it helped me in innumerable ways.
 
Yep. Went to an in-state school so cost wasn't excessive. Got my foot in the door for good paying jobs and advancement, I graduated in the 90s – so the degree was in lieu of actual work experience – not sure how that works now . Most of the internal (and higher paying) jobs in the company I work for require a 4-year degree.
 
I completed my undergrad degree in 2014 and am still working at community college part time. Pay sucks but I've been there 3 years. This year I've made it a priority to get a job with the degree that I earned. But no it hasn't been worth it for me just yet.

I just dropped outta grad school recently. I'm not closing the door completely since maybe in the future I'll go back but I'm just don't with papers and school.

It depends, my brother only earned a GED and last year he made 76k including OT. Sure he works hard, he doesn't sit in front of a computer all day like I do and his title is "maintenance technician" at a casino here in NYC. He good naturedly makes fun of me all the time. "bro how much did you make last year with your 4 year degree?" It all depends.

Sounds green but I'm still happy I went to college. I may not be "ballin" but college and the folks (especially the professors) opened me up to many things I wasn't wise to before.
 
I finished my MBA about a year ago.

For me both undergrad and grad school were worth it, I have a well paying job and the degrees are essentially a requirement for what I do. I definitely understand how that might not be the case for everyone though and I've certainly had a lucky break or two in my career so far.
 
Extremely worth it. I picked my university based on financial aid offered, prestige, and career opportunity. What I did not prioritize was specialized majors or location, but I scored with location.

I'm making great money for someone 18 months out of college and my career path is bright. My next step is MBA school and I'm hoping to hit every bucket on my list: prestige, career opportunity, financial aid offered, location, and specialized courses.

I made sure in high school I would be competitive for most top universities and I've done the same for grad school.

I'm more in the business world/industry and I know a good amount of GAF members are searching for a more creative industry for their talent.
 
Not during my third year when I was struggling with my essay but after passing I would say yes, as I learned a lot during my time at uni.

Though I haven't found a job after graduating.
 
Almost every programming position requires me to have an associate degree, I finished that but I'm just going to finish my bachelor's in IT programming and also video game design (the latter is only 4 extra classes on top of programming so why not?)

Overall I'd say it's worth it because I'm not going into massive debt
 
Undergrad, yes. I didn't come to love and appreciate school and learning until college.

Grad school... Depends. Everything I learned, the skills and information, I loved. My particular advisor made it hell for me, though. Don't go into grad school if you suffer from major depression, low-self esteem and confidence, and without a really strong support system and good advisor.
 
Took me three tries to make it through, because the first two universities and courses just didn't keep me interested.
Finished with a first (highest degree classification in UK), now making decent money working in my field.

Probably would have preferred an apprenticeship in a trade or joined the military at a young age.
 
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