For those retired - do you see college as important as when you were college age?

[jeff9366]

When I hired, I advertised for new employees in industry trade journals.

Industry experience essential, no education requirement specified.

Usually received about 300 resumes per opening.

Secretary would open envelopes, then send regrets to all without college degrees. I read the rest.

 

[forgeblast]

What I saw when I went to college, was people spending money at the wrong level.
Your Undergraduate degree is over 100 credit hours. That is a lot of money to be dropping at that level. Go to an instate school over a private school. Spend money at the Graduate or Doctoral level.
The reason I say this is because out of the first six roomates I had, I was the only one who graduated. I saw time and again friends who wasted money. They racked up debt and were in programs they did not want to be in and dropped out.
For my area of employment, --education-- A BS is the basic you will need. To get your permanent certification you have to have a masters degree. To keep the certification you need to continually take classes and take part in staff development. My wife and I are both teachers, and see student teachers coming from private school who have so much student debt, it will take them 1/2 their careers to pay it off.

 

[oosik]

I started college, at a state university, in 1960. I worked in Alaska during the summer and this paid my way thru to my bachelor degree. I got a job with the health dept in Anchorage when I graduated and the government paid for my masters degree. I moved almost instantly to director of environmental health. I would not have moved to director without the masters degree. Its the degrees that got me the job - its the experience in the job that made me proficient. A bachelors degree is the starting requirements for working in the field of environmental health and a masters is required if you want to move into upper management.

My son has three bachelor degrees - digital electronics, computer science & computer engineering and one masters degree - computer science. He works locally for a company as the head computer engineer. I finally pulled the plug when he wanted to go to MIT for his phd. He is getting his phd at a local university. He also worked summers but with the cost of education there was no way he could earn enough - so we helped and he graduated without any student loans. He's paying his own way on the phd.

Yes, I think if a person wants a job in any of the new high tech fields a college degree is required. Its just a shame that education is so very expensive today.

 

[aczlan]

What I saw when I went to college, was people spending money at the wrong level.
Your Undergraduate degree is over 100 credit hours. That is a lot of money to be dropping at that level. Go to an instate school over a private school. Spend money at the Graduate or Doctoral level.
The reason I say this is because out of the first six roomates I had, I was the only one who graduated. I saw time and again friends who wasted money. They racked up debt and were in programs they did not want to be in and dropped out.

Good point. At my last job, I had a co-worker who had over 120 credit hours accumulated (he went to 3 schools to start 3 different IT degrees and had to retake a lot of stuff that wouldn't transfer), well over $50k in debt and only an AAS to show for it.
I went to the local Community College for my AS, then on to an out of state online school (Western Governors University) for my bachelors.
Western Governors was about $3k/semester much of which was covered by the Pell grant and I was able to pay the rest (I was also working full time in an IT position at the same time).
I ended up with a bunch of experience, a degree, a pocketful of certifications and NO DEBT.

Aaron Z

 

[BobRip]

I used to have a simple concept. If you are really smart and work real hard, you can probably do without a college degree. For the rest of us, get education.

There was a proposal to have colleges tell students how people did with each degree at their school. I think many students don't know how bad the prospects are in their field of choice. As a minimum this information should be readily available. I have an electrical engineering degree. It has served me well, but there have been times in my life when it would not get a job.

 

[tcartwri]

I figure not having a degree or diploma put me at least a decade behind my contemporaries. However while they were at school I was working, and was able to purchase my first house at 26. Then a divorce put me another ten years behind.... lol

The other thing to consider is that most large companies are using software to screen applicants these days. Therefore if your resume doesn't contain key words, it is immediately screened out.

 

[JimRB]

I got a bachelors degree in business management. That is a liberal arts in business meaning you are qualified for nothing. I got a crummy job (lack of confidence and a tight job market). Got another job in construction. Worked for myself for a while in construction. Got a job at a non-profit museum managing the building. Started working on the computers we were buying. Got a job with an IT consulting company. One of my accounts said that I needed to hire on with them or lose the account. Given that that account was the bulk of my billable hours I signed on. 30 years of directionless jobs. I do sort of use the business management stuff now and at the last job. I am not sure but I might not have been hired at my present job without a degree even if I was good.

I was slow to earn that imaginary BBA income. It took me maybe 15 years. Once we finally got a 30 year mortgage I was freaked out about having a mortgage until I was 65. I had a plan for 15 years to pay off. I will miss that by 5 years but I will still have 10 or more years of good earnings to catch up (well technically not possible) on retirement. If I had a huge college note I might still be paying on it. I did have a loan for half the degree. Parents generously helped on half.

I think it took me close to ten years to pay off my degree. I think you could work a thousand hours at minimum wage to pay for a year of tuition, room and board and books. State subsidies were reduced during my 4 years so tuition was almost 50% more by my last year. I could not get in to my university today with my lackluster high school performance. Sort of lackluster college performance too but I did learn a few things along the way.

One nephew has a PHD in math. He learned programing languages along the way. Academia was not something he wanted to do. Research was ok though. He got a job after a few years with a networking company that later was bought out by a huge networking company. So far so good for him. He was a honor student with scholarships so I imagine his degree was not that expensive for him. He also did some internships working on his advanced degrees that probably helped.

His sister got a bachelors degree in animal science or some such thing. She worked for 3 or more years with a wildlife management company hunting critters around airports and sometimes doing pest control at golf courses. Local hunters were mad that her company was hunting deer on the golf course. Meat going to shelters. I think she got 20 deer but was not the high hunter that day. She is starting her masters soon as her husband to be finished his degree. Not sure what level he completed.

Does college pay off? I do not know. Some people at work have degrees not related to the jobs they have. They are working what they can to make a living. A few have degrees in their field. Primarily the doctors, nurses and PAs. Support staff ranges from college to not and the not college often are underwhelming. Of course I have worked around college degreed people I would not hire.

 

[dave1949]

Yes, college is still financially and career goal important for the right student. Unfortunately the cost has out-paced reality for many professions.

For a child or grandchild, good advice would be to help them decide if they are driven to have a career that requires a college degree and perhaps advanced degrees. We should be equally as good at explaining the ins and outs of workable alternatives to college.

 

[zigarelli]

My parents placed a very high value on education. They didn't say-do you want to go to college-it was, which college do you want to go to? It worked. All 4 of us kids had bachelor degrees and 3 of us became lawyers. My oldest sister probably didn't go post college because it was a bridge too far for her. We were the first generation in the family to go beyond HS and she didn't have a role model to take her that far. I guess the rest of us stood on her shoulders.

But I don't necessarily think higher education is the smartest thing for a young person these days, for all the reasons others in this thread have said. It's more important for young people to listen to their elders and take their good advice about school/work choices. Older folks have learned hard lessons and they can save their kids a lot of grief. The biggest predictor of success for kids is their curiosity for learning. You can't teach it-they either have it or they don't. What you can teach --through example --is a strong work ethic.

Boy this thread sure stirred up something in me. I've been lurking here for a couple of years without feeling any need to share my opinions.

 

[jeff9366]

Yes, college is still financially and career goal important for the right student. Unfortunately the cost has out-paced reality for many professions.

If you trace the rapid increases in college tuition over the last few years you will find tuition increases closely correlate with federal student loan guarantees. The big beneficiaries of federally encouraged student loans have been physical plant at colleges and pay checks + benefits for tenured faculty; not students.

Another example of supply and demand, distorted by (well intentioned) government action, producing unintended consequences.