Why is education such a waste of time these days compared to even 30 years ago? I want to go to college, but I feel like it'd be a big waste of time.
Why am I supposed to be happy to go to school for 4 years and best case scenario is that I get a job as an engineer making $65,000 working in butt-fuck nowheresville, USA with my work consisting of doing petty bullshit on AutoCAD that anyone could learn how to do within one month by themselves no problem. It doesn't sound worth it.
If I could do an entire degree online, I'd be okay with it since I can do it at my own pace(much faster) and it wouldn't feel like such a fucking drag, but this 4 year shit just to get a shitty job making $65,000 in the best case scenario, it sounds like a big joke.
First of all, education is a worthwhile pursuit in itself. Understanding yourself, your community, and your world better may bring you some joy. If you intend on ending your education after 4 years of undergrad, you are doing it wrong. Even if you do not plan on pursuing a degree beyond a Bachelors, your learning cannot cease if you wish to remain competitive and quench a healthy thirst of knowledge.
Second of all, unless you are lucky, brilliant, or privileged, you will have a tough time in the workforce without higher education. You can look into the labor statistics for yourself.
Anecdotally, I am a few years out of college with a BS in mechanical engineering from a decent state school. I moved to an economically dynamic state, got an junior engineering job paying $40k, got promoted after a year and now make $75k, and am now anticipating a second promotion and hope to break six figures. I work for one of the most technologically innovative companies in the world, do cool work, love my team, and have a great work environment. None of it would have been possible without education - had I not gone to college I would probably still be working in construction.
Additionally, if you hope to have a job in the coming decades once increased robotic automation and AI crushes the labor market, you need to be educated.
Shortest, easiest, cheapest way to make $$$ now is getting into a top-tier programming bootcamp like App Academy or Hack Reactor. 6 months, ~$20k + living expenses, pretty much six figures guaranteed afterwards. But you will have a tough time getting in without a solid academic/work history.
David Evans
>Understanding yourself, your community, and your world better may bring you some joy. undergrad degrees do nothing like that, come on user.
David Anderson
Perhaps yours didn't. Studying mechanical engineering enabled me to take a wide set of classes across the physical sciences, math, and programming, and gave me the skills to apply the knowledge I learned.
I worked hard and applied myself and it changed the way I see the world. 4 years of doing nothing with your time but learning is great, especially coming out of the relative ignorance of high school.
Evan Bell
The easier college is, the stupider you look for not going user.
Nathaniel Howard
Honestly man nobody on Veeky Forums can tell you how to live your life, but really think about the big picture here. As people go through life they develop, form a sense of identity through a few important conscious decisions and a whole lot of arbitrary stuff that happens to them that they didn't plan for but take on the role anyway. If you're leaving high school, your next few years are going to be very formative. You'll build social circles wider and deeper. You'll try things you never would otherwise and develop a lifestyle around a few of the ones that you really like. Sure college has it's negatives but what doesn't really. It's still one of the most amazing opportunities you have available to you. Hell college sucked in a lot of ways and worsened my depression for a long time but I can recognize that things would have turned out a lot differently for me if I didn't do it. I got a chemistry degree and now travel to different plants/labs/universities and work on the stuff there. Some of the best guys I've worked with are plant dudes who grew up in a small town, barely finished high school, and got a job at the plant with their dad. So if you know that's what you want, I'd say go for it and don't even look back because at the end of the day they love their lives and what they do and it's a pleasure getting to know them. But I see a lot of guys and feel pity, because they're just there working the plant for whatever bullshit reason they need to tell themselves.
Christian Jackson
There's nothing wrong with not going to college. But keep in mind what you want out of life and forget all the little bullshit that gets in your head
Jackson Wood
Instead of studying the classics, philosophy, and logic you get a lot of useless job training at five times the cost.
Grayson Hill
>classics >philosophy >logic I'll take a #4, fries, and a coke.
Oliver King
You're pulling that on Veeky Forums?
Carson Allen
>education is a waste of time
t. BA hippie loser
John Harris
It doesn't matter user, it's reality now. You can't automate jobs by reading Plato and Machiavelli. There is little practical knowledge. I can read that stuff by myself but definitely not to get a job.
If you aren't trained as an engineer, scientist, or are a top artist, you're fucked in our generation. Imagine how many of our generation is going to be still paying loans and not having any money when we reach middle age? It's going to be ridiculous. I just want enough to set up my homestead and I'm out of the rat race. I'll read Veeky Forums shit all day and tend to my garden and shit like that.
Aaron Diaz
>across the physical sciences, math, and programming What about fucking humanities, you know, the thing that actually lets you learn about the world?
Isaiah Rogers
Enjoy being a wagecuck
Austin Sanchez
>Paying to listen to cultural Marxist propaganda >learning
Liam Anderson
Nigger have you been to college or just listened to whatever right wing tesite caters to you? The vast majority of professors not in dergender studies dont give a shit and jist want to teach you whatever subject to the best of their abilities
>What about fucking humanities, you know, the thing that actually lets you learn about the world?
Good bait 8/10
Jace Brooks
>The vast majority of professors not in dergender studies dont give a shit and jist want to teach you whatever subject to the best of their abilities 90% of humanities (((studies))) are Marxist drivel designed and taught by Jews
Logan Sullivan
Again, have you taken one? My philosophy classes are pretty gucci
Dominic Lewis
No, he's still a sophomore in high school. He just watched a few Jordan Peterson videos on YouTube.
Samuel Thompson
>gucci
Wanna know how I now you're a brainwashed Marxist?
Nolan Harris
Lol I'm sorry I use slang on a malaysian basket-weaving forum?
Aaron Thomas
>gucci uwot nigger
Austin Hernandez
so of what does the uncucked 10% of humanities consist?
Joseph Jenkins
Lol, it usually means good, or of high quality. Didn't know I had to take my language here seriously
Oliver Thomas
Pretty standard slang in certain parts of the world. I've heard it thrown about with some regularity in England.
Jack Long
>getting into a top-tier programming boot camp >$$$ The only dollars going anywhere for those places are lining the pockets of crafty fucks looking to make a quick dollar off of a gullible person. Most dev shops are weary of boot camp grads who barely know how JavaScript works and you're just wasting you hard earned dollarydoos if you go without prior college or dev experience.
t. gullible boot camp grad whose going back to college because like half of the people who went to my camp, we got nowhere.
Kevin Fisher
England is a shithole.
Angel Bailey
I'm from the US East coast tho, so that's irelevant
Daniel Miller
They got Mars bars, which are fucking delicious and somehow near impossible to find in the states.
Also their tourist places have immaculate public toilets, while any restroom open to the public in the US becomes smeared with shit faster than a shart.
Jaxon Evans
Law and certain parts of religious studies
Camden Jones
>t. Amish boy
Wyatt Morris
>in the states Also a shithole.
Eli Adams
>t. Buttmad yurotrash
Angel Gutierrez
>If you're not a liberal cuck you're Amish
Eli Edwards
because of the internet for two reasons
firstly because you can learn things faster and cheaper from the internet, and people do. secondly because all the experts of a field can just globally pool their knowledge and advance it, increasing the gap to a mere general education.
Angel Butler
>if you don't think all humanities are corrupt beyond measure you're a liberal cuck
Matthew Carter
>poverty Anglo
Charles Rodriguez
Well of murican actually
Bentley Jones
...
Robert Miller
You don't think law is cucked? I think it's at a tipping point. All the higher ups in these advocacy and activist groups are lawyers.
Jason Powell
That's always been an interest of mine, and I've found it easy to learn on my own. Other subjects may require more resources (i.e. multimillion dollar lab equipment) to learn, and offer a more lucrative ticket at the end of the road (i.e. engineering).
I read humanities books voraciously in my spare time.
Ian Walker
Anecdotally, I know of at least two engineers and one technical managers in my department who are bootcamp grads. This is a major company. Bootcamps are like college - you reap what you sow.
Gavin Brooks
I haven't heard someone say its gucci in a minute faam
Jaxson Jackson
how is it possible to be so wrong
Evan Martin
Universities have you by the balls because these days you're expected to have a degree for many jobs. Yes, American liberal arts programmes are otherwise worthless, harmful, and full of shit, but I don't know if that holds true for the sciences/engineering.
William Wright
>Why is education such a waste of time these days compared to even 30 years ago Education is intended as a gateway to employment, but the nature of employment and the economy are different from 30 years ago, while education hasn't really changed.
Lincoln White
>education is a worthwhile pursuit in itself. Understanding yourself, your community, and your world better may bring you some joy. If you intend on ending your education after 4 years of undergrad, you are doing it wrong. Even if you do not plan on pursuing a degree beyond a Bachelors, your learning cannot cease if you wish to remain competitive and quench a healthy thirst of knowledge.
>implying you need to pay to do any of that
Daniel Walker
The worst part about it is that the more people that have degrees, the more worthless your degree becomes
Hudson Torres
>Scapegoat to not get an education because he fears getting his views challenged
Gavin Harris
Not that user but what is the alternative aside from setting up your own company for which you would need practical experience anyway.
Joshua Wilson
>Implying I don't have an education >Implying BA degrees challenge your views
Grayson Wright
Theoretically speaking, the humanities would be the most important subject for everyone. But yeah, modern humanities is fucking trash.
Xavier Wright
>tfw I'm shit at STEM >tfw my only good ability is in writing >tfw nobody cares about writers or the humanities because it's all SJW drivel >tfw I'll probably end up poor and miserable due to my brainlet nature in this science-oriented knowledge economy
Jonathan Bailey
write about STEM. see i am a miracle worker
Zachary Murphy
>tfw i always wanted to do English lit and was genuinely great at it >ended up in STEM cause DUDE JOBS LMAO At least i'll be able to laugh at people who followed their dreams and probably enjoy life more than me
Oliver Harris
Nah, they end up working McJobs with the same salary as someone who never graduated high school, but have six figures of debt on top of it and they end up having to move back to whatever shithole suburb they were born in after getting a taste of the city life. Some become teachers and want to kill themselves because they make McJob money but also have to work a second job to afford school supplies and all their free time is spent grading.
STEM or trade, do not settle for anything else.
John Walker
And the more people that have a degree, the more worthless degree-less people are >tfw dropout
Adrian Evans
If you're such a great writer, see how good you are at the LSAT and try to get into a prestigious law programme. Or, try learning some programming, art, or music skills and get into game development and do dialogue and plot writing. Or write copy on various freelance sites and explore other options. Or fuck off and drown in a lake who am I your mum?
Caleb Gutierrez
Tbh if you're really good at anything you can make a good living
David Parker
Point out where I implied you need to pay to learn.
Depending on where you live, you may need to pay to get a degree, which is buying a ticket to play a certain game. View it as a financial investment. It generally pays off - check the lifetime earnings statistics based on level of education.
I was a poor math and science student before college. In high school I only wanted to study creative writing, later either economics or history. I started taking one math class each semester just to challenge myself and work on my weaknesses, trying to become more well-rounded, but I really applied myself and had some very nurturing professors and it turned into a STEM career. Nobody is inherently incapable of doing STEM unless they have legitimate neurological deficiencies.