I committed to a college...

[Puddsy]

sooooo yeah.

Hampshire College class of 2019.

This has been my main source of anxiety for a while. I'll probably be around more now. Who knows.

[slickmamba]

sooooo yeah.

Hampshire College class of 2019.

This has been my main source of anxiety for a while. I'll probably be around more now. Who knows.

congrats TS!

[Lastpilot]

Yeeeeeeh boiii. Congratulations. And good to have you back!

[mr.squishy]

Looks like we are the same year. I too have committed to my college of choice. I wish you extreme financial luck.

[CPTBadAss]

That's a weird way to spell ITT Tech

Congrats!!

[Smasher816]

I wish you extreme financial luck.

I'm a freshman this year, got pretty lucky with my financial aid. Overall, I have to say I have been enjoying college a lot. Compared to my HS its easier (only 4 classes instead of 7, and not every day of the week), and I have a nice group of friends.

[DrHubblePhD]

Congrats man! I have a good friend going there as well.   

[Sygaldry]

Oh snap... That's near Mt. Holyoke College. The ladies there are top-notch!

You will have some good times over the next four years =]

Have fun but try to stay out of trouble

Congrats!

[Novus]

Never heard of it

[heedpantsnow]

Congrats man!  College is a great adventure.

[HoffmanMyster]

Congrats! Never heard of that school, but I'm sure it'll be an adventure for you. 

[nubbinator]

Just read up on that school.  I think you'll need to remember this:



Otherwise, I predict this will be you in five years:

That's a weird way to spell ITT Tech

Congrats!!

[noisyturtle]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless, and professional experience is what today's employers value most. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

[nubbinator]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless and professional experience is what today's employers value more. I learned this lesson. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

The real money is in skilled trades.  Become a master electrician (or other skilled trade), bring in six figures a year.

Also, if you took out $120k in loans, you did it wrong, especially if you didn't go to law school.  The national average for student loans is ~$30k for four years.  I did 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of post-grad for $30k.

[DrHubblePhD]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless, and professional experience is what today's employers value most. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

umm, that was a bit harsh dont ya think? College is valuable if you use it as an  education not just a way to earn more money.

[tp4tissue]

If I were to do college all over again. I think I'd rather go to community college instead of state college for the first 2 years and just transfer in credits.

Especially since my state college is more or less the same as community college.

The amount of basic bull**** core classes is overwhelming these days.

[nubbinator]

If I were to do college all over again. I think I'd rather go to community college instead of state college for the first 2 years and just transfer in credits.

Especially since my state college is more or less the same as community college.

The amount of basic bull**** core classes is overwhelming these days.

That's the most cost-effective way to do it, but it eliminates the social element and makes it harder to develop the network connections you may need.  For most people that won't matter, but it's of concern to some.

[noisyturtle]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless, and professional experience is what today's employers value most. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

umm, that was a bit harsh dont ya think? College is valuable if you use it as an  education not just a way to earn more money.

OK, so to be fair, college is great for building adult social skills and finding yourself because high school is absolutely nothing remotely like reality or adulthood, but in terms of the professional benefits of higher education I stick by my guns and say experience is much much more valuable.

You put on your resume you have a relevant BA in whatever and there's only a small chance you'll be considered for an entry-level position. You spend those 4 years working in that industry and you'll be 4 years ahead of those chumps who just finished college. If I could go back I would've dropped out after year 2 and gone straight to working.

[noisyturtle]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless and professional experience is what today's employers value more. I learned this lesson. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

Also, if you took out $120k in loans, you did it wrong, especially if you didn't go to law school.  The national average for student loans is ~$30k for four years.  I did 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of post-grad for $30k.

Attending an out-of-state private college with no on-campus living options is extremely expensive.

[nubbinator]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless and professional experience is what today's employers value more. I learned this lesson. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

Also, if you took out $120k in loans, you did it wrong, especially if you didn't go to law school.  The national average for student loans is ~$30k for four years.  I did 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of post-grad for $30k.

Attending an out-of-state private college with no on-campus living options is extremely expensive.

Sounds like a poor choice for a university unless it was a top ten program then.

[slip84]

So glad I made it out of university without any debt.

Think long and hard about the degree you want and if it's something you want to do the rest of your life. Even then, you'll **** up and probably not go to school for what you'll wind up doing.

Probably.

Anyway, university is dumb. You'll be smarter for having gone, but probably not from what you learn in class.

[Puddsy]

I don't need to worry about $$$

Rich parents /shrug

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate all the congratulations.

[rowdy]

Congratulations and good luck!

[slip84]

This will probably come across in the get-off-my-lawn voice, but I don't care: I am glad my parents barely helped me financially with university. They helped where they could, but they had other more pressing financial obligations to worry about. Me going to university, while it had been on their radar, wasn't something they had really wanted to drop a mess load of private-university cash on.

So I got a ****load of scholarships and worked three jobs while I was in school.

Like I said, I come out a lot smarter, but not for anything I learned necessarily in class.

[HoffmanMyster]

This is your first step towards realizing college is almost pointless, and professional experience is what today's employers value most. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned it after wasting 5 years of my life and $120k then landing a minimum wage contract job after 5 months of searching!

umm, that was a bit harsh dont ya think? College is valuable if you use it as an  education not just a way to earn more money.

Haven't you not gone to college yet?

[Psybin]

Congrats.

I think the number one skill I left college with is the ability to write a paper. I wish I would have went straight to college out of high school instead of the military. I had to do my schooling online as an adult while working full time. Zero fun.

[sethk_]

Congrats.

I think the number one skill I left college with is the ability to write a paper. I wish I would have went straight to college out of high school instead of the military. I had to do my schooling online as an adult while working full time. Zero fun.

My high school teaches us a speech class as well, so in that class we learned how to properly write papers, and how to properly give a speech, and to get comfortable with giving them.

[Joey Quinn]

TS, what are you majoring in? I'm a first year for mechanical engineering at MTU.

[Puddsy]

TS, what are you majoring in? I'm a first year for mechanical engineering at MTU.

something

dunno yet

might do something math related

[nubbinator]

[njbair]

I don't need to worry about $$$

Rich parents /shrug

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate all the congratulations.

A high school kid hanging in GB threads, I think we all assumed you had rich parents.

Congrats on college. Never went myself, still playing career catch-up ten years later. Fortunately the IT field still looks at OTJ experience.

[sethk_]

I don't need to worry about $$$

Rich parents /shrug

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate all the congratulations.

A high school kid hanging in GB threads, I think we all assumed you had rich parents.

Congrats on college. Never went myself, still playing career catch-up ten years later. Fortunately the IT field still looks at OTJ experience.

Never too late to go back if you want, my dad started night school when he was 24, and then he paid through college by working at the colleges, or just doing the job he had, and he barely passed HS. He ended up going to grad school at CMU, so never too late I guess.

[njbair]

I don't need to worry about $$$

Rich parents /shrug

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate all the congratulations.

A high school kid hanging in GB threads, I think we all assumed you had rich parents.

Congrats on college. Never went myself, still playing career catch-up ten years later. Fortunately the IT field still looks at OTJ experience.

Never too late to go back if you want, my dad started night school when he was 24, and then he paid through college by working at the colleges, or just doing the job he had, and he barely passed HS. He ended up going to grad school at CMU, so never too late I guess.

I probably made my situation sound worse than it is. I'm actually in a good spot, career-wise. It just took a lot of work to get here. But college is a lot of work, too, if you want it to actually count for anything.

[vivalarevolución]

It would be cool again if my biggest worry in life was selecting a college.  Don't worry, it only gets more difficult from here on out.

[heedpantsnow]

A major advantage college kids have is the option to coop. I knew a ton of folks in engineering with me who co-op'ed. They got good money while in school, they enjoyed alternating class/work, when they got out they had a job offer waiting for them that was higher than people who had OTJ experience and new graduates, and in one case the company paid a portion of their student loans.

I also think that the whole OTJ experience >> college is painting with too broad a stroke. A lot of software companies hire through university career offices and (maybe it's changed since then?) flat out only hired college grads.

So while you can debate what you learn/don't learn in college I'm not sure you can debate that with a company that only hires college grads.

Lastly, I don't mean to be rude or harsh but the onus of learning in college is on the student. You don't have parents or teachers or guidance counselors or politicians to make sure you learn and don't get left behind. So if someone says "I didn't learn anything in college" then that says more about that person than about the school or the education system.

[tbc]

A major advantage college kids have is the option to coop. I knew a ton of folks in engineering with me who co-op'ed. They got good money while in school, they enjoyed alternating class/work, when they got out they had a job offer waiting for them that was higher than people who had OTJ experience and new graduates, and in one case the company paid a portion of their student loans.

I also think that the whole OTJ experience >> college is painting with too broad a stroke. A lot of software companies hire through university career offices and (maybe it's changed since then?) flat out only hired college grads.

So while you can debate what you learn/don't learn in college I'm not sure you can debate that with a company that only hires college grads.

Lastly, I don't mean to be rude or harsh but the onus of learning in college is on the student. You don't have parents or teachers or guidance counselors or politicians to make sure you learn and don't get left behind. So if someone says "I didn't learn anything in college" then that says more about that person than about the school or the education system.

#dattruth

[Lain1911]

A major advantage college kids have is the option to coop. I knew a ton of folks in engineering with me who co-op'ed. They got good money while in school, they enjoyed alternating class/work, when they got out they had a job offer waiting for them that was higher than people who had OTJ experience and new graduates, and in one case the company paid a portion of their student loans.

I also think that the whole OTJ experience >> college is painting with too broad a stroke. A lot of software companies hire through university career offices and (maybe it's changed since then?) flat out only hired college grads.

So while you can debate what you learn/don't learn in college I'm not sure you can debate that with a company that only hires college grads.

Lastly, I don't mean to be rude or harsh but the onus of learning in college is on the student. You don't have parents or teachers or guidance counselors or politicians to make sure you learn and don't get left behind. So if someone says "I didn't learn anything in college" then that says more about that person than about the school or the education system.

Yes. Also expect to change careers/jobs once every 5-10 years so a general degree is useful too. From my experience a person is either a nurse or got a degree in some kind of business admin. Careful, if you don't find work fast enough and you want to focus on something specific it will change so fast that you will have to take more classes just to keep up with the changing pace.

One of my degrees is in web design and the only thing I still use from my time at that school is Photoshop and Illustrator. All the other design software has changed....thankfully lulz.

BTW a quick tip I learned more from a person who was doing what I wanted to do than I ever learned in school. You just need the piece of paper to prove you are willing to do what it takes not because you will learn anything life changing usually.

[tbc]

You just need the piece of paper to prove you are willing to do what it takes not because you will learn anything life changing usually.

oh dear gawd this speaks to me.

learned literally no programming skills my first year of my 2 year diploma.  my first job came from skills i developed during a client project, not anything i directly learned from classes