A degree? Are college degrees worthless or good to have these days? I been getting flack from my family that getting a degree is a really bad decision for the fact that student loans are tied into it, which will last me a lifetime. So if I shouldn’t better myself getting a degree, then what should a person do? I had an interest in learning about accounting, so I went through with the schooling. I made this tough decision to get higher education because where I am from that is all I saw in every employment ad or job posting I could find in my area. All the great jobs that paid very well required a college degree. I mean my life wasn’t getting any better when I had only a diploma to get by for the rest of my life. When I only had a diploma, I couldn’t make any progress to do better. I wasn’t going to have a great career I hoped for. I wasn’t going to be qualified to even step foot into an interview for a position requiring some type of college degree if I had just a diploma. The only things I could look forward to with a diploma is and was back then were low wage jobs that required no skills.
Read the thread “Random Ramble about people” I posted. Alot of good comments about education/college in there.
Bottom line, college is worthless IMO unless your actually going to BE SOMETHING that you cannot do without a degree. Its not worth the time and debt, and our culture has brainwashed everybody to think otherwise.
Now I’m really screwed. I keep getting mixed sides to this topic. Some say a college degree is good to have even if I don’t use it. Then some people like you who say it is worthless. I agree that out society is brainwashed and it sucks a lot.
Some people on this site think a degree is important regardless whether you use it or not because it shows you have commitment and critical thinking skills.
My opinion though (and If I were a business owner or something) I would really care less, a degree would be a small bonus. College is very low critical thinking (not sure how it used to be), but ive sat through a few classes with my friends at Purdue University (a good school). The teachers dont challenge you to think outside the box at all, they just lay it out in front of you. To me, its just a waste of time and money unless you go for something that you want to be like a TEACHER/NURSE/ENGINEER, you know, something that you NEED a degree.
Bottom line is, with or without a degree, its up to you to make things happen (and you dont need a degree for that neccesarily).
Americas culture has corrupted the minds of people thinking that
college=gauranteed success
which is soooo far from the truth.
From reading your original post it seems you are looking for a college degree to enhance your employment opportunities. If that is your primary motivation, then Hoosier’s advice is absolutely excellent: get a degree that qualifies you for a specific job/career. There are many such jobs/careers: doctor, nurse, lawyer, accountant, engineer, veterinarian, actuarial, etc. Generally, these jobs/careers pay well and are in demand. Generally, these are also the tougher degrees to actually attain.
If you are looking at simply getting a rounded education, you need to figure out if the time and money spent is worth the effort, and that depends how you define the “worth” of the education (money, knowledge, self esteem, self actualization, etc).
Paying through the nose for a college education without a plan as to what you want to accomplish with it and some due diligence as to whether that college education can help you achieve that goal seems foolish to me.
jmd_forest
I did get a degree that qualifies me for a specific job. You even mentioned one of the careers I went to school for, which is accounting. I don’t get why employers want people to have a degree to get the job then once a person get the degree they demand people to have they throw in another cuve ball. We have to have many years work experience on top of having the degree. This is confusing because how can I get work experience with no work experience. You have to get work experience to get work experience. What am I missing here? Nothing works for me. Not even entry-level, intern, or volunteer work helped. I wish I could just send my degree back and get a full refund. Too bad life’s not that easy. It bugs me more because how can two people do the exact same thing and get different results.
Did you get a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from an accredited school, or some kind of certificate from some kind of “tech school”? Although I’m not familiar with the accounting field (I’m a degreed engineer) if you have an actual accounting degree from an accredited university and still cannot find a job, you may need to relocate to an areas with better demand. Although I could be wrong, my understanding is that new legislation has caused a general increase in demand for accountants.
Regardless of your field, remember that most new graduates start out at the bottom of the ladder for their respective career despite the degree
And, becoming a CPA is a different story. You’ll need to meet all the education and experience requirements. Like anything else worthwhile, it takes time and commitment. I spent 15 years working in the trenches of the engineering field before becoming seriously successful but made a good living during those first 15 years.
jmd_forest
Yes I received a bachelors in accounting from an accredited school. My degree is supposed to be useful seeing every business cannot operate without an accountant. It should is hard down here in the south looking for good jobs.
Sorry to hear it. I wish you the best of luck in your search. Remember …“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
jmd_forest
Thanks. I need luck and plenty of it. It’s hard jumping through all these hoops to get a job.
What you’re learning is that the MARKET PLACE is very fickle when it comes to what a human is WORTH.
You’re starting out and it’s tough, BUT REMEMBER THIS:
If you think it’s hard NOW??? Wait until you’re 60 years old and the MARKET realizes that it can REPLACE YOU with a younger CHEAPER worker!!!
At that point you’ll find it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to replace your previous income level with a new job.
As I said…R E M E M B E R T H I S!!!
This site is about AVOIDING this TRAP…It’s about LEARNING how REAL wealth is built…REAL WEALTH creates OPPORTUNITY!!! Something you don’t have a lot of now and WON’T have a lot of LATER in life UNLESS you put your b@lls on the table and TAKE A SHOT!!
It’s SCARY at first because FAILURE is always scary…BUT this isn’t rocket science…It’s BUYING at a discount and SELLING at a higher price.
You can do that no matter HOW OLD you are as long as you have CAPITAL!!!
The hardest part???
DISCIPLINE…You need DISCIPLINE to NOT spend your first DOZEN properties worth of profit you make because without that “dead money” you’re OUT OF THE GAME!!!
You hit it right on the spot. Fickle! fickle! fickle!. I swear this gets more ridiculous everytime. This is why I hate having to settle for a job because that is as risky as going into business for yourself. It’s not a good feeling to put all my hope in a job working for some other guy. I just need to find another way to put my degree to use if all I’ll be doing is getting rejected over and over again.
You have a bachelors degree and can’t find work? I have 4 letters for you. ROTC. The army takes people without experience all the time. They have an accounting dept. for inventory and payroll. Apply to be an officer part-time and then transfer to the accounting dept.
If I’m looking at job applications and one has a military background, I’m going to take the one with the military background. A military background proves you’re disciplined, hardworking, committed, motivated, a team player, have organizational skills, etc.
Amen to that, Dave!
Here’s how I see it: you either need a degree… or lots of experience with measureable success that you can prove… and references.
So you could go out there, start your own thing and learn from your experiences to get jobs… or go to school and learn from others experiences. Up to you. I took the “do it yourself” route and i’m doing better than most… so worked out for me
What is the age limit to join the ROTC? If I am past the limit then ROTC is over for me. Plus the military already gave me the No because of my health issue.
I am all for do it yourselfers. It sure beats depending on somone else to give me job.
Here is a link to answer your question from About.com:
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/f/faqofficerage.htm
ROTC stands for Recruit Officer Training Corps. ROTC is a college program. Basically if you joing ROTC and follow thru with the commitment, the US Gov’t will pay for your college education provided you serve in your chosen branch of the Armed Forces for at least the minimum commitment (usually 4 years, but it’s program specific).
Since you already have your bachelor’s degree, you don’t have to do this. You would go the route of direct input which is usually called OCS (Officer Candidate School) or OTS (Officer Training School). The names of the schools and length of time to get thru depends on which service you go into. These are basically “boot camp” type programs to transform civilians into military officers.
FWIW, the Army is usually the most desperate for bodies and may grant a waiver for your issue.
I have to disagree. The military is NOT a job. It is not about jobs it is about killing people and breaking things. How do they get people to do that? They talk about it like it is a job. The military is a class thing. The people from the upper classes benefit from the blood spilled by the lower classes for our (upper class) freedom. The lower classes have no freedom because freedom comes from an environment that allows it and the money to afford it. The lower classes live in the environment but have no ability to afford it so they are not free. Why do you think that the military is peopled with people from the lower classes? Because these people are usually desperate for jobs and they are promised what looks like a job and end up bloody on some battle field in a far away land.
What military experience tells an employer is that you are willing to do anythong and able to be trained. A college degree does virtually the same thing without getting shot at.
RESERVE Officers’ Training Corps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Officers’_Training_Corps)
Keith