Why is college so important?

Question

Both my brother in laws have gone to expensive college and both make at least $10k less than my husband who didn't go to college. One of my brother in laws is $30,000 in debt too. He isn't even working in what he went to college for. Why is it that people who decided to bypass college life and start a family considered uneducated and on welfare?

4 out of the top 5 Wealthiest Americans are college dropouts including:

Bill Gates, the wealthiest American at $51 billion, who dropped out of Harvard.

Only Warren Buffet (#2 at $40 billion) graduated from college although he only went to satisfy his parents' wishes.

Paul Allen (#3 at $22.5 billion), Microsoft co-founder, dropped out of the University of Washington.

Michael Dell (#4 at $18 billion) dropped out of the University of Texas.

Larry Ellison (#5 at $17 billion) dropped out of 2 colleges: University of Illinois and University of Chicago.

Answer 1

The US is turning from an industrial nation to a service industry nation. That means the majority of the high paying jobs out there require brain power and some sort of high education degree. Those factory jobs that payed very well with great benefits to those with just a high school diploma, sometimes even less, are becoming a memory in the US. Of course there are exceptions, (and these exceptions, as the people you listed above are usually entrepreneurs), but if you want a good paying job, especially one that you can support a family on, you have to have some sort of higher education than a high school diploma.  

People who decide to bypass college are not considered "on welfare." 80% of Americans do not have a college degree, and obviously 80% of Americans are not on welfare. Trust me, dear, you're not alone not having a college degree. But having a college degree most certainly is not detrimental to you, and as Rio said, it is a great Plan B if things don't work out the way you had planned.

Answer 2

You are right! I went to college and got my masters and I am using it, but I know many many other people who don't do for a job wha tthey went to college for. I was lucky too, my parents are wealthy so even if I didn't have a well paying job, I still have money. That is not always the case.

Answer 3

No one can predict the future.  I do believe that a smart person does all they can to give themselves the best possible competitive edge and insurance against the bad times, and a college degree is only a part of that.  Over a lifetime, the person with a degree will earn over a million dollars more than someone with a high school diploma.

By the way, today Home Economics is called Food Science.  One of my regrets in life is that I didn't take that course of study, because when I was in college the Home Ec students were looked down on.  Food Science majors are the ones who develop recipes for food manufacturers, edit cookbooks, test recipes, etc.  I would have loved doing that.  I think it's great that you will encourage your daughters to study Food Science, because it will prepare them for terrific careers.  But if you think it will make them better SAHMs, you're wrong.  Why use a grenade launcher to kill an ant?  You should have enough confidence in your own homemaking skills to pass them on without wasting all that money on tuition to be a SAHM.  You don't need a degree for that, you need a degree as insurance against the day when being a SAHM isn't enough.

Answer 4

Unless you go on to get at least a your Masters you can be screwed.

A Bachelors degree does not not hold the same leverage as it once did. they are a dime a dozen now. Everyone I know with a Bachelors degree is doing something so far removed from their education it is rediculous.

Answer 5

College is basically training for a specific job. If you want to be a doctor or lawyer, you have to go to college. Some jobs, you need a college degree. It all depends on what the person wants to do for a living. Some jobs just require training and no college degree. It also depends on the field you're going in. For some reason, teaching is an important job that requires a degree, but the teachers don't make that much. Also, the people you mention are genuises. They were born with intelligence. They didn't have to go to college.

Answer 6

College can help you in life but it doesn't always guarantee success. A lot of young people out there are led to believe that "college=success" when that's not always the case. I've heard stories of college grads who make less money than non-college educated people and who are actually struggling. So yes, I do think college can be overrated to some degree.

Now does this mean that you should just blow off college? No, it's always a good idea to get as much education as possible but just keep in mind that doesn't mean life is now going to be a cakewalk from then on.

Answer 7

many people who go may not get a good job. I find it better to live simple and have what you need. You will have a happier life not worrying about things. when you get one thing you want more.

Answer 8

My boyfriend didn't go to college, but he does manual labour (driller on a rig) and works d**n hard to make as much cash as he does (over $200,000 a year in a slow year). I can see where you're coming from. I would go as far as saying that if you wanted to do manual labour, or do a trade, there's money to be made without a University degree.

I don't do manual labour. I would detest working in a factory. I loathe the fast food industry (and believe me, I had my share of it in high school) and I would never, ever, ever work in a bar or be a waitress.

Considering I'm far too lazy to do manual labour or learn a trade, how can a woman like myself find a cushy job without education? In my last year of high school I said, "I won't even accept my first career out of University unless it paid at least $60,000"...and I held true to my standards.

It's easy to make a ton of money if you know a trade (and by trade, I mean carpentry, auto mechanic, welder, rigs, electrical engineer, etc. I do NOT mean hairstylist, someone who does fake nails for a living, or does makeup, there is no money in that unless you're a pro).

Since I earlier discussed my lack of desire to do any tradework, University seemed to be my only option. I wasn't fortunate enough to fall in love as young as you did, and find someone that wanted to support me. I HAD to advance my education, and I had the scholarships to back me up.

Also, I don't really have a lot of faith in the union of marriage these days. In the U.S., there's about a 50% (and my stats aren't exact so don't quote me) chance that a marriage will fail. That's 1 in 2. If I hadn't gone to University, and continued working in fastfood and retail, I would be making about $20,000 a year. Let's say I meet Mr. Right. Let's say he wants to provide for me. Great, I only make $20,000 that will barely cover day care, I'll just stay home with the kids. Let's say Mr. Right cheats on me. Ok. Cool. Now what? We get divorced. I go back to making $20,000. Where's my security? I'd be kicking my a-s-s if I ended up in that situation.

And that is my long winded version of why college is important. Although do not be confused my dear. I definitely don't look down on you for your choices. I simply have zero faith in marriage as an institution and I am money hungry. There, I said it. LOL

Answer 9

Ask your Doctor,

Ask your Bank manager

Ask your chemist

Would you go to them if they hadn't gone to college?

Plus your justification is an exception to the rule not the rule. Its proven most college Grads make better money, and live longer.

Answer 10

I would never look down on someone who didn't go to college (my hubby didn't) but I also know it was one of the most valuable experiences of my life. I think if there is any way possible, a person should get a higher education. It really makes you see the world in a more balanced way and teaches you how to learn for life.

Answer 11

It really depends on what industry you end up working in, how much debt you accumulate to get your education, and your saving/investing habits.

I used to believe a college education makes people more well rounded, but times have changed, and a bachelor's degree is not what it used to be.  Sometimes highly specific technical training brings in LOTS more money than a college diploma.

To address that last part of your question.... starting a family very early often indicates a lack of planning skills, or a priority for immediate gratification, both of which are poor indicators for overall life success.  There will always be exceptions, of course, and you are clearly one of them.  Indicators are just tools used to make predictions.

Answer 12

It's overrated. If you need specific training for something like becoming a doctor then yes you have to goto college.

College does not give a person the inner drive or imagination it takes to accomplish more difficult goals. These things come from inside of a person and from personal desire. Finding a way to get a job done cannot be taught.

Answer 13

Those people are all unrealistic samples of society. If you want to succeed in the real world where everyone else lives, you gotta be smart. Intelligence is valued in society. We also have a more global world now more than ever. We need education to compete with China, India, and every other western nation.  

College is about attaining skills on top of education. Think about it. When in college, you do not have a lot of time to actually get things done when you have four or so classes. If you can adjust to that, you will respond well in the workplace when under pressure and under a deadline. Pulling all nighters are becoming more common. It shows you have the dedication and willpower to overide your body's need for sleep and do what needs to be done. On top of becoming more intelligent it is important in social development. You're on your own for the first time in your life. You need to take care of yourself.

Answer 14

They're all exceptions. Most people do make use of their college degrees. If not for entrepreneurship, these people probably couldn't have gotten a good job in another company.

I'm going to university because in my opinion, nothing, NOTHING, is more important than getting an education. (Also, my parents didn't save $45,000 for nothing.) It's the best safety net in the world.

Answer 15

Yeah, and those guys are geniuses. So, no, they didn't need the formal education, they took from it what they wanted, and had their genius to help make them successful.

Most people aren't geniuses. It's the average and above average people that the need the benefit of an education, to help them live to their fullest potential.

College IMPROVES you, in MANY ways. Not to mention, it helps you get a JOB (as you can see, the above men did not NEED the help, they started their own companies, so it doesn't matter what is on their resume, they work for themselves)...but, as I said, not everyone is like those men, and most people will likely be working for someone else, at least to begin with. And those someone's generally like to hire people with a college education, unless you're going to work in a factory, or as a laborer.

Even women who plan to be SAHMs should go to college. Studies show that women who have a college education raise smarter children. Besides, it's one thing to stay at home while your children are young, but how about when they get older? Eventually, there's really no point in hanging around the house ALL DAY, when the kids are gone. Even if you volunteer, getting an education can make you more helpful to those in need...you can teach illiterate adults to read, volunteer at a library, or your children's school. People are much more likely to want you volunteering in those capacities if you're educated.

Do you intend on NOT encouraging your children to go to college?

Added:

Of the people that I know who DIDN'T get an education, they ARE the most likely to end up on welfare. The kinds of jobs that are available to them (laborer, factory worker) are not steady jobs, (labor often has rolling layoffs, my BIL gets laid off ALL THE TIME, and has to either beg relatives for money, or go on welfare until he can find another job). At least with an education, there are MORE opportunities within the job market. And people with no education are not as likely to move up, or make better money. They will generally never make manager, or get a promotion. And who wants to be a laborer when they're 50?

EDIT-I did say "generally," didn't I? "Generally" does not mean "always," or "never." I guess this is one of the things you learn in college (just kidding). But at the same time, I believe your husband told you that he wanted to quit that job, right? College doesn't guarantee job satisfaction, but it DOES give you more options, as I stated.

And you will encourage your children to go to college because you DO recognize its value, right?

Look, you seem to be taking all of this rather personally. Not going to college doesn't mean you are "stupid," or somehow less of a person, yet you seem to think that's what others believe. There is no intended insult here. Simply stated, college CAN make your life better (although that's not guaranteed, either), and any good parent would want that advantage for their children, regardless of the decisions they made for themselves.

Do you think Bill Gates tells his kids "You don't need college, look at me!"? No, he doesn't.

Answer 16

While your husband may be doing well, this is not always the case.  Statistically those who attend college make more than those who do not.  Also starting a family right away is costly to those with only a high school diploma who are more likely to be working low paying jobs due to a lack of education, training and work history.

For many college is not about money, it is about being able to do what you love.  That's what it was for me.  To be a teacher you have to attend college and prove yourself.  But there are easily many who make more than me that didn't attend college...and probably a few who didn't graduate high school.

Answer 17

(BTW, I've always wondered why you're proud of being a mindless automaton -- or are you unfamiliar with the story fo the Stepford Wives?)

What you are citing is called "anecdotal evidence" -- that is, you are cherry-picking a very few cases, as though they represented the whole population.

I've spent a LOT of time looking at US Census data, and it's very clear that, on the whole, by and large, one is much more likely to have a higher income the more education one has; and much more likely, without a college education, to be poor.

It's not true of everyone, but those are the likeliest outcomes.

Furthermore, it's a mistake to consider college to be solely vocational training.

An education is a good thing, in and of itself. Educated people know more, have more intellectual tools available to them to btter understand the world.

BTW, on every job listing I've seen (for clerical, administrative assistant, officy jobs), they require "some college" (though not necessarily a college degree).

Thus, few employers for non-manual labor will even consider applicants who didn't go to college at all.

I don't know who's been saying that all people who didn't go to college are on welfare -- that's silly and clearly false.

I've also known quite a few people who never went to college that are reasonably well-educated. It's just rarer for people who didn't go to college to be so.

Go to

http://www.census.gov

then into FactFinder, and you can make queries. Get your hands on data about education and income level.

Although not everyone who went to college has money, and not everyone who didn't doesn't, there still is a very strong correlation between level of education and income.

Answer 18

You named four people, and your husband who were able to become successful without college.  That doesn't really support your argument.  Try looking for a job, and see what you come up with.  I don't think you would get much more than a secretarial position with Microsoft.

Answer 19

I'm not sure if college is the same as what we call university in Australia,but in the last 20 years or so there's been a real push for people to continue their education after high school, with the result that we have a super educated population and have to offer incentives to young people to take up trades jobs like plumbing and lower paid jobs like nursing.

Some people who do continue their education aren't really suited to academic life, they'd be much happier working with their hands, making, mending or creating.

I guess most people want a 'better' life for their kids and see education as a fast track to that better life (which it can be).

But other types of education are just as important. Working with people for a few years is a great way to get to know more about life, for instance, and it does stand you in good stead later in life when people who just have book knowledge sometimes have no idea how to approach a problem.

Lots of kids nowadays take a gap year (or two) just for that reason. Several cousins from overseas have come to Australia for au pair work for one or two years between school and university, and and I know quite a few Aussie young people who have worked hard for a few years after leaving school, done a bit of travelling then come home, settled down to their studies and 'real life'.

The world's changing and people have a lot more choices nowadays.

Cheers :-)

Answer 20

I notice that 40% of your list founded Microsoft.  Just like normal, successful people, right?  About 40% of them founded Microsoft?

The ridiculously rich, much like the ludicrously intelligent, tend to get there by non-systemic means.  This doesn't mean that they don't do things that are LIKE going to college, only harder (notice that Bill Gates had to get into Harvard in order to drop out, meaning that he was an extraordinarily spectacular student?  He didn't drop out of college because he got preggers - he dropped out because it was interfering with him inventing modern computing).

It's sort of like the "Einstein got bad grades in school, so if I'm getting bad grades in school, I'm probably a super genius" argument.  Einstein got bad grades because he was pursuing academics that his teachers couldn't dream of, not because he was slacking off and "trying to get involved in real estate."

The world's slackers will never tire of examples of successful people who skipped common achievements of responsible people, and they'll always fail to notice that the reason these people were able to skip them was because they were doing things that were far greater.

Basically, unless the reason you're not going to college is because you're inventing the next Internet and it's taking all of your time, you're just another slacker trying to justify yourself.

Answer 21

It should be mentioned that Bill Gates already came from a wealthy family. While I know it's very difficult to get into an elite university for those who come from families with more modest means, it's not nearly as hard for those who come from rich families. I'm not putting him down for deciding to do what he did but people need to realize that he would have had plenty to fall back on if he had failed. Poorer people don't have that luxury and they need to know that.

Answer 22

This is a tough one to answer... for starters I'm not sure college over here is the same as college for your guys - but I'm going to assume you mean education after the age of 18?  I think the differences in society between the Uk and US may manifest themselves slightly ont his topic, but from a British point of view, here's what I think...

Personally, I think college is fairly important.  Not very, but fairly.  My BIL went to Cambridge, and is now retired and owns his property outright... he's 34.  However my husband didn't continue education but chose instead to go to work and graft from the bottom up.  he now has a successful and blossoming career in a major IT company.  I think if your chosen profession is one such as Doctor/Lawyer etc, then clearly you need to continue your education, however there is absolutely nothing to say that you can't be successful if you chose to go down the route of experience over education.

I also chose not to go on to further education... in fact, circumstances in my life lead me to make the decision to leave school at 16, after my exams.  I went straight into the workplace and bumbled about for a couple of years, until I found something I really loved doing.  By the time I "broke ranks" to have my children, I was a Regional Sales Manager with a very healthy salary and staff who reported to me.  I was 26.

I think people who don't go on to higher education, like myself, do miss out on some social aspects as well as the academic side of things.  I sometimes wish I'd had those fun filled years playing around and generally being silly.  But if I had, I wouldn't be the person I am today, and I wouldn't necessarily have had the career I did.  There are an awful lot of people out there who spend 3 years studying and end up working at the supermarket.  I'm glad I chose the path I did as it was right for me.

Answer 23

Yeah, since when has knowledge and credentials helped anyone do anything? I went for the parties.

Answer 24

The most financially successful people were "C" students.  Oddly, the people who score the highest on many happy tools are people who missed entirely a year or two of school prior to 18 years old.  The BIG advantage that college used to give people was a broader perspective back when people grew up in isolated nations and communities and were narrow-minded and acculturated to believe their parochial cultural beliefs were the one- and- only- correct- path- to- righteousness.   I work with businesses in their struggles to figure out better ways than mere college degrees, that can be bogus or gained through cheating, to determine job applicant's true measure of rationality, ability to learn and apply knowledge. What best predicts that true level of awareness and enlightenment is evidence of personal individual effort, self-drive and self-study.

Edit:  I knew I had it somewhere.  Long ago when I asked this same question, it was suggested that I read this little booklet and it clarified exactly what I believe you and all these businesses seek.  It's certainly out of print but just phone your local library and request a search for it and it should arrive at your library in a day or two.  It's worth all that effort:

"The Inquiring Mind: A study of the adult who continues to learn" by Cyril O. Houle, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1961

Answer 25

You're right, I think too many people go to uni just for the sake of it. They have no idea what to do with their lives so they just do what everyone else does. They spend their first year, and maybe their second and third too, getting drunk and doing little else.

But other people go to university because they have a specific career in mind and it's necessary for them to receive the proper training. There's no way that I could've got my current job if I didn't have a relevant degree. I don't care that I don't earn a huge salary (my partner earns more than me in a field he has basically taught himself, and I earned more than now before I went to uni), it's what I want to do :-)

Answer 26

True, but for some people you have to go to get the training for the things you wanna do.

Like me, i'm a college graduate, but i only went to college because they wouldn't let me train as a firefighter without at least a 3 year degree.

And i've already payed off my student loans, thanks to a hefty college fund i built up myself.

I'm 25 btw.