Is College A Good Investment?
photo credit: Josiah Mackenzie
I never thought I’d see something like this, especially from an Ivy League university like Harvard:
The fact is, the old-fashioned model of post-secondary education in the U.S. is pretty much broken. Instead of preparing students for real-life, three-squares-and-a roof-over-your-head jobs, too many colleges charge massive tuition fees to impart the finer points of Proust… Many young people who hope to go to college may not be able to get the financial aid they need. Even if they can secure loans, the more practical students (and their parents) are asking themselves: why, in this economy, should I take on a massive debt for an education that’s disconnected from the real world?
What do you think?
Is college a good investment for the small business entrepreneur?
Oleg Korneitchouk on February 2nd, 2009 4:37 pm
I’d have to say that college really isn’t worth the money we pay. I believe that an internship at any job which is your planned career will give you 100x the knowledge at a fraction of the time required. Sadly, our society believes in a second level education in order to be successful.
For an aspiring entrepreneur, college is not vital but can be advantageous as a means to networking and transitioning into self-sufficiency.
Damilik on February 2nd, 2009 5:56 pm
College opens the door for your success in life. Don’t let tuition cost deter you from going to college.
danakeith on February 2nd, 2009 6:47 pm
[...yeah, college is important thou.. in fairness to students they should not be the ones to make sacrifices in order to have a college degree...]
Steve Ren on February 2nd, 2009 6:55 pm
Like all education in the United States, college is a by product of the industrial revolution. It teaches children to be a cog in the wheel of large corporations, a mindless flunky who can follow directions but not really think for, and take responsibility for themselves and their own livelihoods.
Angela on February 2nd, 2009 8:56 pm
I voted no only because of your question. If someone wanted to become a doctor, lawyer, etc., they’re obviously going to spend a lot of time in college before that happens.
However, someone who is interested in starting their own business can easily gain information on what they’re looking for through affordable courses at a local community college or take classes online. There are alternatives.
Dane on February 2nd, 2009 9:13 pm
BTW, yes, I know the photo is of Stanford. :)
Clinton Skakun on February 4th, 2009 10:03 am
I’d have to say no. For the amount of money it takes to go to college you could invest in your business. I think college could be a great experience and it “at least” gets you a job, but not too much else.
The three reasons I don’t want to go to college after high school is this: Time, money, education … I don’t want to spend my 20’s and 30’s in college and then spend the rest of my life paying off tuition fees. Yes I’d get a degree, but it’s really not what I’m interested in. I’ll hire myself whether I have a degree or not haha. But the main thing I’m after is REAL education. And part of that is hard, hands on experience, something you don’t really get till your well past your younger years if you go to college.
But don’t get me wrong. I think college is worth it for some people and once you get in you should stay(not drop out). I respect people who have gone to university for years and have a bunch of degrees, it means they want to go somewhere. It means they’ve accomplishing something and staying focused.
However for me I don’t want to go to college, and be in debt for the rest of my life. I’d rather build my business, make enough to live on AND make sure I can afford to go to college before I start jumping into things. I might consider going to college later on but right now I’m focused on other things. I just wouldn’t be happy knowing I blew my concentration to go for further education that will “get me an employee job”, something I’m not exactly interested i doing for the rest of my life.
Regards
Clinton Skakun
Jaclyn on February 6th, 2009 1:37 pm
While i highly agree that colleges charge way too much money for tuition and book’s alone little own all the other crap you have to have along with it, i do feel that college is important for anyone wether they are going to be working for themselves or for someone else, and this is for numerous different reason’s. for one…it is a great experience for any individual…i went to college for 2 1/2 year’s and it was a great time. i met all kinds of new people, i was presented with lot’s of great opportunities and saw a lot of great places. two…there is no harm in getting higher education…it is always’ good to learn new thing’s and to have knowledge behind you. granted…knowledge does not keep you warm at night…but if you and one other person are going for the same job requiring some sort of a degree, you have a masters and they have none…who do you think is going to get the job? the rate thing’s are going and the position’s that are now requiring people to have a degree for jobs that never required it before…heck…i wouldn’t be surprised if 10 year’s from now you have to have some sort of a degree to be a fry person and mcdonalds.
W^L+ on February 12th, 2009 10:45 am
I think the problem is in our understanding of what college is about. College was never supposed to be about job-training, never supposed to be directly-connected to your future career. College is supposed to be about learning to ask uncomfortable questions and bring new perspectives to problems. This is the reason that so much of your course content is unrelated to your expected major/career.
For job-related training, we have trade and vocational schools. There, everything you learn is supposed to be directly-related to the industry’s entry-level requirements. In the industrial age way of thinking, college is for leaders and managers, while trade school is for some workers and most supervisors, and other workers go directly from high school to the workplace.
If you look at college from that perspective, as a way to learn how to “see with new eyes” in the situations you encounter, it is unquestionably beneficial.
As for entrepreneurship, the biggest obstacle I have seen is that college’s cost consumes all of most students’ resources. They are forced to rely on government and private aid programs which are mostly just loans, and the requirements of these aid programs forbid students from using the funds for “unrelated” things like starting a business on the side. Once the student graduates (six years on average), they have to obtain immediate full-time employment, because payments begin within six months, and can last for twenty years or more.
There are some other issues, as well. On-campus living shields students from the real world around them. The semester or quarter system ignores the fact that operating a real business means that someone is always on duty or standby, and that the starting and finish lines are different for each person. Grading is entirely arbitrary, varying from college to college, and from class to class within the same college, and often has little relationship to whether a student learned anything. Sitting in a classroom or lecture hall is almost entirely passive, unlike real-life, where even the cashier at McDonald’s must actively interact with customers and other employees, plus collect money and assemble the order’s components for delivery to the customer. The emphasis on “crediting sources” is unrealistic, given that every idea or concept has antecedents going back beyond recorded history. And finally, both individual and group assignments fail; individual assignments because real life is not a series of individual assignments but an indeterminate stream of tasks performed by different people; and group assignments because it isn’t only your assigned team that is affected by their performance, but the whole company.
In summary, college is beneficial, but the current model needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. The cost needs to drop considerably, probably through a move toward online programs for nearly every part of it. And while my income doubled and then doubled again after I gained my Master’s Degree, it is likely to be another decade before the loans are paid off. For prospective entrepreneurs, like everyone else, college is not a decision to be made without deep thought about the costs and expected benefits. Even more as the economy continues to slide and graduates find themselves lining up to apply at Wal-Mart.
Many on October 25th, 2009 3:45 pm
College is a total waste of time. Those who say its good to go for the experience are morons or trolls paid for by the industry. Experience? I got a better idea, instead of wasting your money on bs classes, invest your tuition money into opening a nearby pizzeria or buying a small house or condo to sublet to the morons who overpay for college housing. You could then intergrate with the poor saps that pay tuition, and VOILA, you get the same experience, get to go to the parties and all FOR FREE. Simply by moving to a small college town and getting to work you can network with the same people for none of the costs.
Also, your Major classes are only 25% of the credits, the other 75% is OUTSIDE YOUR MAJOR, 50% of all credits are CORE classes which is basically you repeating 4 years of High School into 60 credits of bullshit you are not interested in or will ever use.
I suggest reading the Madness of Crowds or Ayn Rand before going to college and wasting money on a piece of paper that you can mostly lie about having any damn way.
The worst punch in the gut is when you land your first job and notice they didnt care where you went to school or what you got on English 101. Break out of the Matrix, make a difference and stop following society, most of society is monkeys in suits and apparel anyway.
Good Luck!
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