Business Opportunities Weblog

Survey Results: Is Education Worth It?

By on February 11, 2009 in Ideas

Last week I asked if you thought that college was a good investment for the small business entrepreneur. The results show pretty strongly that you think that a college education is waste of money for those young people who want to go into business for themselves.

Thanks for participating.

If you’d like to explain why you voted the way you did, please respond in the comments.

education polls

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,198 posts to the site.

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  • cassy

    for me yes!how can you find a good job if your not a college gradute?do you think any company will hired you if they read and see your bio data and your school records that your not a college gradute?i dont think so! and if you want to get into business do you think you can handle it if you are not a degree holder or college gradute? idont think so! thats is why for me education is really important specially a college gradute,coz that will be your key to have a good job for good future and for you to become a successful entrepreneur!

  • http://pajamaschool.com/blog Natalie Wickham

    There are many alternatives to a college degree that I believe are superior methods for attaining education in most fields. After careful consideration, I opted not to attend college, and instead pursued short-term intensive classes, correspondence courses, private tutoring, and self-study to become proficient in my field. Then I was able to clep out of the required tests and submit a portfolio – by which means I was granted national certification.

    Most of the exposure I’ve had to college classes and those who have pursued college degrees has convinced me that the instruction given is often irrelevant or impractical in the “real world.” For example, a friend of mine took several semesters of web design and by the end of the classes knew some of the fundamentals, but had absolutely no idea how to upload her files to the internet! Similarly, when I substitute taught a class of graduate students one week, they peppered me with questions on the logistics of how to actually set up their businesses once they were done with college. They had lots of philosophical/head knowledge, but no concept of how to transfer it into practical application. On numerous occasions, I have heard people remark that their college education not only didn’t prepare them for their work, but that they actually had to try to un-learn things they had been taught that proved detrimental in the long run.

    The real danger is when people depend on a college to supply them with an education. Unless one takes personal responsibility for learning the skills they need to know in their chosen field, it is often a waste of time and money. And if you’re going to go to the effort to do some “vigorous self-education,” why not skip pursuing a college degree altogether and take advantage of the ever-expanding opportunities and resources available to anyone who is eager to learn (at a significantly lower cost in time and money)?

    So…that’s my explanation. Stepping off my soapbox now!

  • http://www.billtamminga.com Bill Tamminga

    Interesting survey! I have an MBA from a well-known university and I can say that it has made a difference in my ability to land business deals. However, I am a consultant and advanced degrees tend to help in my industry. Most of the business owners and entrepreneurs I work with have an undergraduate degree at most and they do just fine. A degree is not a requirement for entrepreneurial success, but it can help you depending on the industry in which you choose to compete.

  • Jaclyn

    I voted that yes college was a great investment for many reason’s. i believe it is a great experience that every young adult should experience, there is also no harm in getting all the education that you can absorb, also, while i was in college for my 2 1/2 short years i was offered numerous internships and trips to many different places that pertained to the field i was studying. there are so many great opportunities that come with college and many new people to meet. also like bill said above…even if they go into business for themselves, there may be a huge business deal they are trying to land and a college degree in their background may make all the difference in the world for that deal.

  • http://tomaszgorecki.com/blog tom

    I look at college as a one size fits all system. Also, most of the stuff they teach you is all based on how well you can memorize the material. Good thing there is hands on experience depending on the program

  • http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/ W^L+

    I said yes, but with a lot of reservations.

    First, I don’t believe that college is or should be for job-training. Most students spend six years for a B.A. or B.S., most of which is unrelated to their majors. By the time a student graduates, many of the details of career-relevant courses have been lost and many more details have changed in the world around them. It has been my experience that no matter what someone’s training or experience, they need training in the workplace. Since that is true, we should stop pretending that schooling (high school or college) is about job-training.

    Secondly, I don’t believe that most Americans need to be getting deeply into debt so early in their lives. This means that a large majority of people should only be part-time college students, if they go at all. This is where someone who wants to be an entrepreneur can get the most benefit out of college. Start something part-time and attend classes part-time, so that you can try out ideas suggested by your courses.

    Thirdly, although I strongly believe in continuing education, education is not about classroom time. Education is what the student himself does in order to learn, to grow, and to develop. In other words, education is something that you do, not something that is done to you.

    The things we are telling our children about college mirror what we were told about high school in the 1960s and 1970s–finish school, so you can get a good job. It wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now. They can use the mind-broadening to help them make their own businesses more successful, but not if they do not use it solely as an opportunity to learn to think for themselves.

    Now, the quote in the other article was really about college failing as job-training, which it was never meant to be. For an editor at Harvard Business Review to be asking these questions is scary. Where was this person over the past thirty years when many of the people I grew up with went to college and got jobs, only to find out that college wasn’t job training even in the late 1970s and early 1980s? Where was this person in 1992 – 1997, when much of California’s economy collapsed and many new college graduates were working at Taco Bell and similar fast food places (and tuition at state-run colleges increased even as financial aid grants decreased)? It should not be news that college fails at job-training, for it was never designed to provide that, and years of experience have shown that it never worked that way.

  • http://verabear.net Vera

    I didn’t answer the survey, but I would have said that in the case of the Philippines where the cost of a college education isn’t as high as it is in the US, Yes – but only if they actually take up a course that’s anywhere related to business, or to the business they would like to venture into. I went through a University education and yet I am not using the degree I earned, had I known before college that I wanted to put up a small business of my own and that I actually had a chance at it, I would have taken an altogether different course. (Of course I’m not even in business now…)

    I guess what I’m saying is that a college education is worth it, but we’ve got to prepare kids a little better in considering the options that they have – something I don’t see in the system right now.

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