Do you have any friends of college-age/older who didn't attend college?

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
Reading this thread has been really enlightening. Not only are there the educational snobs - "hey, you didn't go to college so you must be an idiot" but there are a whole group of anti-college snobs who somehow believe that people who go to college are worse or inferior to them.

I hate to break to you all, but college means what you want it to mean.
If you want to make it a place where you obtain a top-notch education, then you will.
If you want to make it into a full-time daycare center, you will.
If you don't go, but are bright and intelligent, the sky is the limit.

There are plenty of extremely bright people who never went to college, and there are plenty of extremely bright people who did. College certainly opens doors to intellectual persuits and challenges the beliefs you've formed (at least a good school should), but don't think that just by going you've become a better person... you have to work for it.

I go to college. I'm obtaining a great degree from a great university. Does that mean I'm ever going to make as much money as BoomerD? Probably not. But I would also hate working as a crane operator for my career, just like he probably wouldn't want to be a researcher. Different strokes for different folks.

good post. people are hung up on some of the dumbest things. is it this way all over the world or just on ATOT?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
Reading this thread has been really enlightening. Not only are there the educational snobs - "hey, you didn't go to college so you must be an idiot" but there are a whole group of anti-college snobs who somehow believe that people who go to college are worse or inferior to them.

I hate to break to you all, but college means what you want it to mean.
If you want to make it a place where you obtain a top-notch education, then you will.
If you want to make it into a full-time daycare center, you will.
If you don't go, but are bright and intelligent, the sky is the limit.

There are plenty of extremely bright people who never went to college, and there are plenty of extremely bright people who did. College certainly opens doors to intellectual persuits and challenges the beliefs you've formed (at least a good school should), but don't think that just by going you've become a better person... you have to work for it.

I go to college. I'm obtaining a great degree from a great university. Does that mean I'm ever going to make as much money as BoomerD? Probably not. But I would also hate working as a crane operator for my career, just like he probably wouldn't want to be a researcher. Different strokes for different folks.

Well said...
It seems like a bachelors degree has become the new "high school diploma". Back in my day, you pretty much needed a high school diploma for any job, (which is why I went back and got my GED) but now, with colleges cranking out degrees faster than they make toilet paper, it's gotten to a point where even entry level jobs are requiring a BA/BS...just to answer phones and make $10/ hr...something's wrong with the system when that has become so commonplace...

(NO, that's not "dissing" people with degrees, but MANY degrees aren't really worth the paper they're printed on...and folks...edumakation does NOT equal intelligence...

 

[eits]

who DOESN'T have friends who didn't go to college?

 

[ScottyB]

Originally posted by: eits
who DOESN'T have friends who didn't go to college?

Me. My friends in high school all went to college. And I have since made college friends.

I love the Bizarro World that is AT where college graduates are morons and high school dropouts are ten-times as smart and make $1 million plus a year.

 

[40Hands]

Originally posted by: ScottyB

Originally posted by: eits
who DOESN'T have friends who didn't go to college?

Me. My friends in high school all went to college. And I have since made college friends.

I love the Bizarro World that is AT where college graduates are morons and high school dropouts are ten-times as smart and make $1 million plus a year.

If that's what you got out of this thread then you need to go back to school.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Flyback
Think you're so great because you toyed with some politics in undergrad? Hell I bet you read a little Mills, Locke and Rand? Perhaps you deviated and went for Chomsky, now thinking you're enlightened about current societal woes? Did the little backpack thing around Europe mid-way through your degree? Loved and lost a girl in college? Cried for the poor people suffering in a 3rd world country? Wore some hand-knitted mittens and a scarf with emo glasses and "digressed" about the environment at your local starbucks? Listened to a contemporary writer give a reading of their latest canned piece of guff? Hung around some research students and felt all warm and fuzzy inside? Perhaps you even wrote an editorial for the school paper.

I hope you know, you are referring to social science and humanities majors.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I know lots of people who didn't go to college, including one who earned about $40 million last year. I think college can help in some situations; and be completely useless in others. I forget the exact words, but Matt Damon said something in "Good Will Hunting" along the lines of being able to aquire a $100,000 education for a few bucks in overdue book fees at the library. College doesn't make you smart. Doing the work makes you smart. And you don't need to be in college to do the work. You just need to be motivated.

There are people who can learn on their own, they are called autodidacts. However, most people benefit from having feedback and help. This doesn't just come from professors and T.A.s but it also comes from other people who are working on the same assignments you are.

As a math-CS major I can personally attest to the fact that having lab tutors to help with my programming assignments has helped me immensely. Furthermore, if I didn't go to college I probably wouldn't have had the motivation to learn programming. Having programming assignments due every week keeps me busy.

So sure, you can pick up the same exact books that they use in college classes, but it is a lot harder to learn it on your own.

 

[krunchykrome]

I have a few friends who didn't go to college, and I have no problem with that. But personally, I don't think I could date a woman who didnt go to college, unless she's a celebrity.

 

[sourceninja]

I never went to college, however I now teach at one and maybe I'll get around to gettting a degree someday.