Quote: (01-04-2014 12:21 PM)Suits Wrote:
Quote: (01-04-2014 11:38 AM)Buddy Orion Wrote:
At the moment, I can't see how any university degree could translate over into buying and selling product, promotion, manufacturing, marketing, or being an intelligent individual who can represent himself professionally.
You can't see how because you haven't attended university.
My story
I started university over eight years ago. That was after taking a gap year off after high school to work and travel. I'm about to graduate.
I just finished by 9th semester. I've spent extra time in uni because I've taken frequent breaks to work, travel and build experience.
I will be going into small business, working as a consultant. I won't be actively pursuing a job (because I can make plenty of money just teaching English in China for a minimum number of hours each week), and will simply begin working for myself. I'll be approaching a number of potential clients offering my services, but I won't be applying to be a full time employee anywhere.
Considering how I will be working for myself, why was university not a waste of my time?
*Having an undergraduate degree makes it a lot easier for me to get work visas and permits in other countries.
*Spending time in the university environment exposed me to different people than go-it-alone would have right out of high school. It means that now, as I build a business model for my consulting agency, I have professors who are happy to have me come by their offices at any time and bounce business ideas off of. I get the benefit of their hundreds of years of combined experience.
*I'm educated about a range of subjects. I've taken core requirement classes that I had no interest in and never would have investigated on my own. I took a geology course this last semester that I wouldn't have taken if I hadn't been more or less forced to, but it ended up being a very educational experience that will be useful to my consultancy. Although this has been somewhat undermined by college being turned into an industry, the purpose of a degree is equal parts skills building and personal development. It definitely has been super useful to me in my personal development.
*I'll be going into educational consulting. Being pissed off at the current post-secondary education schemes has led me to brain storm about solutions and the answer that I've come up with have become the basis of my consulting business plan. I will be offering services that will appeal to people like yourself, who want to get somewhere in life without shelling out big money for a degree of questionable workplace value. Having the experience of seeing post-secondary educational for what it is has been educational on more than one level.
*I've made friends with above average college students rather than below average high school graduates. I know that it is unfair to characterize everyone who doesn't go to university as below average, but in general, talented, motivated people will and won't meet them at the local factory, unless then are college students working part-time.
*Doing college has given me an avenue to see other countries. I've studied in China for years, earning credit their for cheaper than I would have in the US, towards my degree. While I could have conceivably gone to China without being a student, it gave me an easy way to get long term access to the country and network domestically. Once I did that, I learned how to beat the visa system and did more time their just working. But without going their as a student, I wouldn't have built the experience to work under the table as I did. I would have had to finish school and then apply for a work visa through normal channels.
In general, though being a student is a great way to see a third world country. Go for a semester and you get three to four months exposures, because anything less than that is not even scratching the surface. Student housing is cheap and tuition isn't that high if you study independent of your home university.
*College parties.
So you're saying the college experience is valuable not because of the degree that I will earn but because it will provide me with complimentary skills to entrepreneurship?
So, go to uni, but then become an entrepreneur afterwards. I can see that.
Are college parties really that good? I've been to a few with my buddy who is in his first year and wasn't super impressed, but then again I didn't know anyone.