Poll: Is higher education worth it?

[thespyisdead]

come to finland! uni level education here is free... and from what i hear, it's also free in scotland if you do not want to go that far away from home

 

[oliver.begg]

it is, if you can pay it back.

i have a rule of thumb that is "if you arn't earning your loan as salary within 5 years, you F'ed up"

seems to work i took $45,000 for a engeering degree, my starting salary is ~$45K-$50K, so it should be payed off within 5 years if i'm stingy

 

[Durgiun]

Considering college won't cost me a lot in the end and that the jobs I can get with it will pay relatively well, yes I'd say higher education for me will be worth it.

Not living in the US tends to be awesome at times.

 

[Spinozaad]

Literature, history, sociology and art are perfect examples of what wont get you a job.

Is it really that bad in the States? Over here you'll get a job with those studies. Perhaps you won't get a job "in" history, but the skills you learn will get you a job, if only in the civil service.

People shouldn't see university as a place where you "learn" how to do "a job". But you will learn valuable skills and knowledge.

As far as I know these fields are hardly the kind you want to study if you plan to work with something relevant to it. I don't know about the states, but here there's always the choice to take an extra year and teach in these subjects, but the most recent statistics here show that those who study sociology rarely get a job relevant to their education and usually the ones that earn the least. Most of my education will be irrelevant for me if I end up being a teacher, but I will always be happy that I had the opportunity to learn about a lot of interesting things. I've learned how to genetically enhance microorganisms and how to make industrial explosives, neither is relevant, but both appeal to my interests. So you make an excellent point when you say it's important to consider the knowledge and skills, but the job is required to get value out of the money spent on the education.

Ah, now I get your point. The mentality over here in the Netherlands is not that you study history (or sociology, or anthropology) because you want to work in a related field, but because you're interested in the field and the skills/qualities you're taught.

I can't speak for fields other than history, but the writing and research skills, along with analytical/critical thinking, a broad knowledge of society and other fields will set you up for a nice career in, for example, the civil service.

 

[Guffe]

I think it is.
Education and educating yourself gives you something you can't get in any other way, knowledge, and with the help of knowledge you can do a lot more than before.

come to finland! uni level education here is free... and from what i hear, it's also free in scotland if you do not want to go that far away from home

Finland Rules!!!
Just started at a higher educational system and it is pretty much free yeah, so no problem with that!

 

[Yopaz]

Literature, history, sociology and art are perfect examples of what wont get you a job.

Is it really that bad in the States? Over here you'll get a job with those studies. Perhaps you won't get a job "in" history, but the skills you learn will get you a job, if only in the civil service.

People shouldn't see university as a place where you "learn" how to do "a job". But you will learn valuable skills and knowledge.

As far as I know these fields are hardly the kind you want to study if you plan to work with something relevant to it. I don't know about the states, but here there's always the choice to take an extra year and teach in these subjects, but the most recent statistics here show that those who study sociology rarely get a job relevant to their education and usually the ones that earn the least. Most of my education will be irrelevant for me if I end up being a teacher, but I will always be happy that I had the opportunity to learn about a lot of interesting things. I've learned how to genetically enhance microorganisms and how to make industrial explosives, neither is relevant, but both appeal to my interests. So you make an excellent point when you say it's important to consider the knowledge and skills, but the job is required to get value out of the money spent on the education.

Ah, now I get your point. The mentality over here in the Netherlands is not that you study history (or sociology, or anthropology) because you want to work in a related field, but because you're interested in the field and the skills/qualities you're taught.

I can't speak for fields other than history, but the writing and research skills, along with analytical/critical thinking, a broad knowledge of society and other fields will set you up for a nice career in, for example, the civil service.

Yeah, I guess you're right. The skills required to finish and the knowledge gained can help you get jobs, but it's important to be creative about how to use your degree. My teacher had a friend when he was getting his degree who studied the same, ended up with the same degree and they started out in the same job. However in the end his friend ended up as a millionaire because of how he used it. I'd still say there is some risk involved in picking education without having view of what you can use it for though.

 

[Riddle78]

In Canada,without post-secondary,the best job you can get is becoming an NCM in the Armed Forces. A great job,certainly,but the lifestyle is NOT for everyone. If it isn;t your bag,you need post-secondary to enter a career that you can sustain yourself on.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Depends on what jobs you want to work in. In saying so I read that those who went to get a job after graduating High School are more better in business compared to those who study business as a higher education (since they got first hand experiences at it). Granted that business alone so I don't know if that apply the same to the other jobs out there.

 

[Naeras]

Here in Norway, higher education is free. Or, well, it costs about $200 per year, which is literally nothing.

So yeah, it's worth it, provided you know how to use it.

 

[Korolev]

Depends on what you want to do and your personality.

If you want a stable 9-to-5 job, then no, you don't need to go to university. You can still earn a lot of money with a stable job without a university degree. Plumbers, Drivers, Soldiers, Writers, Small Business Owners don't need degrees.

There are only a few jobs that ABSOLUTELY require a University Degree - Scientist, Medical Doctor, Lawyer and Engineer are the only ones which legally require you to have a degree. You can be a historian without getting a history degree (it's harder, but possible). You can be a writer without an English Degree. You can be a museum curator without needing a degree in archaeology (although it would be difficult).

A higher Education is worth it, if you go for the degrees which have very good practical applications - like Medicine. Also, university graduates tend to earn more than people who didn't go to university.

In Australia, a degree is absolutely worth it - the government handle student loans and cannot charge interest on them (they increase to keep pace with inflation and that's all).

 

[WoW Killer]

Screw the cost, and screw the prospects. Learning makes you a better person; it makes you a more interesting person. Learning is worth it for the self-benefit alone.

 

[Lord Merik]

I damn well hope so. Otherwise I am buying a really expensive piece of paper.

 

[DarkRyter]

Say you want to be a doctor, or an engineer.

College is something you can't really skip.

 

[Moth_Monk]

It's education. It has to be.

 

[Fiad]

Really depends on why you are going. I am currently working on getting a degree in Computer Science. I will be able to find a job in that field. If you go for some obscure thing no one has ever heard of, then you are just wasting money.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I have a degree in Business and I can't even get a job as a receptionist, so the answer would be a resounding "no" as far as I'm concerned. I quit my job two months ago from a retail warehouse to look for something better, but now I'm prepared to go to a temp agency to get assigned to some shithole packing plant where I'll probably throw out my back during third shift and I won't be able to tell anyone because no one else speaks English. Fuck college.

All I want is to work in an office somewhere. Any fucking where. Make more than minimum wage, even if it's a cent. You go into a temp agency and they see that you're male, all they want to assign you to is manual labor. For the first month I was applying for ten jobs a day. I didn't get a single interview. Meanwhile, I'm draining my savings to make payments on the remaining $10,000 I owe. For fucking nothing. Fuck college.

 

[Lethos]

Literature, history, sociology and art are perfect examples of what wont get you a job.

More CEO's have degrees in the humanities rather than business because the skills that the degree provides. Additionally, the majority of History students go onto degrees in Law or work in Politics.

..../defending my degree.

 

[doggy go 7]

In the UK where I live and will go to uni, absolutely yes. In America, where the cost and risk is higher and the impact (at least from observing from the outside) is too, I'm not so sure. If you're certain you can go, you probably should, because it's more then just education, it's a mini version of real life, far more so the school (high school for all y'all Americans)