How College Ruined My Life and What You Can Learn from My Mistakes

Hey Brad, 

Interesting points.  Although I feel your pain regarding debt, I don’t fully agree. College is about giving you a foundation build upon.  You don’t stop learning when you leave school, at least I didn’t. On the contrary, it was because of college I released how much I really appreciated learning.  Without college, I would not have been given the fundamentals for success.  

Not trying to bring my ethnic heritage, but the reality is the bordertown I grew up in, the educational system sucked and still does. College is where I improved my information-base, improved skills and discovered a little more about who I was as an individual, which has allowed me to persevere and nurture my passion for information. 

 The educational system isn’t fully up-to-date, and it never will be.  But I think for the right student, directed studies are an avenue not taken advantage of.  College students have an opportunity to learn something on their own with the right teacher and receive college credit.  I did it, and I loved it.  

In essence, I was able to create my course with the guidance of a professor. And yes, this was while I was an undergraduate.  It gave me the flexibility to do what I wanted, read what I wanted and then craft into something that could be graded. I did this for my music and Latin-American studies degrees.  I wanted to learn more about the tango, the music and the dance, so I found a teacher with similar interests and studied the art form with him.  The credit applied towards my Latin-American studies degree, but the teacher was from the music school. I managed to combine both worlds nicely. 

Although the loan payment is painful, and doesn’t feel like it will end anytime soon, I do believe college provides a foundation that nothing else can provide.  

Distinguish between the desire for knowledge and gaining work-life experiences; both feed off each other.  There is information best learned in a classroom versus on your own. (Many) Professors are mentors that guide students towards success and can help them find a path of their own.  

Cheers, 
Miguel

Hi Brad,
I am new to your site,  just discovered it today and am already loving what I’m seeing!  You have expressed here, with facts to back it, points I have been expressing to my children and anyone else who will listen for the past few years.  I love to learn and research things and like you I have learned & retained more when my studies have been self initiated  I do not think self starters and entrapreneurs need college, and I do not think that most 18 year olds need college.  I think most 18 year olds need at least 1 year of hard work and thinking it over time.
I am not totally anti-college, but am fed up with the “college is the only smart choice” mindset that has been fed to our culture  regardless of the student’s personality, goals, learning style,  etc.  
  I am 45 years old and have witnessed the following  average american story  many times, both in my own generation and in every generation to graduate highschool since.   It goes something like this:
It’s Joe Average’s highschool graduation celebration and you, the guest, greet Joe and then ask “So, what are you going to do now?”   He  has a wonderful, well rehearsed answer about how he is  going to “Such and Such” college and majoring in “Something Impressive”.  Joe signs up for a load of debt and heads off to school in the fall.
 Now the story often takes one of two turns, either Joe discovers that he really isn’t sure he wants to be a “Something Impressive” for the rest of his life and changes majors, adding a year or more to his time at school and continuing to doubt the new choice as well, OR he sticks out the “Something Impressive” course, gets the degree but ends up going into something totally different for the rest of his life.   Sometimes, his ending up not using his degree is not at first by choice, sometimes he can’t find a job in the oversaturated workforce and so takes a labor or retail job just to have a source of income when the loan payments start but ends up staying in that “just temporary”  field.    
Now, I realize this is not the case of all college students/grads, many do stick with the “graduation day plan” but  I can personally think of several friends and relatives who ended up in one of these scenerios and every time the subject comes up, others always agree that they also know several who fit this scenerio.
  Now my purpose is not to criticize the victims of this sad situation, my purpose is simply to get people to think about why college is presented as “the only way” and to exam themselves and  to think about why they are planning to go or to send their kids.   I want them to think for and about themself.  I want them to think about why they are choosing the wonderful sounding major, is it  really what interests them? or are they  leaning toward it because everyone else (or even just someone else) says that they  would be good in it?  Did they just pick  the major from a catalog list?    Was it the least of evils, the easiest degree to achieve?  Did they consider whether they will  really be content doing this thing that sounds good now for the rest of their  life?  Do they have a “stick it out” kind of personality, or are they the type (and it’s Ok to be this type) who like a change of scenery and would be happier changing jobs every 5 or 10 years?  Have they studied the job market that they will be entering?   If yes, and if it is already saturated, are they willing to relocate?   What is the entry level pay for their field?  Have they figured out how many years, based on the prospective  salary and other expenses (housing, car etc.) it will take  to pay off the loans?  
This is a subject that I could say much more on, but the main thing is to encourage people to consider all their options and all the costs/consequences.  I really appreciate your speaking out in this area that is a “sacred cow” in our society.  I also appreciate Miguel’s view and I know, as he witnessed that many who go are happy with their choice, so  again, my main argument is simply that kids need to consider all the facts and know that it is a choice, not a requirement.
 Blessings,
A mom in the “YOUR KIDS AREN’T IN COLLEGE????!!!!” camp

interesting read.  Having a background ( brief) in education ( I can now explain in technical pedagogical terms why I hated school:)… I have a lot of mixed opinions about the public education system.  Or maybe not so mixed:)  Are there things that kids need to learn? yes, definitely! is the public education system the place to learn them? I am not so sure. I do know that the primary “lessons” kids learn in school are NOT things they need to know, and would do better never having experienced.  Peer pressure, which entails caving in to the external expectation.  Conformity versus identity.  social hierarchies that create inequalities based on absolutely arbitrary norms and expectations.

the initial goal of public education was to create a basic, 8th grade education for the man ( yes it was the men who worked), who would then get a job on the assembly line/ at the plant, and work there as a lifetime employee.  this world no longer exists.

most education is about creating conformity, which is also, essentially, about creating placid members of society and most essentially to the western model… consumers! a sort of capitalist feudalism or serfdom, maybe?

As such, education, at very few levels, from k-12 to collegiate and beyond- instill creativity, leadership skills or innovation.  the people who have taught the teachers, have culled the fields, reinforcing the drone-clone model.  Ironically, the higher you go up the educational ladder/ tree.. the fewer branches and diversity there are.  Professors rarely reward someone who thinks radically differently.  their psyche is more comfortable with those that reinforce their existing world view.

as to the relevance of education.. I would wonder if anyone had done a comparative study, between someone who had opted for a non-traditional route, whether internship, self-learning and travel etc.. and compared where they were at, at the end of 4-6 years.

One thing, I do think that our western capitalist society aims to do- is have the student in debt, which thereby requires that he become a part of the corporate machine, in order to attempt to free himself from the wheel of debt/servitude buried in the fine print of his college degree:)

fortunately, there s now access to just about any and all data via the internet- perhaps it won’t be much longer before a degree and diploma will be less relevant than a portfolio of what someone has accomplished.  wouldn’t that be an interesting world.  Or as they say in indigenous speak- that’s nice, but will it grow corn.  and diplomas do not necessarily grow corn– esp if monsanto has anything to say about it:)

ha, i feel like without an engineering degree starting making 60k a year you are pretty much phucked….and dont even get me started on those liberal arts and crafts schools. the truth is you need a solid career and even more important, a good pension plan 

Well, college loan is a big help to students when they need money urgently if it will just being used for good cost but there’s always consequence with it. So I guess it’s still best to save money so that we can use it in the future.

I total agree with your view.
I recently graduation from college this May and I honestly wish I would have followed my gut to dropout my. I sat in class wondering how is this crap really going to help me. But everyone I talked to said, you need a college degree to be successful so finish. Now I have a piece paper saying i’m a drone that will jump through every hop you tell me to and will not question your authority. 

I honestly got a better education reading tons of business, personal development, autobiographies, and psychology books before i started school. But now i’m trying to unlearn all that so called “higher education” shit.  

proven to secure things for better understanding and to use on for different instances,, nice post,.

Bradley

I can relate to you wholeheartedly regarding going to college. I entered school in Jan 2006. I have a single class to complete to get my B.S. I call it Bull.Shit. degree.

The first two years were exciting because I got to break new ground in learning. But not long after that I began to realize that all this “misc” education from useless. Do you realize what it feels like to fill your head with a bunch of pointless nonsense? I heard it for years. Being told that all that algebra would make me smarter, whether I actually used it or not. I was sort of a prodigy in my youth, skipping public school many times as a kid. So much that I became friends with the delinquents. Yet, I could come back to school and still be the top math student. Teachers were amazed by it. The fact is that we all have something unique built in that drives us in a certain direction. We are all capable of being above average at something without having a piece of paper with a man’s signature on it. It’s insane to takes years of college, graduating, and then getting handed an insane bill to pay that will no doubt take at least 10 years. So we have a mortgage by the time we leave college. More disturbing is the fact that I look around at other countries that do these things to their people. They seem to care about quality of life above all else. America doesn’t seem to care at all about its people. That’s the kind of “freedom” we all enjoy. The freedom from security. We’re all brainwashed into the cultural ideology. Then we are placed in a modernized slavery that makes us work hard and receive much less in return. Only a select few have it made. Free enterprise.

I have heard that in Canada, the motto is One For All, and All For One. In America, they say Every Man For Himself. Dog Eat Dog.

The United States of America is one extremely large failure. Technology has become the primary important element in life. It’s easy to self indulge on gadgets. People do this a lot. And they somehow arrive at the idea that life is good. They become blindsided to the reality that there are more and more people being forsaken. The media and other entities create a false umbrella over society that says “Its okay” to continue being a conformist. But I can tell you this. You are right. Google teaches far more than a college. And it will give you EXACTLY all you need. I have cured more illnesses with the Internet than my family doctor ever did.

Although things have been getting a little perspective, students are not
out of the woods yet. U.S. economy will continue in the overseas debt
crisis and stagnant job growth mercy.

I enjoy browsing your nice article, Your blog is a great tool for those interested, thanks for sharing i admire your efforts and the work involved in the development of this article.

 I have a feeling you don’t realize how the world works, and how debt can consolidate regardless of what kind of school one attends. I’m currently a Psych major at UCLA, the leading America public university and it’s an entire CROCK OF SHIT.

Do not believe the lies people: MAJOR IN SOMETHING THAT MATTERS TO YOU, BECAUSE BEING MAJORING SOMETHING SOCIETY TELLS YOU TO IS A DEAD-END.

THE INFORMATION IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, LIFE IS NOT DEFINED BY A PIECE OF PAPER.