IYO, Is college worth it !?

[Backwoods101]

Lol

X2
Worked my way up without any degrees and bring home more than 95% of my coworkers that have a college education and wouldn't want the responsibility/headache that the other 5% are blessed with daily
Not to mention its going to take the 5% that now make 10k a year more than me @ 40 years to catch up due to the amount of money I made while they were in college.

[stickbowcoop]

A- Associates in CAD/CAM and Bachelors in Electrical Engineering
B- Yes I use my degree, plus I could not even get my job without an engineering degree (my company requires it).
C- I have student loans from engineering degree because I went back as an adult and graduated 5 years ago. I make more yearly (well when not on unpaid sick leave) than my total debt so that is a plus I guess. I would never make this salary with my past work experiences. In my current situation this debt is scary however because I am 46 and have not had a good recovery from a 3rd surgery and I am barely mobile. So I have no idea what my future holds.

[Darton]

I have a buddy that graduated with a philosophy degree or something similarly worthless, drove a Dr. Pepper truck for awhile, and then married the daughter of a billionaire. He met her in college.

Worth it.

Not necessarily, I had a similar buddy we would rag about marring into money and he always said that it is the hardest money he has ever had to work for Remember, the future FIL could say welcome to the family or now she is your problem! Good Luck

[Death from Above]

If only a monetary measure is used to evaluate the benefits of a degree, then the results may be a bit flawed.

I have an undergrad and working on a grad degree. I do not ever see a time in which I stop pursuing knowledge regardless of how it helps in a day to day job.

[TX03RUBI]

If I’m paying for it I’ll definitely make that decision for them.

Lol how are you going to pay for them to not go to school? My grandpa thought he was going to make that decision for me. I had a couple hundred acres, all the farm equipment, and a decent sized trust on the line. I told him to shove every bit of it when he thought he was going to tell me what I had to do with my life.

[Jamesdad07]

BS of Pharmacy Did that for 20 years but walked away from it last May to start flipping houses. I get more satisfaction now then I ever did working as a pharmacist. Just paid a plumber 7700 for a 8 hours on Tuesday, so no you dont need a degree to be successful.

I know that’s right! I am a GC and ever time I write a check to one of my plumbers I consider urging my son to open a plumbing company.


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[Jamesdad07]

A.) Only 1 yr of college
B.) Obviously no degree
C.) I was lucky enough to have a handful of different men show me the basics of remodeling and taught myself the rest by trial and error. When my son was born, ( I was 19 ) I opened my own handyman company, then started doing remodeling jobs hands on. I’m now a general contractor and make quite a bit more than my friends with degrees. When I would make a mistake that cost me money, one of those men would say, “Think of it like this, you’re paying for your education. Some people do it through books and tuition, you’re doing it by these costly lessons.” I’m fairly certain my son isn’t cut out for college. If he wants to go, I will certainly support him. I would much rather him get up every day and do something that he loves than go get a degree, and work a job he doesn’t like just because it’s “the norm” and he feels like he has to.


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[locolobo]

Myself- No. Dad offered to pay for it but After 12 years of school I was finished. But I do make a pretty good living in the petrochem industry.

Children- 3 of the 4 have degrees and are happy with their jobs and making good money. The son not working his degreed field but the degree helped get the job. I helped two of them but felt they would be better students if they knew they would have a little debt at the end. The third blew it when she said "If I can't go to Baylor then I just won't go". Ended up her and hubby paid for it. The fourth child had my attitude as a youngster but is making her way up the ladder in her chosen field through grit and determination.

One last thought: I work alongside several people who have degrees, one a doctorate, but left their chosen profession due to lack of advancement opportunities, low pay in that profession and other reasons.

[Bort]

I have 2 masters degrees, and I’ll be the first one to say that college is not for everyone. That being said, the statistics still show that college educated people as a whole tend to make more money in their lifetime, have lower levels of depression, stay married longer, etc.

Have your kids calculate the potential Return On Investment (ROI) of the degree that they want to pursue. If they don’t know what ROI is, make them get a finance degree or at least minor in it!

If they want to major in a degree with a low or no ROI, tell them to go pay for it. If they actually have a true passion for that degree, they will find a way to make it work.

Remember, your kids can get a loan from college, but you can’t get a loan for retirement.

[kumathebear]

Agree with many responses and laugh at a few?

Depends on what career you want to be in? If no degree then you are NOT even in consideration for many professional careers. My degree was from Texas Tech in Psychology and I have had careers as a LEO, Paramedic, Biotech Sales and Real Estate land sales. Times are continually changing and as an example many entry level LEO positions require some college hours or military service that will substitute if no college hours.

Example of Real Estate...the Texas Real Estate Commission will specify how many hours of RE courses one needs to take based on education. When I first got licensed in RE to pursue land sales, my courses were much less than those with no college hours?

Get the degree or at least some hours. It reflects to many employers that an applicant can LEARN and has the aptitude for entry level positions in the very least. There are very few shortcuts to obtaining the $$ you may want to ultimately achieve based on what YOU would enjoy doing and getting paid what meets your financial expectations. Also...learn to spell and be able to write (seriously, amazed at how basic this is but some are so lacking in these basic skills)....one of the first things employers will FLAG on resumes...just saying from experience over many years. Good luck!!!!!

[bowhntrmatt]

I got my bachelors in business.
I mixed community college/online/night classes and was able to work full time through college and, with some parental assistance, graduated debt-free.

I worked in the HVAC industry through college and realized that it was a great business so that’s what I stuck with. The first time I broke $150k was the year I turned 24.

Though my degree is not necessary for my job, I highly value everything I learned in college, and apply those principles in life every day. I think the work ethic I had to learn in order to maintain full time employment and classes was one of the most important things I gained in college.

[Bayouboy]

Plain and simple. Yes.

[grizzman]

A) BS-Accounting, some grad school
B) Yes, every day as a Controller.
C) Absolutely. Passing the CPA exam helped also.

I'll say that I was lucky to have a trade as a backup. I grew up working with my stepfather installing floors and suspended ceilings. Also the military gave me training and experience that I couldn't have gotten elsewhere.

[CaprockRoamer]

Getting off topic here. Have you folks looked into ketogenic diets for autistic children. Amazing results on speech, movement and seizures.


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No sir, can't say that I have. Thank you kindly for the info though.

[grizzman]

It is extremely expensive. Both of my kids have to have degrees to do what they want to do. What chaps my butt is the struggle my son has particularly gone through with Foreign Teachers at Texas A&M. No offense but......Two in particular....one from Iran and one from China. The kids cannot even understand what the Professors are saying. One of the classes had around 300 students in it. All the kids are looking around at one another. A&M will gladly take your money but they cannot even hire Professors that can communicate with the student body properly. I hate that I pay for that but it may not be better elsewhere either.

I was taking classes at the University of New Orleans and ran into this. They wanted me to take additional undergrad classes prior to acceptance into grad school. One professor I couldn't understand at all. I finally got sick of it and applied to grad school at SLU in Hammond and started directly into graduate level classes. I could also understand my instructors.