Is college really worth it? I just finished up my first year and I'm already thinking it's a waste of time...

Is college really worth it? I just finished up my first year and I'm already thinking it's a waste of time. Especially with my major (English).

No it's not a waste of time if you're proactive with extracurricular stuff, contacting future employers years ahead of time, always have your nose in a book, and don't fuck around socially.

But most people don't do any of that shit because they think a degree is going to speak for itself. College students don't have a concept of networking and how the actual world works.

This, plus don't go to college for a career that has poor job prospects

>plus don't go to college for a career that has poor job prospects

Terrible advice. Took what I said and ran in the completely wrong direction.

Having done it I would advise take a subject you want to work in or cut the cost and do an apprenticeship in a trade. If teaching doesn't rock it for you then cut your losses.

College professor here.

It's worth it if you take the time to make the most of your experiences. Actually go to class, actually study, and actually do the work. Pick a major that you think will lead you to a career that you think you will enjoy, and realize that everything over the next few years is designed to prepare you for that. Don't blow off the courses that aren't 100% in line with what you think you want to do - both gen ed courses and those within your department that you think are irrelevant. Learning the big picture of how the world works is actually important, and will prepare you for things beyond one specific job that may not exist in 15 years.

The degree by itself doesn't mean anything anymore due to grade inflation and the student as consumer mindset. In the program where I teach, students can graduate having received a C (73%) or better in every class. This year I graduated seniors who don't stand a fucking chance in the work force because they didn't take the time to actually learn the material enough to produce at a professional level.

it depends on the person, personally I love college as a philosophy major but I'm not going to college for financial reasons which is just one more dependent factor among the many that decide whether something is worthwhile for the unique subjective individual or the ordinary objective individual.

College is only worth it if you major in STEM or business.

It is worth it. A high school diploma is complete garbage. You need a degree to have a decent job now. Just don't spend too much money getting one. A big mistake people make is going away to college and racking up a massive debt. It's the same information anywhere you go. Also this Do your work and get out. Network before you graduate and try getting an internship to gain experience. The right experience is half the battle.

That's not true. STEM is better, but no higher education is so bad now having almost any degree is worth it. There was a company in Atlanta that required everyone in their company including the mail deliverer to have a degree.

Depends on what you want out of it. If you want a job that will keep you loaded with cash and don't mind doing all of the work, a degree in something that is in high demand with high-paying jobs is worth. If you're looking to do something you really love and don't mind struggling a bit, then that's when things like arts and languages become common.
Also like first user said, a huge part of college is networking, which is especially necessary in a discipline where it can be difficult to find work outside of teaching (like English). You're only in your first year user, feel around a bit and take the time to figure out what you want out of your education. Better to switch majors and spend 5 -6 years getting a degree that will keep you satisfied than to rush the 4 years wasting your time on a discipline you can't get either success in finances OR quality-of-work, and be disappointed in your path.

really depends what you go for.I certified for correction officer and now im going back for dental assistant.Both those jobs have decent prospects and pay good.If you only have a diploma,then you can start out going to a temp agency,getting factory work and spend like 1-3 years learning machines and different sections of shops,factory,foundry.Once you get good experience,you can work for more money.If you learn ANYTHING make it CNC.You will be needed heavily and make some real good money.

I'm not saying don't get a degree, I'm saying get a degree that matters. Why get a 4 year degree to become something like a mail deliverer that doesn't utilize your degree in any way?

College is only worth it if you can do at least one of two things:

>work your ass off to make a breakthrough/high-value contribution within your field using the resources available at your school
If you're busting your ass making good grades then you better have something to show for it other than a good gpa. Make science or make money or gtfo.

>networking
Seriously. Make friends with the most determined, smart, and social motherfuckers you can find. All you have to do is keep in contact with them without turning your relationships into full-blown party or nerd lifestyles. Don't slack in group/visible projects and have friendly conversations with teachers about your or their field.

If you're not doing either of these then you might as well get out. If you can't find online what colleges are teaching in the classroom then you're probably retarded.

It depends on what you want to do in life. If you want a nice office job it's just easier to get a degree in communications or psychology. The problem with STEM degrees is there are a lot of people getting them now and there are only so many jobs available. This is why some STEM majors can't find jobs or take jobs with less pay not related to their major. I personally don't want to work in engineering or chemistry or all the stuff. But not getting my poli sci degree would have been a mistake.

>Especially with my major (English).
Unless you're getting a teaching degree it's not worth it. You'd be better off going to a tech college.

Pointing out that if you live in a country where law is an undergrad degree and you can do it at a good uni, law is a decent alternative to stem

Or healthcare or education and STEM doesn't include life or social sciences in this case

In the US a registered nurse (2-year degree tech degree) will outearn the average lawyer (7-years of university)

>College professor here.
You have ZERO understanding of what it's like in the private sector. Grades in college mean nothing.

Source: 20+ years of professional experience and an executive

Mate I don't think you read my post properly

>if you live in a country where law is an UNDERGRAD DEGREE

Law in the US is a waste of time because of how long it takes, how much it costs, and how little you earn. In my country law is an undergrad degree, and undergrad degrees are only 3 years long. It's a great option for employment, indeed it outclasses certain stem degrees, particularly ones that are 'pure' and not applied. This is only if you do law at a good uni though. Still, it's automatically better than any other humanity subject because it opens more options

>Source: 20+ years of professional experience and an executive
lol ok

DHANALD THE DELEGATES ARE MINE

>Grades in college mean nothing
That's not necessarily true. Grades in college are necessary to meet requirements for things like transfers to highly reputable institutions, scholarships, awards, etc., all things that look nice and fancy on a resume, and show employers that you actually give a fuck. Additionally, a lot of post-graduate work programs look at grades when determining who to hire. I plan on teaching English abroad after I get my degree, and in order to stay competitive I need to keep my grades up.

You couldn't pay me to send my kid off to one of the marxist indoctrination camps. He'd come back with pink hair and tyrone on his arm crying about eating rich people.

You'd be surprised how happy successful and well adjusted some of us are. Of course in order to feel better about yourself you have to assume we're all cucks NEETs and neckbeards. Only true idiots assume to know people on the internet. Alas, this post will be ignored by you to your own detriment.

Grades mean nothing in the private sector retard.

Why did you choose english? what was the thought process there

You're a bit old to be on Sup Forums grandpa

>You'd be surprised how happy successful and well adjusted some of us are.
>happy, successful and well-adjusted
>on Sup Forums

Depends on the goal.

As a CPA, no one gives a flying fuck on what my gpa in my accounting degree. Nor do they care what school I went to.

They care that I have my professional certification.

No. Unless you like the idea of earning $12 an hour at Starbucks paying off $200,000 in student loan debt for your degree in philosophy.

If you're thinking about dropping out consider a certificate program in the medical field first. Something like scrub tech or medical billing. Both usually only run a year and decent salary depending on where you live. Hospitals are always hiring and usually can get massive amounts of overtime. Of course they have certificate programs for other fields so check that out as well.

Sup Forums is for oldfags not b& faggots like you retard

As I said you'd be surprised

It's what you make of it.
I took a masters in Linguistics and went straight from being a student to working at the uni.

Shift majors to art history

Funny, you don't sound very happy and well-adjusted

How lucrative was that job and how much debt did you have?

I'm not the same guy but Sup Forums isn't what it used to be. Had you made that comment in the late 00s I would have agreed. Between all the work mods do keeping this place clean and all the oldfags who have stuck around while they still maintain a healthy life in the real world this place isn't strictly losers and weirdos anymore.

You get your what you put in. Fuck the pooch and you'll be right where you started, but with a shitload of debt. Play your cards right and do a meaningful degree, though, and you can triple your annual income.

In what way?

Waste of time if you don't study something that's actually useful. I graduated with a bachelor's in communication back in 2015. Completely useless degree but I had a hell of a time. Started a fraternity and got fucked up all the time, I look back on it positively and have no regrets.

Helps if someone else pays for your education lol... Completely debt free here

I'm so fucking jealous of you

God I hate people. I would be much happier if I isolated myself from everyone else. Communicating with people in any form just makes me feel bad

>this place isn't strictly losers and weirdos anymore.
We're all weirdos but there's nothing wrong with that

Then why are you posting here

Cos I didn't know that I was gonna feel bad just now

I have an electrical engineering degree and it was very worth it. I travel the world and work on OR panels. I just brought these back to my office from Japan.

With your English degree...well yes you're completely wasting your time.

Cruz got crushed in the Sally Yeats questioning. So much that he left right afterwards

This is accurate. Except keep in mind, if you're not at a top 20 school there aren't probably many kids that are really going to be driven and successful. So, you'll have to change your major to actually find them (they're probs not in english).

...

Different prod here with some minimal private sector exposure.
Grades are important as a minimum requirement, and that's about it (outside of grad and professional school). But some private sector jobs have high minima (I've seen as high as 3.8)

I assume you meant early 00s. I would agree, Sup Forums has every kind of person.

It wont be for my ex when I wait until shes almost done with her 4 year

It was that way s few years ago but not so much now. The unemployment rate is below 5%. If you have a good STEM degree (no life or social sciences) then you will have several jobs to choose from regardless of your grades. Yes some employers will screen grades but only a few and only for the first job. Get a few years in and nobody cares what your grades were.

I agree the so called professor is a dummy, but grades can matter. For instance, OP is in English and excelling in that program would make him an excellent candidate for law school. Also, plenty of jobs will ask for your transcript.

A few tips for OP:

1. Think about grad school. Just about any degree can be used to get into just about any grad program. For instance, you don't need a bio degree for med school, they actually like people who got more experience outside the sciences. You can get into med school with a history degree, there are only a couple science classes required.

2. A lot of jobs require just a degree, no mention of major.

3. Volunteer. It helps you discover what you're good at. Also, volunteer work goes on your resume. Experience is experience, regardless of whether it pays.

I could go on, but I'm sick of typing on my phone.

junior in biochemistry here, I work in a recombinant lab at my university and a grad student I work with graduated with a BS in Biochemistry with a 2.8 GPA and he is finishing up his PhD in bioc and already has a job working for the NIH

>I assume you meant early 00s.

Well all of the 00s. I started coming here regularly in 2008 and there was still plenty of CP.

But 2017 is the early 00s. I assumed you meant real early, like when the site first came out.

get a real degree....like mechanical engineering

That's not the greatest goal one could strive after.

Tbh op the vast majority of people who have a degree, whether it be in english, business, engineering, education, are doing something now that is not related to their degree, or are but are tired of it and want to do something else. College serves to help u realize there are dozens of industries/ trades that u can try to get into or learn about.

Unless you're gonna be something that absolutely requires a degree, or you're really interested in something that requires it... like you've wanted to do this your entire life and you can't wait until you're grown and can do it...

Then no. I make 25/h & a close family member makes 80/h, zero combined degrees

What do they do that bring in 80/hr?

Bullshits on Sup Forums all day

2017 is late 10s. 2010-2014 would be early 10s. 2000-2004 is early 00s and 2005-2009 is late 00s. That's the way I've always understood it.

Data Center Admin

Well if you could perform any critical thinking or math you would realize that an English major is going to get you jack fucking shit. You'd know what kind of jobs you can get with that degree and how they pay and contrast that with how much debt you're likely taking on.

Then again if you could think critically or do math you'd probably be capable of getting a worthwhile degree.

The truth is college is NOT worth it for every degree they offer and what you want to be when you grow up. Liberal art degrees should not be offered to 18 year olds looking to graduate and start a career. A liberal art degree is something you should look into after maybe 10 years of graduating with a worthwhile degree and you have a decent job and think "hey, music, art, social studies interest me let's take some night classes as a hobby".

Or maybe you're super rich and want to go to school for useless things that are just nice to know.

If you're in the United States, go to a technical school and get trained in a skill. These courses usually cost a lot less money, require a lot less time, and usually have much better job opportunities.

Colleges are pumping out 2 and 4 year students with degrees they will probably never get to use professionally, especially in the way they had hoped. This is mostly because higher education jobs and incredibly finite, and because of government subsidization of higher education the chances of you getting these jobs drops significantly because you're now competing with a lot more people for the same small bracket professions.

This is much different than skilled labor jobs. There are an estimated 6 million skill related jobs in the country that employers are struggling to fill, meaning that the likely hood of you finding a job for one is fairly high depending on your area.

Don't follow passion, follow opportunity.

This. A million times.

I was an English major mostly because I had no direction after high school, and people blew smoke up my ass about how I was a good writer.

I work as a project manager for a construction firm now, almost 10 years after graduating. I had to parlay a bunch of shit jobs into meh jobs until I finally found something where I wasn't doing manual labor. Would have been infinitely easier to have gotten a degree in management or engineering instead of having to earn what I know via field experience.

It does help to call people out on bullshit when they have no idea what they're talking about though.

But really, get out of English while you can. If you want to teach, get into an education program, or find a specialized within education, like literacy or teaching tards.

>Don't follow passion, follow opportunity
It's best if you do both tbh you do need to at least like what you do

Hey OP. I have an MA and PhD in English, and I lecture it at Britfag university. I love the subject and my job, but for the majority of students it is a pointless degree. It doesn't really lead that many place, especially if you don't get a first-class grade. Even if you stay in academia like me, it is way more of an uphill struggle than if you did a STEM subject. This isn't something English lecturers admit very often, for obvious reasons.

Tl;dr: fucking great subject, but not great for careers.

>It doesn't really lead that many place, especially if you don't get a first-class grade.
>English professor
Sure dude whatever

OP yes you are wasting your time with english. i did philosophy, even more shittier, never used the degree for anything luckily i have done well with investing money etc. The degree was a fuckin waste of time tho. fuck the english degree off asap and study something leading to a career path or you will most likely find yourself doing another degree or in a job any moron could do.

OP here. I should've also mentioned that I don't have a problem financially. I have a couple of scholarships that pay almost all of my tuition and I don't live on campus.

Then you're wasting your scholarship money get a STEM (no life or social science) healthcare or education degree

>English lecturer spends all day marking shit essays, fails to proofread his Sup Forums press at night.

Stop the fucking press user.

Why would I lie about being an English academic. I'd at least make myself an astrophysicist or something.

>Sup Forums press

Oh man, I fucking did it again. Tiem for sleep.

Fair enough but as an English guy you have to appreciate the irony

Yeah, it's pretty embarrassing. I also copyedit/proofread a major academic journal, so good job this shit is anonymous.

you DO know you can CHANGE your major yeah? Fuck, you're stupid.

Of course college is worth it.
College graduates will make more money over their lifetime,
well enough to cover the cost of college itself.

But yeah, you may have more debt as a 20-30 year old than your non-college peers. But if you can imagine the long game, you'll come out better once you hit your 40s.

The only people who say college isn't worth it, are the people who fucked it up.

Not unless you're in STEM.

Believe me, I majored in Religion and Philosophy.

>I don't live on campus.

I think that is a problem.
When you live off campus, you isolate yourself from the college.
It's like your a normal dude who gets up and goes to college every day instead of work.
It makes college seem like work that doesn't pay, rather than a lifestyle.

Move on campus, enjoy the years, reap $$$ downstream.

Do you guys think a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management is a good choice for a man?

>terrible advice

the degrees have poor job prospects for a fuckin reason autist

You're living in the past. Not all majors are the same. If you don't study the right major it's not worth it financially.

Agree.
I'm pretty happy and successful in life.

I come to Sup Forums because it's a good source for amateur nudes that were way more rare back in my day.

And I like giving younger people life advice.
I even enjoy laughing in their faces when they obviously ignore it.

Yes and a woman too. You should look into becoming a data scientist.

>You're living in the past.

I'm a hiring manager and could be your boss.
Listen to my words or life to regret it.

Are you me?

Pre-collegefag here. Only good at English and History, fucking pitiful at math and any sort of foreign language. Decent with science, but I don't have the passion for science that I do for the aforementioned history+english wombo combo. What degree do the fellow Sup Forumstards think I should shoot for? I've thrown out law already, the field is overcrowded as hell. Figured I could work my way into a less math-oriented fields of business, but I'm not sure if they even exist.

Is that fucking jeb

I'm an executive more likely you'd work for me.

Satan trips. Only the devil would give this shitty advice to someone whose worried about their career prospects.

Treating your degree like a job is literally the best way to approach it. If you treat it as a three-year social timewaste, why the fuck bother?

Yo you should just start working in the non-profit sector

Have you tried sucking dick?

Another Professor here. What this guy said.

And don't listen to the internet Gods telling you that this and that major is shit. All majors can be turned into a viable career if you work hard.

Have you considered women's studies?

Doubt I'd be a good gay person, I don't have a Tumblr.

The biggest lie ever told