Do you regret not being highly educated?

I've just got a job in an administration type role at a University that will be opening in a few weeks.

At the moment it's pretty quite but every day there are more students about.

They seem really nice and I'm starting to low key envy them cuz they just seem to hang out in cafes all day.

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TinyViolins · 31-35, M

As someone that has two bachelor degrees from a highly-ranked university, I would like to share for anyone that has these regrets that a university education is largely overrated.

I've learned far, far more outside of school than I ever did while attending it, and ultimately all I really came away with after graduating were some pieces of paper that tell companies I'm competent enough to employ in an entry-level position. Granted, that's still a very important thing in a competitive economy, but the only truly unique thing you gain in the end is some credentialization.

The social, the psychological, and the cognitive advantages people can gain at university isn't exclusive and can also be gained elsewhere, and often with lower stakes given how much of your time will eventually get eaten up by studying and assignments once the school year progresses.

SomeMichGuy · M

@TinyViolins I'm sorry that you had that experience.

I had exactly the opposite, but I was always hungry to learn, and still love it.

There is no way I could have gotten the same level of education & cognitive advantages elsewhere; being taught by leaders in various fields gives one access to insights which are not found on every corner, in every town, or even every college.

Generalizing your experience is unfair; your sweeping statements are meant to preclude all opposition by purporting to show "the truth" about college.

The truth is that one actually *does* reap what one sows,in terms of getting more out of courses / material with which one has engaged, earnestly. I saw a lot of people even at my own elite institution who were not terribly serious about coursework or with a thirst for knowledge, and it showed in how they crammed, retained little, and truly understood even less.

If one is going to go THAT route, better to get a vocational training in a far briefer certificate program, rather than tie up a slot which might be filled with a serious student.

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@SomeMichGuy Admittedly, my experience might not be the typical one given how I spent my entire stay at university battling depression and had only a fleeting interest in the material. I skipped a lot of classes and skated by with average grades solely through late night cramming. I'm sure having a working relationship with professors can alter things greatly with insight into specific disciplines

Still, once people graduate from university, a lot of that knowledge isn't really retained or applicable. Between 40-45% of college grads are working jobs that don't require a degree at all, and more than half of all graduates are working jobs completely unrelated to their field of study. All of that just to end up saddled with crippling student loans.

That's the reasoning behind why I stated it was overrated. I think college is incredibly over-prescribed in society, and you even suggest as much with your observations on vocational training.

I grew up in an immigrant household that saw university as the end-all and be-all, so my approach to it was much different from yours. I didn't develop a hunger for knowledge until after I dealt with my mental illness post-graduation, and found that there are a ton of options for in-depth learning for those that wish to pursue knowledge on their own. The drawback with that route being that it doesn't have a home on a traditional resume

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TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@SomeMichGuy I didn't have a problem with college while I was in college. I did fine. I graduated with two bachelor's degrees and picked up a minor in a third subject; all in only 5 years. I didn't have a perfect 4.0, but a 3.0 is still perfectly acceptable. It's just petty nitpicking to say I was a poor student. Just because you were a suck-up doesn't mean everyone else has to be.

My problem was that my university was geared around a recruiting pipeline to major corporations and me having no interest in working for one. Given my family's inexperience with the college process, I didn't know those would be the main opportunities afforded to me. The honest, realistic assessment 18-year-old me had was that I was smart and could make a lot of money using my smarts.

But I was also financially unable to pick up unpaid internships that would have helped give me the experience to land elsewhere. Smaller companies usually required that their entry-level employees wear multiple hats for cost effectiveness. In multiple interviews I was asked about computer skills, foreign languages, social media savvy, or salesmanship. Things that weren't part of my curriculum.

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is all fine and good, but at the end of it all you need to have a plan for your degree. A person unfamiliar with the career services center at whatever university they have in mind, or a person that is stuck with an sub-par academic advisor, won't end up having the insights to tailor a more suitable plan for themselves, hence why I brought up the employment statistics that has become the economic reality for half of all college graduates