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This has been my mantra for as many years as it has been since I dropped out of community college to pursue a real job... My goal is to advise every single high-school graduate I come in contact with to don't bother with college, or if they already enrolled to drop out. EVERYONE on earth is telling them that they MUST engage in higher education... why? Fuck if I know.
"But you'll be passed over for promotion by people with degrees!" is a common whine from the folks with the school-loans who need to validate or justify their crushing debt. Well, I've never been passed over for a promotion. The only time I non-voluntarily left a job was when I was an active student. Go figure.
Anyways kids, drop out. Don't waste your time. Will Hunting said it best when he said "You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library."
I wouldn't tell kids that. First, not everyone will have the same abilities / circumstances / fortune as you when seeking their first job. Second, while a degree may not help them get a job, it certainly can't hurt. And be realistic, I'm sure there are other jobs you could have applied to where you would have been passed up for someone with a degree. Gay but true, especially in bigger companies. What if you had wanted one of those jobs? And then there are some fields where you absolutely have to have a degree (e.g. medicine or law), so what about kids who want to go into one of those fields? Also, some companies (like the one that hired me) increase your salary based on education. I'm making 53k in my first job, which as I understand it isn't too bad at all. I know that after that first hire, experience probably matters more than education, but again, it certainly can't hurt.
All that is to say, the system is in place and it's not going anywhere, so students have to weigh the benefits of an education versus the lost time and debt it can bring.
THAT said, the system is still bullshit. Students should also be fully aware that it is almost completely a waste of money and usually of time and that in almost every case, if an education is what they're after, they have to get it their own damned self. Most professors won't give a shit about them nor conferring any knowledge on them. Many times there's no rhyme nor reason to the process that eventually delivers the magical piece of career-bestowing paper to them. They, their parents, their fellow taxpayers, their creditors, and probably every living being on the planet dump money into this institution that somehow finds a way to waste almost all of it.
So my advice would probably be, go to college if you can. Give yourself the education.