College and Employment

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Oh yes, physically working is so much of a pain as to be intolerable. Must sit down upon butt while other people actually work instead. Sure, I'll get paid more because they're merely laborers and I'm taking all of the burden of responsibility upon myself should there ever be a problem (unless a suitable scapegoat can be found). Doing actual work, perish the thought!

Come back and say that in twenty years...

...when you need new knees and a hip--when your lower back screams every morning simply because you have the gall to try to get out of bed.

I think there are much better (and more fun) ways to ruin your body.

Your mileage may vary.

Let's say though that a person goes the route of a construction trade rather than going for a college degree. Yes, the construction work is harder than college and after four years of experience as an apprentice one can become a journeyman. For 4 years in college a student doesn't really earn money so much as merely accumulates debt (for most students who don't have life handed to them on a silver platter and therefore require government loans). A person training in a construction trade is actually earning the money they receive and do not need to pay it back. After they've acquired their certification, they are not in debt to a lending agency and can then move on to earning more.

Now you mention how much it causes physical pain to do physical work as one gets older. Certainly that's true. However, when one is able to do the work and make in excess of their base expenses I think what ought to be done is to save most of that excess money and invest it. Keep saving and investing. Eventually, do some market research and start your own business of your choosing - not necessarily construction. Or if you have investments which pay off regular dividends and have enough of them you could even replace your income eventually (as one of my wife's coworkers had done recently). Having a job in a trade does not mean that one will always work in that exact occupation.

^^^

Yes you could possibly do that.

Or, like me, you could work hard at the trade, save your extra money, start a business and LOSE YOU LIFE'S SAVINGS.

Whatever you try to do, you do need to keep in mind that skilled trades are for young men and have an exit strategy (and hope it works ).

Honestly, school does not have to be a huge financial burden. I go 3/4 time and work full time. The work supports me and scholarships support my schooling.

It will take me more time to finish, but I'll do it with little debt. You young folks are too impatient.

I tend to think I'm more patient than most people, however I could be wrong. The primary reasons I consider college to be a waste of money though is that for $500 per credit hour the costs exceed the benefits. Of the classes I've already taken {Intro to Astronomy, "Success Strategies"(a 4 credit hour class no less), Intro to Business, Microeconomics, Principles of Marketing, Intro to Humanism, Sustaining the Environmentalism Bowel Movement, English Composition, Macroeconomics, Accounting 1 & 2, "College" Algebra, and "Business Ethics" (for which the textbook used was half a centimeter thick and a third of it was spent praising and worshiping the glorious Wall-Fart)} I consider the nearly $20,000 of loan debt to not be worth the education provided. I'm collecting used textbooks and studying subjects on my own because having the knowledge of subjects I'm interested in (like physics and chemistry, astrometry, orbital mechanics, etc) is more important to me than a piece of paper.

Well, I certainly understand your frustration with basic general ed classes. Most are pretty useless to anyone who paid attention in high school--even when high school was 20 years ago... Consider it more dues paying and spend the time you aren't being challenged applying for scholarships!

$500/credit hour does seem way too high. Most state schools in my region are less than $300/hr. Even John Brown, the private college around here only charges $450!

If you look, you should be able to find cheaper schools and scholarships shouldn't be too problematic for a bright guy like you either.

Self-teaching is great for personal enrichment or using the knowledge on your own.
However, HR managers are lazy and degrees are cheap,easy filters used to sort job applicants. You'll likely never get a job using self-taught skills, because you'll never even get a job interview. (Experience is another cheap, easy filter HR managers use because so many degree holders are incompetent... Yeah, it sucks.)

Anyways, those are my thoughts, such as they are... It's your life. I'm sure you'll work out what's best for you eventually. Most of us do.

I don't plan to work for a corporation that pays a gigantic salary. I have no respect for managers who don't know what they are talking about, so it would not be a wise situation for me to have an high paying job all the while sitting under the whack-a-mole hammer of some random corporate ladder climber. I think I'll be careful not to invest foolishly when starting my own business, since I never want to work underneath others again. Besides, why would anyone really want to start out at the bottom of another's pyramid with each other climber pushing and shoving, fighting tooth and nail, to get to a pinnacle of "success" only to be later thrown down by yet another? I'd rather be on my own and earn money without having to worry about this person or that person looking for arbitrary reasons to fire me due to their feeling of being threatened for hours or rank or whatever other random reason. If a business is large enough to have an HR department it is also large enough to be occupied with soulless zombies.

I've read that starting annual salary for a poli-sci grad is 40K. I have a MASTER'S and can't get that. I don't know where these numbers are coming from....

Hey, if one qualifies their statistics well enough they can practically say anything about anything and still be "technically correct".

I used to have a job until I started studying for my degree (BA of Fine Arts). My degree is a bit full on and has lots of hours (41 hours in total). I have 1 hour and 30mins each way for my train trip to college/ uni. When it comes to finding a job in my area there are none because most jobs in my area require lots of experience. However I do volunteer at my local art gallery as a receptionist/ guide sometimes and I used to volunteer as a helper at a special Ed school. I'm hoping when I finsh my degree I will find a full time job as a graphic designer. If all else fails I'm going back to school to study a computer course or design. Alot of people have suggested I become a art teacher but I can't command kids very well haha