Is it worth it?

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This thread has probably been done before... but I've been thinking for quite a while now that I'm wasting my time and my parents' money at college. I really have no idea why I'm here, other than to give people the impression that I'm trying to make something of my life instead of just living at home like a slacker. And to slightly raise my chances of making new friends (which still hasn't happened).

It's not even my inability to pick a major that's bothering me so much anymore. Even if I did pick a major, and finally get a degree after going through 4 years of this crap, would I ever really want a job? Are there some people for whom there is simply no such thing as a fulfilling job? If so, I think I might be one of them. (lazy ne'er-do-well)

And what about "breaking even" on my education? A 4-year degree costs tens of thousands of dollars. I can't even think how many years of my life I would have to spend in some depressing fluorescently-lit office or something before I actually began to PROFIT from this enormous investment of time and money. Would it even be worth it in the long run? (I think it is of interest to note that I have a friend with no degree who recently got hired full-time with a $30k+/yr salary.)

I can't shake the feeling that this is an outrageously expensive waste of time, that our system of university education is (at least in part) a racket designed to swindle gullible youth, and worst of all, that I could be somewhere else right now, actually enjoying my life for a change.

But if I did drop out, I don't know what I would do or where I would go. Thus I remain here, where I can at least hope that there is some kind of certainty in my future.

Alumni, help me out. Did you ever find yourself thinking this way while you were in college? And did every minute and penny spent really turn out to be worth your while?

Well...you sound a good bit like i felt a while back. i started school, but my heart wasn't much into it. wasn't sure what else i was supposed to do with myself.
i ended up preg and quite. i worked at restaurants. sucked. went back to school but really couldn't afford it. found a way to get 2 yrs paid in full. so i stuck out on the world confidently with my associates...only to find that it didn't hold much water.
I was making $7.50 hr, while everyone around me was making >$50k/yr. none of them had 'real' degrees, but years of experience. ...so how many years to make up for no edu? 10. but I have an associate's?! ok, 8...maybe 6 , if you're real good. that was a stinking blow since i was already doing the same work.
the same company these days won't let you do much more than menial jobs these days without at least a 4 year.
i was crushed because i had really believed that even without education, if you were willing to work hard, you could make up for it.

edu may not help you to keep a job, but it'll help you get a foot in the door. also, if you don't have a degree, large companies might see it as a way to get a 'discount' employee....

i heard a statistic this summer about people with colege degrees making a million dollars more over a lifetime than the avg person who does not.

by my own experience, i regret not taking it seriously at the time.

this link has some good source data on expected job opening, pay grades and what it takes to get there... it's specific to TX but it also has national stats, too. if 'you ain't from 'round here', then there might be something similar online for your area.
http://socrates.cdr.state.tx.us/iSocrat ... select.asp
here's another good TX one:
http://www.twc.state.tx.us/customers/js ... psub6.html

I completed undergraduate with two majors and two minors reflecting the multitudinous things I was interested in, so I can't give advice on dropping out from my own personal interests.

However, I have known many who did drop in and out of the system, and based on their experience I can say it is indeed possible to waste your time and money pursuing a degree if you don't know why you're pursuing it.

If work is work is work to you, and you're not aspiring to find anything in it other than a means of subsistence, then I would say finish up your current semester and drop out on a good note. Then do what you will afterwards, and if at some time in the future you see a ray of light and know what you want to do, you can pick up where you left off with minimum explanation of why you left. Just say you weren't interested in treading water like so many college students, and now that you know what you're there for, you're in it for real.

Few things are more tedious than doing things because you're expected to do them and for no other reason, so do what feels right for you.

I'm taking an economics class, and the professor lamented on how he asked himself the same questions when he was in college. The bottom line? From a financial standpoint, yes, it is very much worth it. The chasm between the income of the college educated and the non-college educated is vast, and only growing larger. You will break even; it's just a long-term investment.

Look at Bill Gates...he dropped out of Harvard University because it just wasn't his thing when he started as a young kid out of
high school. Bill Gates is definitely an Aspie...ever notice how he rocks to calm himself in stressful situations?

Bill Gates finally went back to Harvard and got his degree recently...but, with all his billions of dollars from Microsoft, Harvard
probably just gave it to him because they didn't want to look bad for failing to recognize a truly gifted individual.

I am ~1/2 way through my degree and right now, and I hate the material, I hate the people, I am basically sick of university. I am also not interested in working in my field of study anymore. But, I am going to make myself stick it out to finish my degree. Even if I go onto something totally different and don't use the degree once I graduate, it is still a benefit. Like was said before, it is kind of a long term investment. If you think about what it will do for you in the short term, you will probably think your time is better spent elsewhere.

If you are already in university and think you can finish a degree, it can only benefit you to stick it out. You can still go into whatever job or technical field you want afterwards, and it will always make your resume look better to employers.

Been there, felt that way, except it was my own money I was wasting. Not wasting, really. I opted for a general arts and sciences degree so I could use the many electives to focus on my areas of interest (physics, biology, psychology). It turns out I took some excellent options, they will work perfectly toward my dream job of being a nurse. I have always had a passion for medicine (my aspie special interest) but figured either be a doctor or forget it. I realize that scrapping that is a waste, and nursing can be just as fulfilling. Perhaps more in some ways.

You'll find your thing. Until then, you're gaining valuable experience in more ways than you know.

I'm at George Mason University and I'm here to prove something everyone that I can a degree and make a living. I'm an Integrative Studies/Social Science for Education Major and I was thinking about becoming a professor for my college, New Century College. I'm at least trying to proved a point that people with Autism, Asperger's, and other Autism Spectrum Disorder can go to college and succeed in life.

But he's just one major exception. The vast majority college dropouts get a job that pays a whole lot less and have a poorer quality of life than they would have had they finished their degree.

Personally, I really like college. I've made zero friends, but I like the academic portion of it.

I enjoyed parts of my time in college, of course not all of them were all that great. I was also fortunate enough to have a tremendous amount of help for tuition, so I can't really tell you whether or not that aspect was worth it for me. It really wasn't part of my considerations.

I learned a great deal, both in the classroom and outside of it. I have laboratory experience on a variety of pieces of analytical equipment, some from physics, most from chemistry. It helped me with writing papers, and reporting on data, two things that could both prove helpful in a variety of careers.

Outside of the classroom, I was forced to deal with people in new ways. Sure, I hated having a roommate, and though it was a rather cramped environment it made me think about whether or not it would be wise to put myself through it again without wanting to be in such a situation. I still don't believe I'd like a standard shared-rent multiple-roommate environment. Minor issue, but still a benefit in some way. I also interacted with people in a work environment, for projects, lab reports, that sort of thing. That was both tied to classes, and in a sense the outside of the class environment.

I made some friends. Well, it might be more accurate to say that some people befriended me. I to this day don't really believe that it was I that really initiated any of those friendships, and I can't really say that I knew what I was doing in terms of helping to establish them either, but regardless of that I have some friends. Is this possible without the whole college experience? Of course, but I don't know how I would fare with that, if I can ever get a job I might be able to compare the two environments better.

A job. The important one. I've been out of school for a few months now, and I'm still looking for one. I wish I could tell you that having a college degree made getting a job a lot easier, but I can't. Having two hasn't helped me at this point. Had I gotten in to graduate school, things might have been a bit different with a higher degree, but at this point I can only speculate. So, no, there's not a lot of certainty there. What your degree is can impact that, a chemistry degree isn't nearly as sought after as a chemical engineering degree, when it comes to employers looking to hire someone. So I guess I can only really talk on how the degrees I have have helped me.

There's a lot to think about. College isn't a necessary thing that it is so often made out to be, plenty of people have enjoyable and rewarding lives without it. What the right choice is for you, that's something that you will probably want to spend some time thinking about.

After High School, I joined the Army.
I hated the barracks, the 'games' everyone was playing and was only happy when I was out in the field or on my days off when I was hiking all over the woodlands the Army owns in Georgia and North Carolina.

After I got out, I found out civilian life was pretty much the same... people with poor attitudes about their work and their fellow employees.
I was only happy when I was out in the hill country around Austin, Tx. or the deserts of West Texas.

I've been going to college since around 1985 and even though I pretty much suck at schoolwork, and have either failed or quit more classes than I have passed, I'm still trying to get that college education I know I'm intelligent enough to have.

"GIVE THAT BOY A 'P' FOR PERSISTENCE!"

Unless you have some special talent, like Bill Gates and others like him, or you just get lucky, any job you get without a degree will probably pay less than what you could get with a degree.

That said, without a college degree, I am making something like $18/hr sticking people with needles and playing with poop/pee/other body fluids.(keep in mind that I live in California where $18 [it may be only $16-something... I forget]/hr doesn't get you a whole lot of rent money, utilities money, gas money-at $3.27/gallon plain 'ole unleaded, insurance money, helping-to-raise-my-daughter money, etc. )
I could get by on this working fulltime, but I want to do better.

College is my means of accomplishing that... or at least until I get lucky with one of my hair-brained ideas!

I am starting to get cynical about my job-future. I used to think that I wanted to be a lawyer or work in government, but the more I think about it, the more I think I would hate those jobs and not be any good at them. The problem is I am ~2 years into a political science degree, and I am sh***y at math. At this point I have barely any motivation to do my schoolwork, and am depressed by it.

I see myself graduating, and being unable to find any work of any substance, depressed, still living at home, getting older. Part of me thinks I should just try and finish my degree as fast as possible so I can be done with it, and then go to trade school... at least then I would be guaranteed a job that would make money.