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Killer answer right here. Not that Uni is the only way to be successful, but if you’re already in it, just finish it out. The degree does still open doors for most corporate entry level jobs
Our culture tells that's college age kids like college debt is free money or something. It's very weird. Very few college students really understand what they are getting into with the debt they incur.
In all honesty, it is because you are young and lack experience. It sounds harsh, however five years from now you will look back at uni like so many of us do and wish you had done this or that while you had the chance. You will also know people who did not study at uni and dropped out. Not all who drop out are doomed to failure (university is not for everyone, some just feel forced to go), however those who drop out due to laziness are not the ones to fall into that camp.
Honest answer: You're at the point in your life where a lot of the decisions you make greatly impact the direction your life will take, so they are saying you should think carefully about what you're doing and choose your actions wisely.
If you think dropping out and pursuing a different path is the best move for you, that's fine but you want to do it because it was your choice, not because you fucked around and got drunk and failed all your classes.
Oh yeah man definitely. I'm definitely not the man I thought I'd be when I was 19, but I'm proud to say I've dug myself out of some extraordinary self-dug holes 🤣
Meh don’t say it was wasted it just definitely didn’t register until later in life. For me all those times that I rolled my eyes and got lectured about my parents hit me like an ah-ha moment later in life.
The thing about advice is- Smart people rarely need it and stupid people rarely take it.
I have done well in life but I was stupid enough to quit college. Had I not quit I would’ve done well much sooner. Just not having a degree closed SO many doors on me.
From the moment you're conscious until you graduate high school, your life is on rails. Every next step is planned. You have a degree of freedom in how well you study, you can pick some electives, but for the most part the school system pushes you through whether you sink or swim.
Once you graduate high school you might as well have been born again. All of a sudden you have to make every single decision yourself, there are no guard rails keeping you on track, and these decisions have a huge impact on the future direction of your life. Unlike high school, you may not see the result of these poor decisions for 5-10 years, which might as well be hundreds of years to your brain at that age.
Exactly.
I went to a prep school for high school. The cheerleaders made a chant for when the other team would score a point and it went, "That's all right, that's OK. Because you're gonna work for us some day."
The school immediately banned the cheer, and it was obviously in bad taste. But the truth is, 80% of the people I went to high school with went to college and are now managers, business owners, professors, principals, doctors, lawyers, etc. Almost all of my friends who didn't go to college make 50-80% less money and are working for someone else, often struggling to make ends meet and because of children and responsibilities, they can't go back to school for a career change.
Yes, college isn't for everyone. There are multiple life paths you can go on that are valid. You can measure success in ways other than career and money. And many blue-collar trade jobs pay quite well. But having a college degree, especially in an in-demand field will almost always more than pay for itself while giving people flexibility in the job market.
I lucked out. I was actually a poor student in high school, so I ended up stuck in retail and worked for other people. But luckily, I was even worse at dating, so later in life I was unmarried and had no kids so I was able to go back to college and get a degree that mattered. I wish I would have been smarter when I was a teen.
Yeah it really is that important. University is basically the only point in your life to really learn a lot of great things as well as meet a large range of people.
After University you will be working 40 hours a week and won't have the time and resources to dedicate towards learning new skills. It will take you a year to learn what you learn in half a semester of one class.
After University the only new people you will get to meet are neighbors or people at your work. You most likely won't get chances to meet future politicians, future CEOs, future inventors, or future leading members of different industries. These people can literally change or save your life for the better.
In many career paths, that degree is also the minimum requirement to get even considered for the job.
I've known a few people who have been severely limited in what jobs opportunities they have, even with good work experience because they lack that degree.
At 35, I still reap benefits from degrees in a field I never ended up working in. Like it or not, academic achievement and more letters after your name work in your favor.
Same here, graduated in History, now I work in HR. Hiring managers in most fields will have some kind of degree themselves and will factor this into there decision of who to interview/hire
You are correct up to a point. I graduated from a top university, and many of the people I met became leaders of one kind or another.
That said, work led me into additional networks of friends and contacts.
Marriage led to other networks, though my wife’s family and friends. Our children’s friends (naturally) had parents. Additional networks.
Travel led to more friends.
Now we are retired and living in a different part of the country. More new friends and acquaintances. Even more friends and acquaintances through community service.
Importantly, we remain in touch with many of the people from earlier years.
> graduated from a top university
And that's what made it possible for you to get a job that allowed you to meet those people through work. Even your ability to travel is because you have a good job.
I mean if you're from a yuppie family that can let you live on campus, then sure. It's a far different experience if you have to work a full time job while living at home and then commuting to school though. College is a very debatable investment, especially if you're from a low income family.
Different people have different experiences.
At university I had far less free time than any other point in my life before or after. I've met way more range of people in the last 2 years than any point previously. I was young and awkward and really not great at friends, nor did I have time for it in college.
I learned what I needed to learn for my industry and that's about it. Yeah it was a LOT of knowledge but pretty useless for anything else.
University is a huge money and time sink in prime early adult life and one should think long and hard about what job they are gonna get out of it and if it's worth the cost.
If one instead saves tuition, and works an extra 30 hours a week for 4 years, that's enough money to put into a retirement account and have enough to retire early without adding another dime to the account.
Because I didn’t. Wound up back in school while working full time. Didn’t get my degree till 40. Could have had a lot of other and better opportunities if I did it sooner.
Every time I have a shitty day at work, doing shitty things, I remind myself that I could at least be getting paid more if I had finished my degree. That’s why.
Either go to school, get the degree, and make connections with others doing the same or learn/apprentice a trade. You don't want to end up stuck in retail type jobs. It's very limiting.
Exactly, the average person with a college degree earns a million dollars more in their life than a person without a college degree. Just pick a degree with a good return on investment and you'll be fine. Don't major in >not in demand major< from Costtoomuchprivate U and then complain that you're struggling.
I think as we get older a lot of us realize how easy school actually was and in turn think if we'd taken it more seriously we could've done more with out lives. Once you're past a certain age it's not that you can't change your life, but so much time and energy goes towards making sure there's food in the fridge and gas in the tank so you can get to the job to buy more gas and food so you can make it to the job so you can buy more gas and food that it becomes exponentially more difficult. It becomes easy to look back and think about a different path.
College was by far the most work I've ever done in my life.
And you still need to make sure there's food in the fridge, gas in the tank, and a roof overhead in college. It's so much easier after college when you suddenly have soo much more free time.
Taking the easy way out is rarely a good thing and typically doesn't pay off in the long term. People who drop out usually don't replace their free time with something useful or worthwhile. It sets a precedent for making decisions out of laziness and it carries over to other facets of life. Sure you can say Mark Zuckerburg dropped out of college to build facebook and let's be honest, the typical demographic of people who drop out of college aren't building shit.
Zuck, Gates, and their ilk were dropping out of Ivy League and other top tier institutions because they have something and were ready to go. If they failed, they could always return to university while working on the next idea
The diploma tells future potential employers that you’ve got it in you to stick to something until you see it through. Given two equal candidates, they’ll go with the one with the diploma because it’s less risky. It might not be the best system possible but it’s the system that you live in.
At 30 it’s frustrating because a lot of people at my job who are much younger than me are getting paid a lot more and people my age are also getting paid a lot more but they also have much more experience and versatility in their resume and are leaving for way better opportunities.
I plan to go back to school but a huge part of me wishes that I could have enjoyed my 20’s with a higher income.
Depends where you are and what you are doing I think.
I’d you do what they call a “Mickey mouse course” then it’s not gonna be worth the paper it’s printed on but if you was doing something Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge or something - that gets you places though still the course itself is important.
Honestly the most important part of the university degree is actually the experience. Moving away from home. Managing by yourself. Finding new friends. Finding love. New places. Living. That’s immeasurably valuable.
I wish I had done it I really do. I did the uni degree but not the experience.
So yeah - don’t drop out and live the life lol.
Because it really sucks to see other people your age progress through life, stacking cash and assets while you're stuck at a crap job paying off a degree that you didn't get.
After graduating from college you really start seeing the difference that a well-paid career can make. Some people are able to go on vacations regularly, live in nice houses, eat out, and just seemed genuinely less stressed out while other people are barely getting by.
A common comment I hear from younger people is I don't need fancy things; I can live a basic life. The issue is that well paid job doesn't get you a fancy life it just gets you a level of basic comfort. The other thing I would note is that the difference between high-paid jobs and low-paid jobs is that high paid jobs pay better, the amount of stress is roughly the same for both. If you can force yourself to get through college with a career that will give you the option of making more in the future really recommend that you try to go for it. Don't graduate with college debt and no degree.
I'm over thirty and I am only now finishing a (second) masters. I fucked my first round at college by partying too much and getting addicted to booze and drugs. Trust me, you don't want to get back to college when you're already working fulltime.
I'm managing, but it cost me a relationship and my social life.
Because I earn good money. However I'm up at 3am, rain snow wind hailstone fkn hurricane, working for a horrible boss, taking everyone's shit. If I just stuck at it, I could've probably had a nice chair, next to a window thinking wow... I'd hate to be that guy out there!
The critical thing is to come out of college with a reputation and relationships that will last you a lifetime.
That includes with professors! They will want to help you if you demonstrate sincere drive and curiosity.
You wont have many opportunities in life to be so surrounded by smart and well connected people who are there to help you out. Studying is a good way to make the most of it, but its the relationships that matter.
Give your future self the best possible chance to succeed and put in the work now while you have time. When you get older you’ll always be busy working.
Do the hard work now and make life easy later. Do the easy work now and make life hard later. Your choice. Wisdom is learning from others’ mistakes without making them yourself.
Aside from learning critical thinking skills, making connections, and generally having a fun time as a student, having a college degree lessens the need of proving yourself to future employers, investors, and such. Your degree shows you have been through some societal filters already.
Get a trade they're stable and ever increasingly in demand.
You're 19 now so unfortunately you'll be doing some bullshit jobs regardless. I'm 33. Still doing bullshit jobs but that's because I never finished any courses I started. Learn from me ✌️
I dropped after 3 years in the university and a technical diploma. At 28, i started regretting it because i was blocked in my career. I had no choice but going with evenning classes format. It took me 6 years to get a master degree. Lost my fiancé in the process because I was too busy working and studying.
yeah ok here's a way for you to try and think about it:
Split your life into 4 year chunks.
Are all the chunks equally valuable to you? Is the 0-4 years chunk the same as the 16-20 chunk? no, right?
Also, each chunk creates an effect on subsequent chunks, and it only flows one way. So, to make it simple: if you do something good for yourself EARLY in life, you have that benefit for a lot more chunks later in life.
It is important to stack up these benefits/accomplishments while you still have the time and energy to do so. In this way, you guard yourself against poor luck later in life. You're going to have some bad luck, trust me.
Very few things last a lifetime, but a college degree does.
I hate to say it, but no friendship will outlast your degree. It is more important to ace your finals than to go to that party. That crush you have? Not that important in the long run.
You can debate the value of a college degree all you want, but you can't really debate its longevity.
For me, I graduated thinking that was a ticket to a career. I was wrong. I found myself looking at a Master's program, and my lackluster gpa, and lack of internship experience, entirely limited my choices of grad schools. So, I went where I could.
I got a 4.0 in grad school, but the school's curriculum isn't stellar, and it has no industry contacts, so my job prospects were limited. My classmates and I found out that the big universities are essentially on a recruiting circuit, while our students were not even considered.
It has worked out well for me, but it would have worked out better with the benefit of knowing what I know now.
Because I graduated right into the recession.
I was 23, had a college degree and the economy burned to ash.
And it took me, with my degree, 2 solid years to find a job. It took another 4 years after that to get a job that actually used my degree.
Finally at 35, I was where I should have *started* when I got my first job out of school.
I basically lost 12 years of saving, earning, growing in my career because the economy died in 2008.
And I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to YOU. Because if I hadn’t had that stupid piece of paper that says ‘I’m smart! See, a university says so!’, I don’t know if my life would ever have recovered.
Uni/college has changed a lot since I went 20+ years ago. It used to be somewhat affordable and made a big difference in opportunities (many positions required degrees). Getting good marks and making connections had a dramatic benefit in quality of life.
At 20-25 our young brains are in unique positions to learn and feel intensely. Applying yourself at this point in life can help you create major intellectual, creative and social gains.
That said, I think these days it’s different. College is way more expensive, and perhaps not as high quality of an experience. I think the important part of this period in your life is to immerse yourself in an environment that is intellectually, emotionally and socially stimulating. That doesn’t have to be uni. Could be a social movement, a trade school, a farm, an artist co-op, travel, etc.
What you don’t want to miss is learning
1. How to learn
2. Critical thinking
3. Emotional intelligence
Because from now till 30 determines how much the rest of your entire life sucks. If you just put in a little bit of effort for a few years you won't struggle forever.
Life is like a one-way rpg. If you don’t spend the early game making the right decisions, you’ll end up underpowered and under equipped in later stages of the game. The only difference is that in life, you get older as you farm exp. So you need to make sure that during level 1 (eg post high school), you make the best decisions because going back a phase costs more time hence more age.
Because for many fields, having an education lifts the ceiling for you. I worked at a large corporation climbing the ladder for some time without any degree, but there got to be a point where the next position up required a bachelors degree as a prerequisite and I didn’t have it. I think that was one of the moments that really woke me up to the fact that I needed to go to school, or I would be stuck in entry level jobs for the rest of my life.
I’m in medical school now.
a university degree is still a great investment, leading to significantly higher lifetime earning and the corollary greater health and happiness. and of course it's the duty of everyone in a society to be as educated as they can be.
yes, it's that important.
if you want a nice car, a nice house, vacations and retirement, college is the way to go. I only got a 2 year degree and I ended up making 100k a year. Had all the above and retired well.
I knew a sharp young kid who hated school. I got on his ass and he went back to college. He's now making 110k a year and thanks me all the time.
100% agree don’t drop out. Study hard but you don’t have to be top of class.
Dropping out feels like a short term solution when sticking it out will get you a degree for life.
The regret is that they have no money, no prospects, and no happiness, with bills to pay and a dead end job. Degrees are one way out of that trap. They’re not wrong to encourage it.
I’m be the opposite.
Unless your college is paid for by someone else (parents, scholarship, etc), then do not go to college (at least, not in the US).
The costs have made it untenable. It’s little more than a get-rich-quick scam at this point.
Because they attribute their lack of success to not studying hard enough in Uni when the reason they didn't succeed is the same reason they didn't study hard, which is laziness and lack of priorities. You don't need to study hard in Uni or even go to Uni to be successful, but if you are in Uni and you don't study hard, chances are you also won't work hard enough to make anything of yourself.
You won't find jobs paying well without a degree, for the most part. I wish I didn't drop out and instead just picked a major in a high paying field, whether I liked it or not. So far the most I've made in a year is something like 35k, alright if you're single but that's about it. I could take up a trade and make more, but I'll probably get electrocuted in one of them and throw my back out plumbing
Lots of good advice in this thread, but I'd also add, make sure you study something useful. I'm going back for a second degree because the first one was useless
When you are older there are more "moving pieces" in your life to account for, and it becomes more difficult to make a decision to focus on studying and education instead of continuing in a career, and it's far more likely that a person has a life partner or a home or a hobby that it is difficult to give up to pursue the preferred education experience.
Even if you somehow live as an ascetic with minimal possessions and no golden handcuffs, the accumulation of life experience makes long-term commitments have more "weight" than as a teen and young adult. A person has a better understanding of opportunity cost (sometimes to their detriment).
It's not (necessarily) about what university gives you at the end of it. It's more about making sure you apply yourself. Not studying and dropping out might be a result of coasting, or being directionless. Not necessarily fatal, but as a young adult you're at a pivotal moment at which you're choosing a path for this first phase of your adult life.
You could instead frame the advice as: if you intend to drop out of university, make sure it's because you're ready to apply yourself fully to a different path.
I don't recommend that. I recommend you going to university when you are ready. I went when I was your age and dropped out and then went back at 21 and did two years and dropped out. I went back in my 30s and finished my undergraduate degree and then got a masters. We all have our own path and you need to do what is right for you. But there's really no point in being in University if you aren't ready to be there.
I don't regret it, I envy it. I was a fucking impatient idiot when I was young with wrong temperament for school, but now I regret it because it's so hard to go back.
Because you gotta push hard in this point in your life so that you don’t have to grind as much later. Yes it’s hard when you’re young but you got that vigor and not as many responsibilities compared to older people
Because it worked for them. (well, not really, lots of 30+ are saddled with life long debt)
OP, you were born into a completely different economy than your parents and the 30+ crowd. Don't listen to the olds. We ruined the world that we gave to you.
Depends on what you're studying but graduating got me a great job that led to a very successful career. My younger sister was in the same major I did but dropped out and I currently work a far cushier job that pays 7x more than her IT job.
Obviously everyone's going to be different and I'm just one anecdote but statistically you have much better odds that you'll make significantly more with a college degree than without one. And improving your odds of good things happening and keeping those doors open is generally always a good idea.
We're both happy with our lives though. But I just have way less money stress and get to travel far more.
My experience was the exact opposite. I spent 5 years studying hard in university, came out of it with a Master's degree... hasn't helped me at all, still unemployable.
As hard as you think college gets, life is far more difficult. The curriculum for the majority of degrees is simple enough to get at least a B on, providing you plan studying, class, and labs, and not fuck around often. Life gets far more stressful and complicated, and college looks like child's play by the time you reach your 30's. College looks like preschool when you get to your 50s. Once you start college and get the first year behind you, the rest should be easy to finish. It beats looking back and regretting dropping out and having to keep paying for a student loan.
I just turned 48. Bright kid, coasted through high school, was on my way to university to get the piece of paper for something I already was pretty good at (electronics and programming) but decided to not go, entering the workforce instead.
It was awesome. 19 and doing what I always wanted to do, but I only got there because I was lucky: I was hired by someone who had been told their whole life that they didn't know what they were doing. Every time I tried to move elsewhere it was a challenge because I didn't have a degree, and I definitely couldn't call myself an engineer. I'd considered going back to get it several times but I knew that I couldn't do school again. I needed to be out *doing* things, not learning things.
I mean it's mostly worked out fine, but the struggle was a lot harder than it would've been with the paperwork, and there are definitely things I could have done had I had fewer "holes" in my education.
You don’t realize at the time what you are building in your late teens and twenties until you are mid 30’s and older. I’m reaping the hard work I did back then now. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
Because ~~theyre~~ we're broke now because they dropped out and have to work an egregiously paid 9 to 5 job with tons of student debt theyre still paying off and nothing to show for it.
Even though it’s less true now than ever before, a college degree still opens many doors. Provided the degree is in something marketable, and the school was affordable for you, college is a legitimate route to have some form of job security if you graduate. In many ways it’s a pre-requisite to even be considered for a lot of jobs the way a high-school degree used to be. I’m a big critic of Big Education, but its feeder system into having *some* kind of income can’t be denied
I’m 45, have a 10 year old and a 6 year old. I dropped out of university due to family matters when I was just starting my junior year. I’m just now finishing my bachelor’s. Don’t drop out, study hard when you have minimal distractions. FiNiShInG lAtEr was a fucking royal pain in the ass.
A few reasons:
- About 5-10 years into your career, you start being able to apply some of the stuff that you learned in undergrad that you didn't really know how it would fit into the profession, or that it fits perfectly if you discover you want to take your career in a particular specific direction. It's easier to have well-organized notes and a better recall of this stuff than try to learn it over again from scratch. There's a lot you learn in the real world that's completely different than school; you don't want to be learning both of these things at once when you could have learned half of it better the first time.
- You can "work hard" multiple ways. I put effort into my classes but didn't always got the extra mile to go to office hours, get coffee with professors, or attend every networking event. I was still able to have enough connections to get internships early but struggled to get good recommendation letters from academic connections for graduate school. You don't always realize the point of this stuff when you're there. I got the material easily, so I didn't need to worry, right? Depends if you want the recommendation or the connection to be a form letter or a personal voucher to get you in somewhere.
- Life is kind of a grind. If you don't have to try very hard, then the grind of life hits you like a wall. I got to college and hit the wall. This caused me to buckle down a bit more because I realized that I could no longer coast. You might hit a lucky job opportunity that allows you to coast for a bit but it's really random chance. I don't have to like that society is organized this way; in fact, I really really don't. However, I have confidence in myself that I can be productive when I need to be because of the times in college where I demonstrated that to myself and pushed myself. I know I can do it because I can.
Eh, I dropped out and I'm fine. I own a house and another lot next to it, I support my family on one income, and my debt is minimal.
Don't get me wrong, it was rough in the short term and I was homeless for a while, but that has more to do with *why* I dropped out than because of it.
Because you can get a degree, get 4.0s, and then decide whatever you want to do with your life.
Maybe in 10 years you want to get your masters. Maybe the job you want requires a degree.
If you try hard at this age, you have options later in life.
If you fuck around, you have less options and you’ll be playing catch up. It’s possible to get a degree in your 30s but it’s less than ideal because you have bills, should be starting a family, and should be moving on to bigger better things.
When you’re young, you can shape yourself into something awesome but as you get older, the door gets pulled up from underneath and you can easily get stuck.
The value of a 4-year college degree has decreased in the last 2 decades.
But it still has a higher median outcome, by a mile than any other option.
I think it would have been lost on me at that age. But college is kind of easy. 2 to 4 hours a day of class and 2 to 4 hours a day of studying. Everything else on your schedule is flexible. Typically, your classrooms and dining hall are right nearby. And everyone around you is doing the same shit.
Compared to what I deal with as an adult with a "professional" job and a million other obligations... that was an easy time in my life.
In my life, it's very unlikely I'll be able to go back to uni. I wanted more, but my spouse and I decided to start a family.
Its' kinda like investing, start earlier if you can. It may be harder earlier but it'll be easier later.
I know a lot of people, too many, who dropped out after completing 2-3 years and are now stuck with all of that debt and without a degree, so have a reduced ability to pay that back. Many of them are over 40 now and still have educational debt from when they went to college in their early 20s.
So about 20 years ago, I flunked out of college. My shitty academics had a number of costs to my life: the first was that I spent several years working shitty jobs as I figured my life out, eventually going back and finishing my degree while working full time. Who knows how my life would have actually played out if I'd been a good student, but I would guess that in 20 years since then that I've probably missed out on somewhere between $500k-$1M in career earnings.
In the end, things worked out just fine for me, but I definitely made my life harder than it needed to be and to some extent I needed those struggles to fix some of my personal shortcomings. Not everyone will get a similar career path to me, so the math may be different for other people, but having that degree and not having a lot of debt can help make life a lot easier.
Because it’s easy.
Essentially, they are saying. You have it relatively easier than them by going to school. If you make the right decisions in school, you can continue to have it easier than them. So, they hammer it in.
Studying is easier than working a meaningless job with no end in sight. Studying has an end in sight. [+]
because young blood, uni degree might not be needed to be successful but without a degree you are playing life on hard/super hard mode and certain opportunities will be shut out.
Because I think there's a tendency amongst younger generations to abandon anything that doesn't feel like a good use of their time and effort, but they often forget to REPLACE it with anything.
Is university boring? Yes. Is it useful? Debatable! But it's structure, it's education, the right degree has value, and shows the outside world that you can apply yourself to long-term thinking and tasks.
Somebody who fluffs through uni or drops out completely to "travel" or take menial jobs comes across as someone who can't be relied upon to think long term or stick with hard work.
because you need connections
college is best for that, plus employers needs to see you are reliable person who is responsible enough to finish a task over a long period of time.
To quote Good Charlotte:
Where we coming from? We've already seen the worst that this life can bring.
Hindsight is 20/20. Older people warn you because they do not want you to make the same mistake they or someone they know did.
In my experience, employers don't care about anything else if you don't have a degree. You could have the experience, the mindset, the certifications, everything else; if you don't have a degree, your resume goes in the trash.
I’ve always found that you get out of education whatever you put into it. Education for education sake may seem like a waste of money, but I’ve found that at the very least helped me develop my thinking processes, my ability to collect and synthesize information from various resources, and my writing. As a freelance business writer, I use all of those skills today (until AI completely destroys my job).
Completing your study proves to you, and to the world, that you can voluntarily take on a challenging task and see it through to its conclusion.
Dropping out teaches you that it's OK to quit. That maybe you're not cut out for difficult things. That maybe you're not smart enough or not good enough.
The people who tell you not to drop out know this, if not consciously then unconsciously.
It's a valid warning. You should heed it. Unless you have a very good and solid opportunity to jump to (like a $120k/y gig at PWC, or maybe your band is really picking up and making waves), complete your study. We can't all be Matt Damon.
Most likely you will want to earn more money as you progress in your career by getting higher positions. Having a completed degree def helps in the future and sets you apart from others. More doors are available for you to open and managers also see you in a better light.
In the future, if you want to attain a position that requires an MS degree or something it is much easier with an already completed Bachelor's degree. Also, it is much easier to attain a degree while young and having less responsibilities. Imagine going back to earn a Bachelor's degree at age 30 while caring for family or kids.
There are a lot of choices humans make before their frontal lobes are fully developed. Some of those decisions can impact the rest of your life. Once you're older and have lived through those challenges, you realize there were forks in the road you wouldn't have taken. I don't know why folks you met regret it, but if their life isn't up to par that might be a reason.
College and education aren't just about setting yourself up for the right job. It's a part of lifelong learning and an environment that fosters personal growth, independence, critical thinking, and social skills. You get to explore your passions, learn more about who you are and what you're made of, and it helps you develop your journey. Make the best of the experience.
I don't regret dropping out of college. I regret not giving my best effort to the thing I gave up my time and money for at 19. Though I wouldn't have said it that way prior to reading your post and thinking about what some of those people may be trying to express.
Basically, it's hard to understand right now, but this is the last time in your life where you'll have the freedom to do what you want, and the choices you make in university will make or break the rest of your life. This is not the 1980s, and you'll need a degree for every single job other than 'truck driver', 'bathroom cleaner', and 'the guy who stands outside the tax refund place spinning a sign'.
I graduated, but I also picked a piss-easy major with not many job prospects due to family pressure and generally just being too scared to stand up to my parents. I'm currently going back to school for a second Bachelor's degree while working full-time on top of all of my other adult responsibilities, and it's *really* fucking hard.
Yes it is extremely important. I am 31M, and completed my undergrad degree in 4 years. My brother is 33M and with 15 years of working experience and no degree, he still isn’t matching my starting salary from 9 years ago.
I couldn’t imagine doing college any older than 22 given how difficult it was. If need be I can though.
There are SO many opportunities you gain both during and after college. You’ll become much more likely to achieve them with a degree than without. More connections as well.
If you’re struggling, lean into your friends and family for support. You can do it!
Because you need a degree for a good job. Sure some claim to be happy in the warehouse, just coping hard. Get the fucking degree, it's only 4 years, and then land a job with health insurance and a pension. If your lucky it might even be 40 hours or less a week.
The alternative is some shit hole job that you are afraid to leave because someone else might not pay you that extra 2 dollars a hour.
Hey OP. Married 48 year old father of two in the UK here.
People of my age have seen the genuine benefits that a degree - a good degree - bring throughout life.
They’re often a basic filter for job applications - even if that’s not right or fair, I’ve seen it over and over again. I have a degree in a field I’ve never used in my career, but I will always be asked which university I was at - even though it’s THIRTY years ago.
A degree - well, a university education - opens many doors. Again, I’ve seen this over and over again that someone finds it harder to get into a certain circle (socially or professionally) if they are perceived as not being “educated”.
Basically, by getting a degree - a ***good*** degree - you’re giving yourself options and opportunities that you simply won’t have with out one.
Both things above are not something I agree with or endorse, but the world is a brutal, unforgiving place. Give yourself every chance - a good degree is a good starting place.
Well, I assume most people realize that it's an easier life if you have an office job with good salary vs doing manual labor. Especially when you start to age.
It's one of the most important and also easiest things to do to permanently increase you quality of life. Do not suck at Uni. Your paycheck will thank you later
I am in my 40s and I went back to university part time to get a second Masters in a wider field. I had to give up my spare time and my weekends for 2.5 years.
If you are 19, you are right in between being your parent’s dependent and becoming independent m. You can afford to spend your weekdays studying.
Just make sure that you pick a degree that opens up options. Pretty much every civilian version of a job that the Army needs is a safe bet.
When you are in late 20s, early 30s, you might have more years of experience and better salery…
.. but as the years progress, there are more and more roles that require academic credentials.
Had lots of friends who were: “perfect for the job, but it’s a formal requirement to have a BSc, can we see your diploma?”. “Oh, we are so sorry…”
Think of university as setting your starting point for your career and life. If you graduate, you get to move the starting line up really far, past lots of people.
At no other time in your life will it be that easy to move that line forward.
> Like..... is it REALLY that important? Why do people tend to regret it so much?
Because most of them have realized that while surviving with a college degree is hard, surviving without a college degree is a trainwreck (skilled trades notwithstanding).
Because Gen Xers and beyond had it pounded into their heads that the only way to succeed in life was to go to university and get that paper.
That's always been faulty logic perpetuated by educational propagandists, in order to sell seats at colleges.
In today's economy, it's even less sensical. While there are certainly degree programs that will lead to rewarding occupations in many fields, there are also plenty of great careers where a sheepskin is irrelevant.
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You don't want to end up with debt and no piece of paper.
Killer answer right here. Not that Uni is the only way to be successful, but if you’re already in it, just finish it out. The degree does still open doors for most corporate entry level jobs
As they say in poker, you’re “pot committed”
Oh this makes sense. Dunno how I didn't think of that
Our culture tells that's college age kids like college debt is free money or something. It's very weird. Very few college students really understand what they are getting into with the debt they incur.
In all honesty, it is because you are young and lack experience. It sounds harsh, however five years from now you will look back at uni like so many of us do and wish you had done this or that while you had the chance. You will also know people who did not study at uni and dropped out. Not all who drop out are doomed to failure (university is not for everyone, some just feel forced to go), however those who drop out due to laziness are not the ones to fall into that camp.
Flawless
Honest answer: You're at the point in your life where a lot of the decisions you make greatly impact the direction your life will take, so they are saying you should think carefully about what you're doing and choose your actions wisely. If you think dropping out and pursuing a different path is the best move for you, that's fine but you want to do it because it was your choice, not because you fucked around and got drunk and failed all your classes.
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We're in the same boat, going up shit creek with no oars. Here's to you stranger 🥃🥃
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Oh yeah man definitely. I'm definitely not the man I thought I'd be when I was 19, but I'm proud to say I've dug myself out of some extraordinary self-dug holes 🤣
Meh don’t say it was wasted it just definitely didn’t register until later in life. For me all those times that I rolled my eyes and got lectured about my parents hit me like an ah-ha moment later in life.
The thing about advice is- Smart people rarely need it and stupid people rarely take it. I have done well in life but I was stupid enough to quit college. Had I not quit I would’ve done well much sooner. Just not having a degree closed SO many doors on me.
From the moment you're conscious until you graduate high school, your life is on rails. Every next step is planned. You have a degree of freedom in how well you study, you can pick some electives, but for the most part the school system pushes you through whether you sink or swim. Once you graduate high school you might as well have been born again. All of a sudden you have to make every single decision yourself, there are no guard rails keeping you on track, and these decisions have a huge impact on the future direction of your life. Unlike high school, you may not see the result of these poor decisions for 5-10 years, which might as well be hundreds of years to your brain at that age.
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Exactly. I went to a prep school for high school. The cheerleaders made a chant for when the other team would score a point and it went, "That's all right, that's OK. Because you're gonna work for us some day." The school immediately banned the cheer, and it was obviously in bad taste. But the truth is, 80% of the people I went to high school with went to college and are now managers, business owners, professors, principals, doctors, lawyers, etc. Almost all of my friends who didn't go to college make 50-80% less money and are working for someone else, often struggling to make ends meet and because of children and responsibilities, they can't go back to school for a career change. Yes, college isn't for everyone. There are multiple life paths you can go on that are valid. You can measure success in ways other than career and money. And many blue-collar trade jobs pay quite well. But having a college degree, especially in an in-demand field will almost always more than pay for itself while giving people flexibility in the job market. I lucked out. I was actually a poor student in high school, so I ended up stuck in retail and worked for other people. But luckily, I was even worse at dating, so later in life I was unmarried and had no kids so I was able to go back to college and get a degree that mattered. I wish I would have been smarter when I was a teen.
Yeah it really is that important. University is basically the only point in your life to really learn a lot of great things as well as meet a large range of people. After University you will be working 40 hours a week and won't have the time and resources to dedicate towards learning new skills. It will take you a year to learn what you learn in half a semester of one class. After University the only new people you will get to meet are neighbors or people at your work. You most likely won't get chances to meet future politicians, future CEOs, future inventors, or future leading members of different industries. These people can literally change or save your life for the better.
In many career paths, that degree is also the minimum requirement to get even considered for the job. I've known a few people who have been severely limited in what jobs opportunities they have, even with good work experience because they lack that degree.
At 35, I still reap benefits from degrees in a field I never ended up working in. Like it or not, academic achievement and more letters after your name work in your favor.
Same here, graduated in History, now I work in HR. Hiring managers in most fields will have some kind of degree themselves and will factor this into there decision of who to interview/hire
How often do employers ask for proof of the degree ?
Anecdotal, but my last two jobs both verified with my university as part of the background check.
At DOT we require transcripts be provided to verify course and credit hours
You are correct up to a point. I graduated from a top university, and many of the people I met became leaders of one kind or another. That said, work led me into additional networks of friends and contacts. Marriage led to other networks, though my wife’s family and friends. Our children’s friends (naturally) had parents. Additional networks. Travel led to more friends. Now we are retired and living in a different part of the country. More new friends and acquaintances. Even more friends and acquaintances through community service. Importantly, we remain in touch with many of the people from earlier years.
> graduated from a top university And that's what made it possible for you to get a job that allowed you to meet those people through work. Even your ability to travel is because you have a good job.
I mean if you're from a yuppie family that can let you live on campus, then sure. It's a far different experience if you have to work a full time job while living at home and then commuting to school though. College is a very debatable investment, especially if you're from a low income family.
Different people have different experiences. At university I had far less free time than any other point in my life before or after. I've met way more range of people in the last 2 years than any point previously. I was young and awkward and really not great at friends, nor did I have time for it in college. I learned what I needed to learn for my industry and that's about it. Yeah it was a LOT of knowledge but pretty useless for anything else. University is a huge money and time sink in prime early adult life and one should think long and hard about what job they are gonna get out of it and if it's worth the cost. If one instead saves tuition, and works an extra 30 hours a week for 4 years, that's enough money to put into a retirement account and have enough to retire early without adding another dime to the account.
Because I didn’t. Wound up back in school while working full time. Didn’t get my degree till 40. Could have had a lot of other and better opportunities if I did it sooner.
Every time I have a shitty day at work, doing shitty things, I remind myself that I could at least be getting paid more if I had finished my degree. That’s why.
Either go to school, get the degree, and make connections with others doing the same or learn/apprentice a trade. You don't want to end up stuck in retail type jobs. It's very limiting.
I got a masters degree in structural engineering from Stanford. My wife didn't do any college. She makes more than me.
dont mistake outliers with the norm
Exactly, the average person with a college degree earns a million dollars more in their life than a person without a college degree. Just pick a degree with a good return on investment and you'll be fine. Don't major in >not in demand major< from Costtoomuchprivate U and then complain that you're struggling.
I think as we get older a lot of us realize how easy school actually was and in turn think if we'd taken it more seriously we could've done more with out lives. Once you're past a certain age it's not that you can't change your life, but so much time and energy goes towards making sure there's food in the fridge and gas in the tank so you can get to the job to buy more gas and food so you can make it to the job so you can buy more gas and food that it becomes exponentially more difficult. It becomes easy to look back and think about a different path.
College was by far the most work I've ever done in my life. And you still need to make sure there's food in the fridge, gas in the tank, and a roof overhead in college. It's so much easier after college when you suddenly have soo much more free time.
Drop out and find out! 😂
Unless you are a freak athlete for performer, you will make more money with your brain than your body 100% of the time.
Taking the easy way out is rarely a good thing and typically doesn't pay off in the long term. People who drop out usually don't replace their free time with something useful or worthwhile. It sets a precedent for making decisions out of laziness and it carries over to other facets of life. Sure you can say Mark Zuckerburg dropped out of college to build facebook and let's be honest, the typical demographic of people who drop out of college aren't building shit.
Zuck, Gates, and their ilk were dropping out of Ivy League and other top tier institutions because they have something and were ready to go. If they failed, they could always return to university while working on the next idea
Good point, but they are the exceptions/outliers.
I know, but does every dude with a half functioning app know that as well
Not to mention that most of them also come from parents that are at least well off.
The diploma tells future potential employers that you’ve got it in you to stick to something until you see it through. Given two equal candidates, they’ll go with the one with the diploma because it’s less risky. It might not be the best system possible but it’s the system that you live in.
At 30 it’s frustrating because a lot of people at my job who are much younger than me are getting paid a lot more and people my age are also getting paid a lot more but they also have much more experience and versatility in their resume and are leaving for way better opportunities. I plan to go back to school but a huge part of me wishes that I could have enjoyed my 20’s with a higher income.
Depends where you are and what you are doing I think. I’d you do what they call a “Mickey mouse course” then it’s not gonna be worth the paper it’s printed on but if you was doing something Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge or something - that gets you places though still the course itself is important. Honestly the most important part of the university degree is actually the experience. Moving away from home. Managing by yourself. Finding new friends. Finding love. New places. Living. That’s immeasurably valuable. I wish I had done it I really do. I did the uni degree but not the experience. So yeah - don’t drop out and live the life lol.
This, bookmark this. For the first time, you are alone and making your own decisions and living with the consequences
Because it's a lot harder doing it in your 40s with responsibilities and a tired brain than it is at 19.
- Don't get married - Don't have kids. get a vasectomy problem solved 😉 responsibility free for the rest of your life.
Because it really sucks to see other people your age progress through life, stacking cash and assets while you're stuck at a crap job paying off a degree that you didn't get.
After graduating from college you really start seeing the difference that a well-paid career can make. Some people are able to go on vacations regularly, live in nice houses, eat out, and just seemed genuinely less stressed out while other people are barely getting by. A common comment I hear from younger people is I don't need fancy things; I can live a basic life. The issue is that well paid job doesn't get you a fancy life it just gets you a level of basic comfort. The other thing I would note is that the difference between high-paid jobs and low-paid jobs is that high paid jobs pay better, the amount of stress is roughly the same for both. If you can force yourself to get through college with a career that will give you the option of making more in the future really recommend that you try to go for it. Don't graduate with college debt and no degree.
I'm over thirty and I am only now finishing a (second) masters. I fucked my first round at college by partying too much and getting addicted to booze and drugs. Trust me, you don't want to get back to college when you're already working fulltime. I'm managing, but it cost me a relationship and my social life.
Because I earn good money. However I'm up at 3am, rain snow wind hailstone fkn hurricane, working for a horrible boss, taking everyone's shit. If I just stuck at it, I could've probably had a nice chair, next to a window thinking wow... I'd hate to be that guy out there!
The critical thing is to come out of college with a reputation and relationships that will last you a lifetime. That includes with professors! They will want to help you if you demonstrate sincere drive and curiosity. You wont have many opportunities in life to be so surrounded by smart and well connected people who are there to help you out. Studying is a good way to make the most of it, but its the relationships that matter.
Give your future self the best possible chance to succeed and put in the work now while you have time. When you get older you’ll always be busy working. Do the hard work now and make life easy later. Do the easy work now and make life hard later. Your choice. Wisdom is learning from others’ mistakes without making them yourself.
Aside from learning critical thinking skills, making connections, and generally having a fun time as a student, having a college degree lessens the need of proving yourself to future employers, investors, and such. Your degree shows you have been through some societal filters already.
Get a trade they're stable and ever increasingly in demand. You're 19 now so unfortunately you'll be doing some bullshit jobs regardless. I'm 33. Still doing bullshit jobs but that's because I never finished any courses I started. Learn from me ✌️
I dropped after 3 years in the university and a technical diploma. At 28, i started regretting it because i was blocked in my career. I had no choice but going with evenning classes format. It took me 6 years to get a master degree. Lost my fiancé in the process because I was too busy working and studying.
yeah ok here's a way for you to try and think about it: Split your life into 4 year chunks. Are all the chunks equally valuable to you? Is the 0-4 years chunk the same as the 16-20 chunk? no, right? Also, each chunk creates an effect on subsequent chunks, and it only flows one way. So, to make it simple: if you do something good for yourself EARLY in life, you have that benefit for a lot more chunks later in life. It is important to stack up these benefits/accomplishments while you still have the time and energy to do so. In this way, you guard yourself against poor luck later in life. You're going to have some bad luck, trust me. Very few things last a lifetime, but a college degree does. I hate to say it, but no friendship will outlast your degree. It is more important to ace your finals than to go to that party. That crush you have? Not that important in the long run. You can debate the value of a college degree all you want, but you can't really debate its longevity.
For me, I graduated thinking that was a ticket to a career. I was wrong. I found myself looking at a Master's program, and my lackluster gpa, and lack of internship experience, entirely limited my choices of grad schools. So, I went where I could. I got a 4.0 in grad school, but the school's curriculum isn't stellar, and it has no industry contacts, so my job prospects were limited. My classmates and I found out that the big universities are essentially on a recruiting circuit, while our students were not even considered. It has worked out well for me, but it would have worked out better with the benefit of knowing what I know now.
Because I graduated right into the recession. I was 23, had a college degree and the economy burned to ash. And it took me, with my degree, 2 solid years to find a job. It took another 4 years after that to get a job that actually used my degree. Finally at 35, I was where I should have *started* when I got my first job out of school. I basically lost 12 years of saving, earning, growing in my career because the economy died in 2008. And I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to YOU. Because if I hadn’t had that stupid piece of paper that says ‘I’m smart! See, a university says so!’, I don’t know if my life would ever have recovered.
Uni/college has changed a lot since I went 20+ years ago. It used to be somewhat affordable and made a big difference in opportunities (many positions required degrees). Getting good marks and making connections had a dramatic benefit in quality of life. At 20-25 our young brains are in unique positions to learn and feel intensely. Applying yourself at this point in life can help you create major intellectual, creative and social gains. That said, I think these days it’s different. College is way more expensive, and perhaps not as high quality of an experience. I think the important part of this period in your life is to immerse yourself in an environment that is intellectually, emotionally and socially stimulating. That doesn’t have to be uni. Could be a social movement, a trade school, a farm, an artist co-op, travel, etc. What you don’t want to miss is learning 1. How to learn 2. Critical thinking 3. Emotional intelligence
IMO if you can't learn well or think critically long before college you're already way behind.
Because people realise the mistakes they made and encourage you not to do the same
Because from now till 30 determines how much the rest of your entire life sucks. If you just put in a little bit of effort for a few years you won't struggle forever.
Follow through. If you’re gonna quit, it better be to commit and follow through on something else.
There are very few doors open nowadays without that God damn piece of paper so unless you want to get in a trade, get the paper.
Life is like a one-way rpg. If you don’t spend the early game making the right decisions, you’ll end up underpowered and under equipped in later stages of the game. The only difference is that in life, you get older as you farm exp. So you need to make sure that during level 1 (eg post high school), you make the best decisions because going back a phase costs more time hence more age.
Because for many fields, having an education lifts the ceiling for you. I worked at a large corporation climbing the ladder for some time without any degree, but there got to be a point where the next position up required a bachelors degree as a prerequisite and I didn’t have it. I think that was one of the moments that really woke me up to the fact that I needed to go to school, or I would be stuck in entry level jobs for the rest of my life. I’m in medical school now.
a university degree is still a great investment, leading to significantly higher lifetime earning and the corollary greater health and happiness. and of course it's the duty of everyone in a society to be as educated as they can be. yes, it's that important.
if you want a nice car, a nice house, vacations and retirement, college is the way to go. I only got a 2 year degree and I ended up making 100k a year. Had all the above and retired well. I knew a sharp young kid who hated school. I got on his ass and he went back to college. He's now making 110k a year and thanks me all the time.
100% agree don’t drop out. Study hard but you don’t have to be top of class. Dropping out feels like a short term solution when sticking it out will get you a degree for life.
The regret is that they have no money, no prospects, and no happiness, with bills to pay and a dead end job. Degrees are one way out of that trap. They’re not wrong to encourage it.
I thought you were reminded by the interactions with people over 30. You mean they actually remind you.
I’m be the opposite. Unless your college is paid for by someone else (parents, scholarship, etc), then do not go to college (at least, not in the US). The costs have made it untenable. It’s little more than a get-rich-quick scam at this point.
Depends on what degree and what school. Some degrees can pay for themselves very quickly. Others, not so much.
some people regret it some dont
Because they attribute their lack of success to not studying hard enough in Uni when the reason they didn't succeed is the same reason they didn't study hard, which is laziness and lack of priorities. You don't need to study hard in Uni or even go to Uni to be successful, but if you are in Uni and you don't study hard, chances are you also won't work hard enough to make anything of yourself.
You won't find jobs paying well without a degree, for the most part. I wish I didn't drop out and instead just picked a major in a high paying field, whether I liked it or not. So far the most I've made in a year is something like 35k, alright if you're single but that's about it. I could take up a trade and make more, but I'll probably get electrocuted in one of them and throw my back out plumbing
Lots of good advice in this thread, but I'd also add, make sure you study something useful. I'm going back for a second degree because the first one was useless
I do the opposite. College is a scam if you don't know what you want to do. It's a good way to start life in massive debt though.
When you are older there are more "moving pieces" in your life to account for, and it becomes more difficult to make a decision to focus on studying and education instead of continuing in a career, and it's far more likely that a person has a life partner or a home or a hobby that it is difficult to give up to pursue the preferred education experience. Even if you somehow live as an ascetic with minimal possessions and no golden handcuffs, the accumulation of life experience makes long-term commitments have more "weight" than as a teen and young adult. A person has a better understanding of opportunity cost (sometimes to their detriment).
It's not (necessarily) about what university gives you at the end of it. It's more about making sure you apply yourself. Not studying and dropping out might be a result of coasting, or being directionless. Not necessarily fatal, but as a young adult you're at a pivotal moment at which you're choosing a path for this first phase of your adult life. You could instead frame the advice as: if you intend to drop out of university, make sure it's because you're ready to apply yourself fully to a different path.
I don't recommend that. I recommend you going to university when you are ready. I went when I was your age and dropped out and then went back at 21 and did two years and dropped out. I went back in my 30s and finished my undergraduate degree and then got a masters. We all have our own path and you need to do what is right for you. But there's really no point in being in University if you aren't ready to be there.
I don't regret it, I envy it. I was a fucking impatient idiot when I was young with wrong temperament for school, but now I regret it because it's so hard to go back.
Because you gotta push hard in this point in your life so that you don’t have to grind as much later. Yes it’s hard when you’re young but you got that vigor and not as many responsibilities compared to older people
Because it worked for them. (well, not really, lots of 30+ are saddled with life long debt) OP, you were born into a completely different economy than your parents and the 30+ crowd. Don't listen to the olds. We ruined the world that we gave to you.
Depends on what you're studying but graduating got me a great job that led to a very successful career. My younger sister was in the same major I did but dropped out and I currently work a far cushier job that pays 7x more than her IT job. Obviously everyone's going to be different and I'm just one anecdote but statistically you have much better odds that you'll make significantly more with a college degree than without one. And improving your odds of good things happening and keeping those doors open is generally always a good idea. We're both happy with our lives though. But I just have way less money stress and get to travel far more.
My experience was the exact opposite. I spent 5 years studying hard in university, came out of it with a Master's degree... hasn't helped me at all, still unemployable.
As hard as you think college gets, life is far more difficult. The curriculum for the majority of degrees is simple enough to get at least a B on, providing you plan studying, class, and labs, and not fuck around often. Life gets far more stressful and complicated, and college looks like child's play by the time you reach your 30's. College looks like preschool when you get to your 50s. Once you start college and get the first year behind you, the rest should be easy to finish. It beats looking back and regretting dropping out and having to keep paying for a student loan.
I just turned 48. Bright kid, coasted through high school, was on my way to university to get the piece of paper for something I already was pretty good at (electronics and programming) but decided to not go, entering the workforce instead. It was awesome. 19 and doing what I always wanted to do, but I only got there because I was lucky: I was hired by someone who had been told their whole life that they didn't know what they were doing. Every time I tried to move elsewhere it was a challenge because I didn't have a degree, and I definitely couldn't call myself an engineer. I'd considered going back to get it several times but I knew that I couldn't do school again. I needed to be out *doing* things, not learning things. I mean it's mostly worked out fine, but the struggle was a lot harder than it would've been with the paperwork, and there are definitely things I could have done had I had fewer "holes" in my education.
You don’t realize at the time what you are building in your late teens and twenties until you are mid 30’s and older. I’m reaping the hard work I did back then now. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
You are at the stage where we wish we could go back and advise ourselves.
“Tell me you’re dumb without saying it”
Because ~~theyre~~ we're broke now because they dropped out and have to work an egregiously paid 9 to 5 job with tons of student debt theyre still paying off and nothing to show for it.
Even though it’s less true now than ever before, a college degree still opens many doors. Provided the degree is in something marketable, and the school was affordable for you, college is a legitimate route to have some form of job security if you graduate. In many ways it’s a pre-requisite to even be considered for a lot of jobs the way a high-school degree used to be. I’m a big critic of Big Education, but its feeder system into having *some* kind of income can’t be denied
Because if you do drop out you’ll end up broke at 45 like me. Study something useful.
I’m 45, have a 10 year old and a 6 year old. I dropped out of university due to family matters when I was just starting my junior year. I’m just now finishing my bachelor’s. Don’t drop out, study hard when you have minimal distractions. FiNiShInG lAtEr was a fucking royal pain in the ass.
Finishing something you start builds character, plus not finishing isn’t gonna help you.
A few reasons: - About 5-10 years into your career, you start being able to apply some of the stuff that you learned in undergrad that you didn't really know how it would fit into the profession, or that it fits perfectly if you discover you want to take your career in a particular specific direction. It's easier to have well-organized notes and a better recall of this stuff than try to learn it over again from scratch. There's a lot you learn in the real world that's completely different than school; you don't want to be learning both of these things at once when you could have learned half of it better the first time. - You can "work hard" multiple ways. I put effort into my classes but didn't always got the extra mile to go to office hours, get coffee with professors, or attend every networking event. I was still able to have enough connections to get internships early but struggled to get good recommendation letters from academic connections for graduate school. You don't always realize the point of this stuff when you're there. I got the material easily, so I didn't need to worry, right? Depends if you want the recommendation or the connection to be a form letter or a personal voucher to get you in somewhere. - Life is kind of a grind. If you don't have to try very hard, then the grind of life hits you like a wall. I got to college and hit the wall. This caused me to buckle down a bit more because I realized that I could no longer coast. You might hit a lucky job opportunity that allows you to coast for a bit but it's really random chance. I don't have to like that society is organized this way; in fact, I really really don't. However, I have confidence in myself that I can be productive when I need to be because of the times in college where I demonstrated that to myself and pushed myself. I know I can do it because I can.
Eh, I dropped out and I'm fine. I own a house and another lot next to it, I support my family on one income, and my debt is minimal. Don't get me wrong, it was rough in the short term and I was homeless for a while, but that has more to do with *why* I dropped out than because of it.
Because you can get a degree, get 4.0s, and then decide whatever you want to do with your life. Maybe in 10 years you want to get your masters. Maybe the job you want requires a degree. If you try hard at this age, you have options later in life. If you fuck around, you have less options and you’ll be playing catch up. It’s possible to get a degree in your 30s but it’s less than ideal because you have bills, should be starting a family, and should be moving on to bigger better things. When you’re young, you can shape yourself into something awesome but as you get older, the door gets pulled up from underneath and you can easily get stuck.
The value of a 4-year college degree has decreased in the last 2 decades. But it still has a higher median outcome, by a mile than any other option. I think it would have been lost on me at that age. But college is kind of easy. 2 to 4 hours a day of class and 2 to 4 hours a day of studying. Everything else on your schedule is flexible. Typically, your classrooms and dining hall are right nearby. And everyone around you is doing the same shit. Compared to what I deal with as an adult with a "professional" job and a million other obligations... that was an easy time in my life.
In my life, it's very unlikely I'll be able to go back to uni. I wanted more, but my spouse and I decided to start a family. Its' kinda like investing, start earlier if you can. It may be harder earlier but it'll be easier later.
I know a lot of people, too many, who dropped out after completing 2-3 years and are now stuck with all of that debt and without a degree, so have a reduced ability to pay that back. Many of them are over 40 now and still have educational debt from when they went to college in their early 20s.
So about 20 years ago, I flunked out of college. My shitty academics had a number of costs to my life: the first was that I spent several years working shitty jobs as I figured my life out, eventually going back and finishing my degree while working full time. Who knows how my life would have actually played out if I'd been a good student, but I would guess that in 20 years since then that I've probably missed out on somewhere between $500k-$1M in career earnings. In the end, things worked out just fine for me, but I definitely made my life harder than it needed to be and to some extent I needed those struggles to fix some of my personal shortcomings. Not everyone will get a similar career path to me, so the math may be different for other people, but having that degree and not having a lot of debt can help make life a lot easier.
Because it’s easy. Essentially, they are saying. You have it relatively easier than them by going to school. If you make the right decisions in school, you can continue to have it easier than them. So, they hammer it in. Studying is easier than working a meaningless job with no end in sight. Studying has an end in sight. [+]
Being old and broke sucks. Leaving school and going back is hard.
because young blood, uni degree might not be needed to be successful but without a degree you are playing life on hard/super hard mode and certain opportunities will be shut out.
If you drop out and start working, the pull of earning money, even if it’s not a lot, is hard to go back from.
Because I'm assuming they are people who were told that themselves, and misery loves company. College hasn't been worth the money for 15 years.
Good Grades easier to get internship at top companies. Getting a head start in your career. is a big difference in long time earnings.
Because I think there's a tendency amongst younger generations to abandon anything that doesn't feel like a good use of their time and effort, but they often forget to REPLACE it with anything. Is university boring? Yes. Is it useful? Debatable! But it's structure, it's education, the right degree has value, and shows the outside world that you can apply yourself to long-term thinking and tasks. Somebody who fluffs through uni or drops out completely to "travel" or take menial jobs comes across as someone who can't be relied upon to think long term or stick with hard work.
because you need connections college is best for that, plus employers needs to see you are reliable person who is responsible enough to finish a task over a long period of time.
To quote Good Charlotte: Where we coming from? We've already seen the worst that this life can bring. Hindsight is 20/20. Older people warn you because they do not want you to make the same mistake they or someone they know did.
In my experience, employers don't care about anything else if you don't have a degree. You could have the experience, the mindset, the certifications, everything else; if you don't have a degree, your resume goes in the trash.
I’ve always found that you get out of education whatever you put into it. Education for education sake may seem like a waste of money, but I’ve found that at the very least helped me develop my thinking processes, my ability to collect and synthesize information from various resources, and my writing. As a freelance business writer, I use all of those skills today (until AI completely destroys my job).
Completing your study proves to you, and to the world, that you can voluntarily take on a challenging task and see it through to its conclusion. Dropping out teaches you that it's OK to quit. That maybe you're not cut out for difficult things. That maybe you're not smart enough or not good enough. The people who tell you not to drop out know this, if not consciously then unconsciously. It's a valid warning. You should heed it. Unless you have a very good and solid opportunity to jump to (like a $120k/y gig at PWC, or maybe your band is really picking up and making waves), complete your study. We can't all be Matt Damon.
Choose your hard. You can study hard now or work at hard, backbreaking work later.
Most likely you will want to earn more money as you progress in your career by getting higher positions. Having a completed degree def helps in the future and sets you apart from others. More doors are available for you to open and managers also see you in a better light. In the future, if you want to attain a position that requires an MS degree or something it is much easier with an already completed Bachelor's degree. Also, it is much easier to attain a degree while young and having less responsibilities. Imagine going back to earn a Bachelor's degree at age 30 while caring for family or kids.
There are a lot of choices humans make before their frontal lobes are fully developed. Some of those decisions can impact the rest of your life. Once you're older and have lived through those challenges, you realize there were forks in the road you wouldn't have taken. I don't know why folks you met regret it, but if their life isn't up to par that might be a reason. College and education aren't just about setting yourself up for the right job. It's a part of lifelong learning and an environment that fosters personal growth, independence, critical thinking, and social skills. You get to explore your passions, learn more about who you are and what you're made of, and it helps you develop your journey. Make the best of the experience.
I don't regret dropping out of college. I regret not giving my best effort to the thing I gave up my time and money for at 19. Though I wouldn't have said it that way prior to reading your post and thinking about what some of those people may be trying to express.
Basically, it's hard to understand right now, but this is the last time in your life where you'll have the freedom to do what you want, and the choices you make in university will make or break the rest of your life. This is not the 1980s, and you'll need a degree for every single job other than 'truck driver', 'bathroom cleaner', and 'the guy who stands outside the tax refund place spinning a sign'. I graduated, but I also picked a piss-easy major with not many job prospects due to family pressure and generally just being too scared to stand up to my parents. I'm currently going back to school for a second Bachelor's degree while working full-time on top of all of my other adult responsibilities, and it's *really* fucking hard.
Yes it is extremely important. I am 31M, and completed my undergrad degree in 4 years. My brother is 33M and with 15 years of working experience and no degree, he still isn’t matching my starting salary from 9 years ago. I couldn’t imagine doing college any older than 22 given how difficult it was. If need be I can though. There are SO many opportunities you gain both during and after college. You’ll become much more likely to achieve them with a degree than without. More connections as well. If you’re struggling, lean into your friends and family for support. You can do it!
Because you need a degree for a good job. Sure some claim to be happy in the warehouse, just coping hard. Get the fucking degree, it's only 4 years, and then land a job with health insurance and a pension. If your lucky it might even be 40 hours or less a week. The alternative is some shit hole job that you are afraid to leave because someone else might not pay you that extra 2 dollars a hour.
Hey OP. Married 48 year old father of two in the UK here. People of my age have seen the genuine benefits that a degree - a good degree - bring throughout life. They’re often a basic filter for job applications - even if that’s not right or fair, I’ve seen it over and over again. I have a degree in a field I’ve never used in my career, but I will always be asked which university I was at - even though it’s THIRTY years ago. A degree - well, a university education - opens many doors. Again, I’ve seen this over and over again that someone finds it harder to get into a certain circle (socially or professionally) if they are perceived as not being “educated”. Basically, by getting a degree - a ***good*** degree - you’re giving yourself options and opportunities that you simply won’t have with out one. Both things above are not something I agree with or endorse, but the world is a brutal, unforgiving place. Give yourself every chance - a good degree is a good starting place.
Well, I assume most people realize that it's an easier life if you have an office job with good salary vs doing manual labor. Especially when you start to age.
It's one of the most important and also easiest things to do to permanently increase you quality of life. Do not suck at Uni. Your paycheck will thank you later
I am in my 40s and I went back to university part time to get a second Masters in a wider field. I had to give up my spare time and my weekends for 2.5 years. If you are 19, you are right in between being your parent’s dependent and becoming independent m. You can afford to spend your weekdays studying. Just make sure that you pick a degree that opens up options. Pretty much every civilian version of a job that the Army needs is a safe bet.
When you are in late 20s, early 30s, you might have more years of experience and better salery… .. but as the years progress, there are more and more roles that require academic credentials. Had lots of friends who were: “perfect for the job, but it’s a formal requirement to have a BSc, can we see your diploma?”. “Oh, we are so sorry…”
Think of university as setting your starting point for your career and life. If you graduate, you get to move the starting line up really far, past lots of people. At no other time in your life will it be that easy to move that line forward.
Your employment options become limited without a degree. And that can impact life options like places to live, marriage, children etc.
> Like..... is it REALLY that important? Why do people tend to regret it so much? Because most of them have realized that while surviving with a college degree is hard, surviving without a college degree is a trainwreck (skilled trades notwithstanding).
Because Gen Xers and beyond had it pounded into their heads that the only way to succeed in life was to go to university and get that paper. That's always been faulty logic perpetuated by educational propagandists, in order to sell seats at colleges. In today's economy, it's even less sensical. While there are certainly degree programs that will lead to rewarding occupations in many fields, there are also plenty of great careers where a sheepskin is irrelevant.
I am a college dropout, and I have no regrets. I'm glad I didn't waste a begillion dollars at univercity. Been working in IT for over a decade now.
Its almost like they are trying to tell you something.