i'm just gonna come out and say it then

fuck degrees

7/1/2012 7:39:25 PM

7/1/2012 7:51:34 PM

A college degree is just another thing that vets you to employers. Most people don't really learn on-the-job skills in college, but they do prove general competence by getting themselves a degree. As a caveat, all of this is slowly being watered down with the idea that everyone should go to college.

7/1/2012 8:10:35 PM

I plan on encouraging my children to go to community college.

My brother has a 2 year community college degree and started fresh out of school making 65k a year in pharma manufacturing. That's like twice what I would have made as a HS teacher with my 4 year degree.

I know a lot of folks from HS who went to community college and make a very nice living without a whiff of educational debt.

7/1/2012 8:51:21 PM

Would probably be stuck in the area in which I grew up. Possibly living with my mother (ugh).

7/1/2012 9:10:56 PM

A lot of folks left my hometown, went to college, and eventually moved back

that's the part I don't understand

7/1/2012 9:14:11 PM

I lived in Raleigh more than ten years and moved back about a year and a half ago. It's the best decision that I ever made. I love being home.

vMy grandmother, who moved to Greenville, NC from SC, always said that Pitt County held onto its natives with a death grip.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 9:21 PM. Reason : .]

7/1/2012 9:16:49 PM

That's something I have noticed about North Carolinians. They seldom leave. It's kind of sad and remarkable.

7/1/2012 9:19:39 PM

i know it's hard for y'all to grasp, but some folks like small town life

7/1/2012 9:20:18 PM

well good for them

there's nice parts about small town life, but all the other shit outweigh it

7/1/2012 9:24:53 PM

once you leave you can never go home again

7/1/2012 9:30:03 PM

While i like to think i wouldve moved to nyc or across country, I still would have moved to Raleigh. My brother lived here, and my ex transferring from ncsu to ecu didn't sway my decision to go to school here, so even if I didn't go to college I'm 100% I would have still made it to Raleigh. I imagine i still would have been a terrible waitress and retail would've eaten all my paycheck, so I'd still take my dad up on his offer of working in his Raleigh office leading me to getting my paralegal certification.

7/1/2012 9:30:40 PM

I'd probably be in some kind of sales or restaurant job since that is what I did before college. I think I would be happy as long as I got the fuck out of Shelby.

7/1/2012 10:42:06 PM

I'd probably be stuck working retail.

7/1/2012 10:43:18 PM

Probably working for my dad in the restaurant business making money.

7/1/2012 10:57:27 PM

I probably would have joined the military... sooner. I'd be 1-2 paygrades ahead of where I am now, and I'd have a lot less debt and a lot of money saved up.

However, I'd suck more than I currently do at communicating with people in public. I'd have no idea how to dress myself and not look retarded. And I probably wouldn't be very good at drinking.

7/2/2012 12:31:07 AM

i would have just been a musician full time. But the catch is, I don't think I would have had as good of or as fun of a band as the band I started in college with guys I knew from college.

7/4/2012 8:28:38 AM

i'd be mowing grass for a living which could be good or bad...

still in concord for sure.

7/4/2012 8:32:40 AM

My parents would probably still be writing checks for me to do nothing but 'intern' once in a while at my mother's firm, and hang out at the marina or golf course with my father. But since I have a degree and a job of my own now, I don't get to do that anymore. Yay real life.

7/5/2012 11:10:41 AM

Quote :

"That's like twice what I would have made as a HS teacher with my 4 year degree."

I'd like to see a k-12 education degree turned into a 2 year associates degree. But that would severely cut back on the attractive MRS major females at universities.

7/5/2012 11:15:03 AM

Quote :

"ya know, i'm really shocked by the number of "i'd still be out in bumpkinville" responses in my mind, if you're qualified enough to be accepted to a traditional 4 year university, you are probably smart enough, inquisitive enough and motivated enough to not settle for that kind of life regardless of whether you actually attend a university. it makes me wonder if the mediocrity associated with not going to college is just a self-fulfilling prophecy and vice versa"

I think the understated benefit of a university environment is being surrounded by a large number of like-minded, high performing individuals. I learned so much more from my peers than I did from my classes, and I'd attribute most of my post-college successes to peer influence more than anything else.

The degree itself is just a piece of paper.

[Edited on July 5, 2012 at 11:55 AM. Reason : my life would have been vastly different without college. low level IT tech worker type of dude]

7/5/2012 11:54:34 AM

On the one hand, I'm not using my business degree at all. But on the other hand, I wouldn't have met the people who got me into IT either, plus most of my jobs have required a 4-year degree.

I'd probably still be living in Greensboro, working as a draftsman (if you can do that without an associate's degree these days which is doubtful) or failing that, in retail. Pretty much all my friends from high school went to college outside the area so I don't know what my social situation would have been either. Also I probably would no have met my fiancee. While I met her through a friend from high school I don't know that I would have kept up with him once he left Greensboro.

7/5/2012 4:45:37 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-09/study-hard-to-find-if-harvard-pays-off-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html

7/16/2012 10:53:15 PM

I always figured driving trucks would be a good job to have as a young, single guy. Good way to make some money while seeing the country and not having to put up with some of the BS that comes with standard retail type jobs.

I think that scared my parents

7/16/2012 11:43:40 PM

I wouldn't be a dad.

7/16/2012 11:48:11 PM

^^ My second job is in accounting/corp finance for an east coast logistics company. Having seen their pay, they do fairly well. The downside is the lifestyle. Granted, there is the option of being a local driver, but the trade off is a lower pay rate.

That being said, we have drivers with 4 year and post grad degrees. Retired gov't and professionals, state troopers, and a mix of "not your average truck drivers" in addition to the expected.

That being said, not one is a boring character.

7/17/2012 12:26:48 AM

I would probably be one of two things:
1 - A cop in Durham
2 - A machinist turned gunsmith or knifemaker who's swimming in money because I would have lived with my parents for the first 5 years after highschool and machinists make $texas compared to my previous job.

It's weird thinking about that stuff. Idk if I would've met anyone like se7entythree.
I'd probably be single or married to some nagging girly bitch divorced.
lol

7/17/2012 2:07:57 AM

I'd pretty much be doing what I do now, except with a smaller salary and less minions.

7/17/2012 3:30:03 AM

fewer minions

you sure you went to college, son?

7/17/2012 3:00:32 PM

Quote :

"i know it's hard for y'all to grasp, but some folks like small town life"

Big difference between living in a small town and never leaving a small town.

7/17/2012 4:26:59 PM

I'm with these people who don't find the question to make sense.

There is no way to reconstruct the question in a way that's really viable. I understand that for some people college doesn't make sense, but everything about it made sense for me. So, it's hard just to think what other track I could have gotten myself on around the end of high school when I knew I had to line stuff up and I knew it couldn't be college (because that's what the question asks).

I might have stuck around locally with surveying and construction. That seemed to offer some upward mobility, although not anything like what I have now. But then I would be working and asking people how I can get certified, at which point they might point me to engineering schools and I would have to turn them down because I'm in an alternative universe where I don't go to college.

Depending on how much pot I smoked, I might wind up traveling aimlessly around the country, and maybe doing that thing where you live in redwood trees so they don't get cut down. But then I would be conflicted between my liberal and blue-collar self. I would see myself as less "smart" in this world and more "creative", and might even try to get into icky design type stuff. Joining the circus or street preforming would also likely happen.

I would also very likely join the military. It's something that I always felt would just work with me, but it never made real sense due to my alternatives. So I would say that in 2004 I'd join the army or something. Maybe I'd die in Iraq.

No, I would die in Iraq.

End of story.

[Edited on July 17, 2012 at 4:46 PM. Reason : ]

7/17/2012 4:45:14 PM

This insinuates I would have never planned for college, so I would have slacked off in middle school, thus ensuring I would have never gone to a private high school nor the local magnet school, so I probably would have become involved with the local high school's Anime Club (the repository for the socially awkward and perpetually overweight) before getting stabbed in a gang fight by an incoming member of MS-13 or the Latin Kings, whoever got to me first.

TL;DR dead in DC in 2001.

7/17/2012 4:52:55 PM

I made a few friends, most of which I fell out of touch with, most people who I still have as friends I have known since pre-college. Got a ton of good memories though.

I did not finish college and so far the only time it has screwed me was the beginning of the recession, after a period of time though I landed a job making more than many people were landing post graduation at the time, then I got screwed by a merger, then I got laid off a year or so later, now I am back doing what I was doing pre-recession making similar money, but this time working from home.

The reason I did not finish school was pure laziness when it came to academics, but I try to look on the bright side, paid cash for the time I was in school, do not have any student loans, and can always go back and use the credits I have so far, and pick up school as the old guy in class.

7/17/2012 9:46:26 PM

Which part of college? Significantly different.

7/17/2012 9:47:23 PM

This thread poses a weird question for me, partly because I "went to college" in 2000-2002 but never really did the college part of college until 2008 (part time) or 2011(full time). If I hadn't enrolled at NCSU in 2000, I wouldn't have met any of my best bros. If I hadn't have dropped out I wouldn't have met a whole mess o' other bros, nor would I have met my wife. If I had successfully completed college in the first go round I'd probably be pretty wealthy right now. Or maybe I'd be dead. Who fucking knows?

I went to college for a minute, and then I didn't go for a decade. Now I'm back in and about to graduate, and as fucked up as my journey has been, I'm having a hard time seeing how it could have gone better.

7/17/2012 9:54:51 PM

I wouldn't have as many friends and I wouldn't have signed up for tww. That would sort of suck too since some of the best players on my rec soccer teams have come from tww.

7/17/2012 10:10:17 PM

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47953371

Quote :

"The grand illusion today is that college is the only path to a happy, successful, intellectually stimulating, fulfilling life. Many people who believe the illusion is real take this doubt as a comforting platitude meant for the high school graduates and dropouts who’ve never thought of applying to college. And that may be true. Tooga | Getty Images But Shakespeare didn’t read Shakespeare to become Shakespeare. When we say college isn’t necessary for success, we also mean that’s true for the brilliant, vital few who want to build something of lasting value now, rather than waiting, going through the motions for four years while accumulating debt. Last year we started the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship because we wanted to help young entrepreneurs and visionaries get started on their ideas as soon as possible. During the two-year program, each fellow receives $100,000 and mentorship from our network of innovators, engineers, scientists, thought leaders, and business development experts. Our first class has started companies, secured a book deal, raised million-dollar funding rounds, won international awards and sparked a do-it-yourself educational movement. Inspired by their success, on June 13, we announced our second class of Thiel Fellows. By no means are we telling all college students that they should drop out. But we do encourage all of those students on the threshold to think hard about their choices. If going to college requires taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt, we advise you to learn a set of skills to pay it off. And above all, don’t go into debt if you can avoid it. And yet, even with this warning, the bubble in higher education is still inflating and still frightening. The cost of college has gone up 439 percent since 1982, and the quality of learning has stagnated. This is the opposite of what you would expect in a competitive market. You would expect quality to increase as prices fell. Instead of yearly improvements — like we see with smart phones and tablets — we find this set of deplorable facts about higher learning: In 2012, 54 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed or unemployed, even in scientific and technical fields. There are 115,000 janitors, 83,000 bartenders, 323,000 restaurant servers and 80,000 heavy-duty truck drivers with bachelor's degrees. Needless to belabor, these jobs do not require the BA. More than forty percent of students fail to graduate from four-year colleges within six years. Median wages for those with a bachelor’s degree are down over the last ten years. Total student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion. This is more than total credit-card debt in America. Unlike mortgage holders, students cannot declare bankruptcy to discharge their debts. Outside of repayment, only death and disability will eliminate the debt. The average college student spends fewer than thirty hours per week on their studies. Thirty six percent of students do not show a significant improvement in learning over four years in college. Universities face no consequences for teaching useless subjects or for pretending to teach useful ones to students who come out of school with zero skills. How did it come to this? There aren’t many industries where the market leaders are the same after two hundred and fifty years. Besides colleges, three other industries come to mind: religions, governments, and graveyards. There are roughly two models of how higher education works, the human capital model and the signaling model. The human capital story is the one every parent believes in. It says students accumulate skills in college that they then use in their careers to obtain higher lifetime earnings. To show how improbable this story is, think about everything you’ve forgotten of what you learned in college. If college teaches you skills, and you’ve forgotten them, how exactly is that helping you earn a higher salary? Or, if you have a job, ask yourself: does you college major bear any relation to your work? The signaling model is a little more complicated. It says that the labor market is like the used car market and it’s difficult to separate the lemons from the industrious and intelligent. In order for people of quality to send an accurate signal of their talents to potential employers, they have to do things that the lemons can’t do. One way to do that is to send a costly signal that is difficult to mimic, such as spending four years demonstrating remarkable diligence on useless tasks and obediently jumping through hoops. Think of the difference between West Point cadets and super models. Presumably West Point takes a skinny 18-year-old recruit and turns him into a courageous soldier. Whereas modeling agencies don’t actually make people more attractive. They just chose really attractive people and put them on runways. We believe Harvard is more like a modeling agency than like West Point. At $60,000 a year for four years, buyers beware. "

7/17/2012 10:59:19 PM

probably wouldn't have any of this



[Edited on May 28, 2025 at 11:37 PM. Reason : or maybe i would who knows]

[Edited on May 28, 2025 at 11:42 PM. Reason : one of the kiddos has been hell bent on attending ncsu for years now. i hope it works out for them.]

5/28/2025 11:37:43 PM

I would honestly be better off had i immediately entered the work force at 18

5/29/2025 12:14:36 AM

I have no idea. The thought of not going to college never even crossed my mind. Pretty much nothing I've done as an adult would have happened. I have no idea what I would have done. Maybe a welder or metal fabricator or something? I don't know. Maybe I would have become a commercial pilot (not at the airline level, though--that is much harder without a degree) and taken on a series of flying jobs.

I think the real answer is that I would have ended up in college one way or another. Everything I have interest and aptitude in pretty much requires a degree, and I think I have enough intellectual curiosity across a broad enough range that I never would have been satisfied.

5/29/2025 12:39:22 AM