To be fair I feel like college is way less about teaching you anything specific and way more about teaching you critical thinking and abstract conceptualization.
Like I didn’t learn jack shit from my “American economical development in the 14th century” class but I did genuinely get good at telling good sources from bad ones while writing essays, and that IS a skill that has uses in life
empireOfLove@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Aside from hard science and engineering degrees where the technical knowledge is a foundation for what you’ll learn in industry, a college degree is simply a piece of paper that says “I received a balanced education and have my life together enough to focus, manage time, and complete tasks for 4 years straight.” Rarely do you ever use most of the knowledge you gained in college besides the aforementioned life management skills.
MasterNerd@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Then why even bother going to a university? Seems like community college would be a much better use of your money to accomplish that
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
University is meant to be higher level and teach you soft skills. Academics also aren’t supposed to be the only thing you do, but participating in clubs and sports is supposed to give students experience in leadership to make them better leaders when they graduate.
It is supposed to be a civilian version of officer candidate school.
IMongoose@lemmy.world 1 year ago
2 vs 4 year degree. I do recommend going to community college first though and transferring if pursuing a degree.
prayer@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It is
literallydogshit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Right, and without it the only thing you’re qualified to do is work shit blue collar jobs and live out of your car. That is, if you were lucky enough to buy one before they became unaffordable.
Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Working in the AEC firm, I can absolutely confirm that engineering degrees teach you almost nothing you’ll do on the job. The disconnect between college and work in engineering not only exists, but is far, far larger than anyone may think.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
It depends. I absolutely use my degrees in my job, including my Masters. However, I’m heavy into the kinds of design where it is valuable.
Also, a lot of the job is plan preparation and no one really teaches that in college.
STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Eh. There’s more to it than like you need a degree to become a doctor, lawyer, psychologist etc. It’s just that you need to have a well layer out plan and a good understanding of what your strengths and weakness are. Unfortunately, in the US there’s a massive emphasis on getting into college right after high school where people barely know what they want nor have any real world experience.
soloner@lemmy.world 1 year ago
What do the kids do in the meantime? I understand it’s a lot to throw a “kid” into university, but it’s often done so they can get a career and start contributing to retirement and building wealth.
I mean it’s also impractical to have a family without some career so that gets put on hold too. Or worse they have kids and have to go to school at the same time.
I’m not saying everyone should go to college, but just defending the reasoning for those that do why they go as young as they do.