Post by jmejia1187 on Mar 25, 2010 0:31:54 GMT -5
I still plan on attending a small community collage (Roger's State University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in case your curious) starting in August of this year, but the more time goes by, the harder it is to justify spending $32,000(That's the cost of 4 years at Roger's) for a diploma that has 0 guarantee of landing me a career.
Just because you don't have a guarantee doesn't mean that college isn't worthwhile. Let's play the odds here. If you have an 80% chance of getting a good career with a college degree, and a 20% chance of getting a good career without a college degree (I'm just pulling numbers out of the air here), would it make sense to get one?
You may not have a guarantee, but your odds are a lot better with the degree.
Perhaps the input of someone with a college degree might be helpful here. Lets see if we can find anyone like that...
Oh wait, that will be me! I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Sciences. That's the equivalent of a BS in Biological Sciences, which is different then a Bachelors of the Arts in Bio Sci (BA in Bio Sci). A BA is a liberal arts degree, and you need to take many more classes not associated with your major to achieve it. You end up more rounded and with a fairly good grasp on the subject you studied, but not an expert grasp!
What did I do with my BS in Bio Sci? Well I started working for a company called L Hostels in NY. They loved me I was the only one there with a college degree (everyone else at least had a H.S. diploma, but didn't graduate college yet). I was informative and it was a great opportunity for them.
An opportunity for them to underpay me. I was only paid 12 an hour, and after taxes (25 percent of my income in NY), I was coming home with less than 9 an hour. They also didn't give me a full work week.
Working with the people at L Hostels was frustrating. I had close to no power in how the business was run. I was basically a front desk person. A smiley face. I was not given a lot of power over anything, and as such many of the problems guests had, I couldn't solve. Many times it was just me at the front desk and one maintenance person running the entire building.
And the people who slept at L Hostel were some of the strangest people in the world. All of them acted as if they were privileged. They acted as if they were entitled to A class service because they paid 15 dollars for a bed that night. And if service wasn't given, they often became upset with me.
Community Channel was right in this video when she said bitches be crazy. Everyone is a potential lunatic. And the scariest thought in the world, at least to me, was that some people did not have the ability to think things rationally through before getting emotional and cursing me out. Before trying to be understanding, and before trying to actually solve the problem. Yes I worked there, and as of about a month ago I quit.
I am currently unemployed and loving it. My dream job would be to work alongside Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, but I know that it most likely wont happen (if anyone here can pull some strings I am all for it though). I am at peace now, and I am not annoyed everyday, as I was when I was working.
So my input, sometimes things like college annoy people. Whether it is anxiety over the amount it will cost, or anxiety over the amount of work, or anxiety over not completing what you set out to do in life. There might even be anxiety over not reaping the rewards of this major investment. In the end a sense of self, and belonging is more important than going to college. Telling someone to go to a college they will hate is the same as telling me not to quit my job. It is unthinkable that anyone has the right to tell anyone else what to do. Everyone has their own views and their own path.
I choose to go to college because I love plants and animals. I currently own many plants, and 2 wonderful, well fed geckos! I am doing nothing with my degree but I am happy that I have it. I have found something that struck a chord. A resounding cymbal that strikes a passion in the inner depths of my soul. Life!
And a life not lived passionately is not a life being lived properly.
So Dimstow, find that passion. Then go to college to learn more about it. That is my advice. Then whether the education you get is worth the money or not, you can at least say that you have somewhat of a good background in what your passion entails, and being exposed to many viewpoints, and previous thinkers way of thinking about whatever your passion may be, may be a motivating factor for you.
Professors are a dime a dozen, and I agree with Dan. Most had me sit in class and scribble notes. But I also disagree when he said they didn't bother to learn our names. They are people, who have jobs. Primarily at UVM the job of a professor was to do research and increase the primary literature of the subject they had a passion in. IF YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU STUDY, THEN YOU WILL SEEK OUT THE PROFESSOR. They all have office hours and care deeply about the subject they teach. It takes to long to learn everyones name, especially when there are over 200 people in the class. And all these people need the facts you provide to get a better understanding of the topic. But they will be more than happy to sit down with any student individually and have a long discussion during office hours or through email. It is their job to be passionate about these things, and if you approach them, you become an apprentice. Not someone who is there to absorb facts but someone who actually is there to learn more. Someone who has an interest. The work of all professors is to create students whose accomplishments surpass that of the professor.
For example, my first year in college was easy. Many of the concepts I went over in the first year were not new to me. By the end of my fourth year, I was doing research on intraguild predation relating to sit and wait predators of northeastern U.S. ombrotrophic sphagnum bogs.
And if you have no idea what I just said, it is because you need a strong background in the boring facts you have to scribble to even begin to have an intelligible conversation in whatever your passion may be!