I wanted to ask everyone who is finacially successful on the forum if you have a college degree and if so if you used the degree to become financially successful. I'm begining to think at this point its not really worth going back to school unless you're majoring in something specific like engineering or medicine.

Of the friends I have who got a job based on their college degree, they were either majored, like you said, in something like engineering, pre-med (which hopefully leads them to an MD), computer science, accounting, economics, and visual design (she went off to marketing). I also a have a bunch of friends who ended up taking their liberal arts degrees to law school and are now lawyers.

I think it also depends on the reputation of the school you go to as well. If your school isn't particularly known for its economics department then that degree might not be particularly useful (at the bachelors level at least).

Also, at least at a lot of jobs I've encountered around the bigger cities in the US (LA, NYC, DC, Chicago) it's not only having the college degree but also having a good GPA (that indicates you worked hard during college). So even if you have a college degree, it's not going to help much unless you have a GPA around 3.5+. At least in this market today.

Then again, none of this means you will be financially successful either. You will potentially have a job though.

If you aren't inventive you won't be making a lot of money anyway, even if you have a college degree.

Quote: (01-09-2012 02:00 PM)Donald Duck Wrote:  

If you aren't inventive you won't be making a lot of money anyway, even if you have a college degree.

What do you mean? There are guys who are not inventive and got a college degree and make 250k per year.

Quote: (01-09-2012 02:06 PM)pitt Wrote:  

Quote: (01-09-2012 02:00 PM)Donald Duck Wrote:  

If you aren't inventive you won't be making a lot of money anyway, even if you have a college degree.

What do you mean? There are guys who are not inventive and got a college degree and make 250k per year.

Yes, in a competitive workfield and no freedom.

Interesting

Quote: (01-09-2012 12:52 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I wanted to ask everyone who is finacially successful on the forum if you have a college degree and if so if you used the degree to become financially successful. I'm begining to think at this point its not really worth going back to school unless you're majoring in something specific like engineering or medicine.

Here is my take (and this is coming from someone who never went to class, and rarely studied. I partied, surfed, spent a lot of time in Mexico, made money and swooped girls).

There is value to a college degree. (You guys are probably surprised I said that).

Not from what you learn, but who you meet.

It doesn't matter what you study (again, real contrarian thought).

I went to school with kids who now own Casinos in Las Vegas (two different ones actually).

The kid I took under my wing is now a super successful agent in Hollywood. (one of the youngest).

One of my college friends is CEO of a major surf company.

The list goes on and on. These were just some tidbits.

The kids you go to school with and make friends with will become super successful one day. Good friends to have.

Granted, I rarely use those contacts (I should) but they can come through in a pinch.

If there was one thing I could do different, I would have kept in touch with more International kids.

I would have mad connect.

So yeah, if you can go, it can be worth it. Network hard.

Expensive these days though, so you have to weigh risk/reward.

Quote: (01-09-2012 03:57 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Quote: (01-09-2012 12:52 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I wanted to ask everyone who is finacially successful on the forum if you have a college degree and if so if you used the degree to become financially successful. I'm begining to think at this point its not really worth going back to school unless you're majoring in something specific like engineering or medicine.

Here is my take (and this is coming from someone who never went to class, and rarely studied. I partied, surfed, spent a lot of time in Mexico, made money and swooped girls).

There is value to a college degree. (You guys are probably surprised I said that).

Not from what you learn, but who you meet.

It doesn't matter what you study (again, real contrarian thought).

I went to school with kids who now own Casinos in Las Vegas (two different ones actually).

The kid I took under my wing is now a super successful agent in Hollywood. (one of the youngest).

One of my college friends is CEO of a major surf company.

The list goes on and on. These were just some tidbits.

The kids you go to school with and make friends with will become super successful one day. Good friends to have.

Granted, I rarely use those contacts (I should) but they can come through in a pinch.

If there was one thing I could do different, I would have kept in touch with more International kids.

I would have mad connect.

So yeah, if you can go, it can be worth it. Network hard.

Expensive these days though, so you have to weigh risk/reward.

networking hard is what i took away from college and grad school.

landed me prestigious fellowships at top tier research institutions and helped me get into the best schools for my phd.

my old roommate said its not what you know, but who you know that will take you places. the rule of propinquity applied to networking can bring you a lot further along than just doing well in classes.

Quote: (01-09-2012 04:08 PM)at350zguyy Wrote:  

Quote: (01-09-2012 03:57 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Quote: (01-09-2012 12:52 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I wanted to ask everyone who is finacially successful on the forum if you have a college degree and if so if you used the degree to become financially successful. I'm begining to think at this point its not really worth going back to school unless you're majoring in something specific like engineering or medicine.

Here is my take (and this is coming from someone who never went to class, and rarely studied. I partied, surfed, spent a lot of time in Mexico, made money and swooped girls).

There is value to a college degree. (You guys are probably surprised I said that).

Not from what you learn, but who you meet.

It doesn't matter what you study (again, real contrarian thought).

I went to school with kids who now own Casinos in Las Vegas (two different ones actually).

The kid I took under my wing is now a super successful agent in Hollywood. (one of the youngest).

One of my college friends is CEO of a major surf company.

The list goes on and on. These were just some tidbits.

The kids you go to school with and make friends with will become super successful one day. Good friends to have.

Granted, I rarely use those contacts (I should) but they can come through in a pinch.

If there was one thing I could do different, I would have kept in touch with more International kids.

I would have mad connect.

So yeah, if you can go, it can be worth it. Network hard.

Expensive these days though, so you have to weigh risk/reward.

networking hard is what i took away from college and grad school.

landed me prestigious fellowships at top tier research institutions and helped me get into the best schools for my phd.

my old roommate said its not what you know, but who you know that will take you places. the rule of propinquity applied to networking can bring you a lot further along than just doing well in classes.

This is one of the main reasons why you should go to a top school.

doesnt necessarily have to be a top tier school as an undergraduate, once you find your niche, connect with the right people and youre well on your way.

working hard is one thing, but when combined with working smart (building the right network, getting strong letters of support, etc.) are the best things to help move you forward. my research advisor had my back when i finished my bachelors thesis. my phd advisor had my back when i finished my thesis. arming yourself with that kind of network is a huge asset when it comes to job hunting. the grades are definitely worth the work as well.

I have an engineering degree from a good state school.

There is no doubt that I wouldn't be making the money I have now without the degree. Engineering is one of those magical degrees. It must be because my GPA was well below a 3.00 and I got the job I wanted (I also never went to class and partied constantly).

That being said, I hardly use my engineering knowledge (in fact, my knowledge is probably almost completely gone). All an engineering degree (and similar degrees like it) do is state that you're smarter than the average cookie.

This may anger a few non-science majors here but the real truth is that most engineers can do very well in non-engineering classes (essays, multiple choice etc). But it certainly doesn't work both ways. In the real world, its the same thing, many people cannot understand high-level mathematics, which makes you marketable.

There shear stupidity of people boggles my mind sometimes.. how somebody can drop 100k-150k at a private school for some non-marketable degree like sociology (good luck without a masters)? Go to a state school (20-30k total), survive, get paid 50K+ freshly minted as an engineer.

In a nutshell I fully agree. College is bullshit accept for a select few majors. That being said, college was an absolute blast. I met most of my best friends there and had the time of my life.

engineering and anything technical is more practical than social science degrees. i lot of my friends who were either engineers or physicists are now crunching numbers on wall street or developing financial models for ibanks, and its because they understand high level math.

DC, i also went to a state school for my bachelors, but it was one of the top programs for what i studied and the faculty was pretty well known for it. that being said, most of the hard networking i did was definitely while i was a phd student in graduate school as the exposure i got to successful people increased at least 10x. was also nice that i didnt have to pay anything for grad school as they often give grad students stipends. if you live reasonably within the stipend, you can actually start building some bankroll and stay out of debt. this only applies to phd in hardcore technical science generally.

delete

Quote: (01-09-2012 12:52 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I wanted to ask everyone who is finacially successful on the forum if you have a college degree and if so if you used the degree to become financially successful. I'm begining to think at this point its not really worth going back to school unless you're majoring in something specific like engineering or medicine.

There is no right or wrong answer. You will ultimately decide what's the next best step for you. College has worked for ALOT of people and it has failed for ALOT of people. Same with not going. All I can tell you from my experiences is to follow your own path and know your angle. One book that truly helps with understanding this is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Also, not to get too cheesy here, but this is generally good advice:






More than education, books and culture, I've learned the most from my world travels. I leave you with this note that precisely captures the five lessons I learned from world travel that I keep in mind when I'm home (not traveling):

1) Time = Wealth
By far the most important lesson travel teaches you is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people, and learning new things about yourself. “Value” is a word we often hear in day-to-day life, but travel has a way of teaching us that value is not pegged to a cash amount, that the best experiences in life can be had for the price of showing up (be it to a festival in Rajasthan, a village in the Italian countryside, or a sunrise ten minutes from your home).
Scientific studies have shown that new experiences (and the memories they produce) are more likely to produce long-term happiness than new things. Since new experiences aren’t exclusive to travel, consider ways to become time-rich at home. Spend less time working on things you don’t enjoy and buying things you don’t need; spend more time embracing the kinds of activities (learning new skills, meeting new people, spending time with friends and family) that make you feel alive and part of the world.


2) Be Where You Are
A great thing about travel is that it forces you into the moment. When you’re celebrating carnival in Rio, riding a horse on the Mongolian steppe, or exploring a souk in Damascus, there’s a giddy thrill in being exactly where you are and allowing things to happen. In an age when electronic communications enable us to be permanently connected to (and distracted by) the virtual world, there’s a narcotic thrill in throwing yourself into a single place, a single moment. Would you want to check your bank-account statement while exploring Machu Picchu in Peru? Are you going to interrupt an experience of the Russian White Nights in St. Petersburg to check your Facebook feed? Of course not — when you travel, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to travel.
At home, how often do you really need to check your email or your Twitter feed? When you get online, are you there for a reason, or are you simply killing time? For all the pleasures and entertainments of the virtual-electronic world, there is no substitute for real-life conversation and connection, for getting ideas and entertainment from the people and places around you. Even at home, there are sublime rewards to be had for unplugging from online distractions and embracing the world before your eyes.


3) Slow Down
One of the advantages of long-term travel (as opposed to a short vacation) is that it allows you to slow down and let things happen. Freed from tight itineraries, you begin to see the kinds of things (and meet the kinds of people) that most tourists overlook in their haste to tick attractions off a list. A host of multi-million-dollar enterprises have been created to cater to our concept of “leisure,” both at home and on the road — but all too often this definition of leisure is as rushed and rigidly confined as our work life. Which is more emblematic of leisure — a three-hour spa session in an Ubud hotel, or the freedom to wander Bali at will for a month?
All too often, life at home is predicated on an irrational compulsion for speed — we rush to work, we rush through meals, we “multi-task” when we’re hanging out with friends. This might make our lives feel more streamlined in a certain abstracted sense, but it doesn’t make our lives happier or more fulfilling. Unless you learn to pace and savor your daily experiences (even your work-commutes and your noontime meals) you’ll cheating your days out of small moments of leisure, discovery and joy.


4) Keep it Simple
Travel naturally lends itself to simplicity, since it forces you to reduce your day-to-day possessions to a few select items that fit in your suitcase or backpack. Moreover, since it’s difficult to accumulate new things as you travel, you to tend to accumulate new experiences and friendships instead — and these affect your life in ways mere “things” cannot.
At home, abiding by the principles of simplicity can help you live in a more deliberate and time-rich way. How much of what you own really improves the quality of your life? Are you buying new things out of necessity or compulsion? Do the things you own enable you to live more vividly, or do they merely clutter up your life? Again, researchers have determined that new experiences satisfy our higher-order needs in a way that new possessions cannot — that taking a friend to dinner, for example, brings more lasting happiness than spending that money on a new shirt. In this way, investing less in new objects and more in new activities can make your home-life happier. This less materialistic state of mind will also help you save money for your next journey.


5) Don’t Set Limits
Travel has a way revealing that much of what you’ve heard about the world is wrong. Your family or friends will tell you that traveling to Colombia or Lebanon is a death-wish — and then you’ll go to those places and have your mind blown by friendliness, beauty and new ways of looking at human interaction. Even on a day-to-day level, travel enables you to avoid setting limits on what you can and can’t do. On the road, you naturally “play games” with your day: watching, waiting, listening; allowing things to happen. There’s no better opportunity to break old habits, face latent fears, and test out repressed facets of your personality.

That said, there’s no reason why you should confine that sort of freedom to life on the road. The same Fear-Industrial Complex that spooks people out of traveling can discourage you from trying new things or meeting new people in own your hometown. Overcoming your fears and escaping your dull routines can deepen your home-life — and the open-to-anything confidence that accompanies travel can be utilized to test new concepts in a business setting, rejuvenate relationships with friends and family, or simply ask that woman with the nice smile if she wants to go out for coffee. In refusing to set limits for what is possible on a given day, you open yourself up to an entire new world of possibility.

Love that post Casanova!

Im glad i realized at an early age TIME = WEALTH

Just thinking about it my circle of friends and acquaintence. Even the most successful ones who went to college are not really raking in THAT much money. I mean it would take one basically until age 40~ to become a judge who earns 250k. Or one could make MD at an investment bank and earn 1 mil by age late 30s early 40s. Then when you toss in how your losing near half of that to taxes and can't even hide that money like someone running their own business. It quickly becomes apparent that even the mos college successful person will generally not earn as much as an equally smart/hard working non college person. If one is willing to relocate they could 150-200k in oil and gas or mining with just community college or high school after 10 years or so. I knew a guy who started a landscaping business when he left high school and now he is making a solid $1 million a year after 10 years of building up a clientele as no one where I live cuts their own grass or shovels their own snow etc. He is about 31 and he spends his corporations money on buying basically everything he wants to rack up expenses as he only pays taxes on net profit. So the obvious point is that a moderately successful business owner can pull in 100k easily, while one would be hard pressed to make that kind of money under 10 years in paid employment

If you can, finish it up. Sure there's high unemployment for recent college grads, but remember the unemployment rate for those with a 4 year degree is half that of those without. More specific degrees pay off faster, but any degree is also good. It's nice to have as a backup.

Degree or not, get those entrepreneurial skills in gear. Ultimately this is what will count. If you have ideas set them in motion.

That’s not really true. There are other careers, besides medicine and engineering, that are in-demand right now and hold great job outlook in the coming years. You should consider fields like healthcare, business administration, information technology and graphic arts. I’ve just come across a Stevens-Henager review – you might want to read this if you need more convincing! Also look at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for these occupations.

college worked out well for all the guys i know making 45k GBP base salary in their first year with a significant bonus on top

College degrees have different benefits for different people. For a large amount of people, all they want is a stable job which is what (at least the practical ones) college degrees are geared toward. A lot of it stems from the traditional mindset that people like my mother have - you go to school, get a job, get married.

For people on this forum who are more creative, liberal, and adventurous in their lifestyles, a college degree isn't as necessary as it is for say, the average kid.

Every statistic I have ever read points to a significant income gap between those with college degrees and those with only high school. People like to point to people such as Bill Gates and Zuckerberg. What people miss is that these guys were smart enough to get into Harvard in the first place. Which 99+% of the population is not.

Quote: (04-05-2012 12:33 AM)lavidaloca Wrote:  

Every statistic I have ever read points to a significant income gap between those with college degrees and those with only high school. People like to point to people such as Bill Gates and Zuckerberg. What people miss is that these guys were smart enough to get into Harvard in the first place. Which 99+% of the population is not.

True, but do you really need to make $50B to be sucessful? Isn't $10 or $30M good enuff? Do I need a degree from Wharton to hit that metric?

My educational degrees have directly led to the high-paying job I have now. If your metric is "maximize earnings," I would say you should almost certainly complete a degree, preferably in a math or science field. There are of course exceptions, and we all know the stories of dropouts that made millions, but let's get real here: there is a much, much higher probability of landing a well-paying job based on your collegiate credentials than there is of dropping out and starting up the next Microsoft.

To me, where this gets interesting is once you vary the performance metric. No one really wants to simply "maximize earnings." I would wager that you want a nice salary, but still want time to live your life, and would love to have a location-independent revenue stream, which is sort of the holy grail. This is a much more nuanced and difficult question to answer. For me, I would still advise you to complete a degree, DEVELOP A REAL, MEANINGFUL, IN-DEMAND SKILL, and then figure out your next move.

True, but do you really need to make $50B to be sucessful? Isn't $10 or $30M good enuff? Do I need a degree from Wharton to hit that metric?
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How many people will ever have a 10 million + net worth. Compare the amount of college grads who reach that amount vs. high school grads. I don't have statistical evidence but your chances are surely much higher as a college grad. Beyond that, yours or mine or just about anyones chances of reaching that amount of net worth is very slim. The better way to look at it is this. If I go to university I will based on the odds make ____ more money than if I only graduated high school.

You're right. For the average person graduating college is one of the only ways to go if you want to make it big. I, however don't need college to teach me how to conduct business. I have my own IM/offline business right now and I didn't learn one tid bit from college after 2 years. I'm probably dropping out. Why? Because I can't stand wasting my parent's money any more.
I don't have the motivation to do well because I'm doing well in business. That's just the person I am.
Maybe in a few years I'll go back to college and finish up but for now I want to work on my business and travel like a mofo, learn a lot of languages, fuck foreign bitches; and not have to deal with a 9-5 job with 2 weeks vacation.


I think the most amazing part of it also is that you stop learning as fast when you become 25. So if you're working a 9-5 for 3 years after becoming 22 you'll waste all that time that you could be learning new knowledge, and studying new languages.
Slave away for some d-bag employer and get 3% raise(barely enough to keep up with inflation), just so you can drink on the weekends and go on vacation for 2 weeks? No thanks.