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Some thoughts about college and graduate school
#1

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

Briefly on my background. I'm an attorney who graduated from a top 50 law school. My undergraduate degree is from a well known private school that some people think is an Ivy. I'm the guy your parents wanted you to be when you grew up, with lots of fancy diplomas hanging in my big lawyer office.

I'm getting closer to turning 35, and reflecting on things.

Here are my musings on formal education...

1. This is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said: "Always go to the best school you get into. It's better to take on debt to graduate from a 'good' school than to graduate from a less prestigious school."

Hell. No. Maybe that was the case a hundred years ago, when the elites only hired from the finest of fine private schools. If you choose to go to college, the goal should be to incur as little debt as possible. (An argument can be made that it's worth taking on some debt to go to Yale, Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, etc. because it will increase your social network, because now you're womanzing with Saudi princess and Trumps).

This definitely does not apply to "prestigious" private schools that aren't Ivy League. I made a big mistake taking on debt and going to a "prestigious" private school because it was the best one I got into - I should have just to state school. No one cares about my "prestigious" undergraduate degree, except sometimes someone says "that's a good school" or "their basketball team is really good this year."

2. A college degree isn't necessary to make money, especially if you want to start a business. A buddy of mine graduated from college (state school), worked a corporate job for a week, then said "fuck it" and joined the union. We all laughed at him. Now he makes more money than most of my lawyer friends, he has no debt, and his job is from 7:00am - 3:30pm period. He keeps in shape by working outside, owns a big house, and has a lot of leisure time.

A college degree doesn't make you "elite", and all the prestige in the world won't buy you a Porsche.

3. A graduate degree does not make you more employable, especially if it's in liberal arts. If you find yourself close to graduation with no job, more debt and more education isn't going to help anything.

4. In the same vein, don't go to law school just because you got an undergraduate degree in liberal arts and don't know what to do next. A law degree is only useful for one thing - practicing law. (that's an entirely different topic).

5. When I was a kid, I remember my parents telling me how important it was to get a college degree - something neither of them had. "The only people who succeed in life are the ones who went to college! Get a degree in underwater basket weaving!" Fast forward to 2016, and everyone and their mother has a college degree. A college degree is not nearly as valuable as it once was. The market is saturated, and schools will hand them out to anyone who can pay the tuition. I'd rather be an auto-mechanic making $75k a year with no debt than a Starbucks barista with a Ph.D.

6. Try and major in something useful. Engineering, accounting, computer science, business, healthcare, architecture, even law. Oh, and protesting isn't a major. (I don't know, maybe it is nowadays?). You can always minor in something less useful like philosophy, history, etc. It's much easier to find a job if you major in something people actually hire for.

7. Academics are terrible communicators. Do not pick up their jargon if you want to communicate with other human beings. The bigger the words you're using, the dumber I think you are for not being able to express a concept to other human beings. Which is, you know, the entire purpose of communication.

8. Student loans are generally not dischargable in bankruptcy. Meaning you'll be paying them off the rest of the life no matter what you do, or how little income you have. Average payments can be around $1000 a month, which is like having a small mortgage. It's hard to save money when you're living paycheck to paycheck your entire life - and impossible to make moves, start businesses, and invest. While you're looking at the fancy piece of paper on your wall with $7 in your bank account, the loser who went to state school is buying up more properties.

9. Your college GPA doesn't mean anything unless you're trying to get into graduate school. I've never had anyone ask me about mine. You're honestly better off drinking with your friends and meeting people than worrying about maintaining a 4.0 GPA. I kept mine up just enough to be competitive for law school.

10. Have a plan. If you're just coasting and not sure what to do with your life, consider joining the military, a union, or going to trade school. Yeah yeah, you've been told all your life that college is the end all be all, and that people in the skilled trades are stupid and poor. Well, guess what? You were lied to.

Too many people just go to college because that's what you're "supposed to do" after high school, major in something like history, and then after fumble around selling insurance or something that didn't require a college degree in the first place. College is potentially a very expensive waste of 4 or 5 years. And while the world is full of history majors, we'll always need plumbers, electricians, masons, etc.

Looking back on it, I would have either gone to state school, learned a skilled trade, or not gone to college at all, and instead used the time and money to focus on my real estate business. There are so many ways to make money in this country. The view of "more education means more money" isn't true.

Your milage may vary.
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#2

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

Oh, one other thing - if you do go to college, use that time to learn game and bang away. Almost all my friends who got married in college were too young and ended up getting divorced (including myself).

I would have dated more in college. I was with the same girl all of college and all of law school. We got married when school was finished, and then divorced a year later.
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#3

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

I agree with number 1. And it's also been confirmed by a recent article I read mentioning a study on this topic. If you're going for a STEM career it doesn't matter where you go because you will still make money anyway.
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#4

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

Savage summation of Master's Program in Communications.

All parents should see this before paying for their kids' education.





“The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of its parents.”

Carl Jung
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#5

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

^^^ Fuck. This was similar to my experience at a Canadian uni, and I'm around ten years older than her, so it likely wasn't nearly as bad when I was there. This is basically why I didn't go to grad school. I noticed most of my undergrad profs, and the "smartest" undergrad students, were vapid Marxists.
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#6

Some thoughts about college and graduate school

Next year I will being to off to college but still have second thoughts on it. I would take a decent paying job right now over a college degree to starting investing in my financial freedom. Btw, the course I would be pursing next year would be engineering.

I live for my self and answer to nobody- the great Steve McQueen’s
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