Bill's Notes

Yup, Part 9 million
Here's an article that questions whether college is worth it.

RTWT, as they say.

I've written about this before. I was extremely lucky when I went to college. Seton Hall was very catholic in this sense -- it was willing to teach you as much or as little as you wanted to know. You could skate by, or you could dig deep and really learn. The class sizes were small. The professors were usually pretty good and available. The price wasn't that high.

Granted, the facilities were terrible and ancient, and in an attempt to change that, SHU conducted an ambitious building project that meant my final three years on campus involved walking around various construction sites. (This was on a tiny campus to begin with.)

Was it worth it? In my case and in the case of most the people I knew, yes. Is it true anymore? Don't know. Haven't had a resume cross my desk from ole alma mater -- well, ever. And I've been hiring people for eight of the past 10 years.

Rob2 (mail) (www):
Were you in the bottom 40% of your high school class?
4.29.2008 8:44pm
Bill (mail) (www):
Good point. No, I wasn't in the bottom 40%. I guess I kind of wandered off topic in this post.
4.29.2008 8:57pm
Eric Blair (mail) (www):
College is overrated, these days. And I say that as both having a BA and an MS.

Techinical school, people. My brother in law is a printer, and he makes more than I do.
5.1.2008 12:30pm
Bill (mail) (www):
I always say I shoulda been a plumber. Can't outsource that.
5.1.2008 4:01pm
Rob2 (mail) (www):
As a software engineer, I am in an industry that is extremely vulnerable to outsourcing, but I believe my college education was so incredibly worth it.

Assuming I could make 40k out of high school and get a raise of 5% per year and that college costs me 15k per year for 4 years, the opportunity cost of attending college is about 232k. Under quite reasonably projections without luck (no crazy stock options or bonuses), my degree would pay itself off by the time I hit 29. With the crazy stock options, it's already paid off at the age 24.7.
5.1.2008 6:48pm

Post as: [Register] [Log In]

Account:
Password:
Remember info?
Thank you for choosing to comment on IndustrialBlog. Our commenting policy is pretty simple: Be civil. If you are mean-spirited, tendentious, vexatious, quarrelsome and/or annoying, you just may get deleted. If you are charming, sophisticated and/or funny, on the other hand, you may get a free rein no matter what you say. It depends. Also, please note that commenting is for this post ONLY. Do not comment on other posts here. If I closed comments for a post, I did so for a reason. Thank you. Please enjoy your stay at IndustrialBlog, and remember the Blogosphere can be dangerous place -- be careful out there. The Management.