College : My Failed $15000 Experiment

by SUP3RNOVA

This post is for anyone pre-college, in college, thinking about college, and thinking about what they’re going to do. This is just my unique chain of events, but everything did happen and you might be the exact same way. I think we often hear much too much barraging from the “other side” on the importance of college, most of the time it’s from people with jobs they got from their college degree. So this is just a story from someone who has a successful job but no degree. I had my glory Year and One Month at college, and I retired in my prime.

It seemed like my entire childhood education was built upon finally going out to college, learning a trade, and getting a job with the degree I would earn. At least in high school that’s all I heard from teachers…”You think is hard, just wait until college.”…”We’re doing this to better prepare you for college,”, etc. Throughout our high school years is when our parents encourage us to save up for college, and even set up college funds for us with their money.

So what did I put in? Two years, roughly $15,000 (including all tuitions, books, room/board, etc), and a lot of my time. What did I end up with? College certainly didn’t pay me for my time, so that’s -$15,000. Looking back, I really didn’t learn anything useful other than the fact that if you really really want to find a way to get around the system…you can. I did have some great times with great people, but this post is only talking about the education/degree factor. So I ended up with nothing but the lesson that college just isn’t necessary for some people. If I put more into it, would I have learned something and gotten a degree? Yeah, not denying that one bit. But college simply isn’t for me, and might not be for you either.

I’ll talk briefly about my college experience now for those that are interested and may be going through similar things.

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