Why do people who bash college have a college degree?

[Anonymous]

I've seen videos where the guy would bash college and say "all you need is my coding boot camp", but when you search them up they have a computer science degree.

Or they say Mark Zuckerberg is self taught even though he went to Harvard and then dropped out. Elon Musk has a physics degree even though he bashes college.

I think the average person needs some kind of secondary education or they will be stuck at McDonald's. A Secondary education like trade school or college. Not some crappy coding boot camp advertised by some scammers on YouTube.

[dynamicyandere]

Well, you can’t review something if you’ve never done it.


Otherwise, that’s like bashing on a restaurant without ever trying their food.


People who have gone to college will be able to know from experience whether or not they felt it was worth it.


Just like people need to watch a movie before they can accurately critique it.


As someone who has earned a bachelor’s degree at a university, I’m grateful for having an environment that allowed me to further develop my critical thinking, reading, and writing abilities.


But, was it worth getting into $40,000 in debt?


(That’s like a $400 bill every month that you can’t escape from until you pay it all off.)


No, not really.


Everything that you can get at a university, in terms of skill development, you can also develop at a community college.


Sure a community college isn’t as glamorous.


But, as long as you have a great professor, community college is all you really need for your intellectual development.


I’m all for education and continually educating yourself.


What I DON’T support is expensive universities and colleges charging an arm and a leg to attend.


(While at the same time, requiring you to pass classes that have nothing to do with your occupation later.)


I don’t like the idea of paying a huge amount of money and jumping through arbitrary hoops to earn a degree.


I can say from experience, that during university, it felt like 80% of what I learned wasn’t necessary.


Now, I’d be happy to pay $40,000 if every single thing I was learning was extremely relevant to my future career.


But if less than 20% was relevant to my career and less than 10% is was actually applicable in the real world, why pay so much?


People who have a college degree and bash on college are like people who have purchased an expensive product or service and aren’t happy with it because they felt overcharged for something that was falsely advertised.


As for myself, I have mixed feelings.


Like with anything, there are pros and cons.

[dynamicyandere]

Some of the most important things I’ve learned in life are:

* Knowing myself. (From countless hours of deep introspection and reflection.)

* Learning how to sell. (The skill of persuasion has made it infinitely easier to network, pass interviews, and land opportunities.)

* Learning the mindset of an elite performer. (I got mentored by a veteran USMC squad leader who went on to successfully build a 7-figure company. I learned how his mindset works and how to apply it in my own life.)

None of those things were taught in school. Yet it was those three things that have probably impacted my life the most.

[stepyo99]

College is a scam, but so are coding boot camps. There is so much information available on the internet you can educate yourself. If you want help, there's also plenty of resources you can go to like stack exchange for answers or maybe maker labs if you want to talk to people. Just look around. If you think you absolutely must have some kind of structured teaching environment (you don't) then for God's sake save yourself a lifetime of headache just get an associates degree.

What you need is to test into certs offered by people like CompTIA or Cisco or Microsoft. Yeah, you'll start as a bottom-rung code monkey, but that's where you're going to start with that $50k+ framed piece of paper on your wall too.

[Anonymous]

I went to college, and I don’t look too highly on it. I was pushed into attending university straight out of high school, when I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I have a degree that I don’t use. There are many people with degrees they don’t use, and there are many degrees that are not considered useful. Plus there’s the thousands of dollars each semester costs.
College is good for getting ahead in careers, but we currently live in a time where having experience and connections is more likely to land you a job than a degree.

[Asker]

I agree, but most of the time you need to network with other people to get those connections to help you get a job. College and trade school allows you to meet other people and professionals.

Like Mark Zuckerberg went to Harvard so he probably ran into a few people to help him get sponsors and business incubators at Harvard before he dropped out.

[purplepoppy]

Try telling an employer you got trained at a boot camp because you don't believe in college then see if he'll let you loose on the companies IT system.

[molonski2]

I come from the angle , that all education is generally a positive , nothing wrong with educating yourself , its takes commitment , even if you don't actually use that degree , you completed it.

I think there are other courses that are good too , Warren Buffet always talks about Carnegie , but he also completed a formal degree. I did one of these finishing school , public speaking courses too ( I wasn't paying ) , and I do agree there is big benefit , if I was doing it now I'd take it more seriously.

College degrees are good.

[zagor]

Not everyone is into the whole formal education thing. While a degree does to some extent indicate an ability to read and write and commit to finishing something, there are some people who are very capable at some tasks without the piece of paper. To use your example, there are people who are excellent coders who taught themselves, without a degree, boot camp or any formal training in the field.

[Lokiion]

Because how else will you review it anyways it’s a big scam you go into debt work years to pay it off and still end up with a job paying less then 100k a year more then likely