read the full article here.
let me start out by saying that i didn't go to college. therefore, in a lot of ways, i agree with mr. stephens. and in my series about our financial journey, i'll be writing about how much of a blessing it had been to us [not just financially] that i never went to college.
here are a few of my thoughts on the article:
first of all, not everyone can start their own business, or website or invention, etc. and that's pretty much all he offers for options if you don't go to college. on the other hand, i can honestly say that i have become a pretty great administrative assistant with no formal training. so i can see what he means by "other options."
second of all, i would definitely drop out of college at 19 if i received $100,000.00 for the next two years. i'm sure receiving that fellowship took a lot of work and involves a lot of continual work, but really, why would any 19-year-old consider college over that?
third of all, i believe there are a lot of great reasons to get a college education and that it's possible to do so without debt. we're living proof. and i would highly recommend striving to pay cash for college, it makes your education that much more worth it.
what do you think?
Wow. I love the article! I was just telling Isaac the other day that my favorite part of school was the tests and quizzes and such because it gave me direction. Now graduated, I can say that I'm finding it difficult to know where to start learning something new. Sure, I'd love to learn to write code. But where to start?
ReplyDeleteI can also say with confidence that because I was in a hurry to finish school quickly to save money, I didn't take the time to throughly explore what we were learning in my classrooms. I probably learned at least as much or more than the average joe, but had I not felt the pressure to finish 21 credits a semester while working almost full time hours, I would have dived deeper into the subject matter of each class.
I would absolutely agree though that it is possible to get a college education without debt. One problem that a person will encounter while doing this though is time. You likely won't be on the 4-year college plan if you want to make it out debt-free. Probably more like the 6, maybe 7-year plan. Unless, like your situation, you have a spouse who is working to help you pay it off as you go.
"college is a waste of time"-- really? Without college degrees our society wouldn't run because we need to be sure that qualified people have actually been trained to do certain jobs- that's just the way America is set up. I value education and thus far have had a really enriching time in school- which has not been easy by any means. And yes, I DO have debt so hopefully that doesn't make me an evil person.
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