ROI
Lately, I have been thinking what is the Return on Investment (ROI) for an expensive college education? With the explosion of information available on the internet, how useful is a formal 40K/yr college education from a mid-tier school, really. I think I learned most of my knowledge through work and reading on my own after college. I could not recall applying anything useful that I learned in college even though my focus of studies were in Accounting and Computer Science which is supposed to be the most practical among all other majors. Accounting & tax rules change every year and they are different in different country. Computer languages got obsoleted and simplified in no time. Business Law is all really applying your common sense, as far as I am concerned being a TA in that for 2 years.
So when it's time for my daughter to go to college, would I, or should I be paying 80K/yr for a degree that's not going to be too useful except maybe as one-liner in the resume? I think basic training really starts when you work for different big and small companies.
So when it's time for my daughter to go to college, would I, or should I be paying 80K/yr for a degree that's not going to be too useful except maybe as one-liner in the resume? I think basic training really starts when you work for different big and small companies.
posted by 學習 at 1:50 AM
2 回應:
I am unabashedly in favor of college education. In my experience (BA from a private liberal arts school; MA from an easier public school), she is much better off getting a full college education than, say, getting a technical degree or no degree at all.
First, college at the Bachelor's level isn't really about any particular subject. It's a combination of training the brain to learn at that higher level and developing the techniques to cognitively approach subjects. It's also provides what they (my psych profs) call a moratorium experience in that you get to experience a wide variety of things. For your major(s), you're more focused on a broad field and learning the core basics, but you're still exploring the possibilities of what there is to know within that field.
That said, there's a marked difference in the classes between schools. A good school should be challenging and offer a lot of opportunities (I can't say whether that'll automatically be expensive, but let's assume that it will be). Going to such as school is a much more rewarding experience and allows a greater degree of adaptiveness when choosing jobs or careers, which may or may not reflect the major.
Interestingly, most of my cohort from my undergrad days felt that the education we received lacked utility and didn't prepare us for the outside world, even for those of us who went on in our fields. Really, though, I think the mistake is to assume that it provides the entire toolkit of what you need to succeed, while it's just getting you to the first door. As you mention, it keeps going as you gain experience.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. That's an accurate recap of what I've gone through, too, in college. The discipline required, the exposure to different subjects, the friendship, the higher level of cognitive development ... I have almost forgotten about those things since I am already benefiting from those trainings and functioning in a way that they are already a natural part of me.
So ok! I guess I will look into saving up for college just so she has something to fall back on if she chooses to and need to use it.
Thank you for sharing your perspective, marshdrifter!
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