Smart Kids that Don't go to College
Posted by kevin Sat, 16 Jul 2005 17:19:25 GMT
I didn’t wake up until my Sophomore year in college. At that point, I was rather surprised I did what my parents expected, and was in College. But it was fun, so I stuck with it.
I am a programmer. I’ve taught myself nearly everything I know. But I think college is still worthwhile, and that everyone should still go to it.
One of my first realizations upon ‘waiting up’ to my adult life, was that College was a ‘camp’ for people my age. Everyone was beautiful! For me, college is about staying up until 4 am, talking philosophy with dorm neighbors, and deciding what the zeitgeist of your generation is about.
College is where I learned passion. The Creating Passionate Users blog I reference here (excellent, by the way), cites many studies about declining education, etc, etc, but to me, that’s not the point.
She mocks the ‘learning how to be a lifetime learner’, and says that ‘no grad ever actually says that’, but I’m saying it :) College made me a smarter, more capable, more independent person, and I would spend the $100k or more to do it again if I had the chance.
Some of my favorite classes were with the most boring teachers, and I’d doodle on my pad and decide what I wanted to do to make the world a better place. Sure, I could have done that elsewhere, but if it’s not broken…
The real kicker is: by far most people meet their future spouse in College. I did. She’s worth the $100k alone :)
If you taught your self everything you know, then you cannot be wrong! UNDERSTAND >
I worked everyday for 5 years in a machince shop in oreder to pay my way through college because I could not get grants. My dad died when I was 12, in a wee TN town, poor, hot, BW TV …....soooooooob. 2 younger siblings, and my mom, lived on soc security. Graduated debt free, with a self served education in 1998 @ 24 years old with honors in mechanical engineering from TN Tech, the 3rd ranked engineering school in the country.
No wife no kids no debt. i TRAVEL THE WORLD ON SOMEONE ELSES MONEY . Hard work is what pays. Intellegence makes it pay off. I see poor people with nothing bitch at the world a whole lot less than people with computers with nothing to do but bitch.
i absolutely agree. college, while a place where you can learn, is not a place about learning. it’s the 4AM conversations, videos of your friends running through the snow in the streets, meeting your true (or not-so) love. it’s about the experience. and couldn’t be more worth it. i still love living near there. just the atmosphere makes me happy. =)