Without Higher Education you are in a dead end | Hacker News Reader

Without Higher Education you are in a dead end

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25 pointsi04n11 comments

I get what he's saying. I believe the debt I acquired in college really messed up my life.

But there's also the fact that college is now free in Germany, and that offer is open to Americans. I actively tried to persuade a family member to at least consider Germany as an option. After all, what could be better? Free degree, travel Europe on holidays, no drinking age issues.

She didn't consider it. She's going to a college nobody has ever heard of in the US and spending $45K annually for the privilege. At least I tried :-/

I'm German. I think this idea "Get a degree in Germany" is not impossible, but it would be quite risky for Americans. There are just too many unknowns or uncontrollable factors.

Many subjects, say Biology, are actually difficult to get in, even for Germans. Not having the language skills would mean you're in for bad grades from the very beginning.

It'll work only for a few majors, and only with a considerable effort, ideally before enrolling, to obtain relevant information (about costs and specifics) concerning the admission procedure and moving to Germany (or some other European country where college tuition is low, say Austria)

Does Germany pay for room and board while studying?

free means tuition-free. so yes, students have to pay for living expenses, books, etc.

But i think it still ends up cheaper than just the tuition in the USA.

The decision to attend a private 4-year university has got to count as one of the biggest mistakes I've made in my young life. The 19 weeks I spent in coding bootcamp have been orders-of-magnitude more useful to my career than the 4 years I spent in college. Most people will never know less about life and what they want out of it than they do when they're in high-school. So in my mind it makes no sense to give someone like that the responsibility of a choice that will cost them and their families between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars (depending on whether they choose public vs. private, in-state vs. out-of-state, etc.).

Knowing what I know now, I would have jumped at the chance to study for free in a place like Germany (as per danjoc's comment). That sounds like the perfect way to minimize the costs of what college purports to offer- a chance to broaden one's horizons and investigate possible directions one wants to take with their life.

I think the key phrase here is "young life."

When you get older, read more, travel more, experience more, you'll understand the value of a well-rounded education.

Or maybe not. Perhaps confining yourself to a one-track life and career path will prevent you from seeing, or being considered for, other opportunities in life. You'll never know.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not demeaning the value of a well-rounded education. I agree that it's vital to a full life. My point is that colleges don't have a monopoly on well-rounded educations. For me at least, America's higher education system (and really, its high school system as well) depleted rather than fostered the kind of curiosity needed for life-long learning.

I'm using "young life" in the sense of "up to that point in my life". I'm now in my mid-30s and on my 3rd career (first in sales, then as an overseas ESL teacher, and now as a software developer). I've travelled to 20+ countries, lived in China and Europe, and had many wonderful experiences along the way. I'm grateful for the many careers I've had, which allow me to state with confidence that my current career is a great fit for me. But none of my experiences required that I attend the college I did and go into deep debt to do so. While (as you said) I'll never know for sure, my guess is that debt probably cut off just as many opportunities as it gave me.

From the man that brought us such classics as “If Meat Eaters Acted Like Vegans - Ultra Spiritual Life” (https://youtu.be/z0O_VYcsIk8).

I know what I'm writing is kind of superfluous, but not all vegans are like that. There are vegans who try not to disclose the fact of them living vegan.

Why has this article been yanked off the HackerNews home page?

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