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Comment by winternett | Hacker News Reader

The effectiveness of a college experience really depends on the type of person that is attending it.

College is indeed becoming overpriced.

If the person is seeking a party experience, it's a bad idea if they don't have rich parents that will support them and pay off loans later on.

If the person is a mature, informed, and energetic business go-getter, and they actually manage to start new ideas while they attend school, and then establish vital bonds with other go-getters they meet, they can potentially gain a lot from a college experience.

Once you join the working world, the diversity of ideas and ability to meet ambitious people regularly wanes a bit. Also as one ages, the energy and enthusiasm for change also decreases to an extent. Carpe Diem.

I also believe though, that some people can and have create(d) amazing and ambitious careers without a college education, or by dropping out early from the process. There are no rules...

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I partially disagree. Assuming you are majoring in something that has some positive ROI and do enough to actually graduate, which isn’t hard at most colleges, the party experience can be very supportive of most people’s future careers.

The social skills, networks, and alumni connections you build at college are a large fraction of the benefit that college gives the average person to further their career.

Otherwise, I agree. College is a great time to take advantage of the time you have to change your network, generate new ideas and take risks. And I also agree that most there can be benefit (though highly unlikely) for some people to not attend college or to drop out.

I find it really funny how we talking about socialization like it's just for really young kids when we all have experience dealing with adults that never learned the skills.

College is expensive socialization to be sure, so make sure to go for other reasons as well -- but if you aren't going to parties, making friends, and doing stupid shit then you're missing out on part of the real tangible value provided by colleges which is community. (And to be clear this is something totally separate from professional networking.)

I have been in IT for 25 years. If the gang at work was going to a bar after work, I would go - just to enjoy myself, giving no thought to it furthering my career and so forth.

Despite going for purely to enjoy myself and giving no thought to work or my career, I would say an hour I've spent in a bar with my co-workers almost always does more for my career than spending twenty hours over a weekend getting some pull request finished so my product manager can check it off their list. I've found out information about my workplace that I really needed to know. Once it probably saved me from getting axed during a layoff once since I didn't interact much with outside the bar with the manager who put in a good word for me when they were cutting people.

> If the person is a mature, informed, and energetic business go-getter, and they actually manage to start new ideas while they attend school, and then establish vital bonds with other go-getters they meet, they can potentially gain a lot from a college experience.

A lot of that depends on the college you go to. Doesn't matter how much a "go getter" you are if you don't make connections with someone that can ultimately fund/execute your ideas. Even if they themselves are "go getters".

Further, hard to really judge if you are a "go getter" or a "So, it's like facebook, but for cats!" person.

And here's the real rub, likely the person seeking the party experience with rich parents IS the person that can fund/execute ideas. They don't need to be go getters, they just have to have deep pockets.

Of course, this is all talking about someone going to college primarily for entrepreneurial ideas.

This is the real and true value of ivy league/prestigious schools. It isn't the quality of the knowledge, it's the old deep pockets that also go there.

I was pretty lucky that the Internet came about right when I was attending college. Prior to that, mostly Lawyers and Doctors were the only college grads regularly breaking past 6 figures in jobs. I was also lucky to get through without 6 figure debt, and at low interest rates on Federal loans.

Private loans preyed on so many of my peers and other family members. Also schools quickly raised charges, while underpaying staff. It's really the influence of comerical industry that screws a lot of the benefeits of a college education up nowadays.

The student needs to be a special type of person to get through it, solve all the problems that arise, work out how to maximize their potential, and then quickly get to work on their future.

College is not only a learning process, it's also a huge personal test of character, dedication, and analytical skill. The GPA though really does not determine a person's full capacity though, and the classes are often not what teaches you the most important things.

Many people from non-ivy-league schools also go far beyond many other ivy league students in terms of lifetime accomplishment -- usually because of the type of character they have and people they are (and sometimes because they cheat), but for certain jobs in this world, Ivy League is often an unwritten "pre-requisite".

It does seem overpriced but wages are pretty high these days for grads and there is considerable aid. The biggest cost is if you don't finish.

"I also believe though, that some people can and have create(d) amazing and ambitious careers without a college education, or by dropping out early from the process. There are no rules..."

Absolutely true. Do you have any statistics on their rate of doing that?

Survivor bias: If the only thing you look at is success, success looks pretty easy.

> If the person is a mature, informed, and energetic business go-getter...

But by the time most people get to college, they're still immature and not very well informed.

And I’ll add that lots of people are still immature and not well informed after graduating and well into post college adulthood.

Doesn't anyone go to uni. to learn stuff any more?

>If the person is a mature, informed, and energetic business go-getter, and they actually manage to start new ideas while they attend school, and then establish vital bonds with other go-getters they meet, they can potentially gain a lot from a college experience.

I could not disagree more. What this person gets out of college is nothing more than checking the "has 4yr degree" checkbox you need these days. College will do nothing for them other than check that box. Their own accomplishments will be what carries them through life.

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