Comment by rglover | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rglover | Hacker News Reader

I graduated a little over a year ago and am now faced with at least $50k in debt (not accounting for interest). The school I attended was a state university and sadly, the education I received may have amounted to ~$20k. I say this because the majority of my instructors were recent hires out of the university's own graduate programs and (IMHO) lacked the experience to teach certain topics.

The remaining cost I assume, was for "campus enhancements" like swapping out printed cafeteria menus with flat screen tv's (you must understand, this was an eco friendly initiative).

Universities are a trap. The future they're selling kids is non-existent and they know it. Instead of uni-hopping, students should start picking up topics/trades of interest early, studying on nights and weekends leading up to their hs graduation. The obvious suggestion is learn code, but it could include a lot more. Don't send your kids to school. Be proactive and find out what they're interested in early and nurture it. It may rob them partially of a childhood, but at least their adulthood won't be a depressing, seemingly pointless adventure.

I find it pretty interesting that universities can charge large sums of money to attend, but then go ahead and give away the content for free on the internet.

Parents and students, who may be going into significant debt to pay for their education, are also funding the widespread distribution of the same. Do they have a say in the matter? Perhaps it should be put up to vote.

The only reason I can think that universities would really get behind this is the vanity of professors who want their ideas out there, or they're trying to create demand over the internet so they can charge for it later.

"Knowledge wants to be free but room, board and our test proctoring system is certainly not." Strikes me as bizarre, something has to give in this system - either the fees to US schools, or giving away courses for free.

Have you ever considered that your advice to parents should have been applied to your college experience?

A college education in which you go to class, study, and do assignments is not worth $50K. College lets you do a lot more than that, and it sounds like you robbed yourself of a great four years.

> "College lets you do a lot more than that

Let me guess, thats an euphemism for "getting laid".

I do, but unfortunately, coming from Northwest Ohio and two parents who didn't attend college in its entirety themselves (my mom had an associates), the need to groom me early (assuming, here) wasn't immediately apparent.

Moreover, sitting in a tiny box, having sex, getting loaded (proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuJ60dAHyc4 -- a party house my roommates and I ran) and joining campus orgs (I ran the campus radio station as the General Manager my Sophomore year and was an active member throughout my stint at the school -- I was even awarded a years worth of paid tuition) was still not worth the skull crushing debt I now have to dig through.

If I skipped college, I still would have gotten laid, smoked pot, and learned how to program.

Edit: I taught myself how to program in my spare time. My degree is in broadcast management.

"Universities are a trap."

Why do you think your experience allows you to make a general conclusion? There are at least a few universities which teach truly valuable things: work ethic, overcoming difficult problems, and using practical (and modern) tools.

The reason I allow myself to make my claim as such is due to a combination of things, including personal experience: experience of friends and family (intelligent people with excellent marks in popular fields, unemployed or barely getting by), $1 trillion plus debt that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon (you'd think that students receiving a good education would be able to land good jobs to help them pay their bills), and albeit anecdotal, Ivy League students who are singing in the rain.

Which universities are you referencing? And more specifically, are they state or public universities that the average family can afford to send their child to?

Despite a narrow scope, I thoroughly believe that universities in general have evolved into a means for subduing the general public. It's an immaculately designed mouse trap that masquerades as a positive future. A great parallel would be diet pills. Just pay three installments of 49.99 and you'll be thin (read: drowning in employment opportunities) in no time.

So here's what I don't get: If you realized that you weren't getting value out of the classes, why did you keep going?

Why not quit and go do something else?

Great question. While I was in school, I dealt with the shitty experience of my mom passing away. She worked extremely hard to make sure we had what we did and completing my degree was something I knew would make her proud. A bit Hallmarky, but serious. Of note, I'd openly discussed dropping out with my parents several times.

Again, coming from a burned out industrial town, going to college was a big deal (if not the deal) for my parent's generation.

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