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Comment by proee | Hacker News Reader

Maybe rephrase "College Is a Waste for __fill_in_the_blank__ Majors"

Is college a waste for Doctors & Lawyers? Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job?

College is a big waste for a lot of majors, but certainly not in general...

I know they're not valued much here at HN, but don't forget the Liberal Arts types. Art History and such may not be my cup of tea, but I'm glad someone out there is teaching and studying it.

College may not do much for the entrepreneur types, but I didn't know I was one until after college, and it took the skills I acquired there to get myself off the ground.

    College !== Law School
    College !== Medical School

Doctors do learn on the job. Med School, Residency, etc. When they are done with that they are "practicing". They also spend time keeping up with the latest research and best practices(we hope).

Doctors learn medicine in medical school. College is just wasting time jumping through hoops.

As for law, a friend who recently graduated from law school said, "We would spend all semester paying to hear our professors who just liked to hear themselves talk. Then we would spend our summers interning and get paid to learn useful skills."

Doctors learn the prerequisites to the stuff they learn in Medical school: chemistry, biology, all that other science.

Lawyers learn the law in law school. We do not actually need to go to college for anything, since the law does not rely on any prerequisite knowledge, except maybe (American) political history and intro-level macroeconomics.

Do you want a doctor to learn his trade on-the-job?

That's what rotations/residency/intership are. On-the-job training.

Not to mention electrical, mechanical or chemical engineers, scientists, editors, diplomats, or anyone else who requires a large and deep pool of specialized knowledge.

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