Hey Folks, I’ve been in college for six years now and have dropped classes left and right. I had been consistent in the beginning and, of course, Covid had caused a bit of problems with consistency. Since that time, my grades slipped. I’ve dropped classes as well. I should have graduated two years ago however i’ve been working to survive since. I’ve got roughly 40k in student loan debt. each time I try and take classes again, I manage to for about two weeks and then after i have some random event in life come in and just ruin my motivation. (death, sickness, major change in lifestyle, etc.). I’ve been working in a career that was based upon my major and it is a decently comfortable and consistent job (IT), with some stress just due to the human interaction, however I do have issues with debt (working well to get out of but won’t be completely out of non-student loan debt until 2025). I’d consider going back in about six or seven years depending on how life treats me, but is it worth cutting my losses, start paying back student loans, and focus on my job? If I do manage to take classes, i’ll have about two years worth of classes to bust through but I’m not sure if I can push that much effort back out.
100% agree - college is only legitimately useful if the career you want to do requires or hugely benefits from a degree, or if you somehow do some crazy networking to get into a position thanks to a corporate person getting you in. For IT it’s arguable if you even need a degree or not outside of specialized fields, but I would liken getting a degree in some IT-related field to getting a cert: great to have on a resume, but experience and attitude will always beat it out.
If you’re in the business of getting a non-STEM degree, honestly just look into going into a community college for a couple of years to learn how to socialize and maybe get a taste for higher ed stuff (this benefits anyone and everyone). After that, if you’re not gonna go for a STEM career, I would consider dropping out and focusing on work experience.
EDIT: Should clarify, this is strictly for the US. To all fellows across the pond: yes, it is that bad.
This take is super depressing, but like I said elsewhere, maybe it makes sense in the US. And that sucks, to be clear.
For what it’s worth, I spent maybe a decade in university, bounced around a couple of things before I got my actual degree. I did not do a STEM degree, I still got a lot out of it in both soft and hard skills. Also in relationships, experience and general ability to approach situations and extract information from the world. Frankly, if your time in higher education has to be driven by a securing a specific job or goal then you’re in a broken higher education system. If it leaves you in crippling debt you’re also in a broken system, but I’m pretty sure you guys know that already.
Unfortunately, the US lives with both broken education and financial systems where the latter system has turned the former (and many other institutions that should have been public services) into a for-profit institution where the main goal is to push out as many students as possible (regardless of the quality of the education) to get as much money possible, student debts be damned.
This bit by the late and great comedian George Carlin encapsulates how bad it’s been in the US for at least the past 30+ years when it comes to this kind of stuff.