Scam Vocational Colleges

Skills and reliability are always going to be more important to an employer than a degree, even in jobs where it is absolutely necessary for you to have one. If all your competitors have the same degree, you still need to come through with the skill set or get the boot. A degree is a fantastic thing to have, of course, but I don't look down on people who didn't get one. There are many intelligent, successful people who didn't attend college. It all depends on what you want to do. It's often a lottery - in certain fields, there's a small chance you'll get a great job in your area of expertise, but a much greater one that you won't, unless you pick a degree that is in great demand, and that will hold your interest for your entire fifty-year stint in the workforce. There are no guarantees, but the brilliant or astute people will almost always make their way up the ladder far enough to live comfortably - if they choose to not buy into the huge scam that all higher education often is, it doesn't guarantee failure. I respect someone who dishes out a great deal of money to attend college for something they love and excel at. That said - there's no shortage of people who are completely lost and falter after college because they've never had a job and have no life skills, thus rendering the tens of thousands they or their parents spent useless. You can't buy life experience. The ideal situation is to have the money and life situation to be able to attend university for something you love, then actually have the other skills and personality traits to back that thing up when you're finished.

I'll agree that all of the mail order and correspondance courses are a scam and a complete joke. Some of the vocational and community colleges are. I just enrolled in a two year college, but when I'm finished, I'll be out a grand total of $6,000 in loans instead of $60,000, and have a much greater chance of earning more than I do now. If I don't - people have spent six grand or two years on far more ludicrous things. Colleges like this are a great way for people to escape blue collar drudgery for the rest of their life - I doubt many DeVry students aspire to make six figures in a prestigious position. However, it's certainly a major improvement over their current situation, and no less respectable just because they are learning a trade and not devoting a huge portion of their life to academia.

I'm a big believer that, unless you're a history major, or some other major requiring that you've read a great deal of related literature and will be poring over aged texts for the rest of your life, that it is more important to learn actual skills related to the JOB YOU WILL BE DOING instead of taking 150 unrelated courses covering everything from Irish folk tales to ridiculously advanced math you'll never use. Yes, it's a nice concept that people are scholarly, erudite and well rounded, but many people either cannot afford or aren't interested in taking so many unrelated courses. This may be just be my style, though - I'm straightforward and like to cut the crap out whenever possible. Just teach people what they need to know and let them pursue their own interests later. There should be no financial obligation to take anything you don't want to take. It's your money!

Jam it back in, in the dark.