Was College Worth It? | Personal Finance & Lifestyle | Yakezie Forums

Working in IT, having a college degree is pretty huge. Regardless of performance– without one, I would likely be stuck in a tech support/operations role.

We are interviewing many candidates right now, and for there really aren't many opportunities for folks that don't have a degree. It doesn't even have to be a Computer Science degree.. Just something that says "I am willing to work hard and stick through some adversity to meet a goal".

At one time, I actually thought that my first degree (psychology) wasn't worth the piece of paper that it was printed. My accounting degree, and CPA license, were much more valuable; weren't they?

Once I left E&Y, and started applying for Controller and CFO positions, I quickly realized that having a Psychology degree, in addition to an Accounting degree, really helped me to stand out from the other applicants. The trick to anything is positioning it in a way that helps you the most.

To summarize, the $25k I spent on my first degree was a complete waste of money until I leveraged it with my second degree. When all is said and done, the ROI is amazing and well worth the effort.

Okay, honestly, my undergrad experience did little for me except to actually help me focus where my talents and interests were.  For that, I am thankful.  I can't say I learned a lot of useful skills (with the exception of a few classes, which I could have always taken independently) with my undergrad degree.  However, my master's degree taught me a lot of useful skills.  Do I make a lot of money?  Not by a lot of standards, but I still feel both of my degrees were worth it, if only for the fact that I was able to find a career I love and hone my skills so I can be a success in what I do.  I wouldn't trade it. 

I went to school and got a degree in history. Now I work for a tech company with skills I taught myself. Good lord I was dumb in college – I could have saved myself at least $20-30k by not going or at least graduating sooner (could have done that but advisers kept me in full four years).

Going now for my associates.  I've been working on it for a while, but "life" kept getting in the way.  I'm doing it with grants and scholarships, though.  No school debt for me.  My chosen career path simply won't pay enough for it.

The answer to the question comes down to what major you choose and what your tuition rate it.  If you choose a major with low income earning potential and attend an expensive college, the answer it no, college is not worth it.  If you choose a major with low income potential and attend a community college, then I'd aruge that it is worth it….

Major and Tuition….All it means is to have an understanding of the future earning potential and the number of years it will take to pay back the tuition.

I got an engineering degree and masters from a state school in 4+2 years.  Total marginal cost over living on my own without going to school was probably about $40,000 total.  I basically covered that (plus living costs) working programming jobs and playing poker and gin nights, weekends and summers – my dad kicked in about $5,000.  No debt.

Marginal salary increases from those degrees over typical highschool education jobs probably total about $1.5M at this point.  Plus my current trading activities would be much more difficult if I didn't learn the things I learned in engineering school.

Yeah, it was worth it.

That said, taking 5 years to get an upper crust parties degree from Yale and paying $300,000 or whatever for the privilege might not be a good play.

Off-Road Finance said:

That said, taking 5 years to get an upper crust parties degree from Yale and paying $300,000 or whatever for the privilege might not be a good play.

I would trade my college experience for this.  

Post edited 5:58 pm – March 5, 2012 by Freedom 48

That's so true.  I definitely perfected my analytical thinking skills in school!  Perhaps I should think of it that way =)