AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Should people go to college?

y/n

Yes? I mean, with basically everybody in this generation going to college, having a degree will be needed to even be competitive in the job market.

Yes and no. Depends what you want to do. I'd recommend the two years for an Associate's (I think this only applies to the American college system though), but after that, only continue if you're actually going to go into a job that requires it. If you're going to be a truck driver, or machinery operator, or mechanic or construction worker, then you really don't need anything past an Associate's. Heck, even if you're going to be pop flyin' with a mid-management, bank teller, or basic office staff, as of right now, more is not necessary. A lot of the kids attending community college around here are in one of those three positions right now.

Basically, after the inexpensive (relatively speaking, of course) community college Associate's Degree, you should have a clear idea of whether you're going into a career that requires further certification. If you are, attend further schooling accordingly and enjoy that you are attending higher learning for a certified career. If not, then get to your skilled or unskilled job and enjoy the fact that you just saved tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

If you don't go to a four-year college, a lot of technical jobs instead offer apprenticeships anyway. It all really depends on what you want to do.

Refer to my post in Unimportant Topics. If it needs to be moved, I suppose this post can serve as a placeholder, but it doesn't seem like such a Taboo Topic to me, just kind of a general life decision.

Short version is, I would recommend it, but of course you aren't forced to.

How about this then: Many college are full to capacity or overfilled to the detriment of people that want to be there due to the societal pressure that you're only worth something as a human being if you go to college. Considering one of my friends attempted suicide because her parents bred the thinking into her that a B in Calculus would kill her chances of getting into any college, I'd say this pressure is too much (though, it's a complicated issue, and equally to do with the fact that her parents are pretty much the worst people around). Add to this that to some people in certain majors or classes that they feel like they're being babysat for 3+ years (maybe never being too terribly challenged), or deal with difficult classes that are only difficult because of obtuse teaching methods or terrible professors that only teach because they're required to, and the fact that the job market is pretty much as caustic, if not more, to college graduates (since they can be overqualified),and you understand why some people are skeptical of how important a costly piece of paper is. Yes, college opens up opportunities to people that they wouldn't have without it, but it's not the holy grail in life, and part of the reason it is so special has to do with how scarce it can be. After all, there are a limited number of jobs that can ask for certain degrees, and the more people with that degree, the harder it would be to get that job, especially with the scientific field seeing budget cuts/freezes, schools being shut down and clumped because of costs, and it maybe not being very important to have a team of geologists/topographers/historians in every city. Adding people to these, or really, ANY field just due to them feeling like they're a more complete person because of it seems pretty backwards.



And society still needs garbage pick up, mail delivery, and a host of other jobs that either require separate training or would be a waste to go to college for. Unfortunately though, these jobs get sidelined with the push to college, because they don't make massive amounts of cheddar, aren't glamorous, or don't fit into the "go to college, live the best life ever" mentality.



Just as you don't have anything to prove to anyone about whether you'd do something, no one has anything to prove to you. You could also jump off a bridge if you wanted to, but wouldn't it be pretty foolish to prove it just because someone said you wouldn't? While there are people who are assholes that will say "yeah, I could do that if I wanted to, I just don't want to" and you're pretty sure they probably couldn't, there's no excuse to be the asshole that needs it validated to recognize someone as an equal/that they can live up to their word. I have a friend that got into college but backed out, because it wasn't his thing. He realized the only reason he was going was because his mom made it a part of his lifetime plan to happiness, and he never questioned it. Having stepped back from college, he's now a lot more sure that he'd rather work in the culinary field. He might even go to culinary school in the future if things work out. He wouldn't have figured this out if he had gone to school to become an accountant like his mom had outlined for him, or if he eventually did, he would have wasted a lot of cheddar in the process on college. He had nothing to prove to his mom, even though she believed that he didn't go to college because he was lazy and "just tired of school".

All in all, there's different walks of life for everyone, and while there are a lot of people who chose not to go to college, or who squandered their chance to go because of stupid choices in high school, there are also people who made it and found it not to their liking. It depends on the school, environment, and most importantly, the person.

But unfortunately, society sweeps this under the rug and just insists that college is the only way to a pop flyin' life. Just like being a millionaire, or owning a certain product, or having a house, or being married or any other myriad of things. Only, in the sense of college, I've seen more family angst over someone not going/dropping out, than the fact that they're poor, or 35+ and unmarried living in an apartment.

Could I get in to College if I wanted to? Sure, I was 6th in my class so my grades weren't terrible. Can I go? Probably not easily. I'm not an American citizen so while I could apply to some and be accepted I can't apply for financial aid from the Government so paying full price using a couple scholarships isn't going to get me very far.
My parents have been working hard trying to get residency which would mean I could get financial aid and be able to legally work but it's been slow going since a lot of immigration lawyers move like molasses.

Depends on what you want to do. But like Kamak said, there will always be a need for ditch diggers. That doesn't mean you shouldn't go to college if you can though, it's more saying there will be people who can't cut it in college. They're not good enough.

That being said, if you are good enough (and let's be honest the bar isn't very high for AA) then by all means go for it. Community college is relatively inexpensive and can allow you to dabble in a number of classes to get a feel for what it is you want. Before settling on IT I attempted CG (suck at art), English (I hated reading classics), Paralegal (just felt sleazy when I looked at law and loopholes), Correctional Officer (colorblind), and even a nuclear engineer in the Navy (I had LASIK and was thus DQ'd...passed all tests though).

Keep in mind however, jobs hire based on skill more than a fancy degree. Since I'm IT I'll be studying for and passing certifications. The Bachelors is more to get on a higher pay grade. It's those certs that'll get me hired.

If you want to learn, go to college. You aren't obligated to though, no matter what your high school teachers tell you. (Although statistically, you're likely to earn far more with a real degree)

Also, I don't know that Cream Soda will read this, but saying that a feminine personality makes you not right for the military is way booty wrong.
You are aware that there are women in the military, right? Women who like shoes and nail polish? I'm pretty sure that most women in service would find that excuse pretty offensive. If you don't want to be in the military, fine whatever that's your thing. I personally am not a big fan of the idea of going away from my friends and delaying my music education on my way to a teacher, even though I'm sure the training is valuable in a variety of ways. Although heck, I might end up joining later to serve a career as an interpreter/translator if other things don't work out. Farsi has always seemed like an awesome language.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you don't want anything to do in the military, fine. But don't be using that piss-poor excuse as if you're helpless to withstand that lifestyle because of feminine tendencies.

The way the US military treats women in general is really piss poor. You're more likely to get raped by a fellow american than attacked by any enemy. And then you won't be taken seriously, treated like a slut, denied a abortion etc.



My Aunt and Uncle speak it, him more fluently than her. It always sounded nice listening to my uncle talk to his parents.

The military is traditionally, and predominantly, populated by men, which means (naturally) an atmosphere full of testosterone. Regardless, the structured, plain lifestyle and emphasis on physical strength and combat strikes me as rather masculine, and also the sort of thing I would not be interested in. Maybe I was wrong to attribute this to femininity.

masculinity and femininity are not inherently seperate

You have zero knowledge of the military if this is what you think all the branches and jobs in them are about. My brother is in the Navy working in a hospital. He has a schedule to work and is expected to keep himself fit, but there is no emphasis on being strong or good at combat. It's just a normal job. The only position with an emphasis on strength and combat are those ones meant to be in enemy territory, meaning actual soldiers.

Hell, I was in the process to join the Navy as a nuclear engineer. Passed all the tests and everything. My job would have been to keep the reactor on all the big ships in prime condition. My mind was valued more than anything I could do on the battlefield. And had I gotten in, gotten the training, then left after my service was up, I could apply those skills for a cushy job anywhere in the developed world.

And now I know. :)

While I don't doubt in the slightest that this is an issue, this has nothing to do with using her feminine personality as an excuse for why she's not cut out. If she were a dude that would be seen as "femmy" and was worried about discrimination, then that's one thing. But she's not.