I feel like this post was written just for me. 2 days ago I wrote a post about this same thing. I will be graduating in May and I don’t know if I want to go to college yet. I’m thinking about just taking the classes that I want to take and then quitting but I’m unsure.

Thanks for the article!

I’m a web developer/sys. admin and for me personally I took 2 years of straight “degree” courses…I didn’t take any of the basics. I learned more on my own time from the internet than I did from college. I now work for a financial firm and I was hired based on pure experience, not education. But that’s just my situation…I think college is a necessary for some people. For me not the case.

College is for some but not others. I feel that unless you hated school 100% then you shouldn’t go. If not, check it out. It’s true that you can go back to college later if you would like, but it definitely won’t be the same when you’re older than all the other students and would feel awkward going to party with them. You could always quit once you start.

Usually there’s enough time to research more or work on your business while you’re in college anyways.

Ask me this question a few years ago and I’d say yes every time. Now I’m not so sure. I graduated with a bachelor’s in Computer Info Systems in 2003 and have sold cellular phones ever since, because here in Lexington, Ky at least, I can’t find anything that pertains to my degree. Sure there are tons of job openings, but if you don’t have 5 years’ expereience then forget about it. Companies look at a Bachelors degree nowdays like companies used to look at a high school diploma 15 years ago. If you only had a HS dimploma no company looked at you, they wanted the bachelors degree. Now it seems everyone either wants someone totally experienced so they don’t need to be trained or someone with a Masters. It seems today, it’s all in who you know also. I’ve been passed over for a couple jobs I know of because a friend of a friend who knew someone’s son referred a guy also trying for the same job, and that guy got it, not me.

I think the great thing about college is it gives you a chance to figure out what you want to do and learn at the same time. If you’ve figured it out then the wait for the degree can be very long… If you haven’t, hurry :).

I think college is a great experience. I am 20 years old and granted I only had the “true college experience” for one year right after High School, I wish I could go back. Now I am working full-time and attending college at half time pace. For the career field I wish to enter, Finance, a 4 year college degree is a must… too bad it’s going to take me 6-8 years or so to get it.

A college degree can only benefit you. Highly recommended to finish at least a 4-year degree even if you never use it.

[…] While I’m here, I figure I may as well take the time to comment on everything that interests me. Today, Daniel-san, I want to share with you my thoughts on college and how that drunken mess experience fits into the puzzle that is your life. This weekend, I was over at a friend of mine’s site, College Startup, and he wrote a great post (which also features a solid discussion) about whether or not college is necessary for future success. […]

I started my own audio engineering company in my sophomore year of high school, which never really made me much of a living, but I continued doing it on weekends through my 20s. I had been playing around with computers since I was 8, which would be around 1984.

So, straight out of high school, I started working for a local ISP which was started by a couple of college drop-outs, and where I learned unix and some simple html and cgi. This was 1992. As an aside, that ISP went under in 2000, and I have no idea what happened to the guys who started it.

I quit working there in 1994 to go for one semester of college at Penn State. I hated it. I really wanted to get on with my degree classes, but they had me setup for 2 years worth in general education classes, which bored the crap out of me. So, I dropped out, moved out of state and started working for a startup called ‘insure.com’, doing light duty html and cgi work.

I then got the college itch again, and thought perhaps I could make another attempt. This time I was aiming for a college in TN that had a great music business program. When I made it down here, I couldn’t get residency the first year, and couldn’t get a good job. So I started my own web development and hosting company. This was in 2000. I sold that company this year (2007), and I’m now working full time for a large corporation, and part time for a ministry. I never made it back to college, and probably never will.

I guess that my point is that whether you go to college or not, you need to be willing to continue to learn, adapt and sacrifice.

My experiences would be equivalent to a BS in Computer Science and an MBA, and in the end at 33 years old, It has taken me near to 15 years to get where I am now. I probably could have gotten a corporate job quicker had I just gone to school and gotten a BSCS and an MBA … but I wouldn’t have any of the experiences that I got from succeeding (and sometimes failing) at running my own shop. Not to mention the cool hard cash that I sold it for.

Oh… and I’m starting to get the entrepreneur itch again…I’ve got this idea that some buddies and I have been working on. We’ll see how it goes!