4 ms·

as a current student I see no value in Universities to be honest other than the gathering of smart people in one place, which could be replicated for far cheape

as a current student I see no value in Universities to be honest other than the gathering of smart people in one place, which could be replicated for far cheaper. Everything else can be learned online for free, universities have no value proposition in the 21st century.

cmdrfred 10y ago
I was lucky enough to realize this at 15. I've got to be in the top 1% of high school drop outs. After you get to a certain level professionally everyone just assumes you have a college degree anyway.
- thedailymail 10y ago
  Similar experience as a college grad in a field where everyone is expected to have a Ph. D. After a while people just started adding a "Dr." to my name.
konceptz 10y ago
I would offer the opposite opinion where the life lessons learned in a proper university's atmosphere can have (albeit less tangible) positive career effects. I'm frequently put in situations that draw on social skills that I honed during college, and I'm not just talking about partying. Things like student government or other organizing events help me as a technical consultant.
oddlyaromatic 10y ago
I felt like this for part of college. I came around, and I regret not "buying in" earlier. Often in life I've thought that the thing around me didn't have much value and I lived in my own little world. I finally got enough experience for it to click that you can find value in most situations, including college. And in fact college has unique qualities that you may not be able to find again later in life. I hope you are having a blast.
fmap 10y ago
Where do you study and which subject? In an ideal world, I would recommend people to go to university iff they want to do research level work. For everyone else, there should be on the job training and a highschool education which teaches you how to efficiently approach a new subject on your own. In reality, the undergraduate programs take the place of a proper highschool education and businesses look to degrees for accreditation, so I think it's very dangerous to tell people that there is "no value in universities"... On the other hand, if you happen to live in a country where universities charge you tens of thousands of dollars every year, the situation is entirely different. That is crazy and everyone knows it.
cirgue 10y ago
Gathering smart people in one place is exactly the point and the major value add. It facilitates the construction of robust social networks of people in a field, even at the undergraduate level. That enormously valuable and impossible to replicate online.
- stale2002 10y ago
  Sure, but how about we figure out how to do the whole gathering of smart people thing WITHOUT forcing people to spend 100-200k?
Chathamization 10y ago
I have to say I agree. In high population density areas I've never had trouble find groups of intelligent people working on issues and sharing ideas - active political groups, political philosophy Meetup groups, programming groups, etc. Usually these groups are more interesting than their college counterparts, since they have a greater diversity of individuals, avoid things like the inherent student/professor divisions one finds in college, and often are more in touch with real world problems and experiences. Nor is there a shortage of cultural and intellectual events - there are often free talks from famous authors, different cultural festivals, art exhibits, etc. Or sports, for that matter. I remember reading on a financial site that bundled products are often a disadvantage for the consumer, since they force you to buy products you don't need. This is how I feel about college. I appreciate that there are many people who don't take advantage of cultural and intellectual events unless pushed, or people who don't want to live in a population dense area outside of a dormitory setting. But there is often a lack of understanding that many of us do take advantage of these things outside of a college area, that the world isn't necessarily an intellectual wasteland outside of the university setting. But when we want the necessary credentials for a career provided by a university (and the somewhat poor training that accompanies it), we're forced to pay for many things we simply don't want or need from the university.
- neuromantik8086 10y ago
  For certain fields, however, college definitely does offer value beyond merely being a societal convention in which the intelligent all happen to descend upon some bucolic village for 9 months out of the year. Are you going to buy your own electron microscope? Glassware? Broker bulk deals with chemical suppliers? Can you afford an MRI? Purchase a billion different journal subscriptions at exorbitant costs? For these types of equipment it makes sense to pool together resources and achieve economies of scale, which is (beyond social mingling) where the main advantage of college lies in my view.

cmdrfred 10y ago

I was lucky enough to realize this at 15. I've got to be in the top 1% of high school drop outs. After you get to a certain level professionally everyone just assumes you have a college degree anyway.

thedailymail 10y ago
Similar experience as a college grad in a field where everyone is expected to have a Ph. D. After a while people just started adding a "Dr." to my name.

konceptz 10y ago

I would offer the opposite opinion where the life lessons learned in a proper university's atmosphere can have (albeit less tangible) positive career effects. I'm frequently put in situations that draw on social skills that I honed during college, and I'm not just talking about partying. Things like student government or other organizing events help me as a technical consultant.

oddlyaromatic 10y ago

I felt like this for part of college. I came around, and I regret not "buying in" earlier. Often in life I've thought that the thing around me didn't have much value and I lived in my own little world. I finally got enough experience for it to click that you can find value in most situations, including college. And in fact college has unique qualities that you may not be able to find again later in life. I hope you are having a blast.

fmap 10y ago

Where do you study and which subject? In an ideal world, I would recommend people to go to university iff they want to do research level work. For everyone else, there should be on the job training and a highschool education which teaches you how to efficiently approach a new subject on your own. In reality, the undergraduate programs take the place of a proper highschool education and businesses look to degrees for accreditation, so I think it's very dangerous to tell people that there is "no value in universities"... On the other hand, if you happen to live in a country where universities charge you tens of thousands of dollars every year, the situation is entirely different. That is crazy and everyone knows it.

cirgue 10y ago

Gathering smart people in one place is exactly the point and the major value add. It facilitates the construction of robust social networks of people in a field, even at the undergraduate level. That enormously valuable and impossible to replicate online.

stale2002 10y ago
Sure, but how about we figure out how to do the whole gathering of smart people thing WITHOUT forcing people to spend 100-200k?

Chathamization 10y ago

I have to say I agree. In high population density areas I've never had trouble find groups of intelligent people working on issues and sharing ideas - active political groups, political philosophy Meetup groups, programming groups, etc. Usually these groups are more interesting than their college counterparts, since they have a greater diversity of individuals, avoid things like the inherent student/professor divisions one finds in college, and often are more in touch with real world problems and experiences. Nor is there a shortage of cultural and intellectual events - there are often free talks from famous authors, different cultural festivals, art exhibits, etc. Or sports, for that matter. I remember reading on a financial site that bundled products are often a disadvantage for the consumer, since they force you to buy products you don't need. This is how I feel about college. I appreciate that there are many people who don't take advantage of cultural and intellectual events unless pushed, or people who don't want to live in a population dense area outside of a dormitory setting. But there is often a lack of understanding that many of us do take advantage of these things outside of a college area, that the world isn't necessarily an intellectual wasteland outside of the university setting. But when we want the necessary credentials for a career provided by a university (and the somewhat poor training that accompanies it), we're forced to pay for many things we simply don't want or need from the university.

neuromantik8086 10y ago
For certain fields, however, college definitely does offer value beyond merely being a societal convention in which the intelligent all happen to descend upon some bucolic village for 9 months out of the year. Are you going to buy your own electron microscope? Glassware? Broker bulk deals with chemical suppliers? Can you afford an MRI? Purchase a billion different journal subscriptions at exorbitant costs? For these types of equipment it makes sense to pool together resources and achieve economies of scale, which is (beyond social mingling) where the main advantage of college lies in my view.