What do you think about universities?

[Lotus Victoria]

I mean, your overall opinion about universities and college stuff. Do you like it, do you think it is a waste of time and money...

[Zogarth]

More or less the best, if not in many cases the only way to get the high-wage jobs. At least in Denmark that is. And since it is free to attend, i don't see how it could be a waste of money, but definitely not a waste of time.

[urasim]

They're okay. They're best when you know the direction of your life. They're the worst when you're an unprepared child that's being fed bad information that will lead to debt and regret for the rest of your life.

[s_bushido]

You get out of it what you put into it.

[Endus]

There are two reasons to go to university/college;

1> To get a better job, in which case you should have a concrete plan for funding your education, an understanding of the job market you'll be facing on graduation, and knowledge that your future skills will be in demand, or

2> Self-improvement in a field of study you find personally interesting.

You can roll #2 into #1 if you're A> willing to invest the time and effort into getting a graduate degree (at least an MA, ideally a doctorate), and B> again know that there will be hiring in that particular field, and you're willing to exert yourself to not just attend conferences and the like, but actively seek to present your research at them and/or publish said research in journals. If you aren't doing that stuff before you graduate, you're probably not gonna cut it.

That said, if you're independently wealthy or have income handled from some other perspective (like, say, you're a youtube celebrity or something), then studying whatever you find interesting isn't an issue even if it won't help you get a job, because you've got employment covered already, so why not study what you want?

The issue is that people jump into #2 and assume, incorrectly, that a job will work out in the end. Which isn't remotely guaranteed. If you're just looking for jobs that have "has a degree" as a requirement, those jobs mostly suck and aren't in that field to begin with, which isn't necessarily bad if you were planning for it, but then you'd be talking about a #1 path, really.

For instance, getting a degree in History doesn't lead to a lot of high-paying work, directly. If you were planning on a law degree, though, a history degree is a decent first step; most law colleges in Canada require at least most of a baccalaureate degree before considering an application to law school (one year short of the BA/BSc can be okay). But this means you're taking that history degree as a stepping stone, you've still got a long-term employment plan.


Edit: As s_bushido said, you get out what you put in. If you treat it like High School 2.0, you're gonna have a High School 2.0 career path ahead of you. So assistant manager of the Wendy's, rather than front-line staff.

[GennGreymane]

Uni is what you make of it. I used it as a way to completely change who I was as well as lead to my future career.

[GodlyBob]

I think they're educational? They're a great way to learn about just about anything; what you choose to do with that information is going to be up to you. Not everything you learn is going to directly increase your paycheck, but that doesn't devalue the knowledge itself.

[Deleted]

Priamary reason to go to one is to meet right people, make connections and such stuff for your future career. Learning comes second. You will need to learn and relearn more during your career than you ever learn at university anyway.

[jackofwind]

They're useless if you think just attending one is going to be a trip to a good career. You get out of them what you put into them, and they're a good place to discover and focus on study areas of interest - but at the end of the day you still need a career plan.

[Independent voter]

Lot's of girls at universities.

Take a major like history so you don't have any labs or literature maybe. That way you have the whole afternoon off.