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144 sats \ 8 replies \ @SimpleStacker 2 Sep \ parent \ on: Is college (university) still worth it in the era of AI? AskSN
I think it's still worth it, but only for certain majors. And you can't just go to college with a passive attitude and expect the degree alone to open doors for you. It's better to think of college as being part of a startup incubator... you're immersing yourself in an environment of people with bright ideas and a desire to execute... but you still have to put in the work and be proactive about yourself.
I should have put “worth it” in quotes because I was only talking about financial returns. There are lots of non monetary returns to college.
Also, to your point, there’s potential for gains but students have to take it upon themselves to realize those.
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the network effect is real, i suppose. a girl i knew who graduated Stanford was getting constant offers to join this or that start-up being set up by her friends, and was able to network at embassy parties and things.
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Whenever I heard people complain about college I always just want to ask: how did you spend your time in college, and what courses did you take, and how did you decide on those courses, and what extracurricular activities did you involve yourself in?
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This is a great point. I spent almost all my time reading and writing. I took English courses, deciding on them in a fairly naive way (I want to be a writer, therefore I will be an English major), and my extracurriculars were mostly centered around writing...and I do feel like I could have made much better use of my college years.
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So you didn't feel like it was a good use of time? Were you able to translate your college experience into your goals with regard to writing?
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No. I would have been far better off trying to build a company or working construction for a few years. The reading and writing could have been done while doing those things, and they have the advantage of not feeling like artificial life.
On the other hand, I met my wife in college. And that has certainly been a major benefit to my life.
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This will never happen, but college departments of fields that don't have as much immediate market demand should communicate more clearly to their students how they should view their education. I think learning to read and write, both creatively and technically, is a very worthwhile endeavor, but students need to be told realistically that those skills alone are unlikely to translate into stable jobs, and they should be taught how to pursue writing ( or any other artistic endeavor) alongside other work. Not sure if that's done enough, and these fields have every incentive not to be realistic with their students about job prospects.
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I taught pre-college math for a while and I was honest with my students about how low the completion rates were for students starting in those classes.
I thought that was something advisors were derelict in and they thought I was being discouraging.
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