Teachers and leaders of American Society need to stop telling our kids to go to College!

[johnsobas]

HappySqurriel said:

gergroy said:

so you are cherry picking jobs?  why don't you look at the averages of those with college degrees versus those with high school degrees and lets look at the difference.

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77

oh look at that, people with college degrees statistically make more, a lot more.  So yeah, we should encourage our students not to want that right?  

The problem is the averages distort the reality quite dramatically ...

For every petroleum engineer that is earning $150,000+ after 10 years there are 11 humanities majors that get their $30,000 salary boosted to the average of $40,000.

College is a great idea if you're career minded and heading into a field that is in demand in the region you live. It is a bad idea if you're going to school to discover your passion.

it's not just that though, a huge percentage of the people who didn't go to college are bums.  That doesn't mean if I don't go to college that i'm a bum and gonna make less money.  Most people who go to college are career minded people, i can still be career minded and not go to college.  However, i would get lumped in the statistic with all the bums anyway.  Not to mention the lost income and student loans along with interest.