Is going to university worth it?

[Impy]

university will get you an education
college will get you a job

[shanekingsley]

university will get you an education
college will get you a job

I disagree with such generalizations.

Both will do whatever you want them to. Your life is what you make it. Go where your interests and passions take you.
Having taken programs in both college and university for many years, I'll take courses from whomever can expose and challenge me in the manner I'm looking for.

I studied HR/ Adult Education/ Training & Development at Ryerson and decided to leave the industry after a few years despite making awesome money/benefits for a large firm. I went back to school at Humber College for a few years and now I'm at Guelph University studying horticulture related programs. The money is less than what I was making before, but I could care less, because I'm much, much happier.

[GSPLover]

Depends on what you want to end up doing. Doctor, lawyer, etc you need uni. If you want to go into IT I would say screw Uni, I did. I worked 3 co op work terms at IBM and got hired even before I was out of school. Same with my bro-in-law. We ended up educating some engineers about how to actually build a computer, what hardware to put in them etc etc. They only had read about doing it and had not actually done it. We also found this in other areas such as programming, networking etc etc. I would hire a college student versus a uni student if both were fresh out of school.

[Yorkee]

More than a decade ago, I grad from community college major in CS. I made $10 per hr in a data processing center.

After 1 year, I am sick of it because I am going no where. So I went to University, when I graduate my junior job is an entry level DBA which made $28k per year. After that, I get to choose the job, and salary increase around 50% every job change.

There is no way I was able to land jobs south of the border if I don't have a degree (much more opportunities in my field). And there is no way I can involved in government contract farms or any big corporate without that piece of paper.

That said, this is my experience only. I have a few successful friends with only college education. And a few unsuccessful friends with brand-name uni degrees or MD...

[Flashmonkey]

there are lots of people that do not find jobs in their feild of study.
there are lots of people that use uni as an excuse to stay away from working.

This. I find that a lot of people go to university for "the lifestyle"....whatever the hell that is. I guess this is why a lot of university grads end up in somewhat questionable fields of work, if they end up finding work at all.

Personally, I think university is worth it, provided you go in with the right mindset. They key element is that you learn how to think and operate on your own (or in large groups) because of the way it's structured (ie: professors don't give a crap about you, etc). This is beneficial for anyone that wants to be some kind of professional or is going into a "white-collar" line of work.

My only beef with university is that these days, it's seen as the "superior" option, and a lot of jobs won't even give you notice unless you have a Bachelor's degree in something. That's just stupid. I blame the media...as always. I don't know why, though.

[Mikey-D]

Depends on what you want to end up doing. Doctor, lawyer, etc you need uni. If you want to go into IT I would say screw Uni, I did. I worked 3 co op work terms at IBM and got hired even before I was out of school. Same with my bro-in-law. We ended up educating some engineers about how to actually build a computer, what hardware to put in them etc etc. They only had read about doing it and had not actually done it. We also found this in other areas such as programming, networking etc etc. I would hire a college student versus a uni student if both were fresh out of school.

I think IT is too broad a term. While I would generally agree with you for hardware-based jobs (IT admin, network admin, desktop services, etc), I'd disagree on the software front. It's been my experience with college grads that they come out knowing how to program in a language or two, but don't have the fundamental theoretical knowledge in order to easily pick up new languages. When they look at a new language, they try to frame it terms of the languages they already know.

The same applies to engineering. While I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to computer engineering, I don't think you'll see too many college grads designing ground-breaking chipsets over at Intel, not to mention research fields like computer security. That said, you're not going to see many people doing those things with only a Bachelor's degree, either.

[TomC]

go to redflagdeals careers section if you want more feedback regarding this topic

[Duster929]

Oh, how I've missed the GTAM board. Always good fun.

Yes, going to University is worth it. Get as much education as you can.

You might learn a very important lesson, which is that the purpose of education is not to make more money.

You might also learn another very important lesson, which is that the more education you have, the more money you will make in your career.

And you will also learn perhaps the most important lesson: that education will give you things that you can't buy with money, no matter how much of it you have.

--- D

[TomC]

Depends on what you want to end up doing. Doctor, lawyer, etc you need uni. If you want to go into IT I would say screw Uni, I did. I worked 3 co op work terms at IBM and got hired even before I was out of school. Same with my bro-in-law. We ended up educating some engineers about how to actually build a computer, what hardware to put in them etc etc. They only had read about doing it and had not actually done it. We also found this in other areas such as programming, networking etc etc. I would hire a college student versus a uni student if both were fresh out of school.

That's because engineers don't specialize in IT support. Likewise, the engineer is doing the wrong line of work if he is building desktop machines (if this was for servers, that would be a different matter).

I work at IBM as well, on my team, we don't have any college grads, we work in between software development and sales. There are certain fields of study that are more tuned towards college education. For example, the media/design folks mostly come from college educated backgrounds...as far as i know, i don't know a single software developer in IBM from a college discipline.

[TomC]

Depends on what you want to end up doing. Doctor, lawyer, etc you need uni. If you want to go into IT I would say screw Uni, I did. I worked 3 co op work terms at IBM and got hired even before I was out of school. Same with my bro-in-law. We ended up educating some engineers about how to actually build a computer, what hardware to put in them etc etc. They only had read about doing it and had not actually done it. We also found this in other areas such as programming, networking etc etc. I would hire a college student versus a uni student if both were fresh out of school.

Furthermore, at the Toronto Lab, our IT support division is outsourced...the staff that work in that division don't actually work for IBM at all...

[shanekingsley]

Oh, how I've missed the GTAM board. Always good fun.

Yes, going to University is worth it. Get as much education as you can.

You might learn a very important lesson, which is that the purpose of education is not to make more money.

You might also learn another very important lesson, which is that the more education you have, the more money you will make in your career.

And you will also learn perhaps the most important lesson: that education will give you things that you can't buy with money, no matter how much of it you have.

--- D

Good to have you back.

Those really in pursuit of education also realize that the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

[vinne]

Yeah...No...I mean Yeah.

[knowledge]

I was wondering the same thing...and it depends on the field.

I'm dropping out of university to go to college next year. While I love to learn, I need to have a sense of security before I can really learn.

The new plan's to go to college, get a job, make my way up, and go back to school as I need it.

I'm definitely going to go for a philosophy degree at some point in my life, just for myself.

[nfq]

An arts degree would be much less useful....unless you did not want to work in an office working on computers all day.

And if you are artistically talented.......how could a comp sci degree be a better choice...?

I'm just saying that i'm very glad not everyone is in compsci, and that some people stay in the arts.

I get what you mean and ironically, I took extra courses that interested me that were from the Arts. My point was that the internship experience was worth more than anything as a whole. It's that the University allowed me that opportunity and I used it. That's what it comes down to. Everyone pays the same tuition and is enrolled in the same class, but who puts 100% into it vs the half assed attempts by others who then say Uni sucks? Know what I mean?

With my Geography degree I did location analysis for one of big 6 banks, did consulting for Toyota and Shoppers's Drug Mart and now back at a Bank again. How's that for a geography degree?

I didn't mean to knock the Geography degree, just first thing that popped into my head because of a few friends who are in the program solely because they don't know what the hell they're doing with themselves. Guess that doesn't help the image of the degree. Needless to say that it's what you do with it. All of my job interviews always asked if I had post secondary (they didn't care from where), simply Yes Or No to 'do you have a degree/diploma?' and then 'What have you done?'

When I have (a) kids[s], I'll make sure they get a skilled trade first and then they can go to university if they want to. I wish I had gone with that route. Ended up doing something completely unrelated to what I was studying and got my foot in the door mostly because of who I knew.

I worked construction since finishing highschool and all through University to pay off school. Learned how to Shingle, Drywall, did industrial roofing, some carpentry, you name it. If the fit hits the shan, I know that I have the work ethic and skill set to pick up a hammer, if you will, and make a living, if I so choose. But because of working that back breaking labour and watching most of my cousins, uncles and own father go through it, I'd rather the office gig. YMMV.

nfq.

[nfq]

I was wondering the same thing...and it depends on the field.

I'm dropping out of university to go to college next year. While I love to learn, I need to have a sense of security before I can really learn.

The new plan's to go to college, get a job, make my way up, and go back to school as I need it.

I'm definitely going to go for a philosophy degree at some point in my life, just for myself.

Ever consider one of the newer type joint programs? like Humber-Guelph? Seneca-York? or whoever else?

Get your College diploma, then for a couple more years, earn a degree as well. If I could go back and do it all over again, I'd take the College-Uni approach. Something to consider. I found it hard to go back to school once you're out (wife, kids, mortgage....)

[inreb]

I worked construction since finishing highschool and all through University to pay off school. Learned how to Shingle, Drywall, did industrial roofing, some carpentry, you name it. I'd rather the office gig. YMMV.

nfq.

A good carpenter knows you can't pound a square peg into a round hole. My mileage did, in fact, vary.

[johnp]

"Train hard; fight easy."

- Alexander Suvorov

[Freestyle72]

I haven't even graduated yet and I have found university to be extremely rewarding both as an experience and monetarily speaking. I'll let you know how much more rewarding it is after this April when I graduate.

[americrack]

All your answers are in the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

Good Read

[Amazon]

well I'm going to university in the fall, so I hope for me, that it's worth it