Quotations and Literature Forum

Aside from those who haven't reached that point in their education, who haven't graduated college yet, etc.

Who here simply does not have a college degree, via Drop-out, or Not Going?

I had a long, varied and interesting life without a degree. It's a changing world however, and paper is respected over ability, so at 43 I went to uni.

As a coach I was mentored by the national, Olympic team and most senior coach in the country. Thanks to the uni system convincing the world it's the only standard worth having, in academic worlds a first year student is more valued.
Stop fucking whinging and GO, looking for excuses on the internet is bordering on the pathetic Thomas, and I like to think you are better that this.

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السلام عليكم

Although you accuse me of whining and looking for excuses on the internet, which is an opinion I do respect (hey, respect your elders or kiss your ass goodbye), not going is still my first choice as of now. I didn't think I'd be seen as inadequate, however. But such is life.

Why don't you give me the benefits of having a degree and I'll give you my reasons? Or perhaps you could relate as to what your life was like without it?

I have over 28 years experience competing and coaching in weightlifting and powerlifting. Lots of experience and knowledge I acquired from reading, experimenting and working with truly knowledgeable people. To get any of this acknowledged I had to get a degree, to be considered employable I probably should have gone on the Phd. We now live in a world where qualification is more valuable than practical experience.
I'm not arguing for a uni education being of any quality, rather the
necessity of one for easing the passage through career structures.
The whining bit was intended tongue in cheek, so stop whining about it.
I think, old bean, you are having a crisis of confidence and possibly a bit of overwork from your last year of school. permit me to suggest a 'gap' year.

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السلام عليكم

Gap years are the way forward. Get out and see the world. It will change you.

well i didn't take a gap year, i took a gap in studying a 'simple' course, i had A grades all through high school an was going to go study science or architecture, but wasn't sure in which direction to go...

so i took a gap and started studying a National Diploma (i think this is an associates degree in the US?) in Marketing with the intention of moving on to science after the first year. A National dip is more practical than a Bcom degree and in this country you can do an extra year to turn it into a technical degree. After the first year i decided that this is actually where i want to go... The business world is also more favorable to Btech (the extra year conversion) because we have more practical knowledge than the every tom, dick and harry who has a Bcom or other conventional degree.

Moral of the story... Tommy, you don't have to go straight to uni, from what i see it's easy to get into uni in America and most people do it, so don't let up the chance, but there are other more practical options where you can earn a qualification. But a qualification is what the world wants...

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-Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt

A gap year... I forgot about that option. I don't quite know what that would take, with finances and work, etc.

I am very certain that I will be moving out of this city within the next year and a half... my last summer here for awhile, now that I think about it. There is no music business in the middle of a cornfield, I can tell you that.

You could do a short period in the military, that would certainly give you some alternative perspectives.

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السلام عليكم

OR you could come to Europe and surf the landscape for a while, finances and everything else permitting... Get a non-anglosaxon perspective on things, as it were.

I lost a year at uni, due to missing most of my classes, (there was a 50% + 1 attendance minimum) and I was totally bummed out, thinking of not carrying on, but then I remembered that if I didn't, my chances of leaving this festering sore on the bum of planet Earth would fall to almost nil.
I haven't the privilege of living anywhere fancy, and Macedonians usually need visas to take a crap, if you'll excuse my French.
I think my point is- if nothing else, that piece of paper is a passport into certain structures that can make your life a whole hell of a lot easier. I'd become a gypsy in a heartbeat- no degree, no passport, no ID, just living on the fringes of civilization... that is, if I didn't think I'd hate every minute of it.
Most of us are addicted to civilization and its benefits in a way that doesn't permit us to experiment with alternative routes to reaping those benefits. If the Man tells you to get a degree, you get a degree. You can spit on it after you get it if you want to.

I second (or third?) the motion for a gap year. What you do in it is your own thing, I guess.

che

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Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert.

Thanks, folks. Much appreciated.

So take a year off, work full time and take night courses at a community college.

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Sanctuary: a small safe place in a troubling world

Actually matey, we may not have properly understood your problem . After all here, and most other places I suppose, one only goes to Uni once. We don't need a degree to get into Uni to get a degree. One of our pollies did suggest this once, but he was howled down PDQ.

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السلام عليكم

If I understand you correctly, you don't have to graduate high school before entering college?

No old chap, we don't have to go to college to get to uni. Only in the land of the free do you have to waste a lot of money on a pointless level of education.

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السلام عليكم

I'm missing something.

Uni = college, no?