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Originally Posted by SEAN!
they make most of their money publishing i guess.
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Tenure track profs get additional money from editing journals and books, contract jobs, and government research grants. Plus, they can write off tonnes of shit at home cause many have incorporated themselves.
Anyway, I need to weigh in on this one. I have no idea why people think school is a waste of money if you don't know what you're doing yet. I think you should ABSOLUTELY be in school if you don't know your career aspirations. Saying you shouldn't go to school unless you have direction is possibly the worst advice I've ever seen on this board.
Look at it this way people: you can work shit jobs through your early 20s, earning low wages and saving up to get that soundsystem for your car, and by the time you're 25, you have lots of 'experience' but no degree to back you up. I don't care what people say on this board, but I'm telling you, you have to be one charismatic motherfucker in order to really start climbing the ladder without a degree. On the other hand, you could go to school, take general classes, maybe go into a bit of debt but have a wicked time, learn, become more rounded, open, and engaging as a human being. Being in school doesn't put life on hold - it can be the most enriching period in your existence. Be poor as a student or be poor as a member of the workforce; that's how it is in your early 20s. But its difficult to argue against the fact that university grads, on average, make 10g more a year than people without a degree or a trade after 5 years. Why balk then? It can only help you in the long-run.
Now there's plenty of people who graduate with a BA - and I'll be honest, it doesn't get you a job. But you speak better, you write better, you think more logically, and (I think) you care about the world around you a lot more. Perhaps more importantly, you think more critically about the world around you, and as such your interactions with people and your environment are more tempered and calculated. The fact of the matter is that it's university grads that run this world, not dudes who work shit jobs in their early 20s. That hurts! Yes! But it's true.
The only way I see school as not the best option people our age is if you start a trade IMMEDIATELY after highschool; my buds who did this are making bank and have the maturity you get when you develop as a professional tradesman.
Travel is great experience and undoubtedly offers lessons that the classroom can't. Finish school first - your travels will be far more enriching - or so I'm told from a dude who went to Europe and Asia before and after getting a degree.
Ya, I'm for sure biased in this; I've taken the academic road, and it has been a great ride. I'm doing a Master's now - and by fuck, the stakes have been raised and it's hard, but I'm already tasting the rewards of education by working with the movers and shakers in business and government. Opportunity abounds even though I don't even know what I want to do officially. But at least I have the options.
My advice is to invest in your whole self, not just a career path. He who invests in his head can never be robbed.
Sep 03, 05
