Does just having a degree actually make your life betteR?

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I heard just having a degree makes your life better.

Is this true. Is this oversold to Americans

No, but it can lead to better job opportunities, which means more money. Others feel as though it's a nice or great achievement. I am happy to be receiving mine.

Someone told me this:


"As long as it's not a specialization like nursing,engineering, ect. It doesn't matter what it's in....just that you have one.

I don't see how it would make your life better unless you were wanting to use it. I mean, a big part of why I wanted to go to college was for the experience. Is that what they meant? My life is good, but it's cause I like college, not because of the degree part. And I have to disagree...a degree like nursing or engineering would almost certainly be easier to get a job with (in the US).

Degrees mean more as a symbol of commitment and competence; I've heard of a person with a music degree being hired into an airplane company because he had a degree.

Having a degree is not the same as having the education claimed by the degree. The degree itself means two things basically: 1) you stuck in for the long haul, and 2) you have provided a shipload of money to an organization over the course of years contractually enrolled. The education claimed by the degree can either be there or not be there, depending upon what kind of student one is. One kind of student seeks knowledge and wants to learn, another kind realizes that learning is not required for getting a good grade but merely churning out the busywork of the assignments and cramming in short term memory that which is necessary for successful completion of tests and quizzes. Of course, there are many variations in between and beyond these two types.

Having a degree will become more and more meaningless as two things increase. Firstly, the quantity of people holding degrees. Secondly, the number of for-profit degree mills whose effects are primarily to benefit themselves financially and secondarily, unintentionally, to muddy the water with students provided a substandard education yet still holding a decorative piece of toilet paper the same as someone who got one from a school where the focus was more upon the education of the students and less upon the building fund.

These days having a degree does not make your life better. I do not know a single person who's graduated from college in the past 3 years that is doing well. They're pretty much all either a) unemployed or b) working for minimum wage. There's one person who I thought was doing good, but it turns out they have to find a second job, because they can't afford their bills! My friend, who's a college dropout, is doing better than any of the people I know who graduated recently.

It depends on what it is. My degree is not so useful but my cousin is a nurse and thus has a job because of hers.

A degree makes your life better much the same way paper money does.

It is a symbol of work invested and goals achieved. And if it was honest work and worthwhile gols, that feels good [I have one degree I know is shabby, but the others are real in that sense]

It certifies that someone - for money the government, for the degree the U - will stand behind transactions involving it.

It has a limited economic value which rests on nothing intrinsic, but on the state of the market and the strength of the institution.

Inflation or societal change can turn it into kindling at any time.

Value the work, value the knowledge, live with society as bdest you can.

+1

I have a AA. A BA in the same discipline and double majored at the BA level. Got a JD too.

Want fries with that?

Opportunity is all about being in the right place, at the right time, meeting/knowing the right people. Having that piece of paper can be key to getting a door to open, but getting through that door has NOTHING to do with what you learn in school.

So, a ton of education but nothing that helps me get the job.

Others who are NT are just experiencing the problem of a glut of supply and no demand. All these college grads in an economy where tons of college grad jobs were eliminated and all those unemployed and experienced workers are competing for the same openings.

Before it got real bad in 2008, here was the trend in MY LIFETIME.

In grade school. Employers wined and dined graduates to get them to come to work for them.

In high school. Graduates were having to make the pitch to employers...no more wining and dining.

By 2-year college. Graduates were having to aggressively market to employers.

By the time I went back to get my 4-year degree. Having the degree meant nothing. Employers ALSO wanted relevant job experience or you had to know someone with pull to get you an interview.

By the time I got my JD degree. 9/11 just happened. Lots of people unemployed from economic impact. Was lucky to get a job slinging fish at a Wal-Mart.

Notice a trend?

who does this racket benefit, aside from the educational establishment?

The lenders of exponential interest loans. A four year degree means four years worth of gathering principal and six months afterward a steady revenue. They'll gladly let you pay only interest at a lower rate too - it means you'll be indebted longer and continue to finance them. If you can't finance them, be prepared for threatening letters from collection agencies and myriad summons to view the rectitude of the US Department of Justice.

this is one of those questions akin to "how does one know one will get lucky and win big on the lotto??" - how does one know that one will get something renumerative out of all the time and energy devoted to getting that fancy piece of paper? and if one does NOT know for SURE that financial success will certainly follow from all this trouble, they why bother? if a person wants the degree for personal edification and nothing else, how is the degree worth so much more than the autodidactic method? if it's akin to climbing a high peak, in that one proved to oneself that one simply could, then is this worth the price of a house or two? "enquiring minds want to know."

To some people it might be like a lucky charm, similar to gangsters wearing crucifixes. Others seriously want an education, like I did, although I shouldn't have picked my major on the basis of the Occupational Outlook Handbook... which, like the weather, changes its predictions over the multi-year course of college indentureship.

The mention of medical professions does bring some validity to the necessity of medical schools - so long as the medical schools are reputable and not like Rasmussen or any other degree mill. From back in 2004, when I was visiting colleges prior to getting my hopes dashed by the FAFSA requiring me to input my stepdad's income, I had thought that Bethel University was an excellent school. However, its tuition was $25,000 a semester. I had been accepted by Bethel to be enrolled, but was incapable of providing the extra $16,000 out of pocket after the college's own loans were applied. If I had been able to go, I would be approximately $200,000 in debt as of 2008 and then moreover by now from mere interest. It would have been neat to study chemistry, but there's really no job market for it afterward without a PhD and a millennium of experience. I don't consider all colleges to be degree mills, but I also don't consider them to be worth their price tag for education for most fields of study.

no wonder so many people would rather just buy a lotto ticket every week. it sounds to me that one's chances of success in today's world are more similar than different, whether one goes into severe hock for a fancy piece of paper versus buying a much cheaper piece of paper every week. but, i suppose, that snob appeal [i have a degree which puts me above all the uneducated hoi polloi] is priceless.

Rather than lotto tickets or other overpriced no certainty of return on investment papers, a better solution as to the utilization of ones finances would be to invest it. Stocks, bonds, notes, money market funds, etc. Those at least have a higher probability of return on investment versus flooding oneself with liabilities in the hopes of one day possibly being able to afford it if everything goes well.