College is a waste of time.

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From my experience after attending 8 of the planned 10 semesters for my course, I can safely conclude that college 'education' is nothing more than a waste of time, money and patience.

The insane amount of money I had to fork in for each subject does not translate fairly to the knowledge that I get. I learn a lot more by studying alone and in solitude under the same period of time - without spending any money!

Attending lectures is a waste of time. The lecturers do nothing but recite the notes in a different tone. I can read through the 2 hour lecture material in 10 minutes under full concentration, but I can only pay attention for the first 15 minutes of the lecture and then doze off doing something else. I guess that it's due to me having AADD, but I noticed that MOST of the students are doing the same as I do.

Lecturers are arrogant and narrow-minded people with an imperfect comprehension of their own subjects. They love to irritate my by encouraging me to ask questions, and throw ridicules like "What year you think you are now?" or "How old are you, really?" when I do ask them questions. They ALWAYS claim to be 'experts' on that subject - - especially that particular as*hole marketing lecturer. But really, why didn't I see him filled with $$$es if he truly know what he teaches?What I think is that "Those who can, do...but those who can't, teach".

Their course materials are anything but sufficient. The lecture notes always have grammatical errors and random copy-pastes from various books that makes comprehension difficult. The only use of these lecture 'notes' and 'handouts' for me is the important keywords it contain. I learn by taking the keywords and then research it on the Internet or at the library. But even without the lecture notes I still can find the keywords on my own anyway.

My no.1 hatred of the system is the marking system. Answers are not evaluated on basis of factual correctness, but on the marker's satisfaction. Yeah, you heard all this nonsense about "not interested in the answers but in how you answer it " or "displaying maturity in writing" or "showing aptitude for the subject". What in actually practice happens is that no matter what you write you will always had marks deducted even though what you wrote is correct. They will always find some excuses not to give you marks, even the silliest ones like spelling errors or lack of pictures (fortunately they can't do that in Math papers lol).

As expected the lecturers always give their own answers full marks during tutorial, even though by close inspection my answers turned out to be more straight-to-the-point, easier to read, more grammatically correct and more concise than theirs. Bloody hypocrites. No wait...hypocrisy is not the best term to describe them. Pseudo-intelligent is more like it.

I have already witnessed the by-products of this so-called "excellent" education system. The graduates are extremely incompetent and unoriginal - even the first-class degree holders. There are some that have excellent working skills - but that is the exception, not the norm - and besides, they usually don't have good grades in their degrees.

I laughed at those so-called successful graduates who got A in marketing. They must be thinking that they would pwn the marketing world with their oh-so-high mastery of the subject. They didn't know that the main problem with applying what college teaches them (aka the "right thing") is that so is everyone else. Pity for them that college never prepares them to deal with the situation where everybody does exactly the same thing. One of the highest demands by the employers is the ability to think out of the box - to dare try out 'wrong' strategies that no one else has tried before. But really, since college punishes anyone that doesn't conform to the lecturers - who in turn are afraid to think differently because of the previous lecturers who taught them - how can they develop the skills nessesary to think differently?

Those I have decided not to focus on college any more. I am going to learn by my own. I will not pursue any more degrees after this. I might even drop immediately when I have a steady part-time job. I will consider other options like online degrees and such, but I am not going to college.

College is for those stupid hypocrites who actually enjoy living under the shadow of inferior individuals and trapping themselves in a never-ending circle of failure (not to mention never ending volumes of debt). An Aspie like me deserves better.

The bulk of my knowledge has always been derived from self study, thus it is logical for me to focus on what I do best.

Partly agree and partly disagree.
College is a waste of time BUT you have to do it in order to get what you want.
It costs money AND takes you away from making money at the same time.

BUT
and this is a big but

It gets you where you WANT to be, in the long run.

You can't look at it in the short-term - is this class going to be helpful to me? Could I be earning more instead of just wasting my time on these stupid essays?

You have to have a larger viewpoint than that - get through it - it'll be worth it.

yeah, but you need a college degree to get a high paying job good benefits job. A high school diploma just wont cut it now a days.

Isnt there someway you can take college courses online?

But you're so close... if you drop now, you'll have wasted all that time and money without even getting the fancy piece of paper that employers like to see. Sure, we Aspies can learn it better on our own, but prospective employers want to hear that we know our stuff from someone else, namely a university. Maybe just don't come to lectures, but just show up for exams? Once you're so close you may as well finish it, if only to get that stupid piece of paper. Once you have that it's a lot easier to get a good job, and I'm guessing most Aspies have to be self-taught anyways. I don't get any use out of the classes at my high school, but I'm certainly not dropping out. Why? Colleges want to see a high school transcript, rather than me telling them that I learned it myself. And I have to go to college to get the kind of job I want.

I am currently in college, and I do not at all believe that it is a waste of time. It is excessively expensive, yes, but I believe that getting a college education will do me good in the long run. It provides a structured environment for me to learn the things I want to in an organized way, and to get an officially recognized degree that will hopefully help me get a good job.

I agree that the grading system can be annoying, but I try not to worry about it. I'm here to learn, not get good marks, so as long as I know that I'm learning, who cares what grades I get? In High School, the class that I got the worst grade in was also my favorite class. The teacher was a very harsh grader, but he knew what he was talking about and made sure that all of us knew it too.

I think college is an important stepping stone in my life. I've heard a lot of people who didn't go to college say that they wish they had. I want to be able to get a good job when I graduated. And, most of all, I enjoy learning. College, for all its faults, is a good learning environment. Even if I have difficulties with things like oral presentations and whatnot, I know that I am being taught the things I will need to know in life.

It is, in the end, your choice whether or not you go to college. But as for me, I've made my decision. I am going to graduate.

College was a waste of time for me. I'll be paying off student loans forever and I've learned after several years on the job that I don't even want to work in the field that I earned my degree in.

I would argue that college fills a role other than that of a learning institute. College is an institute to prove that an individual is capable. One can easily learn a lot simply by taking initiative, however, other people will not know the difference between the learned and unlearned easily and efficiently unless there is a degree. Actual, physical colleges are trusted more than less physical colleges as well.

Is college a waste of time? For some people, yes. The primary purpose of universities now is to make money and recruit students, not pursue knowledge. There are many high paying jobs that don't require a degree, but they require either very hard work and intense labor, or a natural talent for sales or something similar. Usually a degree will get you a job where you get paid for what you know, not what you do. That is the main difference I think.

I'm paying for my own college education and I'm not complaining about. Also getting a degree may get you a better income job (depends on the degree though).

it is best to find the course that are very suited to,it might just be that need to find another course?

am go to a FE college,and am on a special education course,for adults with disabilities,it's very physical and hands on instead of being about having to sit there and not go back into self,or keep still and just listen and write,there's none of that,in fact not keeping still is encouraged.

I must agree to everything said here, but not to the attitude shown. College or university will not change for anybody, the only way to succeed is by adaption. I am completing MS in computer sciences now and I made the following conclusions:

Do not try to listen to lecturers. 90 percent of them are far from comprehension and none of them every reached the level of competence where he would be able to visualize or fully comprehend the details of what he taught. None of them was ever able to see his subject from another perspective. Those people's knowledge mostly consists of a bullet list of facts. My ability to listen to a lecturer always ended after 30 minutes with only very few exceptions.

Do not expect too much: Answers to questions in exams are never wanted in a way that made you think about them. Never overdo it: The way and extent of the lecture content is always everything desired. Do not do more. Creativity or thinking of your own is never really needed and very rarely appreciateted. Try to give answers that can be easily evaluated by using templates instead. The people evaluating exam results are always overworked and never try to understand something that appears difficult to them. O-Tone: I do not know that, so it cannot be right. You can try an argument, but you will likely not win. An assistant or even a professor cannot give in to a lesser student being right. That is a fact of life. There will be exceptions, but you can also win the lottery.

In projects, especially software projects: Never work too much. The intensity you are used to work with what is interesting to you is usually stellar compared to that of other people who are always busy with partying or things beyond (at least my) comprehension. Try to develop team working skills instead. You likely can do everything better than your team members, but try to be a consultant, do not implement your ideas, but share them with others. If they fail, you can still offer your assistance but never turn down the ideas of others: This means playing the social better-or-lesser-than-you game a way you can only loose. Fact of better competence does not matter here when interacting with other people. Humans are intelligent but still animals, their social patterns are inherited from apes.

If possible, let the responsible people know about your abilities and keep in mind your team work skills likely matter more. If you had the team using your ideas in an efficiently-organized team-work fashion, then this is admired a thousand times more than doing things on your own. If the results of the projects are to be used somewhere outside a lab or lecture environment, you can still offer to reimplement some weak parts of what other people did. But do not run into appearing arrogant.

More words about lectures: Lecture materials are usually inappropriate but listening to people reading them aloud while standing in front of the students is even more crap than reading them on your own. I used to work with those materials while sitting in a lecture because university organization is so what stupid that you might never come across vital information if you have not been in the lecture. Professors are rarely following rules like: Announce everything on a blackboard or even at the WWW. Well, it does happen but I already mentioned the lottery, did I not?

And words about books: People doing lectures will have made a selection of what they talk about in the lecture. How they made that selection will be mysterious to you. Never try to learn with a big reference book. It will be better than the lecture materials but the scope of what you need in exams will be determined by the lecture stuff. If you know the entire reference library this is not of any good for exams. You will know how exam marks are given by now: That way does not change for you. Just follow the rules. It is easy!

99 percent of people going to college or university never do something new, discover anything or invent something important. This easily extents to MS or PhD papers. It is not needed to be a creative genious, the majority of the people are not. So do not worry. Just follow the rules.

College is not a waste of time.

You just gotta do what you gotta do and pull through. Stop focusing on things that are irrevelant, like the social aspects of college. All kinds of crazy things happen in college, teachers fart and dress in the same outfits every other day, students burp and fall asleep and eat in class, Professors will purposely make you feel as bad as they can and why? Because they can. None of that matters though.

Stay focused. Don't be intimidated and don't quit.
Focus on your goals and if you don't have some, then make some quick!

I forgot to mention an important discovery for those people who think college or university will be totally different from school:

If you think it will be a great place a thousand times better than your time in school, then you are right and wrong the same time. Social stuff will not be a central issue but there still are strict rules not easily bent or broken. Those rules might still be easier to follow for other people than they are for you. College or university is different from school and requires different skills, but people who had an easy and succesful time in school will have it easier than others. Typical people still win. That fact does not change.

Colleges and universities are still in that same world like schools and people running and attending them are still the same or the same type who run and attent schools. A little more educated and more mature but if you choose to take part in all the social activities at those institutions then you likely will have to have the social skills you acquired in school. If you did not, well, good luck! I skipped that.

I disagree with the conclusion that college is a waste of time, because college can actually be a time-saver in the long run if you look at it as something that you complete in order to get a higher-paying job, which it is.

You can spend many years working in a part-time job to build up the amount of personal wealth that a just few years on the job for a company that hired you because you're diploma-bearing can bring.

So a college degree is not a waste of time and is an actually significant investment.

Some degrees give you less employment possibilities than others. For example, chemical engineering vs. psychology.

Someone with a Master's degree or PhD is likely an expert in the subject they teach, no matter what you think. Getting a Master's or PhD degree is something I view as difficult. Even you concede you will likely never go on to pursue that high a degree. Maybe those who do reach that level have something that makes them worthy of the honor. They are experts and can parlay it into academic success.

I agree, College is a waste of time and money.

Reagrdless, I need it to get a higher paying job so we really don't have any choice; you pretty much have to go college unless you are Bill Gates.