What did college give you (beyond the degree)?

[Shellydon]

I go 2 pieces of paper. :) Other than my degree, I don't feel that the college experience is worth diddly squat. I would agree with your friend.

[Lady Florida.]

Besides the degree?

 

My first taste of life away from home.

Interesting, intelligent discussions with strangers.

 

Neither of the above would entice me at age 42 though. ;)

[Little Nyssa]

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was the best thing that happened to me at college!

[Bluegoat]

Well, I wouldn't say it gave me just a piece of paper. I actually have never brought out my certificate for anything - in fact it fell behind the piano a year ago and i haven't yet retrieved it. I haven't really ever had a job that I needed it for either.

 

It did, however, change my life in a profound way. My thoughts about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, human nature. And it made a huge difference to my ability to understand my own ideas and those of others, and integrate ideas into a coherent whole.

 

Although I was a pretty good student in high school, I realized in university that I really had not been educated in any meaningful way. I had no real idea of history, of the big human question, or any real formal idea of how to approach those kinds of questions. And I wouldn't have known enough to educate myself - I didn't even realize that I wasn't educated. It is possible I might have stumbled on the kinds of books or people that would have clued me in, but that would have at least in part been luck.

 

Even then though, it is hard to say if I would have been able to make real use of them. How to approach those kinds of texts and understand them was not obvious from the texts themselves - the lectures from my professors, the help from my tutors, and the after-hours discussions with my fellow students were just as important to my education as the books myself.

 

So for me the intellectual community was as important as the other aspects of the school.

 

My first year was spent on the history of philosophy in the West and then I carried on studying philosophy, so that kind of experience I think would be particularly marked in that area of study. But I think the intellectual community can be the most important aspect of the university for other disciplines as well - not just the book-learning or practical training, but also the mentor-ship from people dedicated to the instimate study of the discipline and the companionship of other students of it.

 

And if people are really lucky, they may find an intellectual environment where different disciplines have a chance to intermix, and that can be really really exciting.

 

All that being said, the student has to be willing to take part, and some schools simply don't have that kind of community. I think it may be less common in very practical degrees, and I can't see it being easy in a setting where a lot of classes are online.

[Bluegoat]

 

However, I do acknowledge that college is definitely not for everyone and many people do not have the experiences we had. There are too many factors involved in the process of determining if college itself is a good fit, which college would be a good fit, what program should be pursued, etc. in order to make any general statements that apply to all students. Everyone has to wrestle with those decisions. Therefore, I am no fan of "college for all" and by the same token I have a very difficult time with people who try to cram "college is a waste of time" or "only about the paper" or similar sentiments down others' throats.

 

Faith

:iagree:

 

Different people have different gifts and want to do different things. A lot of people go to university for what is really vocational training, and boy it is expensive for that.

[catz]

For me ... (but I went from ages 18-23)

 

My first taste of independence

Learning how to manage money and time

Learning how to navigate bureaucracy

An actual peer group that I never really felt I had before

It helped me develop a sense of my own priorities and path

And I did have a very successful well paying career for some time (as a software designer/engineer/management)

I learned how to face some actual challenges for the first time

 

It did, however, change my life in a profound way. My thoughts about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, human nature. And it made a huge difference to my ability to understand my own ideas and those of others, and integrate ideas into a coherent whole.

 

This. I always felt like a square peg in a round hole in the smaller town I grew up in. I really found myself moving and living somewhere that had more diversity of thought.

 

 

I personally thought my college experience was invaluable on many levels. I went to a large, big 10 school in their competitive college of science and engineering. I'm also 42 now, and I don't feel any burning desire to go back though. :D