How much did a university degree help you?

[Willie Crawford]

I have a degree in Economics & find that many of the classes
that I took are very helpful, especially statistics.

I didn't use much of what I learned for nearly 25 years, but
am now surprised that I'm it's actually proving to be useful
aside from having the sheep skin :-)

Willie

[bizops]

Even though I attended University, I am 4 classes shy of a 4 year computer science degree. The reason that I quit was that I didn't really want to get a job as a programmer (by the time I made it to 4th year) and truth be told, I didn't like the one sided nature of the teaching - "do it this way because it is the only way to do it".

For me, in retrospect, I should have maybe took something along the lines of business since we grew up talking about it at the supper table (my parents were accountants), but hindsight is 20/20.

On the plus side, the college education has helped me to have a programmer's mindset (think of how things need to be done, not necessarily the code needed to do it), but truth be told, I have had a lot more of my education from trying things out as opposed to just reading some book.

I think we are going to send our kids to college someday when they are old enough, but we'll let them decide as to whether or not getting a degree is important to them. We are going to teach our kids to be entrepreneurs, and after that they can decide if they want a degree or job - it will be interesting to see what they decide.

[David@Lurn]

I graduated with a degree in Political Science - and the more I found out - the more I realized I didn't want to go into politics. But did learn some valuable lessons for life and met people who helped me get to where I am today. I predict colleges will be changing the way they teach in the years to come to adapt to the future generations.

[Ross Bowring]

I've got a BA in Communications... and it helps me every single day. Being expected to deliver tautly written academic papers for three years will make you a decent writer. Plus, I took courses on rhetoric and persuasion which I apply to my copywriting daily.

[Brad Gosse]

I dropped out of high school

[Michael Motley]

Degrees are not the end all be all of life.

Someone who actually takes time to educate themselves can be just as educated as someone that holds a degree. But they have to actually educate themselves not just think 'well i could do that'. Just because you think you can do something because it looks easy means nothing and in some field, such as computers education/certification puts you in a different class of worker.

I have a BS in comp sci and a couple handfuls of certifications. Were these things something i could have learned on my own? Yes, if i were that structured of a person. Does it make me smarter than the other people sitting around me at work? in some cases yes.

However i've seen plenty of people that have a piece of paper that says they hold a degree or certification that dont know a damn thing except how to take a test to get that piece of paper.

But that doesnt mean that certs and education are useless, you get out of it what you put into it.

[keyaziz]

Degree in Psychology. I am currently pursuing a Phd.

It in a subject I enjoy but has allowed me to create my own product and also helped me write lots and lots of articles on subjects in and around it.

I would say though that it isn't down to the degree at all. I would have learnt more about psychology (and probably had a better learning experience) without psychology but it gives me some credential and has also allowed me to further my education.

I enjoy learning - really do. I would say its just helped me focus more and write more elaborate articles in some of my niches. I know a lot so can relate it to lots of different subjects too.

[SlfMastery]

Originally Posted by Gereem

I know some users of this forum are self-learned internet marketers and others had other computer backgrounds, but I wanted to ask this question to see what kind of response I get.


Aside from the university/college experience of meeting people, studying with like-minded people, and having the prestige of having a degree, how much did your degree actually help with your current internet marketing business?


If you have majored in marketing, how did that help you with internet marketing? And if it did help, how much did the content of the degree help you make more money on a scale of 1 to 10?

If you majored in something other than marketing, then what did you major in and on a scale of one to ten how much did it have a positive effect in helping you make more money through internet marketing?

If you could have your ideal education and would have been able to receive a degree doing it related to making more money on internet marketing, what kind of things would you include in your ideal course outline? (ie. web 2.0 graphics design, sales copy writing class, SEO optimization, marketing 101, etc.)

Gereem:

Thank you for asking a question that will help other people avoid losing tens of thousands of dollars!

The biggest benefit I got is something you do not want to hear, i.e. social experience, living on your own, networking with like minded people, etc. All that can be done w/o paying $10,000/yr for a degree.

Robert Kiyosaki has answered (at least part of) your question in his book "If You Want To Be Rich & Happy, Don't Go To School."

How much did my education help with my Internet Marketing ventures? Zero!

I majored in Fine Arts and this helped somewhat since (creating appropriate) graphic images on your landing pages can increase clickthrough rates pretty significantly. I would give it a "5" on your 1-10 scale of helpfulness.

The ideal IM course?
1. How to find "ready to buy" customers and/or find out the supply/demand balance. This, I'm learning, is critical to making sales!!, i.e. keyword research, forum research, using Google Trends, eBay pulse, etc.

2. Writing Irresistible Ads - Tip: Join Twitter and send out tweets. This will force you to write short and effective headlines (my weakness, FYI) You are limited to a 140 characters.

3. How to build an effective landing page, i.e. Catchy and Summarizing Titles, appropriate clickable images, etc. Newbies can play around with Weebly.com which allows you to build 2 sites per account. It has easy to read tutorials and best of all it's free to practice on (and test niches). If your webpage starts converting to sales you can purchase a domain name through them to give your page a more professional URL, and they'll forward all old traffic to your new URL.

4. How to "funnel" targeted prospects to your landing page(s), i.e. PPC is one efficient way but there are other free to low cost ways, i.e. off-line methods, forums, Question & Answer type sites, eBay auction, etc. CAUTION NOTE: make sure you know the sites rules so you don't get banned, e.g. auctions (yours or someone else's) have very targeted traffic so you could CAREFULLY "funnel" that to your landing page.

5. How to track your conversions. I admit this was another weakness of mine but am learning everyday. I like Statcounter.com for it's ease of use but like the capabilities of Google Analytics

I think those five areas are enough to make you money online although, as we all know, there are soooo many other ways to make a living online.


So, to answer your question again, Gereem, college did little to none for my IM venture and "If You Want To Be Rich & Happy, Don't Go To School."...Bill Gates...a college drop out. Kiyosaki...did poorly in school and has millions. So kids, if you are doing poorly in school, go read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and you'll be making more than that "Phd" graduate...eventually

[girlshrink]

I have a BA in journalism and a clinical MSW. The masters helped in the way that my first site was built around my expertise in that field. The BA helped me become a better writer, which helps me in my IM.

I have several friends who majored in marketing in school and this really does not help them in an IM world. I am always giving them advice, which leads me to believe that if there were a "major" for what we do it would have to be an "internet marketing" major which is very different from traditional marketing.

[JakeDaly]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

I majored in Occult Science. It's worthless. Having this degree actually scares employers, so I stopped putting it on my resume about 16 years ago.

Hahaha, that line mixed with your avatar had me laughing for a good half minute.

I'm currently majoring in Marketing at a large school in the South. By the time I graduate, I hope that most of what I learned was meaningless. Meaning, my IM business enables me to not worry about a 9-5 or life in an office. If not, it was still some of the most memorable 4 years a guy could ask for.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by JakeDaly

Hahaha, that line mixed with your avatar had me laughing for a good half minute.

Oh, God, I can imagine what people would think now. When I was listing it on my resume, I was a skinny little geek who specialised in computer systems. Now I'm a 220 pound Viking warrior of a project manager who can bench press a refrigerator. People are already scared of me half the time.

[The IM Prodigy]

I mastered and minored in Business Management and Marketing Emphasis, so both have helped me greatly. Obviously by running a business and also by being in sales.

[JWB]

Originally Posted by Gereem

I know some users of this forum are self-learned internet marketers and others had other computer backgrounds, but I wanted to ask this question to see what kind of response I get.


Aside from the university/college experience of meeting people, studying with like-minded people, and having the prestige of having a degree, how much did your degree actually help with your current internet marketing business?


If you have majored in marketing, how did that help you with internet marketing? And if it did help, how much did the content of the degree help you make more money on a scale of 1 to 10?

If you majored in something other than marketing, then what did you major in and on a scale of one to ten how much did it have a positive effect in helping you make more money through internet marketing?

If you could have your ideal education and would have been able to receive a degree doing it related to making more money on internet marketing, what kind of things would you include in your ideal course outline? (ie. web 2.0 graphics design, sales copy writing class, SEO optimization, marketing 101, etc.)

Never went to college..but I think it means far less
today than it did 50 years ago...

Today, if you have drive and discipline and focus, you dont
really need a college degree

[myob]

I have an MBA, and it was very helpful in landing a very well-paying job for many years. This income helped to finance several start-up businesses, and the title itself opens up many opportunities for huge speaking and consulting fees. But most of what I do now is outsourced to other MBA's, which in hindsight is what I really should have done in the first place. It's so much easier to just do the marketing and let others do all the work.

[BROOKLYNBRIL]

I DONT HAVE A DEGREE, BUT I DID ATTEND COLLEGE WHERE I PICKED UP MY REAL ESTATE LICENSE. SOME OF THE COURSES I TOOK LIKE MARKETING AND MACRO ECONOMICS GAVE ME A BROADER PROSPECTIVE ON BUSINESS BUT OVERALL I LEARNED HOW TO MARKETING ONLINE THROUGH AN AFFILATE BUSINESS THAT HAD OVER 20 DIFFENT METHODS TO ADVERTISE ONLINE. ONCE I FINISHED THE TRAINING COURSE I NOW HAD A STRONG KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO MARKET ONLINE.

[Jag82]

I majored in a field (Applied Chemistry) that was totally unrelated to what I'm doing now.

Many people asked me why I'm doing something so different to what I've learnt in uni.

I told them things change. Mindset do change. And sometimes you end up on a different path than the one you intended to. I originally wanted to be in the petrochemical field.

In any case, did my degree helped? Yes, in a way. That's down to the analytical skills being taught in my course that let me preen, analyze and improve sales copy in a way I may never have if not for it.

Jag

[Kael41]

My degrees have helped me immensely. If anything, i've learned study patterns and how to break through sticking points in time crunch situations. Plus, there's a whole level of "education" learned in the college environment. Often times people get subjected to other cultures or ways of life that they wouldn't necessarily experience anywhere else.

[morganvalenzuela97]

I think this is difficult to compare, you never know what you would have known or practised without the uni

[selcor]

I considered it my " initiation fee" into the game of life... well worth the investment

[Anonymous Affiliate]

I've got a degree in Business and Economics.

It's helped me in nothing at all professionally wise, even less in the ever-dynamic internet marketing world. 99% of what I studied in college about 10 years ago seems totally outdated, redundant and out-of-sync by today's standards.

If I could go back in time, I would not go to the university. Instead, I would invest those 4 years self-lecturing in the internet marketing field. It sure would have been way more productive.

[lisag]

BA in Poly Sci. Helped me when I was in the workplace. No help in IM. Now the EDUCATION I received while pursuing that degree has remained priceless.

[aceriker]

I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering from London University and have ended up working as the Marketing Manager for a software company in India!

If I could go back in time to be 18 again, I would have still done a degree (albeit in computer science or marketing) because your time at university teaches you so much more than just academics. You build up networks and you really get to understand yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Also, the friends you make at Uni are usually those that stay with you for life.

An Engineering degree also teaches you problem solving, analytical skills and accuracy, which I think helps in every day business life.

Oh, and a degree could help you if you temporarily find yourself up a creek without a paddle

[MariusBakken]

I have a degree in political science and in a few months I'll finish up medical school and I'm doing a pretty good living online.

The degree has helped me in several way :

1. I'm good at processing loads of information - I'm used to it from years in school. So I'm pretty good at picking out relevant information from loads irrelevant of info that is thrown at your online.
2. I do know how to structure myself and work towards a goal.
3. I'm able to use my expertize to publish my own products, which I have done with success.

In all is has helped me know how to do (focused and step-by-step over time) the process of relevant work that one must do to succeed.

Marius Bakken

[willyboy104]

I am currently studying for a BA in China International Business and it hasn't helped me at all apart from the fact it gives me 4 years to work on Internet Marketing before I will have to get a job

[Keith Williams]

Degrees are really only useful in certain professions, where the depth of knowledge is required, a doctor for example, engineer. In other areas degrees can be next to useless.

For example, you can run a successful profitable, and above all credible, business without a business degree, but you couldn't design a bridge or treat a patient without one.

In my real world job, (I'm a contract engineering designer) I have worked alongside degree qualified colleagues although I have never been to university myself, without any problems.

I think where a degree isn't "useful" it does demonstrate the level of application that the holder can carry out; he or she can take the effort necessary to improve themselves and that they can gather information and effectively analyse it - at least on paper.

[ASM Marketing]

That's absolute rubbish. A degree isn't just a qualification for a profession, its a sign of intuitive, independent learning ability. It's a huge indication of responsibility and its well documented that graduates earn higher wages across the board than those who don't.

I'm not against people not choosing University, I think if you're the right person you can go far from whatever walk in life and in any industry. Unfortunately, however, not everyone is that person and its important to realise that early before you end up bankrupting yourself with nothing to fall back on.

It does my head in reading so much stuff about how leaving school at 16 to 'follow your dream' is classed as good advice?! It's insane, and destructive advice for all but one or two in a football stadium worth of people.

[Keith Williams]

Errr ASM isn't that what I said?

Degrees are essential if you want to pursuit a career as, say, a doctor, but where it is not it can and I quote "demonstrate the level of application that the holder can carry out; he or she can take the effort necessary to improve themselves and that they can gather information and effectively analyse it"

In other words degree can show the holder in much more positive light that one who does not but it doesn't always mean that you are stuck with cleaning toilets if you don't have one.

I do agree about advice leaving school at 15 to chase dreams can be unhelpful. I think the main thing should be even if you decide not to pursue a degree that you should still carry on with your education.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by healymedia

Anyone else heading back to school this coming week?

Not quite yet - I still have another 3 weeks to go before term starts.

Education is what remains after everything you learn during it has been forgotten.

[MJ Schaefer]

English lit. One of those useless-sounding degrees, but I have found it to be a brilliant fit for IM (articles, email marketing, presells, copywriting -- the bread and butter of IM)

As an aside, I must mention the obvious cliche: it was a life experience. Aged 18 - 21, I had the time of my life, and had the sort of experiences that are not repeatable. I would not trade in that time for Bill Gates's fortune.

[Elliott Bean]

My first degree was classics where I learnt Latin, Ancient Greek, Ancient History and Ancient Philosophy. It was very literature based, so I guess I improved my writing and ability to convey ideas but I wouldn't say has helped me that much. In fact I wouldn't advise spending three years doing any kind of literature based degree as it gave me no knowledge to use in the real world.

I'm doing a one year computer science course at uni now and that has been much more useful!

[radhika]

I didn't do any marketing degrees and the degree I earned helped nothing to my online marketing. So it'd be 0 help to my IM business.

.

[Kevin AKA Hubcap]

I have a B.S. in Aeronautical Science. It doesn't help me directly in IM but one of my niches is aviation.

Kevin

[GFox]

I do not have a college degree, and never really wanted one because even at an early age, I just couldn't see myself working a regular J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) with someone telling me what to do and how much I'm worth per week. I knew that I wanted to determine my own destiny, come what may, and I am sooooo happy that I did it MY WAY. Instead of being an employee, I became an employer of many, including a bunch of folks who had fancy degrees and didn't know squat - not even the very basics of business. There is no better feeling than being the master of your own destiny, taking a chance on yourself and also taking full responsibility for whichever way it goes. I'm sure that like many others here without a degree, with the experience that I have accumulated over the years, I could easily teach a PRACTICAL business class at a university.

[John Romaine]

My GP works at a local medical center near where I live. I asked him one day how many hours he puts in at work. He replied "Im here from about 7 in the morning til 8 or 9 at night, every day"

I often go past the medical center on my way to "enjoy my day" perhaps going for a coffee or a movie, and I see his car parked there, in the same spot, day in day out.

I want to live and enjoy my life, not be plugged into a "degree or qualification"