Who here is college educated?

Many people make the false belief in thinking that studying psychology is strictly limited to a person pursuing one type of profession, this being a licensed psychologist. They are not aware that there are actually many different career choices that a person can obtain going into this discipline and it isn't just being a psychologist or therapist.
Once someone has made it into being an undergraduate student studying Psychology can be a great way to not only enhance a person skills of learning more about human functioning, but they will also learn more about different personalities and how to work effectively with different types of people. This knowledge is useful in many different careers, so much so that many employers seek undergrad students that have psychology degree.

That was my major when I first went to college. I didn't like the engineering
part. I ended up with a BS in Cellular/Molecular Biology with a minor in
statistics. Haven't used it much, but I do love biology and math.

Tam

add me to the 80% but I'm not really buying that college education is necessary to make good money. Perhaps it gives you some basics to go after the knowledge you need but you definitely don't get the practical ins and outs of being an entrepreneur from college.

Mine was in graphic design as well. Except i'm 32, so when I learned design we didn't use the internet.

I'm not college educated, but I'm also not a millionaire. I have 4 kids, 29 years old, and just started IM 1 1/2 years ago. Hopefully no college won't have an impact on my success.

I have a PhD and DrGuid is correct. Getting a doctorate is quite difficult but the difficulty is in staying motivated rather than the actual work involved.

For example:

Unless you are gunning for an academic career* having a doctorate is pretty much useless. An exception is if you plan to write popular (rather than academic) books on any subject. Publishers like to have Dr. So-and-So on the cover because it lends not only the writer but the subject more credibility.

As you are writing you are painfully aware that including you probably less than 5 people will ever read the final thesis.

For all the talk of 'making a real contribution to the field' most PhDs don't and by the time you're submitting it, you know that it's totally inadequate.

*Even if you do want an academic career, a PhD alone won't get you one. It's just something you're expected to have. You need published papers more than anything else.

History & PR....was some of the best times in my life.

A college education may not equal great wealth - there are certainly some career paths that will make you rich as any Fortune 500 CEO can attest.

However, in the U.S., it has become a necessity to have at least a bachelor's degree. In a tough market, even entry level jobs
either require or prefer a college educated candidate.

And college graduates do earn more than high school grads.

I have a college education. I loved the college years! My degree has helped me to get more J.O.B. opportunities, but I don't think it has helped me too much when it comes to IM.

You should get a degree if you can afford it. Some degrees are better than others. I got a business finance degree, but I have found that having a general business degree has only helped me get my foot in the door for interviews.

No college, but I do have a Masters in Disasters from the University of Hard Knocks.

KJ

Me too! BA, PSU 1971. We are ...... (now you holler back "Penn State!" :-)

I'm proud to say that I am also a Penn State graduate. I actually grew up in State College. My college years were the best but never did anything with my degree. I've been in LA for 10 years and "doing" IM for the past 2 years.

LOL I agree, I told my wife the other day I should drop out of high school and study IM

Half of a business degree followed by several sales-related jobs followed by a Bachelors in Agricultural Engineering. Paid the bills with commission sales, made pocket money selling tutoring services and betting on horses...

If you are in a social sciences department... for one thing... you get to write essays all the time. You get to make a hypothesis, give arguments, give counter arguments and defend against them, summarize the whole thing.

That surely is good exercise when creating and marketing your products (or marketing someone else's products.)

You need to do research for many things. And I think "research" is a big skill for a marketer.
You get to be social in student clubs, parties etc. and relationship skills are improved there.

Not saying that any of these can only be done in a college environment. But that you are graded (by professors [classes] or by your peers[social]) is a big motivator. And one gets to learn by experience.

In a few months I'll have a degree in accounting, and a minor in marketing.

Out of 100 or so millionaires all within a one mile radius of where I'm at right now only a couple aren't college educated...and that's because they're professional athletes...oh and one soap opera star.

From my discussions with various "offline" millionaires... law, business, finance are all great degrees that tend to lead to big money in life. Anytime I've mentioned "accounting" they agree it's very important and a great path to take to get into business at the higher levels.

Business degrees in general prepare you for the roadblocks in running a big business. The more specific degrees like finance, accounting, tax, law, etc are even more useful to get in the door as a higher up employee.

Also, if you wanted to buy an offline business, but had little if any formal business education chances are very high you're going to pay too much, and run the thing in the ground.

In that respects it's opened the door a lot wider to step into more business opportunities. It also gives you a leg up on talking online business to offline clients.

However, all my online millionaire friends are varied. It doesn't seem to be quite as pertinent. You don't have as many of the associated costs and accounting concerns to deal with when starting an online business. You have development and labor. Build a list, send emails, make money, pay your accountant to sort it out.

In my experience a general marketing degree isn't all that useful if you want a 9-5. You don't have to work hard to get them, and tons of people have them already so you're not going to stand out for interview selection. But as an entrepreneur it's been eye opening and worth the study. I can relate it to online marketing and it's easier to sort out the people that don't have a clue what marketing really is about.

Overall, I think the best CEO's have an above average understanding of all facets of business and an ability for independent learning. As a semi-forced learning environment, college doesn't compare to the education a natural drive for knowledge provides, but it does open doors and prepare you for more possibilities in life.

But like any experience in life, it's what YOU make out of it....

No college education for me. Instead I have always found it easier to learn things if I can immediately apply them in real life.

I worked my butt off to get an apprenticeship, then took tonnes of short courses over the years and extra work to climb the corporate ladder.

Same results in about the same amount of time, the biggest difference being that I was earning money over my first 4 years in my industry while others were paying colleges for the privilege of learning.

1 degree versus 4 years on the job experience ~ about the same in most employers eyes that I worked with.

Well, although I highly doubt that study, maybe most millionaires are college educated, but most billionaires aren't

I'm college educated.

But honestly, in college you're forced to wade through a lot of unnecessary crap to study the things you truly enjoy.

These days, I burn through books and read non-stop to keep my wits sharp. I believe strongly in education. But I'd just as soon recommend that you find a list of books with good reviews on Amazon and then run to the public library.

That's what I do. I've saved THOUSANDS of dollars on books that I only intended to read once. If I find a gem of a book that I plan to use as a reference for the future, I'll buy it.

I read a lot of books about marketing, entrepreneurship, copywriting, and the like. Gotta love the library. ENDLESS books for FREE

Bachelor degree in IT four years ago. Can't remember much from it

I'm not going to answer all those questions directly for privacy reasons, but I graduated in 4 years from a respected public school in the southern United States. I graduated from their business college about 5 years ago...It is NOT common these days for sure, so I wouldn't get too down about it. Especially 1) if your working a lot to finance this, and/or 2) your degree is really extremely rigorous (Engineering, Statistics, etc.)...I'll temper that by saying you also need to find out what is appropriate - companies usually aren't too impressed with people that take 8 years to finish a History degree unless they have a very compelling reason for doing so.

Anyway, how did I do it ? Well...After a great first year of college, I followed it up with a horrible second year, and then mediocre Junior/Senior years...Until right before my senior year I never took summer school because I always worked summers, but I found myself having to play catch up if I wanted to graduate on time with my class (recovering from that poor sophmore session). I had to work with my employer to rearrange my schedule to nights in order to take 15 hours of summer school! That was grueling as summer school moves fast anyway...Even still I had to take like 16 and 18 hours my senior year.

In hindsight, I wish I hadn't have rushed this so much...Taking that many hours really dragged down my GPA - even with an extra semester it probably could have allowed me to have been .25 points higher...My reasoning for going straight through was that my parents, which helped me through college, said "you can take as long as you want in college...but we're only helping you for 4 years." Note, with that being said I worked 30 hours a week my Junior/Senior years (after savings ran out) and always during the summers, but I think its worthy of mention my parents did supplement my income helping out with rent and related expenses, because some are not so fortunate and I don't take that for granted.

Sooo...it was a tradeoff. Had a taken another semester or two I would have had more debt as opposed to savings I was earning in the workforce. On the other hand it didn't make for much of a senior year and hurt my grades...


Thanks
Regards
Handezengin

-hande zengin

I'm a 23 year old senior Criminal Justice major with a minor in Political Science.

Of course an aneurysm would do it

I'm guessing like many of us you left the education hamsterwheel for the real world after the four toughest years any child can endure.

And, of course, I speaking about the fifth grade.

KJ

PHD? Dr. Oksa has a nice ring to it.

There is some Truth to what you say. But I can tell you without ANY hesitation whatsoever that when I got my Degree it opened up way more doors than it would if I didnt. Thats just a fact, like it or hate it.

Plus, like my dad always said that a College Degree is something that you can carry around the rest of your Life and no one can take away from you. Unlike your house, car, bank account etc.. !!

That said I do think that a College degree can be overrated in many aspects. There are so many people who have become wildly successful without one.

But to me its personal pride and I definitely will strive to encourage my children to be Educated with a formal College education.
I know it may sound kind of unfair but when you meet people in a business atmosphere people just look at you a little differently when they realize you have worked hard to attain a College education and degree !!
Thats just the reality of things !!

Totally disagree with that specific point. I got a lot out of college. Most of my business professors had real-world and experience that taught me a lot. You also have to keep in mind that people, such as myself, attended college for far more reasons than to make money. I was making money from a mail order business in high school and I knew early on in life I did not need college to make money. My family placed a lot of value on education. If I had to do it all over again, I would go again.

It's only a total waste of money if you didn't learn anything in college and got nothing out of it. Now, I do agree with you that you don't need to go to college to become a millionaire. However, when I have children they are going to college, but I'm going to teach them to be entrepreneurs long before they get there.

RoD

Hey Don't you just love the power of the internet?....

I did the same thing as well.. Must be a south american thing!

A lot in common. I was 51st in a class of 51.

You're in good company Michael...assuming I'm good company. You are wise way beyond your grade level.

I found your signature amusing in a Churchillian kind of way. To save people from scrolling up, his signature contains, "A shirt I once had read: 'I may be fat, but your ugly, and I can diet.'"

If I knew someone that wore a shirt like that I'd have one made up that reads, "You can diet, but I can have plastic surgery. It's faster and lasts longer." Then I'd be ready to change into that shirt the next time I saw them wearing it.

B.S. Marketing from the 'real UT' in K-town !!

Even though I did graduate from college, those are my thoughts exactly. Especially the first paragraph.

BSc(Hons) Degree in Computer Science here.

I pretty much blagged my way through the degree, if i had ever learned to program properly i could be making all sorts of scripts with the ideas i have now. I only really excelled in web stuff and never cared about the other languages. You live and you learn. Fortunately the web side gave me a steady foundation for this industry.

I graduated the 8th grade...They didn't give me a degree for that though, unfortunately.

In the 9th grade, they kindly asked me to leave and never come back

Honestly, I'm glad it happened.

This has turned into quite a conversation. I didn't expect over 160 responses. Thanks.

It's funny, I make time to do all my school work in all 5 classes. I study and take the tests and all that. Probably 12 hours a week or better.

Maybe I should take another 12 hours a week and write articles. That's the only IM i do now and I make around $200-$400 a month.

I refuse to use another method until I reach $1000 a month on article writing.

Thanks for all your posts. They were helpful.

Peace,

Shane

Michael, you make good sense.

I went to school for awhile, and loved it. Would do it some more given the chance, even at my age! But I don't think that it is the key to anyone's future, any more than all of the internet marketing info-products out there are.

If someone wants to secure their future, they need to look within, and nowhere else. My mom is one of the smartest people I know, and she never went past the 9th grade, had 3 kids by the time she was 20, and got her GED when she was in her late 30's.

On the other hand, sometimes I get really jealous of people with advanced degrees.. go figure.

I went college obtained MSc.

Never gained a long lasting or meaning-ful job in the subject area. It was pretty much waste on time.

Except helped to change beliefs...'Perhaps I am not useless after all!'

I also have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Wasn't so bad since understand Greek .

It is not what I want to do with the rest of my life but man I would not give those years up for anything! Made alot of great friendships and met my wife and I will never forget being able to see the late Jim Valvano in action.

Kevin,
You know what they say....."Just 4 short years ago, I could not even spell e-n-g-i-n-e-e-r. Now I are one."

I, for one am glad you changed careers.

Recent college graduate.

Unfortunately, I was pushed into school for three reasons: 1) parents said they had saved money to pay in full 2) I was told I could not take a year between high school and college without parents pulling all college funding 3) since the 6th grade, everyone told me college is necessary.

Halfway through school, Mom changed her mind about paying in full, though not for anything I did or did not do. I couldn't see quitting halfway through, so now I get to pay off student loans, too.

Mostly muddled my way through as I didn't know what I wanted to do, graduated with a Sociology degree (yeah, I know...), have a PT library job, and now I'm finally getting around to doing things I want to do.

Knowing what I know now: No, it's not necessary. Yes, it can help in the hiring process. It may set you back years. Just do what you want to do, whatever that is.

4 year degree in both computer and studio art, coloring basically. Kinda pissed I spent all that money on something I now know that I could have taught myself.

Millionaire Mind is one of my favorite business/success books. IMHO, it's far better than the more famous precedessor "The Millionaire Next Door".

I have a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences from Lock Haven University and an Associate Degree in Physical Therapist Assistant from Harcum College.

I also ran track (400 meters) at Lock Haven during my first two years there. Track was a 3-4 hour of training per day, on top of a full-time course work... trained me for the future 16+ hour work days that I've done for years.

Both degrees were helpful in my previous offline businesses. It's also helped me with writing sales copy for health-related products because I'm already familiar with a lot of the medical and health lingo.

Getting the degrees taught me things like managing multiple projects and priorities at once, goal setting (and accomplishment), and more.

Just as important, I met one of my best friends at Lock Haven and he introduced me to my wife about 8 years ago.

None of that would have happened if I didn't go to college.

Take care,

Mike

Bachelors in finance with a minor in economics.

While I don't use much of what I learned in college in my everyday life, there is one thing that's irreplaceable. In college, I learned how to learn.

I have an honors degree in veterinary science, great course, loads of fun,and it's served me well since I graduated.

Ken Robinson is great, I've just finished his book about finding your passion. Well worth a read.

Remember the story of the two farmers...

Zeke: Hey, Abner, how's that boy of yours doing? Seems he's been away at college for a long time now...

Abner: Yeah, Zeke, I don't know if that boy is ever gong to finish school. First, he had to to get a BS degree.

Zeke: And we both know what that stands for, right, Abner?

Abner: Yup. He finished that, and then he had to get hisself a MS degree, which I figured out stand for 'More of the Same'. Now he's working on a P-H-D...

Zeke: What the heck is that?

Abner: Close as I can figure, it means Piled Higher and Deeper...

Ok ok, I agree you do learn how to learn.

I also found out that there are a lot of people that that have no problem getting A's on test but once in the real world can't fight themselves out of a wet paper bag and fail miserably when it comes to street smarts.

I will be soon...Just about to hit my Associates with IM....2 years. Enough education for me. I could more than likely teach the commmunity college how to do real world online marketing.


Jeff Mitchell