College dropouts...?

My goodness, what a nonsense: grab a backpack, your passport and a few thousand dollars and take off to travel the world. You will see how you can indeed match (and surpass) the "life experiences" you get at college... by a LONG margin!

What life experiences are you exactly referring to? do you mean the parties, the cheap buzz, the microwave food, the endless evenings studying and a few good buddies? because that's as much as I remember as far as "life experiences" goes from my years at college.

Sorry, but I refuse to believe that the point of a formal 5-year college education is to get laid and to drink cheap beer. You don't need to attend university for that, at all!

I did, and it was the best experience of my life. FAR better than college, and way more useful for my development as a person.

My parents forced me when I was about 16 or so to choose a career. I always loved to write and wanted to go to Bard in upstate NY. They told me that I would never make a living as a writer and to choose something else. I had been working in restaurants for a couple of years so I chose to go to culinary school. I finished up my first year and then dropped out. They kicked me out of the house 4 weeks later at the age of 18 and I've been on my own since.

I never went back to college and regret not having some sort of piece of paper. Here at the company that I work for I am one of about 3 people that don't have a college degree. My salary is significantly less than my college educated coworkers in my department and I have heard that having a college degree has now become a prerequisite to even being considered for a position here.

Point is... if you're interested in internet marketing a college eduction can mesh quite nicely with your interests. You can study writing, economics, business, graphics design etc...

If nothing else, furthering your education can make you a more well rounded person. Yes, the price can be high but going to a state school can make it a little more affordable. Personally, I would love to go back to college just to learn more about the things that interest me... American history, world history, different languages, philosophy... and of course, writing

My recommendation is to go to college but move in a direction that interests you. It's not all about making money or making a living. Some of the best marketers that I know understand not only how to write a provoking sales page but the psychology BEHIND why it works... what motivates people. Life is about learning...

Here's my advise.

First of all, thing hard about why you want to drop out and why you are at college. Is the only reason you came to college just to please your parents or do you have other reasons you are forgetting. Write out the answers to both of these questions. Just make sure you are being honest with yourself about the reasons.

Second, if you feel that you should drop out, my advise is this: Start doing IM as your "college job" first until you are making enough to support yourself. You don't need to have a fancy life and you don't have to know everything about IM to start. Work with free/cheap methods first. If you can pay rent and utilities on a tiny place and still afford groceries, than that's good enough.

Once you are making enough to support yourself, you are ready to make the decision about dropping out. The reason I say this is because knowledge and doing can be very different and your income will not be predictable in IM.

When my husband (Rob/ccmusicman) started IM he ended up with over $2000 in credit card debt from PPC and hardly made anything. He decided to do what I just suggested to you and stayed in school until he was able to support himself and then dropped out. He has shared his story various places around the forum.

Why did I tell you this? Just to give you food for thought.

Should you let anyone on this forum or anywhere else make this decision for you? No.

And now let's see a list of millionaires who have higher education, shall we?

See what I mean

Come on.

You say you READ about internet marketing? Ok, that's fine. Tell me one thing though - how is READING going to pay your bills?

No, seriously, I'm in a very, very similar position. I know my formal education won't do me any good, I already know most of what I need and everything my university has to offer from now on is just mambo jambo.

But until I am 150% sure that internet marketing can be my profession, that I understand it, that I will always make money when I need to, until that very time - I have to keep other options open.

I'm a proud man, I would never ever intentionally make a decision that would make me crawl back to my parents to take care of me after, and pardon the language, I screwed up.

This is neither funny nor easy decision you know. It's your life you're considering...

It's a great idea to have a plan, to have a dream and to go for it. But always consider every possibility and always have more options open.

I don't think you realize the seriousness of the situation, that's why I'm giving you the parent's talk even though I'm probably at your age or even younger...

I don't have any real friends on my college, just a few (2-3) people I know... you don't go to college to have friends, but to educate yourself.

I'm not sure I understand what your point is here. But I'm guessing that if they could do it, why can't I?

Also, for all the people that are wondering (I also want to explain myself a little bit more), I'm not against college by any means. What I do think is that it's not for everyone. It just depends on your goals, and if you have a very well designed plan for what you want to achieve, and if you're constantly working to make that plan/dream become a reality. Then you'll see if college is for you or if it isn't.

As Rob said: I think I need a year off or something. I want to continue implementing what I've been learning with internet marketing. And as a matter of fact, I already have 1 site up, and I'll work to bring traffic to it, and hopefully sometime soon make sales with it. But that's the thing, that's what I'm doing, that's what I love.

In my country, there's not even an internet marketing degree. And if there was, I'll bet you I know a lot more than the teachers of the program. I'm from Panama by the way.

Anyways, people continue giving your opinions. I've read every single one of the posts, and I want to have a very good amount of advice from full time internet marketers, who understand where I'm coming from, so I can make my decision in the future.

Thanks in advance =) and thanks to everyone who has commented so far. I love this.