Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire College Degrees

Don't regret getting my degree and it serves me well in my profession over the years. I had a trade before that and worked in it for a while but now in my 60's I'm glad that I can still work as my body isn't in great shape anymore.

My kids both graduate from college this year but have worked through college. We always tried to instill in them that work ethic is a higher priority than grades or a degree even though both of them have good grades.

Daughter had to spend 6K of her own money and another year to get a teaching degree after she finally figured out, in her senior year, her worthless Radio, Television and Film degree was gonna be just that...worthless. She finally admitted the RTF degree was an easy way to get spend a lot more time in the Longhorn Band.

I've got three degrees... undergrads in Agronomy and Horticulture. My Graduate degree is in Entomology. I've lived a good life, and put my daughter through college (DVM) where she now owns her own clinic in Orlando. That's good enough for me. I'm now retired and don't do schit. The papers just hang on the wall.

I worked with a guy who graduated from Glassboro State College. When the school's name was changed to Rowan University (thanks to a huge donation by Mr. Rowan), I told him that his diploma was now null and void, due to the name change.
Next day, the guy gets in my face, and says "You lied to me. I called the college, and they told me my degree is just fine!" LOL!!!

Remembering the old Glassboro and the Rowan conversion. What is your spot in NJ?

They took out real math and science requirements in high school and teachers were no longer allowed to fail students. And many high schools took votech out of their curriculum replacing with diversity classes.

Boomer parents told their children that the most important thing in college was to live your dream and have fun when you’re young. picking a college with the best social life was the number one priority. Tech schools were for white trash and had no greek system, football games etc. If math and science classes were too tough don’t take them. In the late 80’s all of the easy worthless woke BA majors started appearing in universities. Students flocked to them because it didn’t cut into their social life at college and classes has such low academic standards.

Kids returned home to live with their parents after graduation and couldn’t find jobs. Boomer parents told them they were super special and to go back and get a masters degree in their majors. Double down on stupid. Of course universities loved this cash cow

Many of these new students end up in bloated govt jobs or working at universities in bloated do nothing departments , faculties repeating the failures


I’d tell a kid now healthcare or engineering or do t bother with college or better yet a tech school. You can make the military work out for you choose one of the high tech demanding career fields.

The tide might finally be turning against the college scam. Enrollment is dropping across the board, we'll see if it lasts.

I see a lot of the folks who got crap degrees and I agree its a scam perpetrated by the universities and society as a whole. But a good degree and some hard work is certainly a path to success and usually beyond what most folks are going to make in the trades.

I work in the life sciences doing capital equipment sales have a Ph.D and usually make more than my wife who is a surgeon. There are good jobs for someone with a Ph.D or a masters with some experience. You need to communicate reasonably well and work hard but its a good job. Its odd but we really struggle to hire for new sales jobs despite paying ~150K to start.

One benefit of some jobs is that you are likely to meet and marry someone else making a better than average income. I know thats rarely thought of when choosing a trade. There are probably some welders who married well.. but your odds are better as a nurse or in my job for example. Two good incomes beat one any day.

Education is a lot more expensive than it used to be, I left graduate school pretty much even and my wife finished med school without borrowing because me being a few years older, I was making enough to pay her medical tuition. That's not so practical these days as things have gotten much more expensive, but even if we borrowed a good income can pay off student debt pretty quick.. its the good income part that is so important.

Because they were educated (?) in today’s socialists schools and buy into the leftest politicians bs about a college degree. No one explains the importance of a degree required to get a real job. They simply believe that a degree, paid for by the taxpayers, will automatically have the cash rolling in! memtb

Because High School guidance counselors are as worthless as two tits on a bull.

About as valuable as a degree from Upsala.

That’s impressive. Good job

Something I’d consider is the ability to work anywhere and quality of life. I used to live and work in NYC and DC Balitimore. Made great money but much happier living in the rural west

Seems there needs to be some personal responsibility in choosing a degree and the results thereafter should a person decide higher education is their desire.

Honestly, some careers could be served with an 8th grade education (at least the one I got from the nuns) and further instruction in just what is necessary to perform the labor needed to complete the task at hand. Basic math and communication skills. You know, the old readin', ritin', and rithmatic. But we as a society don't operate that way.

I, for one, am glad I picked the degree/field of work I did. Then again, I was a returning student at the time. After graduating HS, and then getting a 2 year degree in General Ed with an emphasis on Anthropology/Archaeology, I got a job in a trade that paid well (Union) and hasn't gone away yet. Everyone needs bread and burger buns, right?

I was never really happy doing that job, indoors in a hot sweaty environment, in a large metro environment. And mandatory OT. Yeah, look up the labor laws going way back. Bread is a staple item and as such if an order wasn't finished because the machinery broke down, we stayed until it was fixed and could finish the order or until the bosses could call back other workers who had already gone home from earlier shifts and were willing to come back. It sure paid well for a 20 something kid though. First brand new car at 23, new fishing equipment whenever I wanted. And partying and girls! Then it became not so much fun.

When I decided to figure out "what I wanted to be", I realized that anthro/archaeology wasn't going to work because the folks that made money in that field are the professors and consulting firm owners that .........................work indoors most of the year. I wanted to do the field work, but that is mostly done by grad students or seasonal low wage workers. Well, I thought about it and figured I like to fish, like fish and the places they live, and maybe if I get a degree in fish I can find a job in a smaller town, preferably away from large metro areas, and maybe get a retirement out of it, while not working indoors most of the time.

It worked out fairly well for me. I worked and got paid a decent wage working on salmon/steelhead streams in NorCal for a timber company, doing a contaminant study on fishes in the Klamath Basin in OR and CA, Wrapped up a coho hatchery in Western OR, raising recreational and threatened fishes in NW PA, inspecting for disease and recommending treatment for hatchery fish and also inspecting wild fish in the SW US, raising critically endangered fishes and planter trout on the Colorado River, working at a research facility in SE AK, and finally finishing up my career working in fish transportation on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

Outside of the fish disease job,which involved too much indoor work staring at slides under a microscope and diagnosing parasite, bacterial, environmental, and viral diseases, most of my work was of the outdoor variety. And perhaps as important for me, working with small crews or by myself.

My wife, who I met in college and also a returning student, had a similar start to her career in Natural Resources but is able to better tolerate indoor jobs and paperwork. She therefor got higher up the ladder and made more money than me. Doesn't affect my manhood one bit. I kinda like it

We both lived "poor", separately while in college; as returning students our parents were no longer involved in paying for our education. The fact my wife was able to, without complaining, is one of the many reasons I was attracted to her. I knew she could make it through the tough times. The university system I was in was limited to a 10% increase per semester for tuition and such. Well, compound that over the 8 semesters I was there and the increase in costs became substantial. By the time we got out we had some debt, but having lived "poor" it wasn't too terribly burdensome. There were a couple of slow times when we had the govt loans on deferment, but they were all paid off.

I wouldn't do it any other way. Yeah, had I chosen engineering, or computer scheidt, or chemistry, or nursing, or any of a dozen other fields I could have done better financially. Heck, if I'd have stayed in the baking trade I'd have a way better retirement than I do now. But.......and it's a big BUT............I'd not have been able to live in the places I've lived and seen the things I've seen, and done the things I've done. I'd probably be stuck in a box in a suburb of a large metro area complaining about commute times and crime.

Being happy is important to some of us. Following those dreams some are running down here is important to some of us. I'm not sure many of the younger generations following their dreams now, and trying for degrees with no "financial" future, are willing to eat a handful of oatmeal and raisins for breakfast every day for a year. Or ride their bicycle 10 miles to school at 0630 because their 10 year old car is broken and they're waiting on the parts to come in so they can fix it themselves. Or, as I did, realize when leaving the library at 2300 hours closing time that for not having a job I was putting in a whole lot of 12-14 hr days without much pay, so that they can get high grades to have on their transcripts for job applications.

I'm never going to run down a person for deciding to get an art degree, music degree, communications degree, or take your pick of "studies" degree so that they can follow their dreams........................with the caveat that they better just take personal responsibility for their decision. And the results.

Happiness is critical.

Is she a happy nitwit though?

Everyone screams trades right now, but the guys I know in the trades are really frustrated for lack of a labor pool/willing workers. It's not like the good old days when you had young men lined up to work 50 hour weeks in a not so desireable field. And it's hard to grow a business into something you can make a lot of money at if you can't expand.

I’ve tried talking several bright young men into going into the Instrument/Electrical field…..they want computer jobs in a nice building. Doubling to quadrupling the salary means little to nothing to them! memtb

If the title ends in "studies" it's pretty well worthless.

Degree heavy here, and was well rewarded. Still though, it seems that those that are willing to work can do quite well and are constantly in demand in this region.

My son, now 33, dropped out of college after his first quarter and squeaked by on entry level wages until just recently. First kid in my extended family over three generations to not get a degree.

Some very broad and fuzzy brushes being used in this thread. Personal examples and experiences are interesting and can be instructive, but extrapolation to the whole of higher ed and the workplace is another matter.

The vast majority of those with degrees (example Remedial Basket Weaving, or similar) make far less than a skilled, blue collar worker!

The minority with real degrees in a worthwhile profession are an entirely different matter! memtb

The stats don't support that at all. People with degrees, on average, have higher lifetime incomes than those without. There certainly are degrees that have no prospects but most of those people end up in jobs outside their degree fields.

That this is even possible shows how silly the idea that everyone needs a degree is. This is strictly a boomer development, that so many professions require any degree at all even if it is irrelevant to the position. They'll necessarily take anyone with any degree.

I've done quite well as a tradesman with no degree. I left school as it was obvious Jewery and I couldn't sit still as long as was required. Working a trade has been financially rewarding relative to anything I could have done with a degree, but I am an exception.