As someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time in college and is now looking towards pursuing a degree in academia, I would just like to say that I am in complete agreement with Cali in regards to college.

Unless the field you want to go in requires a higher education, then college is a humongous waste of time and money. As Cali rightly pointed out, many of the richest and most successful people on the planet got there without requiring four (or more) years of college.

As for the whole "college degrees determine pay" belief, I can state from experience that getting one's bachelor's has absolutely zero effect on landing a better job. Knowing someone in the business is a better guarantee of getting in than a diploma.

That said, college is fine for folks who enjoy learning, and who want to "broaden their horizons," but it is horribly over priced (while being underfunded at the same time), and a bureaucratic nightmare to deal with.

Screw the education system! I say we all go back to guilds and whatnot. At least that ensures people get properly trained/ rewarded for what they actually know.

My best friend is an attorney who only makes $24,000 a year working 50 hours a week. He only gets by through his real estate business which doubles his income. On the other hand, I know jack-offs who have gone on to be guidance counselors, making $70,000 annually to ruin kids lives.

I'm a little jaded since I grew up around a piss poor school system. Nearly all of our teachers were fat, lazy bastards, more interested in going on strike than teaching children. I was always tops in my class, but only out of spite. Nothing's better than getting suspended for laughing at a teacher's stupidity. :D

Degrees are nothing more than paying someone to give their opinion about you. I scoffed at all of my academic and art scholarships when I graduated high school. I cussed and told raucous jokes during my valedictorian speech, and hid the words "FUCK THIS SCHOOL" in the cover artwork I did for my senior yearbook.

I might be dirt poor until I make it the way I want to make it, but at least I stick to my guns, and don't allow society to decide the path I have to take.