What were the consequences of you going to college? Do you think it helped you in life or did it only hold you back?

A bachelor's degree is a ticket into a lot of jobs, no matter what is in. That doesn't mean you have to go to an expensive school to get one.

Getting a BS in Computer Science was huge towards my success. I had to work while in college due to lack of funds. My job as a programmer paid very little before I got my degree. Even with years of experience, I had a hard time getting a dev job with an employer that paid better without my degree. With the degree, it was significantly easier.

I've heard of stories of folks that "made it" in dev without a degree. I did not have the charisma or whatever other skill they had to do it...

I will say I have quite a few student loans because my scholarships weren't enough (I was an average student at best) and my family made a lot of money but didn't help me so I didn't get other aid I would have normally qualified for. For me, my very well paying job outweighs the student loan payment. My gamble paid off. (It was a fairly safe gamble, but one can never really know in the uncertainty of life.)

However, even in the last few years school has gone up in price A LOT so that may change the calculations for future folks.

It changed my life. I encountered so many new ideas that challenged my upbringing. I was also able to travel through exchange programs.

I hate recommending to people that they should put themselves into crippling debt for a college education. Unfortunately, I don't know another way to rigorously challenge your beliefs, ideas and skills outside of college. You have to be somewhat special to read diversely and vociferously to do that.

Went to school for environmental engineering almost twenty years ago and graduated with one of the first accredited degrees in the field.

For the last twenty years I've traveled the country helping clean up the environment or prevent land from being further contaminated. Yeah the system is fucked up, lawyers and politicians and society don't value the environment over a quick buck. But I've done some good as opposed to wave a sign around at a protest.

Built up enough experience that I'm now part of a specialized team with the EPA that goes to all states and territories to help with case development on complicated or high profile sites that states and regions don't have the resources to handle.

Doing exactly what I wanted to do for my career, and directly because I got a good education that opened the doors to do it. I make a decent salary and have a skillset that makes employment easy and secure.

It helped massively. Before I was a web frontend Dev and despite me trying to get more waried work they didn't want me to learn new stuff because I was very good at what I did. So no possibility for my for any better job.

After I got into the automobile industry worked as a programmer, integrator and had so many opportunities for different career paths. I went on business trips to the US and Korea, found love here and moved. Now I'm partially in management and make so much more money which would all not be possible without going to university (in Sweden).

1. it absolutely helped me land my first job in a better position than I would have gotten otherwise. A degree was a prerequisite in my industry, that has since changed, but there was no way I couldn’t get the degree at the time.

It was a shit job, but it still got my foot in the door.

2. no employer gave a flying F about my education after my first job other than ticking the box by “has degree”.

My masters degree in statistics has been instrumental in my job, both in getting the job and using the skills I learned on a daily basis.

My degree 100% improved my life and opened doors for me that I wouldn't even have known about without it.

Tldr, get a basic associates degree. Do more later if it will prove advantageous.

My perspective is from living in the US.

It's always worth going to a local community college, even if you have no idea what you want to do, and taking basic classes (writing, speech, etc.). You can come out with a general associates degree without any specialization, low cost, and learn a ton of skills that are broadly applicable in any profession. And if you decide to get a specialized degree later, those classes should transfer in, saving you time and money in the more advanced/specific degree. But there are currently lots of jobs that don't require a specific degree, or any degree at all.

I personally feel like much of my time in college was wasted. I spent 6 years in college (4 is typical) pursuing degrees because I felt pressured into going to college, rather than working some basic jobs, saving money, and figuring out what I wanted in life. I was fortunate to come out without debt (thanks to some fortunate scholarships and hard work), but also with no money, a 2-6 year lag behind all my friends, and a degree with very little earning potential that I've ended up never using. I was fortunate enough to stumble into a great career where we do look at what degree someone had on their resume, but only as a point of conversation - it's fun to see what studies someone had, and ask them to share what they learned. For the job, we don't care what the degree is or if they even have one.

I went to university, and I currently work at university. Unless you know what you want to do, and that absolutely requires a degree, and you are 100% certain to get a job in that field, then go to university.

Otherwise, go learn a trade and join a union. By the time your friends are graduating college, you'll already be well established in your career and making much more than they likely will straight out of school.

The income ceiling is lower without a degree, but you get there much faster, have great benefits, and get to retire a lot earlier.

Also, there is nothing saying that you can't eventually go to university and get a degree.

My bachelor's was pretty useless, but it was the key to getting my much more useful masters degree.

I graduated university with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. It was probably the most difficult thing I've done in my life but I learned a lot, not only about biology, but critical thinking and debating ideas.

I had a hard time finding a job with such a general degree so unfortunately I needed to to back to college for a 2 year diploma necessary for a licenced job. College was a breeze after university.

I eventually quit that licenced job and now work a basic job in manufacturing that requires only a high school education. It's the most money I've ever made despite it being the easiest. Figure that out (hint: I'm in a union now).

Despite not really needing my education for my job, I still feel like it has drastically improved my life. Ever since university, learning new things has been easy and calling out bullshit even easier.

Both. I studied journalism (strike 1) and graduated in 2008 (strike 2). I chose "print" as my option (strike 3).

Consequences: never worked a day in journalism in my life. Judging by the state of journalism globally in 2024, I can't say that I mind. Having "a" degree is still a necessity for most non-menial jobs, so in that regard it always came in handy. Cost of the education wasn't through the roof, didn't have to take on any loans or such. To this day my only debt ever is my mortgage to the bank, looking to keep it that way.

For me, I wouldn’t say it held me back, but the benefits were not direct either. There was never the, I got x job as a result of y degree. My path was a bit more non traditional than most, but it’s my path.

For context, I just turned 40 a few weeks ago.

I went to community college after high school for finance because I was good at math and wanted to make a lot of money. I made it through, got an associates degree and went to a 4 year university after to finish. I dropped out after a semester or two because I had a lot of stuff going on in my life.

I ended up getting new jobs and eventually starting a business doing web dev and digital marketing many years later. I decided I wanted to finish the degree for no reason other than I felt like I was the type of person who should have a degree, so I did.

Fast forward 5 years and I’m tired of the business. I decide I want to sell it and get a masters degree in cybersecurity. In order to do that, I need to take another course first - it’s essentially a condensed cs degree. I learned a ton, got into the masters program and finished it.

The problem now is that I kind of fell for the schools marketing. It’s not easy to find a job in cybersecurity. And I’m also finding that being a cybersecurity engineer or a pen tester or a soc analyst or any of these “desirable” jobs are not really that interesting to me. After I sold the business, I found a direction, career wise, that I like. It’s in a technical space but not as an engineer and not in cybersecurity. And I think I’m ok with that. Getting my masters, I learned a lot, technically.

So to answer the original question, I don’t think either of the degrees helped me in a traditional sense, but they overall did more good than ham by a lot. Given the chance to do it again, maybe I would study something different, but I wouldn’t skip either of the degrees, even if I’m not directly using the skills today

Hell no. Go to school for welding or HVAC or plumbing or something else. Where you can not spend a crippling amount of money and have debt for the next 60 years.

My undergraduate education was absolutely invaluable to setting me up on the path I'm on today. In part because of the academics, but also because of the opportunities I was afforded through internships and organizations which have morphed into a career. My best friends to this day came from those experiences. It gave me an opportunity to learn about myself, make some mistakes that thankfully didn't set me back too far, and the flexibility to give me room to grow into who I am today.

My graduate education on the other hand was simply a checkbox for job recruiters. I did the bare minimum to get the grades I needed, but my heart wasn't in it. I figure the hiring manager will see the benefits of my on the job training, and HR will use my degree in their matrix to decide what salary I'm worth.

It reinforced the idea that I love learning. I also reinforced the idea that I don't learn well by sitting in a lecture hall and listening to people talk to me.

I am somewhat reluctant to say it, but if you get into a top-branded school, it will absolutely help you as it will open doors that otherwise would be closed. People will look at you differently, expect from your differently, and you'll expect from yourself differently.

OTH, look at Bill Gate, Steve Job, Michael Dell, etc.; extraordinary people will be extraordinary given the right circumstances, ideas, and perseverance.

I dropped out 20 years ago and I've done alright but have grown into a management role and now it is very hard to move into other management roles without a degree. I am considering going back to school to finish it.

I want to believe it helped me but I don't really think it did. I enrolled into a small and generally not famous university in my country which decreases your chances of employment. I worked retail and rarely went to classes, I was majoring in Computer Science. I had 0 college debt and I also got a car.

After graduating with an average GPA I thankfully got into an internship for Mobile Development thanks to a friend of mine. Since then I've learnt lots of things on the jobs and I still work as a Mobile App Dev. No one asked me about my degree or university because I can deliver fairly high quality apps.

Of course my chances of getting into FAANGs or big name companies is slim compared to people who graduated top of their class in a top university, but I'm content with where my career is currently heading.

It definitely helped my life with new ideas, good friends and a better career. It’s also free in my country, and you actually get paid to go there, so it was never a difficult decision.

The consequences of me going was I had to pay my bill still after I dropped that shit, went full time software development.

The gap between college and non college educated in the US is the non college educated vote for Trump in a 4to1 proportion. Oh also make in average $20K less, a year, than college educated people.

I'm in college right now, so it might not be as relevant as others who have graduated and used their degrees (or not), but I would say it really depends. College obviously is expensive, and depending on the degree you go for as well as what it's for can help or do nothing. For example, if your going to do power line work, you dont really need a degree unless your the person planning the project or leading everyone in the task. However, if you want to do welding or mechanic work on machines, you do need a degree and it will help you, not only in getting the job and better pay, but also in minor experience before you even start working.