Why doesn't college prepare you for the real world?

My undergrad business degree helped me in the real world. I knew a little about accounting, marketing, finance, management, economics, etc. I was familiar with how a business operated and what the different departments did. A lot of time was spent on long term strategy, which I found very interesting.

What it didn't prepare me for was the politics involved in business. I felt I was blindsided by the fact it wasn't so much what you know but who you know to get ahead.

 

WOW!!! Very well said!! Deep explanations!

 

Interesting.

 

Medicine requires a specific license and is outside of what the poster is referring to. Few fields necessitate such a thing. He is speaking in general about the vast majority of education paths. Medicine isn't something you can just educate yourself on and "practice" due to the fact that you have to cut people open etc.

 

What you said.

 

College education is less about learning than it is about maturing and becoming better capable to handle the life you are about to encounter.

 

Well they don't seem to be doing that. So they are getting $ for nothing. The exact term is " Something for nothing "

 

Most people go to College to pursue a passion, a career or to educate themselves in a chosen subject.

The real world is always changing and those who can't or won't adapt to change are the type of people who will always be bitter and angry, because the world is not the way they want it to be.

College can't help these type of people.

 

Hopefully you're four years (or more) older when you graduate from college than you were when you graduated from high school. If you haven't gained more maturity in that period of time it's nobodies fault but yours.

 

I feel the same way. The world is always changing.

 

People who can adapt to Change, are usually are successful in many of lifes endeavors.

 

Then there are a lot of immature young adults if what you say is correct.

 

Which just proves that college is not about maturing - it is about learning and obtaining the skills you need to build a successful career. The whole university experience was great, but it would have been worthless if I hadn't developed my talents and skills and gotten a return on my investment in myself. If you don't do that, you're going to wind up like so many of the young failures you see today - living with your parents and working at some crappy low wage job that won't pay off the mountain of debt you racked up in school.

 

The people who make it from hs through a surgical residency have a work ethic, high intelligence, and dedication that few other people have. Few people have what it takes. These aren't ordinary run of the mill college students.

 

Correct.

 

Interesting.

 

I wouldn't trade my 4 years of undergraduate work or my 5 years of (part time) graduate work for anything. I enjoyed every minute. I should have been a professional student.

It was far more interesting than the real world.

 

I feel very much the same way. It was a lot of hard work putting myself through college - looking back I wonder how I did it - but it was the best thing I ever did for myself. It's an experience unlike anything else.

 

Most colleges don't perceive of themselves as being merely vocational training programs, finishing schools, or half-way houses that inculcate basic life skills before releasing their charges.

Ideally, they aim to produce educated folks who benefit from exposure to accrued human knowledge in a plethora of disciplines - in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Expanding one's intellectual horizons allows one to better appreciate what human cultures have to offer while preparing one to contribute as well, not just to be efficiently integrated into the status quo.

Jefferson's scholarship in the classics, history, law, and philosophy allowed him to design a revolutionary nation; his acumen in the arts and architecture allowed him to design a nice house.

Both proved well worth the bother.

 

I prepared my children to deal with the real world. College did nothing more then teach them the skill set to excel in their chosen professions and supply an expanded world which to practice the skill set their mother and I taught them in dealing in the "real world".

Yes I am bragging on my children.

 

I loved college. But maybe it's not for everyone.

 

Except that if you make the mistake of gravitating to the humanities, you'll actually have your horizons shrunk. The last thing they want is to expose kids even-handedly to the broad range of human cultures.

And efficiently integrating into the status quo is how we get ahead in life. Unless you're the poet child of billionaires, of course.

 

Because most colleges are ran by liberals and we lnow they know nothing about the real world.

 

College doesn't prepare students for the real world because they were never intended to prepare students for the real world. They started out as monasteries to help teach people about Christianity, as well as places where knowledge was stored. They eventually morphed into what they are now because the state took control of education from the church, and the state is motivated solely by power.

If you wanted to learn about the real world back in the day, you took up an apprenticeship, and paid for your education by actually doing something of value for others.

 

That sounds like a good way to do it.