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

Maybe because of things like a degree in Hip Hop music????

 

College turned into a set of hoops to jump through to prove you are a person who can follow through, nothing more, nothing less.

The idea that a college degree has value beyond proving you can jump through a hoop is absurd!

 

I'm pretty sure that anyone who went to school for engineering can tell you how absurd this statement is.

Even in STEM degrees, they don't prepare you to do the job!

 

once you get the degree its up to you to prove yourself to the boss..just because you got a piece of paper doesnt mean much

 

Being indoctrinated that capitalism is evil, that your are OWED a good living,and zero sum economics doesn't translate into a decent real life, in nearly all cases.

 

An important distinction here is the sort of material being taught.

You don't exactly need someone to have been the president of a fortune 500 in order for them to effectively teach calculus. The skillsets are rather different. For more advanced classes I think the academics do a good job of understanding and a fair job of explaining the more complex material.

Where I'd worry about a mismatch in real world vs college experience is more in what courses are offered or encouraged. I've already commented that engineers could really use some classes that are of a more "business" nature because that is going to be important for them. However you do have to watch out for being taught something like an obsolete programming language. Although even then you're building up some skills that can transfer.


Now for degrees in soft skills like communications or business I'd think you'd really really want someone with more than theoretical experience.

In either case any good university will be aware of the importance of extended internships with actual companies and will encourage and facilitate your getting one.

This is very true. Especially with todays content analytics software. Often if you lack a degree, a sufficiently good GPA, and a selection of keywords they're looking for than your resume will never even be seen by a human.

The "person who can follow through" part is certainly in the mix, and sometimes that really is all it is.

However it is usually more than that. They aren't hiring someone as a software developer if you've never so much as done a "hello world".

Your four year degree isn't going to have prepared you to go straight into a senior development role, and you're going to have a learning curve for whatever you're specifically doing. But your courses get you that groundwork, and hopefully your internship helps close the gap.

Of course you'll also have learned a bunch of stuff you won't use. The trick is that you can't know ahead of time for sure what stuff will be vital and what stuff won't.

For example I graduated with a computer engineering degree during the dot bomb. The skills I thought would be the ones I'd actually use rapidly became completely useless in that job market and it turned out to be those "annoying required courses" in calculus, physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering that landed me in a house of my own instead of my parents basement.

 

And that is the main difference. When I talk to people about complex situations ( basic business concepts ) most of the time I hear there are too many variables to figure it out. Then to me you have no clue how to function then. You aren't as informative as somebody who can figure those types of things out. I'm glad somebody pointed this out. Because a lot of people feel that school settings, the school clubs and student body associations give that to you. It's not a blame thing. It's just not the same thing as what you deal with in the real world.

 

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

Obviously the 'real world' is different for every individual and cannot be stereotyped in this fashion.

If we cannot know every single person's 'real world' then it is not possible to expect any form of school to solve this.

Education or schooling is only one ingredient in our 'real worlds'...we need to experience many situations, be exposed to success and failure, be tempted by good and bad things, have good and bad luck, etc. and it's really a crap-shoot how each individual processes all of life's experiences...

 

Well said!! And this is an awesome example of why school alone doesn't prepare you. People take it like you're dogging school when these points are brought up. But it's not.

 

I suggest all kids obtain a minimum of an under-graduate degree (probably should be in the science's) and/or start a sustainable business. In today's economic climate, and well into the near future, anyone believing they can find general and middle-class paying employment for 40+ years until retirement will probably be disappointed. And...no matter what Obama and the pundits say, IMO, kids need to slow down the spending, save a minimum of 10% of their incomes, and for at least 20 years have a very frugal life (in terms of spending and debt yet a quality and enjoyable life). As I look back on my life, I see no problem working hard for 20+ years, saving, because the most enjoyment comes once we're out of the full-time workplace...

 

College teaches you a skill or discipline.
It peoples parents job to prepare them for real life.

 

I like what you said about experience. Even the most intelligent 21 year old lacks life experience. There has to be an element of failure, bouncing back, and knowing how you will respond.

 

This is nonsense. In many countries, kids don't 'go away' to college, they commute to their local university.

 

next time you need life saving surgery, be sure to remind yourself that your surgeon wasted his/her time at college.

 

Tell your surgeon.

 

Because it's not their job. Their job is teach a 'trade', and that's it.

It's up to parents to develop a good work ethic and responsibility in their kids.

 

That’s fine. Lots of people stay local, but going away is a completely different experience. It’s not even debatable. Living at home vs being completely self reliant another state away or at least a few hours drive, is different. Very different. It’s not nonsense. It’s reality.

 

I mean it's nonsense that it has any tangible effect on responsibility. Are young America adults measurably more responsible than the young adults who attend local colleges in other countries? No, of course not. In fact, they'd compare poorly with some .. even those who stay at home until well into their 20s.

Living away from your parents at age 18 isn't what makes you responsible. Responsibility and a good work ethic are learned long before the age of 18. Kids who are productive and responsible will be so regardless of where they live, and irresponsible kids will be irresponsible regardless of where they live.

 

I think we are talking about undergraduate degrees in this thread in which case those saying it is mostly a waste of time are right. It is an idiotic, ridiculous, corrupt system.

 

Amen to that. You have to teach new hires what work is these days. General expectations are misunderstood and work ethic or ambition through achievement is pretty much foreign concepts.

 

Because its too busy telling you what a racist you are, brainwashing you to believe there are 741 genders, convincing you that capitalism is evil, and creating an establishment that allows feral bigots to ban you from attending class because "muh colored feelings".

 

Interesting. Tell us how you really feel.

 

What you said.

 

I never said there’s a B&W rule that guarantees one is better than the other Every kid is different. Some aren’t ready to leave. Some want to get out ASAP. Some don’t have the means. But the experience is entirely different and it’s a fact that not having a security blanket forces responsibility, independence and decision making. You have no choice or you drop out and fail. For some kids it’s better. For others who can’t handle it it could make their life worse.

Are you speaking out of theory or actual experience? I’m guessing theory. I have the actual experience between me, siblings and other family members and now, the kids of coworkers. Not a single one says their kid staying at home fosters MORE responsibility and independence. It allows for easier savings. It allows for comfort. But having to rely on yourself is simply NOT the same.

Hopefully we’ve instilled responsibility on our kids by the time they’re 18, but let’s get real. You don’t know diddly **** until you leave the nest. If you think you know real life still living with your parents into your late 20s....hehehehe.

 

Great thread OP.

Not only college, our educational systems are a JOKE. Not once did my HS teachers lecture about budget and the fact that DEBT is needed to go to college, most of the time. I was just told to go if I could.

School should consist of teaching all the necessities of life. Reading, writing, typing, mathematics, Budgeting, finance, investment, sex ed, cooking and understanding social systems. Things like six sigma, statistical analysis to establish causation, things like this.

People in society function on anecdotal evidence. This Shows me that they literally don't know how to process data. As such they're horribly ignorant. The entire system teaches literally nothing of real value. None of it is ever used and it's all forgotten. Things like excessive biology and chemistry courses (which I studied). Worthless and a giant waste of time.

I'd also have a class on critical thinking. What this would teach you is the dangers of groupthink and bias with popular thought. As an educated man (most self taught these things), it takes a sense of humility to acknowledge people can have very different value systems. This doesn't make anyone bad. And it disgusts me that in 2017, we still **** fling crap at each other over who has the better invisible man in the sky, race, and other nonsense issues that we should be WAY PAST THOSE ARGUMENTS.

It shows a total lack of people's ability to cope, to make sense of the world, and things like this.

TL;DR. people are morons