I suspect that doing away with the draft has contributed to the seemingly directionless drift of young people these days. That mandatory two or three year hiatus from school...and exposure to the real world....helped a lot of people decide what they wanted to pursue.

Forgot to mention... My wife hates when I tell the kids they don't have to go to college if they don't want to.

Some of smartest people that worked for and with me had BS, MS, or PHD degrees. Some of the smartest had High School or GED or a year or 2 of college.
Some of dumbest people that worked for and with me had BS, MS, or PHD degrees. Some of the dumbest had High School or GED or a year or 2 of college.Some of them couldn't scratch their butt with a hay rake.

I have a four year degree. My starting position didnt pay much but I rose quickly within the company, retiring at the top. I was also in the military reserves and got a commission. Retired after 27 years.

Dont have a problem with anyone who does not go to college, but I promise you that without my degree I might have never retired at 55 and been comfortable 20 yeas later. Wife did the same. She has two masters degrees.

What the previous two said. Some good jobs require degrees simple as that. I do see that in the future Mexican labor will put a hurt on manual/skilled labor. It is creeping along. Some of the labor unions really need to be careful as their pay, work, benefits, etc. are so high it is really inviting the cheap Mexican labor to come in.

I was in the Army with a fella from Lawrence KS that had 6 yrs of college. He joined the Army cause his dream was to play in the Army band. Seriously.

I’ve been saying this for 17 years. My wife was the same way, but she’s coming around. I came to the conclusion after about 4 years of guiding guys that had more money then I’ll ever dream of. Every night at the supper table it was the same story!! No one could find good hard working employees, and they would pay big money to find one. A vast majority of the guys with big money where owners of companies like HVAC, trucking lines, and oil supplies etc... really got me to thinking. Most Skilled labor is hard labor and it’s getting harder every day to find young men and women that want to to it.

I dont know how many years my sister in law went to school, but now shes a assistant surgeon. they take out so much a week for her paying it back , my brother works at a sawmill and makes more than her, or bringing home more, she will retire she said before its all payed back ,so i wonder if it was worth it for her. my daughter works at walmart and talks of how hard it is to train the collage kids how to run a cash register.

I went to Universal Technical Institute to be an auto tech right after high school. It was okay, I actually learned more in the field and through other training courses. But it was relatively cheap and I was out in 16 months making money. Ive worked all kinds of jobs, from private shop to chain to dealer and now I'm a mechanic for a police department. I make awesome money now, enough for my wife to stay at home with our five kids. I started out at $8.00 an hour though, that was a little rough. I had a lot of friends in high school that told me to start practicing saying "would you like fries with that?" when they learned I wasn't going to the local university with them. I don't talk to any of them anymore, but from what I understand, not a single one of them is working a job that requires a college degree.

One of the finacial channels had a story about how CEO's salary now avaerages 145 times the average yearly wages of their company's hourly workers. That could be one reason many job openings have so few people being trained to fill them.
Later, the same show had an "expert" express concern that a wage increase for "marginal" employees can hurt the profit margins of the company.

I know many young men who have done well for themselves by being trained by the labor unions. I have written letters of recomendation for many of them. The kids graduating from high school with strong math skills and an interest in going to work are in huge demand for well paying jobs.

We do many kids a disservice by making them believe that college is their best option. But we do a bigger disservice to kids if we give them the impression that their high school education should not be taken seriously. A kid who does well in high school can always dumb it down and take a low paying job, but a kid who fails, and allows himself to miss out, can easily be stuck near the bottom.

College is not for everyone. I agree that most kids who go to college with no specific career goals are wasting there time and somebody's money, whether theirs or their parents.

For smart, focused, ambitious kids (yes, they do still exist), a four-year degree can be a very valuable investment. I can also see the flip side; America needs more skilled tradesmen. I've worked in residential construction and remodeling most of my life. The really good tradesmen are retiring and there's no one to replace them. The construction industry is in dire need of tradesmen!

I have three daughters, all adults now. Career goals were discussed many times. College was always an option I was in favor of because of the career opportunities a four-year degree can unlock. I always cautioned that if that sort of money was going to be spent, the responsibility to make it work and pay off was huge.

My oldest is one of those rare kids mentioned above (smart, focused, ambitious). She got an expensive four-year degree in International Relations. Her goal was to be hired by the State Department, become a Foreign Service Officer and get paid to travel the world (she's always loved international travel). That's exactly what she did! The pay is pretty good and the perks are great. She's in her mid-thirties now and her degrees will be paid for soon.

My middle child decided against college, went to work for a national bank and began climbing the ladder. She's not overly ambitious but is content where she's at. She was promoted to branch manager a year ago.

My youngest is unfocused, college would be a waste of time for her. Despite that warning she did a semester with a major in biology before dropping out ($15,000.00 down the drain). At twenty-five she is still deciding what she wants to be when she grows up! LOL She's not lazy, she works all the time and is currently employed by me on my construction crew. She just needs to decide what she wants to do with her life and stick with it. I've recommended trade school to her, even offered to pay for it but she's not interested.

I think it depends more on the person than the type of education they choose (trade school vs. college). An ambitious, focused person is almost always going to achieve more of their goals than one who lacks a plan and the initiative to make it happen.

I heard about an article yesterday in the Washington Post (I think) Some people in the SWAMP are spending 200k+ on advisors and consultants to get their kids into schools. They talked about people paying 16k on a day or to class for their kids to prep them for college applications and application letters. Fricken crazy.

I’ll try and find it and see if I’m smart enough to put it on here

I didn't go to collage, I went to a tech. School. I make good money for where we live. My wife works at Wal-Mart she didn't graduate h.s but has made assistant manager in 4 years of working there.

I hear xray tech. Is a good one bowhunter.

I'm a big fan of Mike Rowe. He hasn't slipped up yet. His communication style both written and verbal is refreshing. Good on him all around.

4yr degree here. I'll never regret it.

I went to college, 1 semester, I figured it was a waste of time and money and dropped out.
Then I went to a Tech school, dropped out after 3 semesters, didn't need to finish, I had a job offer in my field of study.
After all I was going to school to get a job, why keep going when you have the job.
Everybody in my class at the Tech school had jobs offers in the field of study on the day they graduated.

I went on to work at several different companies and at the age of approx 35 I bought out a small local business.
I ran that company and grew it about 10 times, then at the age of 50 I sold that business and retired.
I am comfortable, I don't worry about finances.

I managed to retire comfortably because of my work ethic that I learned from my Dad. I didn't need a college degree.

I know many young people, some wonderful people, with college degrees that can't get a decent job. I've asked them many times "did you look into the job market for your field of studies before you started college?" They never do.

They go for studies like Dance, Music, even fields like Chemist Tech and Biology.

I graduated H.S. in '76 and the push for college was bad then and now its worse.

Went to college for 4 years to be a teacher. Recently quit teaching to drive a van in the pipeline as a member of the Teamsters union. I more than doubled.my pay.

Excellent points and I agree with them all. I hope somebody can answer your question, I can't.

I graduated highschool at 17, and joined the Marine Corps. I graduated a week after I turned 18. I did ten years, and got out. Worked for about 11 years, then went to college online via Park University and earned a four year degree in Computer Science, Network Security. My degree is essentially the foundation. In order to be employable with it, I will need 2-3 more certifications in addition to the two I currently hold. Each one of those require Continuing Education to maintain individually, one requiring a complete retest every four years. In all of this what I have learned the most, I don't want to be in this industry anymore. I want to grow and sell produce, so thats what I am doing. I built a hydroponic greenhouse, and have started and am growing a small microgreen production business in my "spare" time. I've had to give up many things, trapping is one that I've had to cut way way back on.
College didn't prepare me for a job, it taught me how to think, and think creatively, as well as understand multiple aspects of a given situation. I would not have been ready right out of highschool to do this. I needed life experience first to appreciate what I was learning, and how to employ it in other aspects of my life. I'm glad I went, I'm glad I did it, but I think it's the culmination of life experiences and college that made me what I am today. Not one or the other. I will never be super wealthy, and I'm ok with that. I find a greater importance in loving what I do.

You really want to know what college taught me? There is no "safe" computer. The only one that is truly safe is the one thats powered off, and locked in a vault. Everything can be penetrated.

If she has worked with you she has likely seen all the different trades in action.

IF she is interested in a trade I would suggest electrician and eventually, an electrical administrators license. Not a lot of need for brute strength but does require some knowledge and the ability to learn and reason.

OR...airline pilot.The best pilots I have known have all been women. It's that fine motor skill thing ..I think.