Disillusionment with College

EastCoast315

EastCoast315

Active member
All senior year, I kept saying it; "look, I'm not going to college unless I can do it without debt. Even then, I'm really not sure." Well, I'm here, a picture-perfect story, hard-luck poor kid going to college with no loans at all. I'm at SUNY Plattsburgh majoring in Expeditionary Studies. It's a sweet program.

Back home, I didn't have a ton of friends. Spent most of my days out in the woods by myself, and if with anyone, with my two best friends. We functioned tribally, watching out for one another and working, playing, and living together for the past 12 years. In school, I'd joke around with people and be generally affable, but I didn't care enough to make any "real" friends, mainly because I just didn't give a shit. I was busy with my own stuff, namely training myself to take to the rails like my father did and still does. From age ten I basically put myself through what I called "hobo college", training myself in the ways of the woods and eventually moving into the city, working with dumpster diving and studying train maps. In the summer I'd ruck 40 miles a day as conditioning, and when I wasn't doing that, I was either in the woods or on the farms, working.

Now I'm here, surrounded by people, and in the city, and I don't know what to do. All semester, I've lived like a recluse, reading more about vagabonds of the past, memorizing rail links throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico, and fine tuning my pack's baseweight to a glorious 7.3 pounds (!!!). My schedule is dumb fucking easy, no early classes and they're all super easy. I really enjoy them though, it's the rest of the experience I hate.

-Being around people all the time (mostly long island pricks... fuck LI people)

-No farms to work at, so my body is limp, I'm fat, and out of shape

-The food is deathly. Back home, I eat good. Raw milk, garden vegetables, venison, home made bread

-I only spend 5% of the entire time in classes. The rest is just silly stuff.

-I loathe the city, streets and that. I'm a wide-open-spaces kinda guy. You know, an American.

The list just goes on. Yeah, I party, get laid, have fun. But it gets old real fast. I'm thinking about dropping out and buying a tipi to live in on a stretch of my uncle's land and working on farms/scrapping metal/throwing wood until I've got a few grand. Then I'm gonna take the money and travel with it for a year or so, come back, work, and then travel again. Repeat, repeat. I've filled literally dozens of notebooks on the finer details of how I'm going to do it. While I'm not so bold as to say I've listed everything that I need to consider, I've got enough information and knowhow to pull it off. I'm actually getting really excited as the semester passes and I'm closer to getting my tipi. Got a ski instructing gig again this season that's gonna pay nice and be really fun. Plus, it's a free pass.

Anyway, that's my story thus far. And this isn't to say I won't return to college, I certainly will when I'm older, but at this chapter of my life I'm not ready. I also failed to mention that I'm something of an autodidact, my grandmother (who I lived with for most of my life) was a librarian and I read most of the books in there through the years. Public school taught me to read, and I took it from there. Now that I'm in college, I can't go to the library because it's too crowded and I can't focus. I read less now than ever before. When I get out, I'm getting back to the library and re-reading a few letters of the encyclopedia for sure.

Anyone care to share their college experiences, negative or positive? Perhaps you'd bestow a bit of advice to me? I'd really love to make this work, but I feel like I can't.
 
College is a waste of time. Real people need Real jobs and college degrees wont get you that. Go to technical school and learn a trade.
 
Do it!!!

There is nothing to loose, everything to gain.

On my side i'm thinking of first finishing my bachelor's degree and i'm off to travel.

 
I enjoyed reading that. As long as you plan on finishing school then go do that "hobo" thing. Just remember that a proper education can take you far in life and being privileged enough to get one shouldn't be squandered.

I'm sort of in the same boat. For family reasons I decided to attend community college this year so I could help out around home. After this year I'll be attending Champlain College in VT. Im struggling at home because the community college offers nothing I want to learn/classes that will benefit me. I want to drop out and work but my father is pushing me to go to school. To top it off I'm paying for classes that are completely worthless i.e. FYE and intro to computers but they are mandatory so I have to take them. I too am counting down the days until I'm done. I just feel like I'm wasting time and money but sometimes you got to do what ya gotta do.

inb4

#whitekidproblems
 
Some people just need a little longer to figure everything out. There is no rush to go right through college when you graduate high school as long as you're still learning about the world and yourself.

Try to get some real life experience that somehow involves your whole "tipi" mindset, and eventually you will find your self back in college with more purpose and benefit from college better than if you just stuck with it. This is just my opinion on college after wanting to leave my sophomore year and just sticking through it. Then again I think sucking it up was a great experience for me also because I am defiantly a stronger person now. So I guess its up to you, I feel I made the right decision but sticking it out might not be for everyone. Either way you will end up with an important experience.

 
Not trying to be combative, but I'm interested in why this is the common perception. With little to no desire to get anything amounting to a "career' except perhaps farming, and an unfortunate inability to socially function, I don't quite see how far it could take me.

I totally sympathize with you, though. My family is really disappointed that I don't have any interest, particularly because I'm first in the family to go to any sort of college. Idk, I can't do the "gotta do what you gotta do" thing though. It seems that too many people are waiting for something. Waiting to finish school, waiting for the work day to end, waiting to retire. I'm done with that, I'm about to take the plunge into "doing". But as Ripper said, some people might be better to just stick it out. I don't know.

 
one of my very good friends dropped out of college halfway through the year and it was one of the best decisions of his life. now he just hops trains and hitchikes around the country working on farms meeting cool folks. he is a super happy dude now that he has dropped out of college, he said college was killing his spirit.
 
I'm just saying, you never know what you are going to want to do 10, 15, 20 years down the road. At least you will have a very solid base to build a career off of if you ever decide that farming is no longer a passion of yours and you want to do something else. If that never happens then you can say you did the right thing leaving college but you just don't want to grow old wishing you had done it differently.
 
dude, are you trolling? That's basically me haha. Think he'd be down to share some of his experiences with me? I'd love to ask him about it.

And CO, in the woods I did a ton of stuff. Learned all the native plants and trees, a few birds too, and I kept an inventory of all the wild plants within a few miles radius of my house. I'd regularly go out and make meals from my "spots". I also meditated, read books, wrote, slept, climbed trees. I just like to "be" when I'm in the woods.
 
sort of reminded me of "into the wild" for some reason.

all i've gotta say is that college was awesome.
 
I totally feel you man. But nothing stops me from going back, you know? In fact, I'd get the same amount of financial aid, but once I'm over 21, I don't have to live in the dorms. That means I get a roughly $5000 check!
 
Go to college, or at least a tech school. With a tech school degree, you'll make like 20-30 out of school and probably move up a little bit but you wont be rich by any means, but it doesn't sound like that matters to you. Jobs you used to be able to get with a HS degree you need a college degree now. If you like farming so much, why don't you go to school for agriculture? the key to college and enjoying is doing something you're passionate about. I started as a business student and It was okay, but it wasn't my passion. Now, I do what i love to do as my job and plan on going to graduate school and im really excited to do it. Take a year or two off, do whatever you want, but finishing college is becoming as important as a HS degree used to be.
 
Start your own business-make what you like doing, pay. Always keep an open mind to potential business ideas... Working for yourself is great. Start small.....
 
Me and my tribe discussed that, but it's just too hard to start a farm from the getgo. Everything is slated against new farmers because of legislation backed by the big corporation farms.

Although, that's only based on my limited knowledge of the business side of farming. Eheath makes a good point, I may return to school to study Agriculture in a few years, THEN see how the goat-farming market is looking. You guys know a gallon of goat milk sells for like $9.71? It's insane...

And they're so fun to be around! Especially the babies haha
 
congratulations! you've realized how much of a waste college can be!

I went to college for a couple years, saw absolutely no point to what i was doing, it just felt like it was dulling me and wasting my time. so i decided to drop out and spend these years having the best possible experiences i can, learning about the real world and learning about myself.

I honestly think that college is the biggest concentration of complete idiots you can find. its like everyone completely lacks any common sense, and any personality. now yes there are some very smart and awesome people in college, but they are rare and hard to find.

it seems like young people today spend their grade school days being told to do well in school because they need to get into a good college, because they are told that they need to go to college. its what your supposed to do. if you want to be happy you are told you have to go to college. so these people spend all those years doing what they are told, purely because they are told to. then they get to college and do well there because its what your supposed to do so you can get a piece of paper that gets you a good job. then they get a good job working in some office but making a decent amount of money. but really for the most part they are just the same as everyone else, living the same generic life that everyone else does. because they couldnt think for themselves. its like the average college kid is completely lacking a huge part of their intelligence. the ability to think for themselves effectively or form their own opinions etc.. sure they are book smart, but talking to most college kids feels like talking to the same person, you try to get them to figure something out that isnt explained in a text book and its a completely new concept for a lot of them.

even when they are having "fun" they cant seem to do it without doing the same fucking thing every other college kid does, going to parties and getting drunk, because its easy and its provided for them, everyone else does it so they need to also. they cant make their own fun or find something they are passionate about to do. i also feel like they need to be drinking constantly to dull their mind because they cant be happy with their sober self. they need to use alcohol to change who they are so they can loosen up and create the illusion of happiness. now, a drink every once in a while, or a party every now and then is fine, but its just pathetic how every kid these days is so bland and boring that they need to spend all their free time dumbing themselves down.

i feel like this isnt how it used to be, like this really only started to become an issue in the last 20 years or so. shit my parents went to college in san francisco and boulder in the 70's and didnt drink or party anywhere near as much. my dad spent his free time going on week long camping/ hunting trips, hitchhiking across the country, working at farms, etc..
 
Yo bro im at Plattsburgh as well...its not you its thes chool. This place is pretty awful im trasnferring out as soon as possible. One of the most depressing, boring, intelectual wasteland of a school. (idc about spelling)
 
College isn't for everyone. But at the same time it can get you some pretty cool opportunities that'll be hard to find elsewhere. I've learned that I really struggle with the traditional lecture-based class format. This summer I took an ecology field course and loved it. Spent two weeks living at a field station and conducting studies in the mountains/learning about the natural history of the area. Since then I've started trying to set up my degree to get me outside as much as possible.

I just got accepted for my school's Belize Primatology Group Study. For about a month I will be living in a hotel on the beach in Placencia and taking a boat up Monkey River everyday to get into the jungle. Our professor has been conducting her studies in this area for a couple of decades and is an amazing and passionate primatologist and teacher and more knowledgeable about this group of howler monkeys than anybody on the planet. Yes I could go to Belize on my own and save some money. I could even hire a guide and get a tour of the jungle. But nowhere would I be able to get as hands-on and comprehensive an experience with the howler monkeys as I will with this program.

Next summer I plan on taking a couple of courses at the Bamfield Marine Station on Vancouver Island. There's one this year I'm real bummed on missing, a course on filming for science taught by a guy who apparently used to shoot for National Geographic. But even taking their more standard biology courses there is something so much more tangible about what you're learning when you're working within this incredible ecosystem every day.
 
No doubt traveling and doing what you want would be sick, you should definitely do that. But you need to think about your future. It is hard to debate that a Bachelor's degree is becoming what a High school degree was and as long as you study something you like you'll be make it through.

Say you travel for a few years though and meet this perfect girl that you want to be able to provide a future for. You need to be financially sound to do that like a man and give a nice girl what she deserves. If you have a degree in something you love you can do this.
 
you can do it without also... college doesnt necessarily make it easier to make a good amount of money, it makes it easier to get hired.

for some people spending those 4 years, or more, experiencing things, learning about themselves and finding things to be passionate about, can be much more valuable for your future than college can.

ive got a couple friends with no college experience, two who didnt graduate high school, making damn good money for their age, one is 28, moved here from brazil at 17 with nothing, never made it past 9th grade, just does what he enjoys and works hard, now hes making over 150,000 a year, another friend is 22, never graduated highschool and makes over 50 grand a year doing metal/woodwork, and he only started his business a year ago. another who is a wedding DJ making 100,000 a year at 24, no college.

im not making hardly any money now but im not trying, im just fucking around having as much fun as possible, and i honestly dont see how college could benefit me when i do decide to do the whole career thing, ive got plenty of ideas and i dont see how college would do anything but hold me back.

now if you have something you are passionate about that you want to learn more about, and go to college to pursue a career in it then im all for it. but 99% of college kids go to college because its the norm, and they're expected to, and they just end up with an average job and an average life.
 
very true.

also, college is so over emphasized. its pathetic. i dropped out of college after my first year. and i say its prolly the best thing i've ever done.

do you know how many part time jobs at say, wal mart, target, domino's etc etc, i have worked with people who have degrees? but their stuck working those jobs and stuck in thousands of dollars of debt. and their degrees arent doing them shit, because every one and their grandmas have the same degrees?

its pathetic. i have two older brothers, both have 4 year degrees, both are scraping by working jobs completely not in their fields. so many people i know are in the same boat as well.

yes, if you are going to be a doctor, or some higher up engineer, lawyer etc, you need to go to school. but to say that for some guy who just wnats to make a decent living and live his life with a family or whatever, that he has to go to 4 years of college and then another few years just to get a masters to MAYBE stand out from the rest??

i swear, in 5 years, the masters degree is going to be what a college degree was 5 years ago. a 4 year degree doesnt mean shit anymore. business, communications, psychology, video production, film school, creative media.. blah blah blah.

all it does is create young adults who are fresh out of college and they think they are the shit and know everything, and they are suppose to automatically get a high paying job. its pathetic.

i've worked with so many people who cant stand college kids because they think they know everything. there's something called paying your dues. and in most jobs, that hasnt changed.

i dropped out two years ago, and i'm working a job that i love doing, i travel for work, i make good money doing it, and i dont have a college degree. i started at the bottom, i worked hard in the industry, i met people, made connections, and here i am.

to the OP..

if you want to drop out of college and go work on farms in rural america, make your living, and travel. go do it. if thats what you want to do and love to do. go do it.
 
when I was a kid I always thought it made more sense to play before doing homework, while it was still light out. I wish I had kept that same mentality, to play while I still can then work once I get old, crappy and dark. Move somewhere nice, take advantage of government programs (food stamps, income restricted housing, heating assistance), and have fun till you get bored.
 
This thread is invaluable to me. I'm in the final exam period of my second year and having the same thoughts.

Cheers to contributors
 
To echo some of the great posts in this thread, college isn't just something you do as many people see it. It's a means to an end. If you have a goal and that goal requires college, do it. If you don't, you're just wasting time and money. So yeah, get out there and follow your dreams man. There will always be unis if at some point you need it.
 
I completely agree. A lot of my friends are in university right now and I would say 90% of them have no idea what they want to do with their life. For example my friend is in engineering school and I told him the first day of classes to drop out of engineering school because he wasn't going to enjoy the best years of his life due to working his ass off and he'll just be working his ass off after those. He insisted it was his calling (only because his brother went to engineering school and is now an engineer for Apple) and is now failing most of his classes. Also, his parents only gave him $15,000 dollars to get through school and he has already spent over half that just this year! How does that sound sustainable at all, I don't know what the fuck he was thinking. I really hope he sticks with it now and doesn't drop out because otherwise he'll be broke making 8.75 an hour again living at home with his parents for a good while.

On the other hand I decided I was not going to jump into that rut and packed my bags and left for south east Asia, alone. I might say it's one of the best things I've ever done. If not the best. It really puts into perspective what's important in life, and what you really do love. So far, the things I'm missing most are my dogs and skiing, because I can't skype with my dogs, and you can't ski down here unless you hit the Himalayas. Furthermore you learn a ton about yourself. How you handle situations when nobody else is there to help, how you socialize when you don't have a friend to fall back on etc.. Now I'll try not to take this too far, but I'm also doing what I love. That would be whatever the fuck i want. Primarily scuba diving as much as I can and working toward getting my divemaster certification so I can live down here for the winters and maybe Chile in the summers as a ski instructor or something like that. Who knows where life will take me, or you for that matter. But I guarantee you'll meet some inspiring people, do some inspiring things, see a distinctly different lifestyle and have the time of your life while doing it. When I get home, I'll be making 35 dollars an hour doing moving work with my truck which is a business I started myself before I left. If I worked at it I could easily be making 40k a year with no education.. based on my first serious week of work I made nearly a thousand dollars.

So that's my two cents. Post secondary isn't a necessity and I'm laughing at all the kids stuck in shit programs doing homework that they could care less about. Do what you believe in and things will fall into place. Travel too, seriously.
 
Do what makes you happy dude. If you dont like something about your life then change it....if you feel that dropping out will make you a happier person then go for it, you could always go back if your decision isnt working out
 
isnt this some sort of spongebob-prince of bel air thing? especially the reply with the goats and stuff.

skeptical_hippo.jpg
 
University is not useless....

However - today, especially in America - Universities are huge business. And like any business, getting bodies through the door and cashing in on fee's is essential to that business.

The problem lies in the quality of a lot of the courses of study, and the false pretense that a degree is a degree - no matter what it is, and you will come out of the other side an employer's dream!

Wrong.

You have to be smart about going to college (and i agree it's not for everyone, and shouldn't be - it's an option) - you need to make sure you are getting a degree, from a university, that is value for money. A degree in Basket Weaving is going to do fuck all for you, apart from land you in a world of debt with nothing to show for it.

I feel like this about a lot of Social "science" type degrees, and even marketing etc etc...(no offense to marketing students, just an example)- But, a lot of shit exists at universities these days.

A proper degree in a pure sciences (Including Geology and geophysics etc) or engineering serves a single purpose. It demonstrates you have the ability to learn at a certain level - and this is all an employer is looking for in a graduate. It is an indication of their intellect and "ability to learn" because it's when you start working for real that you start to really learn.

A degree should be hard - it should be the hardest 4 years or so of your academic life. It should piss you off at times, but you're not the only one in that boat (unless you're doing Basket Weaving - in whcih case Unviersity will be a breeze).

Finally - I nearly never went to University. I nearly became a UIAGM mountain guide and would have lived in the alps... however, at the end of the day, it's a job.... and i would have probably got pissed off with dragging tourists up and down the Matterhorn everyday. I did end up at university - and it was only here that i think i developed academically. Later in my first degree i started to realize, I like this and i can do it... (all the academic science and engineering stuff)... so i decided to stay and do an engineering masters. But that was me - however, i didn't figure that out until like 20/21/22.

What im saying is - most kids on here are really young and you should keep all your options open because you never know how things will start to pan out in your early twenties. Don't commit to one thing too early and don't let others push you in a single direction (even parents trying to push their kids to med school or law school). Nobody can force you to love a career... only you can find out what it is you really enjoy doing (and also, if you want, be smart and make that pay $$$$$).

having been there and done that (pretty much 10 years ago now) - im always happy to offer anyone any advice on all that shit as i feel passionately about it - so feel free to shoot me a PM if you're struggling with a college decision or something.

To the OP - hat's off. You're passion for life and adventure is inspirational and I hope you get everything squared away and find the happiness and fulfillment you are craving.

 
i gotta agree with you ( op) 100%

ive been in college 3 years, every year its fucking easy, and i get bored as fuck. i live at home, i eat acid and smoke a good amount of pot, thats the only thing keeping me from running into the wilderness or becoming a train hopper. I leave home every summer with practically nothing and just float around whereever rides and food take me until i come back around home. somehow i come back for school every year
 
maybe if its so easy you should transfer to a really hard school and challenge your self with extremely difficult classes and see how smart you really are.

 
you must get good grades in high school. you must go to college, you must know what u want to do with your life at age 18, you must now must pay retarded amounts to go to school. its the only way you will survive.
 
Implying everyone goes to college to get a job in an office. I go to college for my passion, so I can live my life in the outdoors and make a living out of it.
 
I love this forum, it is really helping me decide if I am going to college or not,

right now I'm a junior in high school and its about that time where we all have to start thinking about what college we are going to apply to and the career path we are going to choose.

But this is not for me yet...

I am an athlete with above average grades... at my school they are not great. And school has just never been for me. I dread the thought of having to go to college for four years and then get an office job and what not. But in all reality I just want to ski.

In the last week I have been getting in alot of trouble with my parents. They want me to take my english for senior this summer so I can graduate early. I may not graduate early but they just want me to do this so they can throw me out when I hit 18, without having to worry about my education.

But my mom is also what I consider a hippy...and my dad stands my her side. She is suggesting that if I finish early that I go out to colorado, utah, cali, cananda... and just become a ski bum. They would provide me with a car and a few grand. I would need a job like waiting. But basically for a year I would just ski. Then the next year after that I will begin my higher education.

My mom is offering me this because she really wishes that her parents would of sent her off to ski the alps.

My other options are to stay in high school and then go to college, which will probably be the U of U. OR finish high school early. Do a year at community college, then go to the U of U so i will finish a year ahead of everyone in my class...

What you think about this???
 
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