Over here we joke that if you do a BA of Arts (Arts being humanities-based subjects) that your only options are teaching and academia.

It's pretty much true, I majored in English. I went into teaching.

I'd be interested to know why you think going out & earning money is somehow a bad thing where as staying in something that you don't really want to do that is costing you money is a good thing.

What's stopping you going back later in life and doing it when you know what you want to do and you're more financially secure?
My Brother in law wanted to do a degree on film studies, nothing to do with his career. It was just something he wanted to do for himself. He went back when he was 33 and spent 3 years doing it knowing if it fell through he had a good banking job as back up.

That doesn't sound like a waste of time to me.

I think "going back to school" is really difficult. Both my parents did it when I was a kid. And most of the non-traditional age students at my school give me the impression that it's not an easy task, especially when you already have a family. I think if you know you're going to want a BA you may as well do it while you're fresh and remember how to do the kind of work required in college courses.

Also, for a lot of kids it is because of societal and parental pressure that we go to college. For me, it was never a choice. I just always knew I was going to college.

And why I'd rather be in school then working? My best friends from high school didn't go on to college. They are waitresses in my home town now. I feel like they aren't working towards anything and that really scares me.
(That is what I mean by a waste).

Everyone has a different path in life. What works for your bro isn't necessarily going to work for me. I wonder though, after he got his degree did he do anything with it? Or go back to the bank job?

Seriously, people underrate getting an education.... mark my words, get the college degree. I work two jobs. One is an uneducated, unskilled labor type job and it sucks balls. You work your butt off, get no promotional opportunities, get paid like crap and get little if any respect.

My other job is a skilled, degree required one. You get personal priveleges and respect, a better wage more enjoyment and fullfilment and a work day that is not nearly as full of stresses and task to complete. Complete no brainer.

I agree with alot of what you're saying but you seem to be overlooking the same point that others are making over and over again.

Now, im not saying that you are working towards qualifications that are not going to be of any use to you but lets say for a moment that you are. Some people are.

Your waitress friends may not be working towards anything. They may not be working towards a career but they are working and earning money. You, on the other hand, are working towards a degree that you wont use to further your career and your chosen path has cost you thousands of pounds/dollars to achieve something that you will spend a large percentage of your adult life paying off and may need to take this kind of job or any kind of job just to help with that.

In that situation, who is really better off?

I'm going to stay with the simple idea that college isn't for everyone.
I know someone who quit college and is making money in a professional marching band, then working as a fireman afterwords.
Some people can do that.
I don't know what I want to do, and being out of college isn't going to help me towards a better idea of what I want to do.
On top of that, I have shity motivation, and college is helping me work harder, the possibilities are endless, I just have to use them to my fullest ability.
I wasn't bitching so that I could argue, I was bitching because I was afraid I wouldn't know what to do.

And on top of that, I'm eighteen, and I'm only a Freshman, it's not like I've been in college for ages.

You guys can keep arguing, but that's what I have to say.
And I plan on staying in college, because I know I'll figure out what I want to do, this won't go to a waste.

It's interesting to read these posts. In Holland EVERYONE does further education of some sort. If you're smart enough to do a degree, you DO one, most of them immediately. And for the ''lower-skilled'' there are hundreds of technical courses, teachers courses etc...

I guess the most important part is knowing who you are, what you are good at, what you are interested in, and how much money you want in life.

I love maths, for which I am lucky, I do not need a lot of money to be happy, but I might end up in a job in which I earn enough easily, so I could work part-time and still be comfortable (I know how naive I sound, but fingers crossed). Whereas I also have friends who love money, clothes and expensive gear and whatnot, but they're doing an arts degree, don't really get why. Then again, it might give them a motivation to work their freaking butts of until they are where they want to be. If they manage, good for them, I don't think they will.

Oh I am sure it's not everyone's cup of tea, but i just think if you have the ability and the willingness to do it, why not give yourself the added advantage in the job market and avoid having to work in crappy grocery stores all your life.... :)

It's a competetive market out there and you gotta give yourself some sort of edge, and for many, I guess further education is the answer...

If you have some other talent that gives you a place in the world and you're happy with where you're at in the working world, go nuts then I say... it's all about finding that sweet spot in life where you have a happiness in the workplace... much harder to find and maintain than it is to say, though, you know...

It was actually an allusion to this charming puppet play.

But yes, job possibilities can be somewhat limited for English majors. Like I said earlier, my cousin is working at a coffee shop. Her hard-earned education at work, I suppose.

I'm working on certification to teach in NY State. I plan to teach and go to grad school. What I'm working for is a life where I don't have to work the kind of ****ty job that my friends are doing now, which I've had all my life. Maybe I don't know exactly what I want to do, but at least I know what I want and am taking steps to get there.

Though, its true a lot of degrees don't have an immediate pay off. I know plenty of kids with BA's in English working ****ty jobs. And I agree that a degree with some kind of certification is much better in terms of being immediately employable after graduation. But I think its still important to remember that an education is always worthwhile.