Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Is having a degree worth the time and effort?

jthayes · 01-26-2007, 03:34 PM

The biggest thing I can suggest is figure out what you *really* want to do. What are you really passionate about? It takes a lot of time and energy to commit yourself to something for three to four years. To really get anything out of it (other than just a piece of paper) it has to be something you feel inspired and passionate about.

I don't know the statistics but its something like 1/3rd of all university students either A) drop out during/after first year, or B) change course during/after first year.

This is simply because they haven't worked out what they want to do. I remember looking at a lot of people when I did my degree wondering what are you doing? Because they surely didn't want to be at Uni learning. They were just failing everything. I went away after my second year on a Industry Based Learning scholarship with DSTO came back to University the following year and some people were still catching up 2nd year subjects. Not only does it add to your HECS debt, it takes more time. This means you have to support yourself for longer and are out of industry for longer (which is really costing you money).

I'm really passionate about software development so for me my degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering was an absolute pleasure. Was it worth it? I think so. But then I applied myself to something I new I wanted to do.

01-26-2007, 03:34 PM	#13 (permalink)
jthayes Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 32	The biggest thing I can suggest is figure out what you really want to do. What are you really passionate about? It takes a lot of time and energy to commit yourself to something for three to four years. To really get anything out of it (other than just a piece of paper) it has to be something you feel inspired and passionate about. I don't know the statistics but its something like 1/3rd of all university students either A) drop out during/after first year, or B) change course during/after first year. This is simply because they haven't worked out what they want to do. I remember looking at a lot of people when I did my degree wondering what are you doing? Because they surely didn't want to be at Uni learning. They were just failing everything. I went away after my second year on a Industry Based Learning scholarship with DSTO came back to University the following year and some people were still catching up 2nd year subjects. Not only does it add to your HECS debt, it takes more time. This means you have to support yourself for longer and are out of industry for longer (which is really costing you money). I'm really passionate about software development so for me my degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering was an absolute pleasure. Was it worth it? I think so. But then I applied myself to something I new I wanted to do.