life help: Advice about college, from IT/technical people? - Help.com



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Advice about college, from IT/technical people?

I graduated high school last June and am having mixed feelings about college.

On one hand I believe I did a fairly decent job. I achieved a 3.6 gpa, got about an 1800 on my SAT (I probably should’ve studied :) ), was on the honor roll for about every year I was in school, and joined the engineering/electronics/rocketry/ insert geeky subject here> club almost every year. Though I never did band/orchestra, or sports.

On the other, I’m very into programming, engineering, and IT stuff. I recently got an internship at a local Garmin facility (learning how to design and implement consumer level GPSs, well, more like pushing papers, but it’s a start), I’ve been heavily involved in this group mod we’re doing based on Half Life 2, and have been working for a local IT company part time.

I know this is pretty long winded,but what I’m trying to say is should I bother spending 30 grand on a 4 year university, which I’m going to be paying off for the rest of my life? Or should I keep at the current path I have going? Most of the stuff that’s got me my current job is self-taught off the internet.

This open post was written 3 months, 2 weeks ago | V/U/S: 72, 3, 3 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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ikarishinji_ku offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 3 months, 2 weeks ago (1 hour, 7 minutes after post)

You should go to a university. Trust me, it pays for itself! you’ll be much happier having the degree in hand, and the extra knowledge and training to get you better and better jobs.

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Times' gone mad offline Verified User (1 year, 7 months) Long Term User Shouts: 6 #
Silver Spring, MD, US | 3 months, 2 weeks ago (9 hours, 25 minutes after post)

30 grand, I don’t know what uni, you’re planning on going to, that sounds—very inexpensive.

I know people who have gone into IT, didn’t get a degree and make a lot of money, granted they are certified.

College for a lot of people is more than just an education—it’s a time to socially develop. If you know precisely what field you want to go into, in IT, you might just be able to circumvent the entire college and get certs instead. Have you considered looking for a company to sponsor you?

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Anonymous #
2 months, 3 weeks ago (3 weeks, 5 days after post)

I’ve been gone a while so I couldn’t really talk, but I meant about 30 grand a year, and that’s just a random guess I know it’s more than I’ll be able to pay off in 4 years, let alone 1.
I’m actually very set on going in to IT. Like I said, I’ve applied to a tech company (Garmin) and they’ve agreed to give me a paid internship. Granted, it isn’t very much, but it’s a start.
I’m not to sure, but do college graduates start big, or is it somewhere else.

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