Is there any point in going to university anymore?

i think I read recently that the average graduate today earns $100,000 more than the average non-graduate over the course of his/her working life. Based on a 40 year career that's a gross advantage of about $2000 a year. Take off taxes (say 30%) and that leaves you $70,000. Take off the cost of attending university in the first place (say 3 years at $9000 plus another $15000 to live) and you are left with $28,000 which is $700 a year or about 35pence per working day. Now assume that you could have earned $28,000 if you had worked during those three years when you were studying you actually left with no benefit whatsoever. So, for the average graduate it doesn't make any commercial sense at all. But of course, there's no such thing as an average graduate. Graduates of medicine and engineering and such like are going to see a lot more commercial benefit than graduates with degrees of lesser demand.

So, if it's not worth it commercially, is it worth it from other perspectives? Maybe. Sure, you can study something you love and are passionate about. There's a value to that. But do you need to do a degree to study something you are passionate about? Not really. You can have a PHd level of knowledge about the Wars of the Roses without having a PHd in it. Anybody can pick up a book and study.

From a "life experience" point of view? Well, if you think that living on Pot Noodles, not getting up before noon, and getting pissed in the SU bar is "life experience" then maybe.

i think I read recently that the average graduate today earns $100,000 more than the average non-graduate over the course of his/her working life. Based on a 40 year career that's a gross advantage of about $2000 a year. Take off taxes (say 30%) and that leaves you $70,000. Take off the cost of attending university in the first place (say 3 years at $9000 plus another $15000 to live) and you are left with $28,000 which is $700 a year or about 35pence per working day. Now assume that you could have earned $28,000 if you had worked during those three years when you were studying you actually left with no benefit whatsoever. So, for the average graduate it doesn't make any commercial sense at all. But of course, there's no such thing as an average graduate. Graduates of medicine and engineering and such like are going to see a lot more commercial benefit than graduates with degrees of lesser demand.

So, if it's not worth it commercially, is it worth it from other perspectives? Maybe. Sure, you can study something you love and are passionate about. There's a value to that. But do you need to do a degree to study something you are passionate about? Not really. You can have a PHd level of knowledge about the Wars of the Roses without having a PHd in it. Anybody can pick up a book and study.

From a "life experience" point of view? Well, if you think that living on Pot Noodles, not getting up before noon, and getting pissed in the SU bar is "life experience" then maybe.

Yeah, can't I do that in my garden with a beer and a bouncy ball?

This.

Plus when you start doing masters and PhD it gets worse, just don't do it unless you think a few decent years are worth a lifetime of pretty bad ones.

At the moment, I'm personally not deciding to go uni because I don't particularly like studying much at the moment and there's not one subject I'm truly passionate about to make it worth my while. I want to go travelling instead, as that seems like a more appealing life experience to me.



I don't mean to sound pedantic, (and this is a very good post by the way) but why are you using $ signs? Are you supposed to be talking in dollars (US??) or pound sterling?

EDIT: I just looked through the rest of the thread and saw that you live in Canada. So is it Canadian dollars you're talking in?

I'm talking in pounds sterling but using a $ because that's the easiest for me on this keyboard.

Is there an actual point to it nowadays beyond "everyone does it"? Or are we just being milked by universities for money that we might not be able to repay until 50, if at all? I mean tangible, clear benefits for "academic" subjects (STEM, languages, traditional arts). Whenever I've asked someone this question, I always get something along the lines of "but you learns sooooo much about life! so much fun!" instead of an actual answer.



Yeah, can't I do that in my garden with a beer and a bouncy ball?



So what I'm asking is: what do we gain from going to university? Does anyone know the salary breakdown between degrees? I'm really disparaged tbh, especially with the 2012 fee rise and I'm three days away from sending my UCAS off forever!


Thanks.

People do know that the £9k a year is practically empty money, right?

You'll get a higher salary to compensate for your lost earnings.

You'll be MUCH more employable

You'll have less to do when you NEED to upgrade your skills in the future

Added to that you don't pay back the loan unless you've got a job paying a decent amount of money, and EVEN THEN it's a relatively small amount

I don't really see much downside.....

You're wrong. Read Howard's post on the first page of this thread, he's the only intelligent person to post so far.

Nice try

Do you have anything else to rebut me besides an "I'm wrong"?

And no the first post wasn't very intelligent, more the thoughts of an A levels student who doesn't know much about working life.

How about you try again and rebut ANYTHING that I said instead of trolling?

What about subject like German from a top 20 uni? Is that useless? Man, this sucks.