With the diverse backgrounds here I'm wondering how many of us have gone to college or even grad school.  I have 1 college credit which I got in 7th grade.   My wife dropped out of high school in 9th grade.  We're not 100s of thousands of dollars in student loan debt like alot of our neighbors who are mostly lawyers, doctors and MBAs.

I went to college for 8 years for Sinology. I work retail. College was not worth it, even if I had fun and learned Mandarin. If I could go back to 2010 and tell myself to just go work retail then, I would.

I went to a local community college, then I dropped out after a few years and went to Trade School instead.

“If you know what the fuck you wanna do…and unless you’re being a marine biologist or something very specific like a lawyer, people be going to college wasting their fucking money, wasting time, lost as fuck. And then you’re in fucking debt just because you were lost with 13,000 other lost motherfuckers…Just so you didn’t feel like a loser and so you could trick people into making them think you were doing something with your life… Changing majors every year…” 

“Look. Get a job. Figure this shit out. And really pursue wtf you wanna do.” 

- Tyler, The Creator

Got an engineering masters and a PhD in applied physics a few years back! Paid everything off p quick, but I had some aggressive scholarships, so I got suuuper lucky.

Graduated with a bachelors in business management almost 4 years ago and I’m now in an internship for management. Got some student loans to pay back but it’s not terribly much.

Finished a two year degree at a local community college. Studied film and television, hoping to get my sorry ass out of the poverty shithole I live in. Still gunning for that dream, and thankfully, no student loan debt to my name.

Didn't even bother going to a four year. Waste of money and time. The classes they dump on you to earn enough credits in order to even graduate; that just sounds like a ponzi scheme to me. Squeeze you of all your money and waste your time only to hand you a piece of paper without the guarantee of getting a good paying job. Then you go off to apply to said jobs that clearly ask for the degree you sold your soul for, only to turn you away because you either have no previous experience in the field, or they hire someone less sophisticated than you that they can pay less money to work more hours.

My grandfather was a ship engineer, with only a high school diploma, and nowadays we have to jump through hoops to get stable jobs.

BS degree from state college, started and own my own business. JD

Went for two years at a local community college for architectural technology.

Bachelors in Engineering and an MBA. If you do decide to go to college, choose a degree in which you have a hope of getting a paying job (hint: Gender Studies ain't it). That being said, if college isn't your thing, why not a skilled trade such as machinist, electrician, welding, etc? Plenty of high paying jobs there for an 18-24 month investment. I'm encouraging my son to go that route. Ultimately how successful you are has a lot more to do with you and your own drive to succeed than what your degree is, or if you went to college. While my decision was right for me, college isn't for everyone, but that doesn't mean they can't be happy and successful. Way more important to find work you like to do, then succeed at that.