I started college at age 17. I now am 22 and still about 3/4 of the way to a 4-year degree. During the times I took off I needed to work to get money for school, and take care of a dying parent. I switched from undeclared my first semester, to business management, to marketing.
The reality is that I am interested in too much stuff to ever stop learning.

The disparity between what is available through self education is sometimes so grand that I see little value in formal education.

Due to this, balancing work and education is becoming a habit, and it is forcing me to make sure my education is more and more relevant towards income earning.

Now it looks like I’ll finally switch to music business (assuming both marketing and music biz take the same amount of time to finish).

This is not a sad time, it is an exciting new way of life and I cannot wait until money is less of a concern for me and learning interesting things is more possible.

I was brought up by my parents to believe formal education is very important. However, after high school I did a 2 year Diploma in software programming. Years later, I went back to school to get a BCom. It cost a lot to get the degree and have since wondered if this was worth it as I make a good wage writing software.

I took night l classes during 2008 to upgrade my technical skills (earned certificate) and have not regretted that (having more trouble getting value from an undergraduate degree in business).

I think what is ideal is a bit of both real world experience and formal education to learn the basics and explorer higher levels of thinking and planning.

Interesting post though and I would be interested reading more posts about learning and education-related topics. I, for one, will be taking more courses and education in the future (while working full-time) as I do find value in learning new things (reading books is also a great way to learn).

I’ve decided that no matter what is going on in my life, I should be taking the equivalent of at least two semesters of coursework every year on top of my day job–just enough to keep my skills fresh and to possibly broaden my knowledge in fields that I didn’t already study in my college years.

However, I also disagree with the “real-world” learning always trumps academic learning. Academic learning is like basic research in science, not always as glamorous or practical as applied research, but it forms a basis for further knowledge.

Also, the format of this self-education path wouldn’t need to be in a school setting.

-Scott

I am set to graduate here in May and I think I just started to realize what you said. That we will continually be learning, especially in this information age. So I took a long hard look during this past finals and was like “shit, what am I going to do when I graduate?” I have always been interested in personal development and lifestyle design and thought since I am constantly learning, why not write about it and share with people. Who knows maybe it will open up to new opportunities. It already has actually.

I have been living with so much passion since I started LifeDestiny.net and meeting people with similar mindsets as me. It is like I never want to sleep anymore and am not looking forward to this last semester of school. Its almost as if I just want to drop out with 1 semester remaining and just focus on building up my community and designing my own lifestyle.

Tanner

If we were to live in a world where work and learning are always a constant mix, I would tend to believe that people would be much better off. In a world where globalization and competition are at its greatest and constantly increasing, people need to persistently improve themselves.

In a world where outside of the classroom opportunities (internet based) are expanding, millions of new students and job candidates will arise. It will (hopefully is) no longer acceptable to get a 4 yr degree from XYZ university and feel that your set for life.

Enjoy the blog,

Ryan Dawidjan