Do you loose respect for someone when you find out they don't have a college degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:getting into 80k of debt for an english, history or poly sci degree is beyond stupid considering the salaries are very low and it will take forever to pay off.

ah, lots of salesguys making $300K+ are history or poli-sci majors, whose jobs require a diploma. just saying ....

I was history/poli-sci double major, and I do ok as an attorney.

[Anonymous]

I would not care. I'd be impressed by your husband's accomplishments. It might make me wonder how educated or culturally knowledgeable he was, but you can achieve those things without having gone to school (and you can be someone who went to school and still be very narrow and ignorant). But that curiosity is something I'd have about anyone I met anyway, regardless of whether they went to school or not. And as someone who went to school forever (undergrad and beyond) and is still paying off student loans, I'd probably be jealous of him not having loans!

[Anonymous]

No, I wouldn't think much about it either way. College was a long time ago for me.

[Anonymous]

My husband went straight into the military from HS, even though his parents could have easily afforded college. He wasn't ready at that point. He needed the discipline. He then got most of his college courses paid for by the government, which he completed at the age of 32, 7 years out of the military and working full-time. It wasn't easy. He thought about dropping out several times when things were hard, especially when our child joined us. But, honestly, at least now he won't be in the same boat as some of his former colleagues who were in their 40s+ with no degree who couldn't leave their company because they DIDN'T have that degree on their resume.

Not everyone needs a college degree, and it sound like your husband has done well at business without one. I don't think most rational people lose respect for someone who is successful due to lack of degree - anyone who does is an ass. I think where the disconnect comes is that MANY higher level professional jobs require a degree to even be considered these days - this is why my husband got his, so he wouldn't be limited in his choices later down the road.

Ugh, I hate the idea that the only degrees worth getting are those that lead to technical and/or high-paying fields. One of the absolute smartest people I know majored in anthropology - and is now a highly successful lawyer. The person I work for has 2 degrees in International Relations - and now runs a successful small business with no relation to those degrees. Does EVERYONE you know work in the field they majored in? The average person changes fields something like 3 times over the course of their career.

[Anonymous]

I know a dude who didn't even finish high school but went on to start up several successful businesses. He sold the largest of them some years ago and walked away with over $200M, and he had only started it three years earlier. It was all brainwork too, math-based and logic stuff, not a chain of restaurants or something. I still remember him in a business meeting with some prospective clients wearing shorts and his balls hanging out though. Not sure if a college degree would have prevented that or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bill Gates didn't have a college degree. Neither did Steve Jobs. Or Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. Or Michael Dell. Or Ted Turner or Kirk Kerkorian or Ralph Lauren or Roman Abramovich.

All of them are billionaires.

Therefore I believe there is more than one way to demonstrate intelligence, creativity, ambition, and dedication. Making it through four years of drinking/semi studying for B minuses pales in comparison to the accomplishments of these guys.

But many of these people were in college and dropped out because they had already started successful businesses (which sounds like may be the case for OPs DH). And many were at very competitive colleges. To me that is different than flunking out or not going at all. I'd be interested in actual data but I suspect for every Bill Gates or Michael Dell there are hundreds or probably thousands of college dropouts who are not successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up around here and never really knew of anyone (except for one of my grandmothers) who did not/had not gone to college. Regardless of whether how smart a person may be, or what they did with their degree or not, etc., I do find it a bit weird in this day and age if people do not go to college (ie finish college). That just seems a bit strange to me. I am sorry. I always did also think it was a little. . .different?. . . that one of my grandmothers did not go to college; we were told that her father, in that day, did not think that girls needed to go to college (her brother went) and so she went to secretarial school and then became a secretary in NYC, where she met my grandfather. I thought it was peculiar and old-fashioned that her father would think girls would not need to go to college. OFf course, now as an adult, I have learned that was not unusual for that day and age, but I was always proud of my other grandmother for going to college too (she majored in math and then became a h.s. math teacher)and, considering this would have been in the 40s or so, I do find it a big peculiar in this day and age, now, for adults not go or have gone to college. Again, this is whether they become successful or not, do something with it or not, etc. I just feel like it's something everyone should do, it makes you a more well educated and well-rounded/aware individual, and then you go on from there and build your life. Just my two cents based upon my life experience! I'm sorry!

I really don't think college is required for becoming a well rounded/educated individual. And a lot of idiots graduate from college.

I'm speaking as a college grad, BTW. I posted earlier that very few people in my family have college degrees and my sister and I were the first women in our family to graduate from college. My parents believed it was necessary for my brother to go to college, but not us so they had a college fund for him, but not us. Ironically enough, we went to college and he did not (he went to the Air Force instead).

There are many ways to be educated and many ways to become well rounded. College is only one.

[Anonymous]

The COO of my Fortune 20 company doea not have a degree. He makes $7million. They did send him to get an advanced management certificate at Harvard. Must be nice to be one of the good ole boys club.

[Anonymous]

there is a new guy at my job. he always goes out of his way to talk to me even though i always ignore him. one day i googled him and found out that he did not go to c*&^%$#. Now i ignore him even more. i feel like he does not have any ambition