# Is the end of the world if I don't go to uni?



## Lakshmi Lovita (Apr 3, 2017)

It depends on the person and your interests. I will say thought that most of the people I know in my area who didn't go to uni are much worse off and general unhappy........they made lots of bad choices though, so I don't know if that is related or not.


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## dulcinea (Aug 22, 2011)

Accord2 said:


> In 2019 I will finish secondary school. I still have time but I like to plan things (the unplanned things scare me to death). Everyone says I should to go uni. I am a student of 19 points in 20, so every teacher is pressuring me to go. "What degree you plan to go? What degree you like the most? What degree ypu find more interesting?" They just don't stop saying that. Then my grandma is always saying "Oh if you don't go to uni you will be no one, you will be poor and die poor and you will work until you die because you are poor." (she is more dramatic than this, once she started giving me the cold look and ignoring me when I said I didn't feel going). Then there is the Portuguese culture, only people with degree are good (at least at my town), the others are just inferior people.
> 
> I just don't feel going. I like languages, but the market is saturated with degrees of this area. There is also secretary degree, but eh, it is just an option if everyone forces me to go. What I really want to do is being a train driver/work at the national railway company. The problem is they only accept people at certain times, not every year. The train driver "degree" is also at some years. It was last at 2012, 2013 and 2016. Should I "stop living" waiting for it?
> 
> ...


Note, my opinion will be a little biased, as I am moderately anti University. My belief is, unless you know you're going to be getting a job that absolutely requires a bachelor's degree, and you have a pretty good chance at a scholarship, you shouldn't go to a University. You'll end up not learning much of value, and, depending on what country you live, you'll likely amass a lot debt for relatively little gain. Personally, I think every single guidance counselor who's job it is to pressure high school students into a University should be FIRED. For the last few decades, so many students have gotten University degrees, a college education doesn't have the value it used to have. If you want to be a train driver, and you see a demand for it, then go be a train driver. You'll be a lot happier than if you went get some degree because some guy who sits behind a desk and knows nothing about your life tells you to do so. Maybe in the meantime, You can get whatever kind of driver's license is needed to drive a commercial vehicle. Is there a big demand for that in your area? Here, those kinds of jobs pay pretty good money, and are in pretty good demand, and you can put professional driving experience on your resume. It's just an idea, and it's up to you whether it would work for you.


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## Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy (May 1, 2017)

If there was no university, would the world end now?


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## pilgrim_12 (Aug 18, 2012)

If you look at the bigger picture, I mean in the rail industry, you will see that there are many positions available to you, if you go to university. Those who drive a train, will be more likely to get that position, if they have some higher education under their belt, because it's such a dangerous job that requires constant attention and a well rounded knowledge. 

There are electrical engineers and software engineers. They employ so many differently talented folks, you may find that by going to uni, you open up doors you could never have considered before. What an opportunity to have many choices. And, choices are what make many folks happiest. They don't feel stuck and unable to change their fate. 

I hope you choose to go and find something that will help you have a greater number of choices and higher income levels. Good luck.


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## Engelsstaub (Apr 8, 2016)

Certainly it's better to not go to uni and learn some profession than to go there for a useless degree (depends of course what you want to study) and be left with job offers no better than before uni, but with a debt.

So the key question here is what you'd go to study.


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## Flamme et Citron (Aug 26, 2015)

What a lot of people do is that they plan for the job they have a passion for, while simultaneously working on a backup plan. I think you should go to university, you have dead time so you might as well and the tuition costs in Portugal aren't high, you don't lose much and you have a lot to gain. And as others have mentioned, depending on what you choose to study the skills you'll learn can have crossover value to a job involving trains, which will make your CV more appealing. You should also consider that maybe a job involving trains might not be as interesting as you thought, it pays to have some options in other domains.


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## Tridentus (Dec 14, 2009)

I'll tell you one thing- anything anyone 10 years or more older than you says about the value of a uni degree is not worth listening to. It's a very different world after 2008, it was already going that way before that, and it still is even as we economically recover..

Apart from that- it's almost a stupid question although I understand why you would ask it.. 3 years experience in your late-teens/early20s can put you in just as good a stead financially as any uni student, and better than some..... THE QUESTION IS, what do you want to be doing for the rest of your life? Do you want to be a manager/director of a supermarket making good money? Or do you want to be doing something that is more vocationally satisfying to your own personality?

The majority of your life as an adult centres around your work, so you need to be making that decision based on more than financial reasons.


IF you just want to make money I have these two recommendations for you- IF you are an academic high achiever, go all in on your academics and pick the competitive high paying job with your credentials.... IF you are a decent or below academic achiever, don't go to uni- pick a job with good career progression (even supermarkets have this) and work your ass off. You WILL do well on either of these tracks.


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