I dropped out of HS to pursue electronic music

[vurt]

hi skule iz four loozers!

[The_Hidden_Goose]

innit!

[ZenPunkHippy]

R u shure?

[The_Hidden_Goose]

I waz but then yuo maid me think agen

[chroma]

it's true, college degrees don't mean what they used to - but unfortunately, that usually works the wrong way.

i'm involved with hiring sometimes, we get stacks of resumes. i'd really like to hire the best skilled person regardless of letters by their name, but i don't have a crystal ball - they're just pieces of paper when we get them, and i really can't talk to 50 people, so things like degrees, GPA, experience, etc. just get used as filters to reduce the number to something manageable. personal references are gold here, as they let you cut through all that and go to the top of the pile.

in the 'old days', not that many people had college degrees, and a not-insignificant number didn't even have HS degrees. so if you had a college degree, it was pretty much a ticket to a decent, high-paying job. the democratization of college degrees where almost anyone can get one, along with many 'useless' degrees mean that even for entry-level jobs, many of the applicants will have a degree. combine with above and now you need a degree just to do phone support etc., even if it's not directly applicable.

sure, it's easy to point to jobs where you don't really need a degree to _do_ the job. that's different from needing a degree to _get_ the job, just because everyone else has one. if you have the right connections, you might be able to get around this (though, you often get those 'good connections' in college, and better colleges do = better connections). and there are quite a few decent jobs that require training, but not 'college' per se, and these tend to be antifragile too (java programmers might be out of fashion in 10 years, but good plumbers will always be in demand, and make pretty good money too). the rest tend to be working for yourself, or 'lottery' jobs like music, where a few are spectacularly successful, some make a living, and the vast majority fail.

[fluffy_little_something]

I dropped out of college because I wasn't learning anything, and couldn't stand spending all that time not earning anything but a piece of paper that would be worth practically nothing - and it was worth practically nothing - all the folks I kept in touch with that finished it are doing worse than me career-wise (such as it is), and I'm not exactly Mr Rich here! I ended up getting a job doing the thing I went to college to get a piece of paper that said I could do it, without that piece of paper. That might be because of I managed to get an interview and most interviewers know what skills they're after - it may be that some employers won't offer the interviewer without a certain level of education, and perhaps I was lucky there. Although every interview I've had, the education level was not even mentioned - the job was, and if you know the job that should come through in an interview. But anyway, I could see how things were going back then and opted out of that debt which I would now be paying back and would have literally no money to be putting back into the economy (including music gear!).

Maybe things are different in the States but people are getting themselves into horrendous debt here in the UK with no work, no prospects at the end of it, except maybe a career in education to teach the next generation how to get in to even worse debt and be greedily eyeing your job since it's the only field they can reasonably expect to use their new-found knowledge in.

People with good university degrees are competing with school-leavers from the council estates for minimum wage McDonalds serving jobs.

And what for? Who benefits from that? Not even McDonalds benefits - an educated worker doesn't do that job any better than the school-leaver...not so well they make a profit difference for maccy-dees!

Welcome to the future courtesy of predatory capitalism
Although I am sometimes a bit sad about my age, at least in this respect I am happy I am not young anymore. I really don't envy young people their future.

[Sendy]

The future got sold.

[Tricky-Loops]

The future got sold.

To whom? Jeff Bezos?

[Acid Mitch]

There was loads of the Future on EBay the other week.
I've got a little bit if you want some ?

[robogone]

Maybe things are different in the States but people are getting themselves into horrendous debt here in the UK with no work, no prospects at the end of it, except maybe a career in education to teach the next generation how to get in to even worse debt and be greedily eyeing your job since it's the only field they can reasonably expect to use their new-found knowledge in.

I think things are significantly worse here as the cost of a university education is far higher as there is little in the way of subsidies. The total amount of unpaid student loans here in the US is over one trillion dollars now, and the levels of defaulting on those loans is very high. Not only that, anyone that does default will get chased down relentlessly to squeeze the money (plus high interest) out of them, and it's much harder to get rid of the loan by declaring bankruptcy now.

I believe the loans are all owned by a non-profit organization in the UK (or at least they used to be), but here in the US they're pretty much owned by loan sharks.

At least in the UK if you go to college you're getting a degree (if you graduate) that is recognized across the country. In the US there is no such standardization of degrees, and colleges get accediation from various accreditation bodies (and in some cases don't get it at all) but they can still award degrees regardless of who accredits them.

I'd say consider yourself well off in the UK compared to the US as you'll get far less in debt and have more of a guarantee of your degree being considered valuable if you go to a lesser known college.

[Sendy]

The UK may be better off for now, but you can be sure that every aspect of it will be Americanized eventually.

[robogone]

The UK may be better off for now, but you can be sure that every aspect of it will be Americanized eventually.

Sadly I think there is much truth in that.

[Hink]

I dont care if you finish school online, dropping out is foolish. Your records may show a high school diploma but future employers may look deeper and see that you dropped and finished online. That could cause them to question your commitment level and in fact you could be passed over for a job just based on that.

That could just as well show determination and guts that he made the effort and finished his diploma. Everyone can have a bad period or a setback that forces them to drop school. Any decent employer will keep that in mind.

I might be wrong, but I'm not sure you can finish your HSD online - if you finish online you get your GED, which quite frankly is not considered by most employers to be anywhere near a HSD.

well it could vary from country to country of course, but spaceman has a point...that could just as well show determination. But not by itself, dj_anthony said if you present yourself well enough in an interview they may not check to see if you graduated high school, again that could be as well. However I guess it all depends on the job and what you are doing. If you have the skills too you might be able to soar through, but that depends on the job. If you're quick to pick up new things and it's the type of job you by ojt that works too. But if you stumble that stumble could be exploited or point out to future employees that something is wrong here. Some people seem to think once you have a great job you are set for life..Mike I know that you know this very, very well from your own recent experiences.

There are a lot of other factors including probability. For instance let's look at the age group between graduating high school and say 25 years old. As I mentioned earlier, people change careers a lot in life, a neighbor who was a professor sat down and had a talk with my sister when she was applying to schools and made this clear to her. He asked her directly "do you think once you have made this choice you cannot change you mind?* (more on her below) *

But typically what we see from this age group is a struggle between the child and the adult. The chiid thinks they are an adult because it says so on their driver's license but they have view the world all of their lives through the eyes of a child and all of their experiences are those of a child. Many consider this age to be worse than adolescence and I am one of them, it was for me. There is a "I'm grown up, I know everything, you cant tell me anything and besides I'm invincible" attitude.

While making assumptions can be like walking in a minefield I would say the young adult saying "I dropped out of HS to pursue electronic music" probably did so impulsively, as a child (perfectly normal). If he had a contract with a label, if he had an inside track to the top, maybe I could see it...but such dreams are often just dreams and again our dreams change as we mature.

Another factor is the fact that you spent likely more than half your life working to graduate, why throw that away? I cant speak for the OP but I will go back to my daughter. I will not be disappointed if she does not go to college after she graduates high school, what is important to me (for her future) is she does graduate so she has this one basic thought the rest of her life. "Many people thought I would never graduate, I never thought I could do it...but I did it"...that way when more challenges presents themselves (and they will) she can say "no problem, I got this".

This leads to another point about college, college is more than just book smart. The networking, the influences you have, the people you meet and the things you discover in the world and about yourself along the way are often keys to success. Of course the same can be said of someone who drops out and goes to the school of hard knocks. But again, getting that degree instills more confidence in many people, even if they do not work in the field they went to school for. The social interaction and life skills you learn during those years can shape your life forever and help you with things you didn't think were in your future...back to my sister

*From the time she started school in 1st grade until she was well into her 20's all she wanted to do was be a teacher. She did in fact get a master's degree in teaching from a great school (Simmons in Boston). She also got her Bachelors in Chemistry and a Bachelors in Biology, but she didn't stop there. After that five years of school she went to the local community college for two more years and got her nursing degree.

During most of those years in school she worked in a real estate office in Lexington Mass, when she was finally done with school she moved to Actom Mass...for one month. Her boss asked if she would like to be an office manager for his real estate office on Martha's Vineyard. One month later she moved down to the vineyard. 5 years later she had her real estate license (more school) her contractor's license (more school) her own real estate and construction company that was quite large. Ten years after moving to island she was invited to meet the president (Clinton) as was revered as one of the island's great young entrepreneurs...her business explode...sadly she passed at the age of 45...never did she teach in a school (but she taugh many people a lot of things) never did she work as a nurse either.

Meanwhile her brother joined the service, got married too young (but not because I had to), came home to chase my dreams as a musician and finally got an AA...I can truly say I wish I had of let her teach me to be more like her but instead I had the sibling rivalry thing going on and of course I was in that age where I was invincible.

Still at the end of the day it doesn't matter to me about others educations...they can believe what they want I wish them the best. Right now I am living 100% for my daughter's education. The school department let her down, her father will not let her down. She is in a great school now that's all that matters to me. The most important thing is she knows that we all know she can do it (and this school has some great ways of accomplishing this), and she knows she can do it so she can go outi nto the world and succeed...today you need all the tools you can get to succeed in life...and anyone who questions my feelings on that? Well their questions will fall on deaf ears

One last point I wish to make again...we do not just learn in the classroom, we can learn something from every person we meet and imho we should keep learning until we die..I know I do and knowledge is a wonderful gift.

IMHO THE NUMBER ONE THING SCHOOLS SHOULD TEACH CHILDREN IS HOW TO LEARN

[Tricky-Loops]

One last point I wish to make again...we do not just learn in the classroom, we can learn something from every person we meet and imho we should keep learning until we die..I know I do and knowledge is a wonderful gift.

Welcome to KVR!

(That's why I'm here...)

[AstralExistence]

if your good, you will be very successful, joining the ranks of many other people that dropped out of school and made tons of money. if your not, as is often the case, you will end up working a minimum wage job. look, if there's two jobs that depend on raw talent in succeeding rather then a college degree its musician and graphic artist. why didn't anybody tell you this, and why didn't you ask about this before making such a rash decision.

music production courses are a waste of money too. but now that you have decided to be a rebel, and go for broke, learn all you can about music production. watch tons of videos, on all different topics and spend all your time that you have writing music. remember though you cant eat a midi controller, you cant drink studio monitors, and you cant sleep in a apt you no longer have.