Does studying or going to a university or a college matters in life?  

I think like you, in a one part, school doesn't matter, it so annoyed, so s**k. We learn things that we wil never use in the real life, why do we learning these stupids Pythagor Pyramid something, philosophy, sports, ect... For nothing, when we will enter in real life, these things we have learned don't matter at all, we are only learn craps.
But unfortunely, in the others part, in the social life, we need to learn all these craps to get a diplom to get a job to earn money to live our life (eating, cloths, ect).
School is only for that, it is the social life build by humans, we can't do nothing but to follow this stupid system.

So sad! I wish we can learn more important things in school like we must help others, be graceful for all things we have and others life lessons that can be useful in life, like in the manga GTO lol. ToT

Ultimately, you're doing it all to get a paper.

And ultimately, that paper gets you places.

A lot of business will take anyone that has a diploma and it's not so much that you're an expert on the field but rather you're a person that proved that you can make decisions and such. Only real reason. Sad huh? D:

I think it still matters in life. Its still different if you finished college and you have diploma especially if your looking for a good job. But also i agree that we dont usually used what we have studied or learned in school or university. Theres lots of big difference whats happening in the real world.

I think it depends on your country...in my country (Philippines)...finishing college does not change our job opportunities... it is because even a college graduate is employed as contractual and can be terminated anytime, anywhere.T_T

hi jrocas,

In my own opinion, I think that studying or going to a university or a college matters in life. Each individual has different characteristics and different preferences in life. I got your point but in the present situation of my country now, I know educational background really matters. For example, a person cannot be employed in a company if he has not attained a degree course. Even janitors need to gained their full study before they can get hired. As what my parents keep on saying to me, education is the best gift they can give to me because it is a treasure that no one can robbed." I believed in them. I know, its not all the time that they can live with me so I must have a good foundation how to face the world with confidence. If I won't acquire much education in my life, I will be easily fooled by those people who are very witty and wants to take advantage others who gained lesser educational background on them. We are living in a world where Charles Darwin' theory is applicable "Survival of the Fittest." And for me, I think having good education will protect us from bad people who wants to take advantage on us.

It depends upon your goal. I believe it does matter if you want to get the best available job possible and move up the ranks to be the best you can be. Right now, I'm going to for an Associate's and then go from there. I do it because I have a motivation to be effective in the job market and plus demonstrate that I can perform the task at hand. You can't learn anything in a day so easily. There are just some tasks that take time to master and understand.

well, if you value formal education, then it matters. it really depends on what you value in life. diffrent strokes for diffrent folks.

I am 43 years old and just 3 months ago, I am going back to school.
I think when you are young you don't want to go to school.
It does not seem interesting.
But when you get older, every job you want needs papers, diploma's.
I can't get a job without one.
When you are young you might have more luck, but normally no.
If I could do it over again, I would take the time to do better at school when I was young. Then at my age now I would have had a better job and future.
I think it would be wise of you to keep going to school.
Good luck.

After high school I was not interested in going to college at all. I had no idea what I wanted in life. After a couple of years I realized that I really want a career that I can depend on and now I'm signed up for college. It's different for everyone I guess.

I think it depends really. Like especially the kind of job it is you want. I think some people can and do benefit a lot with going to college. For some things it does matter.

But generally speaking, college/university just isn't right for some people. I think some people actually ARE better off NOT going. Knowing what I know now, I really don't know if *I* would have gone given the choice now because it was pretty much just an overall horrible experience for reasons I won't get into.

I don't think you *need* it to be successful and happy in life, at least in many cases. Of course, that definitely depends on certain things though. Some fields and jobs require college education. Other than that though, many people who are considered very successful actually dropped out or simply didn't go. I can think of a few "high up" Hollywood directors who didn't go. James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino are examples. I doubt anyone, whether you're a fan or not, would say they are not successful at what they do. I hear that Quentin Tarantino has told people who ask where he went to film school will reply, "I didn't go to film school. I went to film."

Not that that everyone will have high levels of success, but I'm sure we all get the point.