Post-secondary - worth it or not?

[melodydanielluna]

Is university worth it, if not for a job, simply for becoming an expert in your chosen field?

For example, would it be worth for an aspiring writer to study English or Creative Writing?  Or is it wiser to save your money because this information can tecncally be found online?

I am curious about other people's perspectives.

EDIT: I understand the answer may be differrent, depending on whether or not you are paying out of pocket, taking out a loan, living with your parents, going to school full-time, part-time, etc.

Edited August 11, 2023 by melodydanielluna

[Phil King]

I would say its only worth it if its a technical field where it be difficult to impossible to learn outside a university. Stuff like computer science, math, physics, medicine, engineering, etc. 

For writing I feel it would be a waste since you could easily self study that stuff. The best education in this area would probably be to create your own curriculum, read and write a ton, and join some peer groups that would help critique and improve your writing

Some resources: https://www.openculture.com/2014/01/harold-bloom-creates-a-massive-list-of-works-in-the-western-canon.html

https://thinkingasleverage.wordpress.com/book-lists/mortimer-adlers-reading-list/

[melodydanielluna]

@Phil King Good insight and thank you for the links!

[Osaid]

From purely a perspective of "How high quality is the education?", I would say it sucks really bad (by my standards at least), and any decent education you get from it will probably depend on purely subjective and unenforced factors such as the type of teacher you get and what their teaching style is. Not everyone learns the same, but the education system has not accommodated for this fundamental fact yet. You have to be motivated enough to learn everything on your own if the teacher is bad at teaching.

If I had to pick something, I would prefer a shorter and more focused course that focuses entirely on writing, with a decent reputation to prove its quality. Not something like university which forces you to do a bunch of extra unecessary courses on top of what you are already trying to do, among other things. In other words, something practical. At the very least, you will get some sort of credential from it, and it will be in a much shorter time period than a university, probably.

Aside from the quality of education, there are other factors like cost, time, location, practicality, which you can probably figure out for yourself.

Above all, you should be taking responsibility for your education and asking questions like: Do I learn well in this environment? How can I learn better? Does my brain learn differently? What works for me? Is this practical for me? How well did I learn in my previous educational environments?

And, for practicality, you should also be looking at it from a marketing perspective: How did other writers get their foot in the door? How does getting a job in the field look, practically? How can I build a portfolio? 

You could probably find stories and groups online of aspiring writers like yourself.

And yeah, caveat, certain very technical fields like becoming a lawyer and doctor will require credentials from universities. This is obviously not the case with writing, which is very artistic.