A Letter to My Dog, Half Pint



Top 10 Things No One Tells High School Graduates.

















Two factors make eating right in college very difficult:

b.) Junk food tastes awesome.




































...oh yeah, and don't forget 
to wear flip flops in the dorm showers.



Anonymous said…
stoles = stools
Anonymous said…
Truer words seldom spoken.
Anonymous said…
#11 College is a complete waste of time and money. You should have all of the skills to be successful in life when you graduate highschool.
Obbop said…
I learned a LOT in college; mostly from the non-fiction books I read not required by any of my classes.

I learned that the USA is in the throes of class war and that the federal government and its multitude of bureaucracies is an enemy of We, the People.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous said…
You sound very bitter...
Anonymous said…
Yeah...engineers, doctors and physicists should just use their high school knowledge and wrong the rest.
Anonymous said…
That's right comrade. Just follow blind simplistic doctrine written by haters-with-an-agenda.

Or maybe get off your bu!! and work to change the parts of the system you find so heinous. That's the way it's supposed to work.
Anonymous said…
#12. Overpriced colleges are the first step to getting you in debt and keeping there for the rest of your life. If you have to borrow money in order to go to college, then don't go to college. Live within your means. Don't let a bank own the fruits of your labor.
Anonymous said…
... he is working to change it, that's what the post did. Do you not understand how this works? What, do you want him to gun down some senators or something, "comrade"?
Anonymous said…
No. Just saying that haters gotta hate, and that doesn't get any positive change done.

Declaring our government the enemy is unproductive hate-mongering; so is suggesting the use of violence. And hate-mongering in an obscure message board is not "working to change it" - it's just moaning and pi$$ing.

Perhaps if Obbop would do a little studying on how our government actually works, then Obbop could lobby, or take part in one of any number of other venues designed for citizens to effect change in our laws when they don't like what's going on.
Anonymous said…
You sound poor.
Anonymous said…
For many reasons, I had to drop-out of high school (dysfunctional family, becoming a ward of the state, aging-out before graduation, etc...), so I joined the Navy. My goal was to become an architect; in the Navy Seabees I became a draftsman/surveyor (EA). I literally circumnavigated the world thrice, earned my GED and AA, and retired after 21 yrs as a CWO. I used my pension and GI Bill to go to college, working part-time on campus. Four years later, I had my MA in Architectural History and credentials. I now work for my county as a surveyor, photograph buildings for realtors and owners, teach part-time at a local CC, and have a part-time job with a package-shipping company that I use as my "gym" (the exercise keeps me in shape and they pay me!). I'm looking forward to four pensions, plus investments, have more benefits than I can use, my home and vacation homes are paid, I have no debt and I can't believe I was often homeless as a kid. I really enjoyed college as an older student. I think if I had gone from HS to college, I may not have done as well. I chose to finish my degrees in the CA State University system because it was the least expensive (about $850/semester [6-18 units] + books and fees). I avoided parking hassles by always taking a 07:00 class and being one of the first on campus in the mornings, and I always took at least 18 units (one semester I had 27, and my Mondays weere from 07:00-22:00 with only 1 hr break from 12:00-13:00 - mostly because Film Study was a 5 hr class). I think many students would benefit from first serving their country and getting a taste of life here and overseas,away from apron strings, before matriculation. It worked for me and at 56 life is pretty good. True, it's not for everyone.
Anonymous said…
I agree w/ em all except the one that says to not choose an easy major. I had an easy major (communictions), never had to study & partied hard. I got a job right out of college (w/ benefits & a 401K) & make more $$ than my friends who had harder majors or went to grad school & are now tens of thousands in debt. Take my advice & be a slacker, C students rule the world (like me)
Nick Nafpliotis said…
Hello Farkers :) Glad to see folks from my favorite website hanging out and snarking it up here on RBC as well.

And for those of you making all these valid points about college not being for everyone, pick a good major, professors don't care, etc...

...remember that this is a list of advice that is NOT given, but still should be.

I know that when I felt like I was pooping granite rocks due to a lack of fiber, I wish I had heard Item #3 (or actually listened to my mom any of the million times she reminded me about it).
Bill Kite said…
Well said Nick! You forgot that your meal card will be out by Thanksgiving forcing you to eat fast food until the semester lets out meaning the "Freshman 15" is actually the "Freshman 30!"
Anonymous said…
Right on!
Anonymous said…
Or the school will only offer meal plans with about 33% more meals/campus credit that you need, requiring you to buy $60 in junk food at the end of the semester just so you have something to show for it.
Marklar said…
Yeah! Nothing says "working to help the oppressed people and furthering the cause" like posting vaguely hysterical comments on poorly-read web sites. Stick it to the man!
Anonymous said…
Nice post. Well written.
I went to college in India and stayed with my parents for all four years, but I came to USA for grad school. Measly stipends, crazy landlords, people with easier degrees, and getting sick away from family—I did all that in grad school, but the experience was the same.
Anonymous said…
From my experiences, parking officers get an unfair reputation. I worked as a parking officer my last year in college and I can say that almost every person doing this job was there because it's a slacker job. I would not worry about this if I was an incoming freshman. I'm sure there are some people that get satisfaction from giving out tickets, but a pretty large majority just give out enough tickets so they don't lose their job.
Anonymous said…
i'll drink to that,.. saved me a bunch of money. (no i'm not poor)
karmazfool said…
Sorry, but the cost / benefit ratio is not in your favor when you leverage a 40k paycheck with 100k in debt. You can't avoid some kind of credit in college because you can't make it off grants and scholarships don't grow on trees. Your age group has the highest unemployment rate so don't plan on working your way through school. You'll be wasting 40 hours for beer money.
Anonymous said…
Seems like you fit into the #10 category, wasted your time on a useless major, yes?
Squirrels may not carry rabies, but in the Southwestern US and California the squirrels may have fleas carrying the bubonic plague.

Link to the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/info.htm
Anonymous said…
Borrowing money to go through college and get a CS degree was the first smart thing I ever did.
netwrok said…
The first 3 points were amazing bits of information that every high school graduate should know.
Anonymous said…
This should be reworded as "Do your research and figure out if your choice in careers even needs a degree or if you can get in/by with the training they offer upon hire or with a course offering you found in the local paper"
David Lemley said…

"Two factors make eating right in college very difficult:

b.) Junk food tastes awesome."

Apple - 25 cents.
Doritios - $1

Banana - 35 cents
McDonald's Value Menu Cheeseburger - $1.39

Yes...MUCH more expensive for sure!
Anonymous said…
Nah dude! I have a hard major and study all the time. The difference is, I love my homework and I'm going to have an awesome job that while it doesn't pay a lot, is going to reward me richly in happiness. Money isn't everything.
Anonymous said…
I think parent poster's point is that MEANINGFUL lessons (job skills) should be taught in high school. I don't think there's any argument that Doctor or Physicist requires additional education - but all high school grads should be capable of Office Manager or Network Administrator.
Anonymous said…
I must be doing college wrong then...
Anonymous said…
"But it ranks right there with Oxygen!" - Zig Ziglar
Anonymous said…
They didn't teach my course at school. But yeah, you're probably right. I can totes get by with what I didn't learn at school.
Anonymous said…
You're the exception to the rule. But you're probably right. I'll go tell my medical student friends to change their course.
Anonymous said…
You'll notice the article says 'often', not 'always'.
Anonymous said…
Hello i just like to say that you all
Have a nice day :)
Anonymous said…
American you should stop saying that college is bad and start asking your government for more accessible education, go on strike you people live in a democratic country you should know that part of democracy is your power over the government
Anonymous said…
right right those venues work like a charm .....maybe you need the history lesson, and by the way are you not aware of how the social economic sectors are moving as predicted by Marxist works.....it is pretty clear how the middle class is despairing
Anonymous said…
i'm not even out of high school yet. about 8 days left. 4 for finals and 4 for useless activities which i enjoy. Some of this sounds right other parts sound a little intimidating. But i know everyone's experiences are different so why say one way is correct and another is wrong? if it works it works if not find a new path and follow it.
Anonymous said…
I think the biggest reason that that cannot change things is that most people entering college this decade have no will power or drive at all. It's great for you that you were able to do that but from my experience the majority of college age kids now are too lazy to work 4 jobs, join the navy/any armed services, go to school more than the minimum number of hours/semester or go to class at 7. It'd be much better if they were willing to do that but they're mainly just lazy partiers now, not students anymore.
Anonymous said…
I agree that people should avoid overpriced private schools, but almost everyone needs to borrow money for college, even if it's a cheaper state school. Avoid over-paying, but don't skip college just because you need to take out a loan. Unless you've got rich parents, you're gonna have some student debt no matter what kind of school you go to.
Jason T said…
College opens many doors. I am working on my MBA and have many job offers that otherwise wouldn't exist.

If you cant manage debt then dont do it. For the rest of us, college is a life changing event and has been the changing factor for my entire life. It has rounded my opinions and forced me to gain an education in many subjects that I otherwise wouldn't have (leadership, financial analysis, economics, marketing). I am the person I am today because of the teachers and education I have.
Anonymous said…
Yeah, because choosing an easy major just so I can "PARTY HARD BRO" all the time and ending up in a boring job that I hate sounds SOOOOOO much better than studying the Math and Physics that I love and learning to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
Anonymous said…
Hear, hear!
Anonymous said…
I've got to say that USA's education system is quite money centered like almost everything...
Why don't people complain about that ?
In germany for example u study for free!!
just so u know that its not utopia.
Education should be a choice not something u have to take a credit for.
(of course u have to pay ur books and stuff but with the internet and the university library its quite cheap)
Anonymous said…

-simply false. don't spend all your free time in your dimly lit dorm room and you'll have fun.


-false. go to a private school with fraternities, sororities, sports teams, hell even marching band or acapella group and this will NOT be the case. if you just stand a round a dimly lit room drinking bad beer, you're doing it wrong.
Anonymous said…
In most cases, yes.

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