@Ken Anderson I thought you might not be, but on the chance you were, you would instantly understand the reference. Fictitious character in an historical novel which details the life's encounters of the son of a WW-II Vet, the brother of whom was involved in the Hooverville debacle. Henry Bowman's father was a Flight Instructor in Florida whose record of turning out pilots of excellency was higher than any other. He achieved that fact by circumventing bureaucratic intereference largely, was not well-liked by other instructors, had far fewer pilots he had trained become lost in action statistics. He instilled his general life philosophy in his son Henry. Henry taught a class on personal self-defense as an elective while in college. The class consisted mainly of young women. A few took the class because they had been personally assaulted. Henry revealed amazing facts and thoughts which leapt out at me as absolutely true, once you considered them, but they had never dawned on me before. I think you would find the book to be most satisfying reading. "Unintended Consequences", by John Ross. Accurate Press, St. Louis, 1996. Frank
@Frank Sanoica Thanks for reading. I'm sorry, Frank, I didn't want to cause confusion. I was under the illusion that almost everyone writing here knew by now that I am from Germany/Europe. I'd mentioned that in my introduction to the forum and one click on my profile as well as the language reveal that on the spot. I often write "over here" so as to remind readers. But you're right, I should have mentioned at the beginning of my post that I was talking about the German educational system. Will do so in the future. I wrote that post since it seems that the question raised in this thread is a relevant one in all western countries and I wanted to explain what the reasons for the respective choice are in my country hoping that it would help readers to compare and that it would show some similarities and possibly some differences to those writing here about the US system. I find such a comparison interesting.
I am guessing that the educational problems in Germany aren't that much different than in the United States.
I would personally take Apprenticeship and getting paid for learning a trade over going to College only to use the degree I earned to pay off Student loans for basically the rest of my life.
After reading all the whining of college grads on reddit concerning lack of jobs for their degrees, combined with the outrageous cost of them, I'd say trade schools are the best choice, followed maybe by community (free) colleges. The brand name universities are an expensive crapshoot.