Good morning John I asked on Twitter
Just now what people want me to chat about today on vlogbrothers and a bunch people asked me questions about
College, and so then I was like "Hey, you got college questions?". And oh my gosh
they did! lots of them, so let's see if I have any useful wisdom to impart
Despite the fact that I haven't been inside of a classroom in a decade and a half. Kate asks how much plasma would I have
to sell to pay for an engineering degree? Kate, first of all, if you're going to get an engineering degree
You should probably be able to do this calculation yourself
Second, a lot! Like way more than you have, you're gonna have to harvest it from other people which I
Do not condone
But you're here to solve problems girl. Do I go to a college
1,500 miles away that I love or one nearer home and help my parents with my million tiny siblings
So I hope you understand that we're all assuming you're a roach person now.
But, dear roach person, it is commendable that you're so committed to your family, though I will say a thing here
One of the great benefits of college and this isn't something everybody wants and not something everybody gets
It's being able to break off a little bit from
The whole life that has been constructed around you and then seeing what life is like when you build some structures for yourself to kind
Of see who you are
When you're on your own a little bit
But also family is important that I'm totally useless so... Should I major in something that I'm passionate about, or something that's more financially secure? Oh
creepy girl I tell you what uh
We don't know what's going to be financially secure at all like what career
What skill set is going to be useful in the future?
It's changing real fast right now. It seems to be kind of a lie that we're telling ourselves or we're letting
Colleges tell us that like this is a job training program
It's not. You are learning how to be better at stuff and that's going to be useful in getting work
And in doing work. If you go to college, or if you just are living your life
You're going to acquire a bunch of skills
And you're not going to know which ones of those skills are going to turn out to be useful. You have them precisely because you don't
Know which ones are going to be the ones you need. Life is not a job training program. We are not in college
We are not on Earth to get jobs. What I hope is that we are on Earth to solve problems for ourselves and for other
People and education helps that whatever kind of education you get. Favorite class you took? I thought about this for a long time and I
have decided to say anthropology because
It was just amazing for me at that point in my life to see how many different ways there are to be people.
Why is it so expensive? I made a whole video about that actually, it's complicated. Your mom goes to college.
She does not, but if she did, Thomas, I would support her. How expensive was it? My school in
1998 the first Year I went to school Tuition was $22,000 a year
I got some scholarships, and so it was about $10,000 a year for me. In today's dollars
That's around 14 grand a year. Tuition at Eckerd is now
$42,000 a year but 97% of students get financial aid. In what ways is collage different from say decoupage or scrapbooking? Pat!
Is journalism dying? No no no no no suddenly journalism is having a revival people are paying for it again
And my last question, hey cool decorating ideas? Well it turns out. We have a back-to-school sale happening at
dftba.com also wait for it. We've made a nerdfighter backpacks for the first time ever, look at those giraffes and nerdfighter crests,
It's subtle. I actually designed this in partnership with spiral which is the company that makes really cool backpacks
We made I think 500 of them
And then there are no more after that so we'll see how that goes, also got this new Hoodie going on
Which is super comfy it's got these things and as for decorations
I would suggest getting a frame like this at Michaels and getting yourself a poster dftba.com currently on sale because it's back-to-school time
Having a poster on your wall,
Totally cool. Framing it? It's like what who is this classy dude? I hope that that was in some way
Maybe a little bit helpful for people John I'll see you on Tuesday
Hey also parade magazine made a video about me and John and our history on YouTube. You could check it out
It's funny and cute
There's a link to that down in the description as well as to these things and also to
The video that I made about why college is so expensive
