# college while hitching?



## shane and emily (Jul 19, 2011)

hey all, i'm really really sorry if this is the wrong spot for this, i just looked through the other topics and couldn't see anywhere this'd fit. :/
that said-- i'm hitching from iowa to nyc (with a few pit stops along the way, i.e. nashville) this fall with one of my best friends. the only issue is that he's already taken a couple months off college here and there and, apparently, if he takes this trimester off, he loses his financial aide.
my solution is online classes-- we can be mobile and he can still get his shit done.
is this a good idea? we're thinking about couchsurfing for most of the way, so with any luck we'd be around wifi and stuff, but for first-time hitchers, would it be way too time-consuming? he says his professors would be down with him maybe not signing on all the time, but i'd kinda like some feedback on whether or not it's even plausible.
thanks dudes and ladies!


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## shwillyhaaa (Jul 19, 2011)

depends on the classes


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## Margarita (Jul 19, 2011)

My inclination would be to say that college and hitch-type travelling are not entirely compatible.. I just finished sophomore year of college, and I'm taking a few years off to travel and figure things out. I wouldn't dream of trying to do them both; you will just half-ass both college _and_ travelling. If you want to make the most of your education, don't do that online bullshit. Go to a real school with real people and resources. But you can't travel and do that at the same time, so it's really a personal decision. If your friend is just trying to scrape through college and get a degree in whatever, then go for online classes... but if he's trying to get educated and actually learn things, he should look at his reasons for travelling and weigh them carefully.

By the way, I think that the travelling life can be lived in such a way that you learn far more than you ever could from inside of a university. That's why I'm hitting the road. My schooling was getting in the way of my education, so to speak. But I learn differently from other people, and some people learn much better in the stationary college setting.


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## DaisyDoom (Jul 19, 2011)

I agree with Margarita. I don't think you can do both and get the full experience of both. Online classes are actually more work and stress than just going to the class...at least for me it was.


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## BAMN (Jul 19, 2011)

knowledge isn't learned in a classroom. It's all about life experiences - knowing how to be a bullshitter can get you anywhere and anything. Continue to be part of a system which tells you that you need to go school in order to amount to something in life, because a piece of paper dictates who you are and what you become. You can go to the library and read the same books, only difference, it won't cost you 20,000 a semester.


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## DaisyDoom (Jul 19, 2011)

BAMN said:


> knowledge isn't learned in a classroom. It's all about life experiences - knowing how to be a bullshitter can get you anywhere and anything. Continue to be part of a system which tells you that you need to go school in order to amount to something in life, because a piece of paper dictates who you are and what you become. You can go to the library and read the same books, only difference, it won't cost you 20,000 a semester.



"Who needs school when you've got google"...something I've said many times lol.
I agree for the most part. If I was this guy, I would drop out of school and travel. School can be a good thing though, I mean they have funding, equipment and supplies an average person doesn't have. You can only learn so much from reading. Going to school is just a way of learning and if you are going to a good school, its a good thing. Non-profit schools will teach you, for-profit schools will hand any dumb ass a diploma. Some people only want the diploma, some people actually want to learn. School should not cost nearly as much as it does though.


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## shane and emily (Jul 19, 2011)

oh damn i wasn't expecting this many replies!
willy-- it's all gen ed stuff, and he's doing it from a community college. if he was at a university and actually focusing on his major, i'd probably back him on going back and actually sitting in for the classes.
marg-- i agree completely with your last sentiment. which is why i'm taking at least a year off between high school and college to kind of figure out what i'm doing.
daisy-- that's what's fucking my buddy, the cost thing. if he takes this trimester off he loses his financial aide. the fucking price of college is ridiculous.
thank you all! any other opinions are 100000% welcome.


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## Margarita (Jul 19, 2011)

Pfft, fuck gen ed, isn't that high school 2.0? If he decides he wants to go back to school after he travels a bit, he'll manifest the money somehow, by getting into a good school that gives financial aid, or winning scholarships or something. I firmly believe that if you read frequently and live life in a constant state of curiosity and openness, you will emerge with far more knowledge (and wisdom) than anyone with a doctorate degree. Your knowledge will not be as specialized, but you will almost certainly have more of it and be more likely to survive doomsday at any rate.  (joking about doomsday, but not about survival...)

I guess my general opinion is that specialized higher education is for those who feel a strong calling to something in particular that is extraordinarily difficult to learn independently, like engineering or medicine. But once you get out of high school you know everything you need to strike out and live a fulfilling life, if you're smart about it! You learn along the way. And if you want to learn something that you don't learn in day-to-day life, you read books, you talk to people who know it, and you practice.

But if he plans on travelling for just a while before deciding it's not in his blood and getting a "real job", it would do him good to get a degree just to have the paper for the pricks who demand it.


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## shane and emily (Jul 19, 2011)

yeah, i know, gen ed's bullshit, but i guess he's gotta do it to get his basic shit for what he wants to go for? i really don't know why he's fucking with it, but hey, it's not my college shit, i'm not gonna tell him what to do. i totally agree with everything you're saying but he's hellbent on going to college (i've been trying to explain to him that college is bullshit but he's all "but i HAVE TO DO IT"), and he's kinda got a point, you can tell your future employers that you learned a lot from some homeless guy in nola but that's probably not gonna help you out if all they're looking at is your transcripts.
ANYWAY, yeah. i kinda wish i could find somebody else to go with but he's my best bet, i just gotta hope that he does the right thing and does his classes and shit on the road.


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## Shannon (Jul 19, 2011)

Your post resonated with me, as I confronted a similar dilemma for a few years...

Think long-term. No matter what you think of the general ed classes that he'd be taking now, a college degree provides a lot of options. Which he may need when he 1) voluntarily gets off the road, 2) gets caught up in the legal shit that can come with this lifestyle, or 3) if he wanted to be paid professionally to travel (like my old gig as a field biologist). While it be great if he could manifest some other monies later, his choice to leave school will have serious financial consequences now. I doubt that he can focus and succeed on his classes while travelling.

If the road is worth him giving up school, then it's even more worth waiting for, when he can commit to it 100%. His travels don't have to take place at a time when it would jeopardize his goals. And you don't need your friend to be your road dawg. Be supportive, and do your own thing. I almost always hitch-hike solo, as a young woman, and I've thumbed 11,000 miles this year alone.

Best of luck on the road.


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## plagueship (Jul 19, 2011)

that's interesting, i've never heard of anyone even trying that.
i would also say that it depends on the courses. i have taken online courses in subjects that i knew i'd found easy and they turned out to be really, really easy and a good move because i got the credits/reqs outta the way without wasting a whole buncha time going to class. so i would only do this if he feels really comfortable with the subject matter. also some 'online' classes do involve real world meetings or group projects so make sure to figure that out in advance!

and to everyone who is hating on college... part of me wants to say just let haters be haters, but the other half wants to tell your ignant asses to STFU. some of us don't want to spend our whole lives drinking under bridges, even if we enjoyed doing that at certain times.

plus, even if you don't think you care about getting a degree and a job, think about this: if you're up for the effort, and especially if you're over 24, college can be a GREAT scam. once you're over 24 you get a lot more aid. i started community college at 24 and went for 2 years at practically no cost to myself. now i'm starting in the fall at the state u. also virtually for free. and then you get a piece of paper that makes it easier to do cool jobs where you can totally goof off, or travel to cool places and research stuff you think is cool, or you know, whatever you're into... again... perpetual unemployment and broke-ness is only so exciting for so long... at least for some of us...


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## shane and emily (Jul 20, 2011)

see, my buddy is doing gen ed stuff so with any luck he'll be doing all high school 2.0 shit. with any luck his online classes are gonna be completely online; my local comm. college has a TON of people from out of state that do online stuff but his is based in oregon so idk if it's gonna be the same kinda thing or not.

i wish he'd listen when i tell him that he CAN put off college for a while. he's way too fuckin worried about what people think about him and thinks he's gonna look bummy or whatever.


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## scatwomb (Jul 20, 2011)

I completely agree with Margarita. Speaking as someone who is stupidly hypereducated, I definitely think my most fulfilling, educational and transformative experiences have been outside a classroom setting. With that said, my classroom experience, conversations with classmates/friends from college, and the thousands of pages of assigned readings have all played an integral part in how I perceive the world and have been mostly beneficial. But, to put it simply, my first 10 days in East Africa taught me more about "culture" than $120,000 and 3 degrees in higher education ever could.

Also, students who have real-life experience are always the most interesting, mature and thoughtful. So, if your friend (or you) go out on this journey and decide to take a break from school and decide to return later in life, you will get MUCH more out of it. Just think of all the clueless 18 year olds in your classes who are there because mommy/society wants them to be - they aren't interested or invested in the classroom topics, they are just mindlessly going along with the motions while updating their Facebook status. It's sad.

But, Margarita has a good point - if you're friend is more concerned with getting a degree than learning anything, I'm sure they can travel and take online classes. Anyone with half a brain and at least 2 hours of free time a week can shit out a C in a university class.


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## nivoldoog (Jul 20, 2011)

Did a year of college from behind a bush, but I was home bumming at the time


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## shane and emily (Jul 20, 2011)

scat (oh god there's no appropriate way to shorten your name)-- i think that's his big big concern is just wanting to get it done and get it passed, if he can shit out a C and be ok with a couple hours a week this'd be perfect. if he'd already decided his major and was really focusing on that i wouldn't have even suggested going out and doing this, but since it's mostly just review stuff i think he can do it. the 18-year-old point is one i'll definitely bring up with him.
by the way, i'm insanely jealous that you've actually got world travelling experience under your belt.


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