How much school is enough?

[Crystal]

Well, I guess higher education isn't for everyone. xD One of my best friend's husband is only highschool educated, and he works a blue-collar job. Nicest guy you've ever met, and despite never going to college, he always seems to have money. He is, though, the sort of person who really isn't suited for college. Loves working with his hands and things.

My parents' home contractor is also only highschool educated. Most of the time, he drives a lorry and looks dirty, ragged and amazingly poor, but if you manage to catch him off work he drives a big shiny car.

[Pacmanite]

It depends on what you want to do after school. If you're unsure of what job you'd like to have, and if you can at all afford to have a higher education, I'd suggest you go to university. Because who knows, you might really need it when a future employer has to make the decision about who to hire. In general, I would reccommend a person to stay studying through high school, through your undergraduate, even maybe have a try at doing a graduate study - and leave at the point where you can find your way into having a suitable job for you.

I have a friend of mine who plays double bass like a star, and she left high school without finishing year 11 to pursue her career as a performing double bassist. It was a tough decision for her to make (and she regrets missing out on Latin classes), but as far as I can still tell, she's doing really well at her musical career. She took her first ripe opportunity. And she wouldn't be able to practice for 10 hours a day if she was still going through school.

So, I'd say keep studying until you have a sensible and feasible reason not to, then start working soon as you can. Because as Hunty said before, work experience is really valuable, sometimes much more valuable than your actual degrees. But until you know what area you're going to work in, until working is a reality - study, and keep a sharp lookout.

I guess I should probably mellow that though by saying my brother turned down a couple job opportunities in order to prolong his stay at uni and do a year of honours in finance. He did great in his marks, considering how competitive honours is, and it then took him some more worrying and anxiety afterwards to find a job opening the next year (all the while knowing he could've taken what he had last year). But he did get himself a great job with a nice working environment and he really likes it there. So, there is that option to continue further studies if you really really want to. It was a calculated risk.

[Dju]

In my opinion, they kinda push it in Brazil...because we don't have enough universities (Sad? I know). O_e My class start 7:10 AM so I have to wake up around 6:20 AM, and it goes until 1:00 PM and we only have two breaks from 15 minutes each. And on one day a month we have to stay at schoool until 5:45 PM. -_- That's because we're in high school and in the next year we'll have to fight against in each other in a test to get in college. Depending on which course you want to take part, the test is harder. and most of us aren't even 16 yet. O_e

Thankfully I'll choose graphic design and arts and stuff, so mine is kinda easy because I'll basically discard 80% what I learned on school all these years! ^-^ And next year means it will be my last one studying things like chemistry, physics and other things, not that I don't like them but knowing that I'll never ever ever use it again is somewhat sad. >_>