Saw this on a random friend's Facebook under the quotes section:

"You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does"

Hmm.....

Words to live by!

My stepdaughter said much the same thing to us recently, explaining that she wants to spend fast and party hard now, because she knows that when she settles down and has kids she'll have to be more responsible.

The only problem with that approach is that habits can be hard to break. If you spend four years being irresponsible with money and everything else, it's not like you can flip a switch and suddenly become Mr or Ms Responsible when you graduate. And you can dig yourself into some pretty deep financial holes in four years of fiscal irresponsibility.

Yeah, I am actually a college student (just finished my second year of undergrad). The quote is nice but it reminds me of all the random articles I read on Yahoo! Finance and other sites that give examples of college students who rack up over $10,000 in credit card debt by the time they graduate...on top of loans for school. And a lot of them come back and say they wish they hadn't done what they did while they were in college. So I guess this is all just a double-edged sword, huh?

"You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does"

I did: relax, stay out late, go out with my friends on a Tuesday, stay up with my friends until sunrise (occasionally). I got a great education and had an amazing time.
I didn't: spend money I didn't have, not do papers due Wednesday, or be otherwise irresponsible. It's not like college is some magical place where normal rules don't apply. On the contrary it's usually the first time people living away from home have to learn self-responsiblity, organization, negotiating roommate and domestic life, and keeping up with workload and finances, without someone looking over your shoulder. Learning these things while in college are more important that GPA and prepares you for the world outside of college. Flunking these things in college can make post college-life - let's just say- painful.

If you do as the quote says, I doubt you'll have 4 years. You'll either be kicked out before then or you'll straighten up.

Happiness isn't found in partying and being irresponsible. That's a fantasy.

Sounds irresponsible and immature. You want to get over with it and move on.

I'm OK with that quote...

so long as they pay their own college tuition.

I feel the same way. It's probably the main reason I was never attracted to anyone in college. They were all too childish and immature to me.

I think the quote has *some* merit, but it only tells one side of the story. College is definitely a time to have fun, but my personal feeling is that one should instill a sense of "work hard, play hard", and there's no better time to do that than college. Those four years can be extremely rewarding in both areas... and a responsible parent should definitely encourage a strong work ethic in their kids. Just my 2 cents however.

Well, it sounds fun... but the consequences are sure to be scary. You can gonna fail that Wednesday paper if you party Tuesday night. One can enjoy one's college life, but a bit of responsibility won't hurt, especially when you consider the fact that you have to prepare for a future.

I there's some truth to it. I wish I had enjoyed college more. I was pressured to finish my Bachelor's in 2.5 years due to financial constraints. On one hand I was happy to accomplish the goal and earn honors, but at the same time I think I could have had a lot of fun or maybe even earned another major in the other 1.5 years. It was a bit rough to be burned out from college by graduating so fast then going right into a career and working for the next 30-40 years.

If you have to, do what you have to in order to graduate but if you have the opportunity...enjoy it.

On the up side, since working and especially being married without children my wife and I have been having a blast since I left college. It seems that since I put so much in early on, I got to a financially secure point that allows me to enjoy life much earlier as well.

I'm with Brad on this one. Those who struggle aren't treating college like a transition. For example, I saw dorming as a way for me to safely work on living on my own. As a result, when I got my first apartment, I wasn't completely in over my head with unrealistic expectations.

It's this attitude towards college which is making colleges more and more irrelevant, as they are not teaching kids to be adults, they're just letting them be bigger kids.

I agree that it's important to have a blast in college. I managed to go out to clubs every weekend, stay up til dawn, go to the beach, all that good stuff during my 4 years. (I still do sometimes.)

At the same time I only spent the small budget I was given for living expenses (thanks Mom and Dad!), I completed five internships, and I turned in all my assignments.

Like other commenters mentioned above, it's a "work hard, play hard" balance. The quote sure sounds nice at first, but there's a lot of sketchy financial and educational advice thrown in there that's sure to make life miserable.

It's sad that this person thinks you have 4 years to be "irresponsible" when those four years are paid for by:

1. Money you worked your butt of for, or
2. Thousands of dollars gifted/lent to you by somebody who believes in you

You can have tons of fun in college without going into debt and failing classes... not sure why anyone would want to have fun the stressful way haha