Four years ago, I did an education guide (I was a teenaged African-American girl back then) that was a quick overview of the different education options offered in Torn City.  A lot has changed since then, and while the basics of education options have stayed the same the nuances have changed.  Thus, this updated guide.  Note that this isn't intended to be an in-depth guide, so much as an easy overview for players who are lost on what to work on.  If you want something more in-depth, why not check out the Education entry in the Torn Wiki?

The short answer to "which educational degree should I pursue" is "until you're certain what your in-game goals are, you can't go wrong with options from Sports Science or Biology." For some niche players, however, there are situations where these aren't the best return for their time.

Also, something a lot of new players seem to miss - you don't have to dedicate yourself to one degree. While most degrees have an intro level class, once those have taken usually the rest of the classes (baring the final) are open to you, with rare exception (like how Biology has a chain of courses to make medicines work better.)  Feel free to mix and match courses from different education blocks as you grab the perks that work best for you.

Education is passive and takes two things: time, and to not get kicked out of a course by doing so many drugs that you get a -%5 penalty from them.  The time needed can be reduced by mastering the Education city job, spending merit points in Education, and getting the West Side University stock block.  Once upon a time players would trade the stock block amongst each other before taking a course, but with the change in the stock market a few years ago players will now need to purchase their own AND wait 7 days for the block to become active.  Keep your addiction levels sorted by taking regular trips to Switzerland, otherwise you'll lose all progress on a course and need to start it over from the beginning.

Players who stick around with Torn will, eventually, do all of these courses. A strong start makes all the difference though, choosing the education that fits your play style is paramount.

Degree: Biology
Why you want it: Four weeks from starting these courses, you can learn to draw your own blood to save it later, which is a reasonable way to not only make a little cash (especially if you get lucky with having a rare blood type) but to save yourself money on meds. There's also a merit once you withdraw 1000 bags of blood, and another when you use a bag of the wrong blood type. 8 weeks later you will find medical items are 20% more effective.  There are a few damage bonuses here as well, such as that +3% critical damage boost from Anatomy.

Why you DON'T want it: This education ends with the ability to equip boosters, which are prohibitive for most newer players to use (300k a use for 2 minutes on the lower end). For that reason, I would advise new players to grab what they absolutely need from this education block and then circle back to finish the degree around mid-game.

Degree: Business Management
Why you want it: You want to run a business or create one from scratch, and you have the benefit blocks from stock trading to make this viable.

Why you don't want it: Running a business in this game isn't a thing you do because you want to make money. Running a business in this game is a thing you do because you're interested in that style of play, and as a result of that interest you eventually earn money (sometimes a fair amount.) New players rushing to open up a company or buy a failing one are going to be really disappointed at how quickly things fall apart. Running a business is not only a competition against every other business of that type, but also requires the recruitment of other players. Most players will be quick to abandon your company if you fail to be competitive and offer them a real reason to stay.

Degree: Combat Training
Why you want it: You want to attack things and make them hurt. So much of this course is bonus to weapon damage types. The final course in this class unlocks the ability to gain weapon experience. From that point onward, each named weapon starts gaining experience points. When you get the weapon to 100%, you get a 25% bonus to damage and accuracy with that weapon. In my tests, this will take roughly 2000 to 2100 unmitigated hits with that weapon.

What is meant by "named weapon here" is, as an example, all "Baseball Bat" weapons are treated as one weapon you're gaining experience in, so if you want to upgrade to one with a better quality rating or if you're borrowing one from a faction and then later buy your own, that experience carries over. However, that experience is separate from the experience you'd acquire on Penelope, which is a blunt weapon in the style of a baseball bat, but not a "Baseball Bat."

Why you don't want it: Every time you're throwing energy away on an attack, you're not throwing energy at the gym, which is a lost opportunity. That said, this course is still very helpful for those who find themselves in a faction that chains a lot. Some players will tell you to grab this after Sports Science, and I think for many that's going to be a fair assessment. If you find you are doing a lot of attacking, the experience gains are invaluable - who doesn't want a chance to make a preferred weapon 25% better?  Ranked Warring has made this degree more viable than ever, especially as players may have different weapon types with different bonuses they wish to switch to depending on who they are going up against or which weapons they have available to them.

Degree: Computer Science
Why you want it:  Crimes 1.0 has access to virus coding and hacking crimes, which are a popular diversion for those tired of doing warehouse crimes.  Crimes 2.0 has several crimes that benefit directly from courses in this block.  Most of these courses have a nice boost to the intelligence workstat, which can be helpful for newer players looking to get into the education job sooner.  The final course of this block allows you to anonymously send cash or messages.

Why you don't want it: As a new player, who the hell are you talking to that you don't want to know are being talked to by you? Programming viruses is attached to a couple of merits, as are computer crimes. These can be forsaken until later in your game life.  Virus coding is very passive and takes nothing of your time once you've unlocked the ability, but how this will change as more of Crimes 2.0 is released remains to be seen.

Degree: General Studies
Why you want it: Lots of neat stuff in here, like a driver license for driving crimes (like Crime 1.0's infamous drug trafficking), bonus to the damage of thrown weapons like grenades, and if you find yourself in South Africa you'll get more out of hunting out there. The final course gives you a 10% bonus to all working stat increases you'll gain from all your other classes...

Why you don't want it: and those gains are, at the end of the day, kind of terrible for the amount of time you waste getting them.

If you were to grab General Studies for the first day you started playing, not stopping for any other class? The combined bonus to your stats from this degree (as gained from all your other classes) would be less than if you worked at a company and your boss trained you once a day for two weeks.  There is an argument that the bonus from graduating this block is the least useful of all of the blocks, and somehow manages to be less useful with each class you finish without it.

Degree: Health and Fitness
Why you want it: Reasonable stat passives. At the end of the degree, make it harder for someone who attacks you to flee.

Why you don't want it: The passives gained are in the realm of "OK, not great" and will show less of a difference to a player with lower stats.  The 25% bonus to catching someone as they flee may be useful in some situations, but can't be toggled and will be detrimental in others (such as when you actually want players to escape attacking you for the merits attached.)  Save this for later in your game life.

Degree: History
Why you want it: Damage bonus to specific weapon types, chance for neat collectibles to appear on the map. Class ends in you getting access to the Museum, which unlocks additional ways to make money.

Why you don't want it: The Museum is probably the end goal here, but it's not a be-all, end-all of extra money making. You'll want to weigh in how you're making your money and if the museum will be good enough to assist with that. The extra items that can spawn from these courses are exceptionally rare, and as such not worth studying for on their own.

Degree: Law
Why you want it: Makes it easier to bust people out of jail and pay to get them out of jail, with the Common Law course allowing you to bail yourself out while incarcerated. You can also buy some properties cheaper too. The end of this degree adds the biggest boost to buying or bailing people out.

Why you don't want it: These are hobbies for end-game players chasing merits, or mid-game players who are in the right companies to really make these benefits sing.  Common Law can save you cash (and booster cooldown) over using a Lawyer Card, but this likely won't be a concern for you at much lower levels.

Degree: Mathematics
Why you want it: small speed and defense passive boosts; manage your ammo better, making for more consistent damage output.

Why you don't want it: For newer players, you're probably not at all worried about how sometimes you fire 6 shots in an attack round and other times you're only firing 2. For those players who want to up their weapon damage, there's usually much more feasible education options to pursue. Newer players likely aren't using specialty ammo, which is where this degree shines.  

Degree: Psychology
Why you want it: Significant Dexterity passive, boost to awareness (greater chance to find things on the city map). Education ends with a 10% increase to crime success chance.

Why you don't want it:  In Crimes 1.0, most players are doing what are considered "safe" crimes, which is to say crimes that aren't going to send them to jail. They mitigate their chances of failure by ensuring their Natural Nerve Bar is high enough to do the crimes, and choose crimes that will send them to the hospital if failed, or will simply have a "blue" response (crime not successful, but no punishment). To these players, a bonus to crime success isn't that useful. Frustrating things further, the crime success chance does not help with faction organized crime, and crimes that are not "safe" also have a cap on how "safe" they can be which can be reached through other means such as spending merits or faction perks.

Crimes 2.0 throws this style of play... well, maybe not out the window, but definitely outside on the doorstep.  The riskier nature of crimes means that these boosts can be more viable.  The question a player will need to ask themselves is - is leveling up crimes for merits more important than goals helped by other education blocks, such as raising stats?  There are absolutely players who will answer "yes."

Degree: Self Defense
Why you want it: Defense and Speed passives, unlock the kick command, bonus to damage when using your fists. The first class takes only a week (less with education merits and perks) and gives 150 work stats, the highest stat boost per time spent of any of the classes in game.

Why you don't want it: For a new player, this degree just isn't useful at all. The passive boosts are minimal. The boost to unarmed damage might be useful on those few missions where you'll need to defeat someone without melee weapons, but most players will see one of those missions maybe once every two months.

Degree: Sports Science
Why you want it: Physical stat gain bonus (there is one class for +1% per each stat, and then the Bachelor adds an additional +1% for all four, for a combined total of +2% to all stat gains) and some minor passives increases to those stats.

Ask yourself: are you training any physical stats? For the majority of players, the answer is "yes, and how." With this course, anywhere from 19 to 29 weeks (education benefit blocks and merits spent depending) from when you start playing you could have a permanent +2% boost to all of your gym gains. This might not seem like a large number, until you realize that this not only makes every train better, but it sets you up with higher stats... which are an element of how good your training is, which means the payout in the end is far more than just that 2%. For the majority of players, they are going to at the very least prioritize completing the classes for whichever stat they intend to be training.

Why you don't want it: The Nikeh Sports Shop is definitely a thing for players at their end-game.  It allows access to boosters that give flat percentage bonuses to stats at a fixed price, which helps keep the prices of the boosters found in the city high, but those who are using the boosters usually aren't buying so many of them that they need to resort to the store (and also, you can't buymug the store!)  Its also worth noting that players won't need to be considering boosters until their stats are a little over 2B (per stat boosted).