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Don’t get an undergraduate degree under false pretenses.
Dear high school seniors (and the rest of you who haven’t figured it out yet),
Babyhood is ending, and it’s time for some straight talk. I feel compelled to share with you that College, despite its societal glory, is, in reality, a poorly concealed racket.
As your impending completion of grade school looms, you’re probably confused about what to do with your future. Easy kiddo. There’s no need for a what-the-hell-am-I-going-to-do-now-I-can’t-eat- cheetos-and-fruit-roll-ups-and-bum-with-my-high-school-buddies-forever crisis. The path is laid before you, and everyone is pushing you in the same direction.
The instructions to the game of life make it unmistakably clear that to enter the professional world and avoid becoming an utter failure, you must attend a university and get a degree. They might also say that you have a choice, but they’re lying. Society has already made it for you.
Now don’t get me wrong about the whole racket thing. I’m not here to argue with the cultural mandate. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go. I’m saying you must go. For better or worse – it’s a mold that you can’t escape.
A college degree is like a passport. It takes a lot of money and effort to acquire, but without it, you’re paralyzed. The possession of a passport doesn’t mean that you have traveled the world, but that you can travel the world. Similarly, the possession of a degree doesn’t denote money, position or intelligence. But if you want a job in the professional workforce, it’s a prerequisite that’s difficult to circumvent.
The truth is that most employers aren’t going to have you recall what you learned during those four years of undergraduate classes. They just want to know that you have a degree.
Thus, you may as well face the fact that you are going to pay exorbitant sums of money to get an education that you will probably never use in a field that you will probably never work in.
And what’s worse is that most of you are going to be coming out of college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt that you will spend the rest of your life paying off. It’s a vicious cycle: you need the college education to get the job, and you need the job to pay for the college education.
As to the ultimate financial viability of a college education, it’s true that you’ll get a more prominent position and more dollars for your hours with that coveted diploma. However, economically speaking, those years of education constitute a pretty significant monetary expenditure, not even counting the loss of four years’ full-time income.
For example, I was making $15 and hour working full-time before I left for school. At 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year for four years, that’s $124,800. The average cost of a private 4-year school is between $20,000 and $30,000. So, in four years I could have saved up over $100,000 – without spending that amount on college tuition. And that’s without even considering grad school.
With the right financial plan, I could have invested that, continued working and be sitting pretty sweet by the time I was thirty. That’s a bit of a contrast to a typical college graduate that is still paying off his school loans at that age.
Of course, I’m being fairly utilitarian here. We all know money isn’t the only factor. College is crucial to gaining knowledge and intelligence, right? Interestingly enough, while many people have benefited from their collegiate experience, many of the most successful and intelligent people of all time never got a degree: Bill Gates, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Peter Jennings and Thomas Edison….to name just a few.
While it is an error for intelligence to be associated with a framed piece of paper, it’s not an error to have a social and professional demand for education. History has proven that an educated nation tends to be more stable, economically sound, and beneficial to the world as a whole.
We probably all agree that education is a priority, but the list of successful people above should destroy the faulty assumption that success is impossible without a diploma. If you invent something like Microsoft or Facebook prior to gaining a degree, a future need to make yourself presentable on paper to an employer is pretty slim.
But, in all likelihood, you aren’t the next Edison or Jennings, and for you, a college education might just be a good idea. Depending on where you go, what you study and how you apply yourself, it’s probably going to be pretty beneficial.
After all, you’re telling yourself, it’s not just about the money. It’s about gaining wisdom, understanding and making yourself into a better person. So you can, in turn, help make the world a better place. Well, honestly, you’re half right; college is great place to get a taste of real world experience.
The “real world,” as employed people – and recent graduates – like to call it, isn’t the only place full of flaws and difficulties that need to be overcome. College has its own hefty share of issues.
Students, as a whole, continuously complain about aspects of their respective schools – the education, the professors, the housing, the lack of attractive women….This could mean one of two things: either college students have a tendency to gripe just for the sake of griping or the standards of college education are seriously lacking.
I’d argue that it’s a little of both. Undergraduates do have the tendency to be critical of pretty much anything that taxes their sensitive beings. And every college does have its own blemishes, incompetent professors, and inedible cafeteria fare.
As a result, most graduates—in addition to their newly acquired knowledge of history, philosophy and science, etc.—should have a better capability of dealing with the pressures and inconsistencies of the professional world.
That’s a pretty significant reason for a four-year degree to carry such weight with potential employers.
But anyway, I’m donning my cute little gown and tasseled hat this May to leave that all this behind. I just thought I would welcome you prospective college students to four years of disillusionment (a.k.a. growing up a little).
Happy college picking,
Aaron Olmstead
Aaron Olmstead is the founder and publisher of Kritik.
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This site is very intelligent looking
— Cabes · Feb 22, 09:19 AM ·
Very good warning. May I add another warning?
Because this college racket is something that people must do (as opposed to being above & beyond, which it used to be), it’s turning into a really expensive friggin’ HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA. A lot of times, people will pass you up, even with the diploma and what experience you manage to gain from the internships you’ve wrangled.
The truth is, if you really want to get ahead & stand out, you’re going to need at least a Master’s, if not a PhD. Plus lots of work experience.
I made the mistake of investing a lot in my BA, and working hard to graduate early. Now, people just see someone incredibly young, inexperienced, and who isn’t qualified to do much of anything.
— Random Alumna · Feb 22, 10:28 AM ·
Nice work! You guys have done a great job!
— Hannah · Feb 22, 10:55 AM ·
I agree that a college degree is worth less these days. But because of that decline, networking and connections are worth more, and college is where you can make those connections. THAT’s why college is a must.
It’s probably also why more women are going to college too, since we’re more likely to value relationships… but that’s another discussion.
— Jordan Like the River · Feb 23, 03:38 PM ·
You’ve got a good point, Jordan. However, networking can get you only as far as the people you network with—if everybody’s trying to get the same job you’re after…well, it can get tricky.
— Random Alumna · Feb 23, 11:49 PM ·
I think it really matters which field you are entering, especially if you intend to enter the academic realm as I do. I suppose I really intend to become part of the ‘racket’ so to speak. My reasons, however, for doing so are most definitely not financial. Good article! look forward to reading more. I must say I would enjoy learning and most likely would be more effective If I were on my own. But as in my case, it is helpful to hear the marxist professors and see the various sides, but it is also helpful to be careful and possibly call them to account, esp. when they make dubious statements without citations, etc. Again, it really helps to have some training before you receive ‘training’ or at least are thinking about what they’re saying. Academics, and intellectuals do thrive off the contributions, research, and collaborations of colleages in their fields. But if you’re thinking about going into real estate, building, etc. you want to learn from the people who actually make money in those fields, not professors, though I have had finance and accounting teachers who were independently wealthy through their personal financial endeavors. The bottomline: if you want money, you learn from the people who have it. likewise with knowledge. Whether in the university or not, it should be where you can benefit and/or help the most. College is a waste for many, and definitley it’s meaning is diluted. I know a lot of college graduates who can’t think for themselves, or if they do, they haven’t either learned how to make money or formulate well developed thoughts. College is not the universal method with which people are to get ‘qualified’. If I wanted money, I would not be in college right now, let’s just put it that way, I would be working my tail off buying and selling houses, apprenticing with a successful stock broker, or building my own business. College teaches you how to join the rat race. That is the greater racket I see.
— david · Mar 31, 04:04 PM ·