Do you really need a college education to set up a successful future? Sitting at a school that costs somewhere around $40,000 a year, I certainly hope this is a wise investment of my time. Society has ingrained the message in this generation of children that in order to be successful later in life, a college education is crucial. It’s something that was certainly true for our grandparents- when so few people had college educations, two letters after your name could make all the difference. The pendulum is swinging the other way now, however. With so many kids enrolling in college, people are starting to question the wisdom of signing away four years and hundreds of thousands of debt just for a college diploma.
In today’s society, we see plenty of examples of individuals without a college degree who have had wild and unparalleled success. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both wildly successful (and rich!) tech gurus without a college degree. In fact, they developed highly complex tech platforms without college degrees and went on to net millions of dollars. The “American Dream no longer requires a college degree to get ahead in life, and it’s time that we start divorcing ourselves from the value- ridden belief that college is a necessity. People who don’t want to go to college- or try, but aren’t suited to it- and pursue a hands-on career via trade school or work experience often face criticism from others because they don’t have a college degree. For people to excel in the careers and life paths that they’ve chosen, it’s crucial that we decouple self esteem and self worth from a college diploma.
If you're pursuing a career in law, engineering, computer science, or any medical field, you need a college degree to distinguish yourself from the others in your field. If you want to work in almost any other field, a college degree really isn’t required to be successful. The key lies in work experienced, specialized education, and a killer work ethic. There are plenty of individuals who get ahead in their fields because they’re dedicated and work harder than those around them- even if they don’t have a college degree.
There are plenty of studies claiming that those without college degrees earn $1.2 million dollars over their lifetimes, while those with a college degree earn about $2.1 million over their lifetimes. Though that sounds like a big difference, the study only averaged the earnings of those who were working during the course of the study. That means that the results of the study were highly skewed- not representative of the actual earnings of college graduates versus those that didn’t graduate college. On average, college graduates earn $800,000. When adjusted for inflation, that’s about $450,000 in today’s dollars. Subtract about $30,000 for a public college education, and anywhere from $40,000-$100,000 in earnings that could have been made during the course of four years. You’re down to $300,000 in lost earnings and while not insignificant, that number is a pretty distant one from the $2.1 million that people throw around. You might just be better off heading into an internship or an entry level job in your field and using your hard work and dedication to get ahead.
