Why college after high school is a waste of time
It wasn’t until I was a high school freshman that I started worrying about my grades so I could attend a decent university. Let me tell you what kind of student/person I was. As a middle school student, I didn’t feel stimulated by my classes, so I literally didn’t really give two sh%ts about classes that didn’t interest me. Every semester I had an A in History and Math, but did the bare minimum in my other classes, as in C grades, so I didn’t have to retake them. Comparing middle school to high school, I went from a 3.0 GPA average to a 3.7 to 4.1 GPA each semester and graduated with honors…just so I could get into a college of my choice. Even though I had to drop-out of my choice college my freshman year due to the lack of being able to finance my education, I think it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me. Before going back to school, I worked several jobs to save up some money to go back to school. This process taught me not only the value of a dollar, but that when I return to college to major in something that will give me an in-demand skill that will pay me well in the workforce.
Before I get into the nitty gritty, joining the military isn’t a bad idea if you’re too broke to go to college. Here is my story on joining the military after hating my career despite getting a highly marketable degree.
I suggest everybody should take a break from school before going to college
From what I’ve noticed, we are brainwashed with the idea of going to college straight out of school because of social norms and effective marketing from schools trying to make money.
Royce King @ thedailynook.com
The harsh reality is that you have no clue what you want to do for a living after college. Even if you do, let’s say you have your mind set on studying computer programming, you have no idea what that entails as a full-time job after college. You might want to question the validity of that, but I have numerous friends that have quit jobs directly related to their degree because they hated it. I’ve had friends leave their big four accounting jobs because they were miserable and left to go into marketing, sales, law, computer programming, to graduate school or even to the military like myself.
From what I’ve noticed, we are brainwashed with the idea of going to college straight out of school because of social norms and effective marketing from schools trying to make money. So essentially you are spending 10s of thousands up to 100k plus on an education while you are oblivious to the kind of work you’ll be preforming with that said education. A study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that only 27 percent of college graduates work in a field related to their major. Also, most college graduates end up moving in and out of careers within their first, second, or third job which ultimately take them into completely different career paths. This information comes from a great article from insiderhighered.com, if you would like to ready more click here.
The solution to this issue
I understand that you might love history or psychology and therefore you want to study it, but the job market doesn’t care about your feelings. It only cares about how much your skill is worth and whether that skill will make a company money.
Royce King @ thedailynook.com
Like I said in my first paragraph, sometimes taking a break from school to work and figure out what you’re interested in will set you up for success when it comes to picking an area of study. Further, unless you plan on going to graduate school, such as law school, to back your choice of a getting a history, english, marketing, psychology or sociology degree you’re going to end up jobless. In addition, unless you have connections to get you hired into a company good luck competing with people who majored in something that gave them a marketable skill. I understand that you might love history or psychology and therefore you want to study it, but the job market doesn’t care about your feelings. It only cares about how much your skill is worth and whether that skill will make a company money. What are some fields to consider? I would say finance, accounting, engineering, computer science, information systems or anything else that would provide a benefit to corporate America. Just please don’t major in liberal arts or english unless somebody plans on funding your teaching degree, so you don’t end up in a space of underpaid individuals with 100k in debt.
One more thing I would like to advise you to do is to find an internship in your field of study before you start your junior year. You might like it, or you might be surprised that you hate it. If you do hate it, you’ll be able to change your major with a minor set back of only having to take a couple of additional classes to be on time with graduation requirements. This will save you from wasting tons of money if you realize you hate your job after college due to your poor degree choice.
But what if I’m broke and can’t afford to waste time not going to college?
I guess the moral to the story is that if you’re going to spend a ton of money or take on a ton of debt to get a college degree, please spend it on something that will pay you well after college.
Royce King @ thedailynook.com
I was broke as sh!t while going to college and still was able to have somewhat of good idea of what I wanted to study. I supported myself from the time I was 19 and choose my area of study, accounting, since it would provide me with the skill that would allow me to land a solid job after college. Even though I am currently not utilizing my degree for what I am doing, I am still happy with my degree since it looks good on my resume. I guess the moral to the story is that if you’re going to spend a ton of money or take on a ton of debt to get a college degree, please spend it on something that will pay you well after college.
Like the saying goes, what’s the difference between a pizza and a liberal arts degree? At lease a pizza can feed a family of four.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email thedailynook@gmail.com