College is not for everyone, and often traditional college can do more harm than good depending on what your overall goals are. Think long and hard about why you want to go to college. Going to college straight out of high school is usually a good idea. The overall college experience can be a valuable one. But don’t feel that just because you’ve started college that you need to finish it. It really depends on what you want to do with your life. If you want to be a doctor, or a nurse, then you’ll probably have to go to college. But with just about any other profession you might want, there are other ways to gain the knowledge necessary. Even if you want to be an attorney, an architect, or an engineer, many states allow you to train with someone who’s already licensed in your state for a number of years and then take the exams necessary to become licensed yourself.

One of the main issues that I have with college is the level of debt that the majority of people need to assume in order to complete a four-year college degree. Most public colleges and universities now run around $20,000 per year for out of state students, and many private colleges are now approaching $40,000 per year. If you attend a private University and end up financing the whole thing, that’s $160,000 over the four years. Now, where I live, $160,000 will get you a pretty decent house. And pretty much anywhere you want to live it makes for a damn good downpayment.

Now, when I graduated from high school I was 16 years old. I went to a state college that was close to where my parents were living, but I lived on campus for the year. I wouldn’t trade that year of college for anything. But, I didn’t stay. I found that the level of education I was getting was not worth paying the money I was paying (or, more accurately, the money I was borrowing and eventually would have to pay back). With the exception of one or two professors, the people teaching me were simply reciting from the textbooks that others had written. The education that I was getting I could have received for $400 in textbooks and just read them myself. I was a business major, and I knew that real world experience was going to teach me a lot more than anything I could read in a book.

Four years after I left college, a girl that started the same year that I did, with the same major (we actually took at least one class together) started at the same job I had had for a year already. You know what happened? She didn’t make it. Couldn’t do the job and ended up getting done after about three months. Don’t get me wrong, this girl was intelligent and knew business, but she just didn’t have the real-world experience necessary to do the job. I had already had experience dealing with people (through my previous job as an insurance agent). She still lived with her parents, while I already owned a house; she struggled to make sales, while I had pretty much moved beyond selling and was doing graphics work, layout, web programming and computer tech support for the company. If I had stayed in college, at minimum I would have been three years behind where I am now (which means I wouldn’t be married yet and would just now be buying a house, I also wouldn’t have a job that I really like yet).

Sometimes learning on your own is the best way to go. I’m a big fan of unschooling right now. I learn what I want when I want to learn it (or when something I’m doing means that I need to know it). Doing this I feel that I’ve learned way more than I would have in four years of college. I wouldn’t trade the one year of college I did have for anything, as it’s where I met my husband, and it’s where I figured out that college (especially state college) wasn’t for me. I’m considering going back to college for a one-year program (through the Harvard Extension School) in Environmental Management, but haven’t decided yet. I’m not sure if I want to spend the time doing a formal education at this point, but it might help with some future projects I have in the works.

Taking a class or two is also a possibility for me. There are some things that I want to learn that are difficult to learn outside of the classroom. But, that doesn’t mean that I need to go and get a four-year degree. If one or two classes is all I need to learn something, then why should I take additional courses just for the sake of getting credits?

In the end, I do think that students straight out of high school should try college. You might decide that you want to do something where the quickest and easiest way is college. Or, you might meet someone that you spend the rest of your life with. You might make some lifelong friends. Or, you might decide that it’s not for you and leave after a year or two. You might decide that you love college and want to stay for 10 years (instead of the usual four for an undergraduate degree). Any of the above is perfectly fine. You just have to be willing to do what’s right for you, not what society, family and your classmates are telling you to do.

As an adult, it’s often better to do a one-year vocational-type program to get specific training if necessary for your job. Or, volunteer and get hands-on training in a field you’re interested in.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!