In a 2013 article from LinkedIn, Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder of Bersin, states that “More than half of US college graduates are looking for work, that college cost has risen by 40% over the last ten years, and college graduates now have more than a trillion dollars of debt”. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted in an article form the U.S. Department of Education that “While more students are graduating college than ever before at our nations world-class colleges and universities, for far too many students, the nation’s higher education system isn’t delivering what they need and deserve.” This means that we may be receiving perspective, reading and writing skills, and discipline and hard work, but in today’s job market, college may not be for everyone. There is a critical debate within today’s young adults on whether or not spending four years of your life devoted to hanging a diploma on a wall means that you are going to be successful in life or not. I believe that young adults nowadays do not need to acquire a college degree in order to be successful in life.
For starters, success is shown in many ways. Look at Bill Gates for an easy assessment. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975, and is now one of the richest mans in the world. Gates along with his colleague Paul Allen, created at a young age Traf-O-Data, a tool to track traffic in Seattle. With this success, something that they were passionate about, they both dropped out of their institutions and founded one of the most successful companies today. They are outliers to this situation, which shows that you do not need to have a degree to work your way up in a company. Imagine three siblings, one is going to college for teaching another one is beginning law school, and the third owns his own bakery. Which would you argue is more successful? The answer is not one over the other. All three are equally successful on various levels. Looking at becoming a doctor, lawyer, and a technician, these careers do in fact need a solid foundation of education. A college degree is just a waste of a lifetime of debt to own a bakery. Focusing on your experience and skills that you have acquired over the years of your life should be a better determinant of your success, not just a piece of paper. In order to have these experiences, perhaps you should invest in a second option: self directed learning.
Self-learning is simply showing that you can fully become wildly successful without traditional four year schooling. Blake Boles writes about this ideology in a 2012 article titled, “How to Build a Successful Life without a Four-Year Degree.” He states that self-learning is “embracing your fundamental nature as an entrepreneur at a younger age than most.” Self-motivation is embracing a life of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. By achieving these induvial ingredients, your life will have more value added to it, along with adding incredible value to others around you.
There are six simple steps to follow if you are interested in self-learning. First, self learners will ask themselves what fascinates them, what their passions are going to be. Second, they give themselves assignments that interest them, and that complement their passions. Next, self-directed learners will present their findings in journals, blogs, and letters. Fourth, these learners will acquire various mentors to guide them along this process. The next step is simply meeting friends through their work, hobbies, and mentors. These friends are genuine and they will help you with your process. Finally, in order to be financially stable, self-directed learners will just live life with meaning. They might start their own companies and really focus on their spending. Without pushing themselves into higher education, these learners will gain many skills that corporations are looking for in a new employee. Looking into the politics of this issue is another story.
The media is stating that they have some responsibility on showing the world that having a bachelor’s degree doesn’t always mean success. Currently, there is debate over whether or not going to school for four years and coming out with a lot of debt and struggling to find a job is going to be worth it. Income statistics show that yes, it does matter. This degree will be nothing to how much you would actually struggle with without a degree. There is a huge pay gap. Well, nothing guarantees success so this is irrelevant. Experts and journalists are going after this, almost in a way discouraging teenagers from going to school, because of the skills that are not being taught in schools. The $25,000 you would have in debt is only a tiny fraction to the skills you will gain and the afterwards economic benefits. Left leaning liberals are concerned and make points about that education is not the solution to the economies problems. College graduates suffer as well as non-college graduates, but in completely different ways.
Arguments about this debate show that yes, once you have received an education, you will be able to help develop a country, and you will be successful. This is completely situational and biased. One of our life’s necessities is to eat. What would happen to us if all of our bakeries and delis didn’t exist because they are ran by successful citizens who didn’t attend college? Having a college degree is also debated that education will promote economic growth and stave off poverty. It is a simple avenue to run down to further develop yourself, and is the sole factor in the enrichment of a country. Yes, by having a degree, you can help promote economic growth, as you are investing your money into the economy, and then will enter the workforce afterword’s. However, the part about staving off poverty? This is a completely irrational argument. Sometimes, not always, people that receive a degree are so far in debt that they become incredibly poor and are sitting right on, if not below that poverty line.
Over the long run, college is way cheaper than free. Not going to college will of course cost you about half a million dollars. In my own beliefs and of my families, I think that you do not need to acquire a college education, whether it be a two year or a four year institute, in order to be successful in life. When our society thinks about success, we envision a person having a dream or goal in their mind and doing whatever it takes to achieve that goal. It means blocking out hate and people that don’t support you in order to achieve those goals. Yes, if your dream is to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, yes you do need a degree. If your dream is to become an author, an artist, or a restaurant owner, then it is not all that necessary. Follow your passion, what makes you happy, and what you feel will help you to become successful.
