Many people I know have blown off going to college, or dropped out mid-way.
And why not?
There’s no end to examples of successful people who never went to college.
College graduates often wind up with a crushing load of student debt.
Many college graduates can’t even find a job.
So what’s the point in going to college?
Screw the social “experience” of going to college. You can get that for much less than $180,000.
Screw the “learning”. There’s more knowledge on the internet than a single person can absorb in 1,000 lifetimes, from sources less biased than a typical college professor.
It’s been 5 years since I’ve graduated from college
I’ve forgotten almost everything I supposedly learned. I’d probably have to study just to pass a freshman exam I easily aced back in the day.
I still keep in touch with my best friends from college, but living in a different country makes that a bit more challenging.
The only thing that matters is that I have that piece of paper – the college degree. It qualifies me for jobs I wouldn’t otherwise have a shot at.
I’d have no chance at a job in my industry without a college degree no matter how smart I was, or how much I knew.
Some companies will hire you without a college degree
But pretty much everyone I know who’s in that position is nervous. Nervous that one day they might lose their job in favor of a college graduate who’s cheaper, younger, and has a degree.
Some people have succeeded fabulously without a college degree.
But they’re few and very far between. On average, people without college degrees don’t do as well. You’re rolling the dice in a game that’s stacked against you.
You can always get a college degree later
But you’ll have classmates way younger than you. The dynamics of life change a lot as we get older. There’s a time for everything. And the best time for college is that in-between time when you’re no longer a child but not quite an adult. You have no responsibilities. You can still tolerate the indignities of being treated like cattle by professors and college administrators. You still have the energy to do everything that makes college fun enough to be tolerable.
You’re less likely to regret getting a college degree vs. NOT getting one
Once you’ve got the college degree, you have it for life. Even if it you don’t wind up needing it, there’s no harm in having done it. But you can never just wave a wand and get a college degree tomorrow if you don’t have one.
If you have an amazing opportunity outside of college…
Go ahead and drop out. But make sure you’re actually following your passion. Not just running away because you hate it.
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