Today’s post comes from our own NRPax. It’s a good one!
The purpose behind this rant is kind of simple; we got a lot of people graduating with degrees that are
worthless and they are shackled with debt that could have been put to better use (Such as a lost weekend in Jamaica). I hope to accomplish nothing beyond giving you ideas that might save you a fortune in the long run.
By the time you are reading this, you are a Junior or Senior (Or an ambitious Sophomore) and starting to make plans about your future. In all likelihood, your parents are asking about college plans or other
means to get you out of the house so they can rent your room out or convert it into an office. Or you have a younger sibling who wants an upgrade in their living arrangements. So the question you ask yourself is “What college should I go to?”
Allow me to present an alternate thought: “Why should I go to college right out of school or at all?” This is not a sarcastic question. This is something that you should be putting thought into. If you are doing this “to find yourself” then you are already wasting your time. If you have a clear goal in mind that requires a four year degree, then by all means go to town.
Ask yourself if you really need to do this. There are opportunities out in the world that don’t require
college degrees. In fact, they can be a hindrance to you.
Consider trade schools for example. There are a lot of professions in this country that have more openings than they have people. This is because of a sea change in how we’ve viewed the trades. It used to be that vocational training was considered an honorable thing. Nowadays? Good luck finding schools that have well funded vocational training programs. This is not to say that you are going to have it soft and easy when you get work. Odds are that you are going to work hard and will be putting in long hours at first. But I guarantee that a nineteen-year-old plumber’s apprentice already knows more about the inner workings of my house than I do. This is a valuable bit of knowledge and it can go anywhere.
If the trades are not for you and you still want to go to college, there are a few things you can do to
prepare yourself and not be got flat-footed when the bills come due.
There are a lot of high schools that have programs available that allow you to attend community college and not only get college credits but high school ones at the same time. If your school has this in place, put it to use now. The faster you can get the general education requirements out of the way, the better for you in the long run. Take summer classes if you get the chance along with regular semesters.
CLEP (College Level Examination Program) is another option you need to know about. This allows you to test out of different requirements for colleges. You pay your testing fee, take the exam and the credits get applied to your college graduation requirement. But be warned: Not all colleges accept them. If you know where you want to go, do your research and find out. Do it right and you have saved yourself up to one year of college.
If you are close to graduating high school and you are still unsure about what to do, then there is another path. If you are physically, morally, legally and mentally eligible then consider the military. Four years of Active Duty nets you the GI Bill which means that you will get steep discounts if not a tuition free experience and you get a monthly paycheck while you are there. No, it’s not for everyone. First off, it’s harder to get into the military than it is getting into college. They don’t overlook youthful indiscretions but as a friend who was a Recruiter pointed out “Anything can be forgiven as long as it’s explained properly.” Yes, this is four years of your life that you are spending in uniform while your friends are away at school having fun. But again, you can earn the GI Bill, there are ways to get a free education while you are on Active Duty and you will have the benefit of learning and seeing things you would otherwise have missed out on.
And if you look at the military but still want college? Consider applying for one of the Service Academies (Tough to get into but for good reason) or an ROTC scholarship. When you are in the service, you can apply for the Service Academies as there are a lot of slots for Enlisted that go unfilled at those schools. Or you can make arrangements to earn a degree and be commissioned upon graduation while you are still Active Duty. Worst case? You have a job for four to six years, you aren’t paying off a student loan and you learn more about yourself than some weekend seminar.
What to Study?
This section I am going to keep short and to the point. When you are looking at a Major, you need to ask yourself a very important question: “How am I going to earn a living at this?” If you are looking at a field that ends in the word “Studies” the answer to that question is going to be in the restaurant industry if you are lucky. This is not to disparage people in those fields but you can go to Culinary School and earn a better living than choosing a field whose only purpose is making professors in that field.
STEM Majors are of course very popular and for good reason. Business and Accounting are other
valuable Majors as is Nursing. But please don’t pursue any of this if your only goal is making money.
You could have gone into Trade School and be doing that already.
Funding
As you may have gathered from this essay, I think a lot of people disregard the problems with funding
their education. They seem to think that a degree in anything is the key to unlock a fulfilling, profitable
career with a corner office and company car. From the 40s to the 60s that was probably the case. This is because college degrees were generally worth something and not just a piece of paper that shows you know how to spend money. College loans are not necessarily bad things; I took one out for myself and paid for two years at a State school. But the amount I took out then would only get me through one year of school at my alma mater now. This is where you need to take a hard look at your options if you are determined to earn at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Community college is a good investment. I know it sounds great to race off to a four year school and be
out on your own, but let’s be blunt: College students change their Majors 2-3 times on average. With the amount of money you are going to spend, you should be focused on a goal. The two years in a community college to knock out your general education requirements will help a lot. And honestly, there is no difference in a 101 class taken at a two-year college vs a four-year one.
Scholarships are going to be worth looking into. You can find them based on your state, your major, your ethnicity and your grades. You can search them out on your own or hire a professional who handles things like this. Even if you only get a few hundred dollars in grant money, that’s money you aren’t spending.
There are companies that offer tuition reimbursement or will pay for your education in return for you
staying with them for a set period of time. If you are working for a place that offers it, take a look and see if it’s a fit for you.
Finally, there are states that will forgive some if not all of your loan if you stay a resident of the state for a few years and have skills that they need. Yes, this means you might not live in the land of your dreams but it’s a small term sacrifice for a long term gain. With that being said…
Location, Location, Location
As potential college students, you need to divorce yourself from the idea that you must attend a certain
school for your Major or you will be damned to mediocrity. Allow me to point out that with only a tiny
number of exceptions, no employer cares where you earned your degree. All they care about is whether or not you can do the job. In the real world, your academic pedigree means nothing and the State College graduate can hold their own against the Ivy League graduate.
And there is no reason to confine yourself to this country. Outside the US are colleges that have the same programs at a considerably lower cost than schools in this country. Now this does present its own challenges: You will be in a foreign country, you may need to speak the language, they don’t always have dorms for students and the credits might not completely transfer over. Do your research and save up for a plane ticket.
While you are in school, you are going to need to figure out where you are going to live after you
graduate. I know that it’s tempting to return back where you started but keeping your options open is
going to be better for you. Other than a few fortunate people, that nice house you grew up in wasn’t just handed to your folks. It took them a while to save up for it and you are going to be in the same boat. If you get a chance out of state in your field, you should seize it. To put it in perspective: I stayed in California when I graduated. If I’d had chances to get out of there and make a living, I would have been on the next bus out regardless of the consequences. I get the appeal of not relocating but sometimes you have to do what is best for you.
So in closing: Take every chance you have that will fund your college dreams or at least drop the amount of money you are going to spend on it. Keep an open mind about where to go to school and where to start your post-college life. And please do everything you can to not be the person behind the Starbucks counter with six figures of debt and no idea how to get out of it.
