College isn’t for everyone. Some people are better off graduating high school and going straight into the workforce. This is a hard concept for some to wrap their heads around, especially for older generations. From the moment we begin high school, we’re told to start our search for colleges to attend after graduation. A couple of my high school courses actually forced us to fill out applications to multiple schools. This was their way of forcing us to further our education. While their intentions were good, they mistakenly grouped all the students in the same category.
For a lot of people, college can be a terrible investment. The cost of tuition is steadily rising, and it’s becoming more difficult—almost impossible—for most college graduates to eventually see a return on their investment. It appears as though the degrees guaranteed a full return would be in careers such as being a doctor or attorney.
College is not for the faint of heart. If a person is not motivated, they will not make it past core courses. If college were easy, there wouldn’t be as many dropouts. There’s nothing wrong with not being motivated for academic work. Some people just learn much better in the field, and they could spend those years gaining experience instead of in the classroom. Trade schools are just a better option for some career choices. Considering the average cost, including room and board, tuition, textbooks and meal plans, it wouldn’t make sense for anyone to attend if they weren’t fully committed.
But yet, despite the facts, older generations tend to force the idea of college onto the youth. I was always taught from an early age that in order to be successful, one must go to college. In today’s world of technology, there are now careers in fields such as social media that require no education beyond high school. Perhaps, older generations don’t consider these fields when assuring a college degree is a necessity in life.
There are plenty of relatively good-paying careers that don’t require a college degree. I’m not advocating for everybody to skip college. It is proven that people with a bachelor’s degree will earn thousands more over their lifetime than those who only have a high school diploma. However, there are also many millionaires who have no college degree.
