19 Reasons Why College is a Waste of Time and Money
Sofia Martin
Many people are still debating whether going to college is an essential step in life. It helps one make a career or it can’t give you the opportunities that some other forms of education may provide.
Many believe going to college is a waste of time because there are several types of people who do not need a degree. Why college is waste of time and money? There have been so many successful people in the world who did not have a degree but made fortunes.
For example, some consider the internet as one of the most promising sources for all educational needs and requirements.
For instance, if you want to learn about programming or web design, there are tons of tutorials on YouTube and blogs where you can find the necessary information.
This learning is not always available at college since they usually teach things that will be used only later at work, so students don’t bother to learn them by heart.
Moreover, many employers prefer those with no degree but hands-on experience using the taught skills. Therefore, you can learn everything at college, but it will take time and money since getting a degree is not cheap.
Many students believe that a college education plays an important role in their future careers in making money.
However, studies show that people who don’t go to college are more successful than their peers with degrees.
First of all, non-traditional students create networks that make them attractive to employers; secondly, they get their first job much sooner after graduation; thirdly, they often work long hours during the initial period after commencing their careers.
Also, others claim that college only benefits the middle class while disadvantaged groups continue to be left behind. They argue that the key to success is not college but high school completion.
While at first glance, college may seem like a good idea to pursue higher learning and maybe even enjoy the great social scene, it is one of the biggest wastes of time you can spend doing almost anything.
Here are 15 reasons why you should skip college right now if you haven’t already done so.
Why College is Waste of Time?
1. You Don’t Need A College Degree To Work At McDonald’s
Even with a degree from Harvard, your fast food job isn’t going anywhere unless you want it to. Yes, they will hire people who have degrees over those who do not, but that is only because these employees cost more money for peanuts.
So instead of working on a PhD in underwater basket weaving, which will yield no results except an empty bank account, you could be learning marketable skills.
2. Colleges Are Overpriced Garbage Credentials
Of course, the next logical step after being told you have to have a college degree is to ask how much it will cost to get one, and this is when you discover that everything in life has turned into a real-life video game where nobody wants to play by the rules except you.
Nobody questions why degrees cost so much despite being ultimately useless pieces of paper, but even if they were worth anything, there are plenty of better places for money.
If you want an education, go volunteer at your neighbourhood library or learn something new at Khan Academy. You can teach yourself anything for free, which makes colleges completely obsolete.
3. You Don’t Need More Debt
Going into debt to pay for a degree that will cost you more than it’s worth sounds like a financial scam, but this is exactly what happens with college degrees today.
The rules don’t apply to money if you have a degree or something, and nobody ever thinks about how they will make their monthly payments until they realize they can’t afford life anymore.
When college loans come due, many people cannot find jobs because there aren’t, but even those who work at places where their degree is completely irrelevant.
And just like most bad things in life, your credit rating is destroyed by taking on way too much debt than you can reasonably pay back.
4. You Won’t Get Rich Quick
Students forget when they suffer the slings and arrows of higher education because nobody gets rich on a salary alone, let alone one earned for an entry-level job after slaving away at college.
Most people have to start somewhere, but if you are prepared with valuable skills or experience, finding a good job is much easier than going through four years of hell to get one.
5. There Are More Than Enough Great Jobs Without A Degree
Many of these jobs aren’t even “middle-class” jobs either, which have been disappearing in recent years, but instead honest, blue-collar work where there are plenty of employment opportunities.
With all the taxes and fees people without college diplomas have to pay, it doesn’t make sense why anybody would go the traditional route when there are so many other options.
6. The College Experience Is Worthless
Part of what makes life so interesting is living in different places and experiencing new cultures, which you will not be able to do by going to your local college campus where everybody looks like a clone and does everything exactly like everyone else.
If socialization is that important to you, you better find a good Facebook group or something because otherwise, colleges don’t provide any opportunity for meeting new people.
7. It Is Easier To Start At Entry-Level Than Finish A Degree
If you have already gone through four years of college, you probably already know how difficult it is to get through that degree program.
Now think about how much easier it would be to do entry-level work where nobody cares how or where you earned your first paycheck.
You can always go back for more education later on if you need to, but there isn’t any rule saying that means you still have to pay a fortune and waste a few years.
8. You Don’t Have To Work In Your Field Of Study
People forget when going into debt for a useless piece of paper because they don’t even have to work in their field of study, making going into debt for education less risky than most people think.
This means you can end up like the millions of college graduates with degrees in areas with no jobs or where their degree is completely irrelevant.
9. The Job Market Is Bad, And It’s Only Getting Worse
There aren’t many bright sides to this economy, but at least one good thing about it is that the job market isn’t as good as it used to be.
If you have experience on your resume already on top of being educated, your options open up more than those who have neither skill.
People without a college degree will probably never be rich, but they will always have a stable income compared to those who go into debt for four years and come out with nothing.
10. A Good Job Doesn’t Require A Degree
There are plenty of good jobs that don’t require a college degree, making going to college a more expensive and time-consuming approach than most people realize.
Many high-paying jobs require a master’s because they used to be entry-level positions without any education requirements. In other words, your future job may have been automated out of existence if it didn’t require an advanced degree.
11. More Education Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More Money
One thing that you won’t learn in school is how to be rich or even make much money because nobody has found the secret formula yet. While pursuing one degree after another until you are a doctor or lawyer might make sense to some people, they forget how much it costs them.
12. The Real World Is Not Like College
The most important thing you need to remember about college is that it is not real life. When you leave school and enter the working world, nobody will have your schedule figured out for you, so there is no more spoon-feeding with how hard you should study.
13. Unemployment High Among New Grads
Today, many unemployed young people might have been successful if they didn’t have all their free time being monopolized by classes.
This means they cannot gain valuable work experience early on during their career, but it also puts them at risk of unemployment during their first few years after college.
14. You Can Teach Yourself What You Need to Know
One of the biggest benefits of getting a college degree is that it teaches you how to be independent and think for yourself, but this can also backfire if you don’t know what you need to learn.
Luckily, even in today’s age of technology, there are still plenty of books and online resources available for learning anything yourself.
15. A College Degree Doesn’t Protect Against Unemployment Or Underemployment
People forget when going into debt for a useless piece of paper because they have less job security than somebody without a college degree.
This means they may end up like the millions of college graduates with degrees in areas where there are no jobs, or their degree is completely irrelevant, but it also means that they probably won’t be able to find another job easily.
16. College Isn’t For Everyone
People also forget when going into debt for a useless piece of paper that not everyone is college material, and this shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing because there is no shame in not wanting to go to college or graduating from high school instead.
17. On-the-Job Training Is Usually Better
It is usually better to receive on-the-job training in today’s world instead of going to college because the school environment has been turning people into cogs in a wheel.
This means that they are trained from an early age to become obedient and do what others tell them for their entire working career.
18. Kids Are Exposed To Alcohol And Drugs At College
Many of today’s parents forget that college was not like this in the past, and they did their own thing while also studying.
Instead of getting a degree, many of these kids drop out with no degree and no job prospects because they got mixed up in drinking or drug problems.
19. Homeschooling Is Becoming More Popular
With colleges unable to teach students the skills they need, homeschooling is becoming a top choice among parents who want their kids to have an alternative education.
While this might take more time and effort from parents, it provides them with opportunities they would never have had if they went straight into college after high school.
For all these reasons, it is not worth going to college if you are not sure you want to pursue a certain career path since there are more opportunities for those who want to try some alternatives.
Moreover, people who work after finishing high school usually make more money than their college-educated peers by working in blue-collar jobs without having an additional degree.
Regarding education’s benefits on income levels, people with postsecondary education have higher salaries than those without schooling or accreditation.
However, according to research done by Tennessee, individuals with only a GED enjoy about as much as those with associate degrees and experienced better job placement than those who went to college.
It is best to skip college and start making money so the debt you get by graduating will not take years to pay off.
In conclusion, going into debt for a college degree is a terrible idea because many alternatives lead to the same results or better ones with less risk.
Most importantly, remember that you are the only thing standing between you and success. Why college is waste of time? It becomes a matter of fitness for those who made money without a school degree. But it is up to you to decide what you like in practical life.
