Why College Was Worth It for Me & My Thoughts on Employers Removing the College Requirement
Is college a consumption good or an investment, the institutional stamp of approval, and what I personally gained from a bachelor's degree
Latest Dream Job - Vlogging?
A recently conducted survey showed that 45% of employers plan to eliminate a college degree as a requirement for some positions. Keyword - some. We’ll come back to that…
Total U.S. student debt currently sits at a record $1.77 trillion. It’s no wonder that many teens are reconsidering whether college is worth it or not. It’s no longer the sure-fire path to the once promised land of employment, financial stability, and a single-family home in the suburbs. They’re seeking the American dream elsewhere!
The data is alarming. 30% of surveyed kids ages 8-12 in the U.S. answered that they wanted to be vloggers / youtubers when they grew up.
The problem isn’t that college is not worth it. It’s that the cost-benefit equation looks different for everyone. Especially in 2024 when college is far from the only rite of passage to adulthood and to a thriving life and career.
Many students look at the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Tiger Woods, and Bill Gates, who were all college dropouts, and think that the alternative path is just as lucrative. The reality is that these are the exception not the rule. While college is not the only path it is still the best risk-adjusted path for many.
Myself included.
College Stills Pays Off
Despite what select surveys show, the median annual earnings for full time workers between the ages 25-34 are much higher for those with a bachelor’s degree compared to those with an associate’s or partial college. The largest gap is between associates and bachelor’s. The jump in salary is still positive yet slightly smaller from a bachelor’s to master’s degree.
It’s also important to keep in mind that not all degrees are created equal. Computer Engineering is considered the best-paying college major, while the Arts and Early-Childhood Education are considered among the worst-paying. Whether these careers should pay as much or as little as they do is a whole other topic.
We Don’t Value Societal Contribution Properly
This points to an issue not only with cost of college but also with how the U.S. values contribution. You want the best and brightest students to go on and become educators because they are teaching the future generations. However, most teachers are forced to take on second or third job because one salary alone isn’t enough. If you ask me, teachers should be making as much as doctors.
The fact that someone can post a TikTok and make as much in 30 seconds as a teacher does in a year points to perverse incentives. So we shouldn’t be surprised kids today want to become influencers, and we shouldn’t be blaming them. We as a society have not created the right incentives for them to pursue these careers.
Our society also places undue value on white collar over blue collar jobs. Our homes and streets were not built by a group of vest-wearing consultants making PowerPoint presentations. I say this as someone who’s entire job wouldn’t exist without the Microsoft Office Suite.
Education ≠ Intellect
One thing I want to make clear - if someone don’t have a higher education it does not mean they have any less intelligent. They might be less book smart in the traditional sense (not always!) but are definitely not less street smart. And in my unsolicited opinion, if you don’t know how to apply knowledge the right way in this world, it’s virtually useless. As my high school history teacher said, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.
The goldilocks spot is to strive to be somewhere in the middle. Rarely does one want to be on either extreme. Elon Musk is incredibly book smart (like him or not he is exceptionally smart) but lacks in social cues (called advertisers an expletive in a recent interview). Al Capone, the notorious mobster, was undoubtedly street smart (if one can call him that) yet he never made it past the 6th grade.
This is all to say that no matter what your path is, becoming a well-rounded individual with a mix of book and street smarts will take you far. College or not.
Just don’t follow Al Capone’s path!
Education = More Access to Opportunities?
I’m a first-generation immigrant and first in my family to go through the U.S. college system. I’m also the first to pursue a career in finance and investing. Both my parents have blue collar jobs and so did their parents and the generations priors. I can tell you with certainty that without a college degree I would definitely not have the job I have today.
For me, college was also a stepping-stone to a higher socioeconomic status. It opened more of the right doors and got me in the rooms with more of the right people.
I went to a very selective college, with a <5% acceptance rate. I don’t say that to toot my own horn. I say that because that rigorous education did not teach me a single thing that I can say helped prepare me for on the job training. I studied Economics which would have prepared me for a job at the Federal Reserve or as Researcher. Those proofs and theorems didn’t really teach me how to use Excel, build financial projections, write succinct emails, or report to a boss.
Still, the 4-year experience was incredibly valuable.
Institutional Stamp of Approval
College did not teach me to be good at any one particular craft (even thought I took Economics courses for three out of the four years). Instead, it taught me translatable skills that are highly valued by employers. Especially in my case.
Having a U.S. passport alone does not prove to a U.S.-based employer that I can successfully integrate into the company. Going to a four-year institution does. I’m not talking about sharing my co-workers’ obsession with fantasy football (although it makes me feel like an even greater outsider each passing year). I’m talking about being able to integrate into the social fabric and unspoken “rules” of the job. It was my training bootcamp for joining the American workforce. European or Asian labor markets, for instance, have their own set of “rules” that highly likely differ from those in the U.S.
College was my institutional stamp of approval that proved to employers that I can commit to a school and a degree long enough to graduate, show up to class on time, complete the required work (correctly enough to get a decent GPA), follow proper conduct, avoid expulsion, and ultimately co-exist in a community of peers and superiors (professors, counselors, resident assistants). It was my adulting in training.
Which is why I think college, despite the atrocious cost, is not going to be seen as a negative by employers any time soon, and why for those who share my background and profile it is still very much worth it.
College attendance is still on the rise (despite a small dip during the 2008 recession) so clearly many share the same sentiment and find value in taking the college route.
How College Prepared Me for Life
I’ll save the football tailgate and college party stories for next time.
Time Management
Balancing course load and extracurriculars is in itself a master class that taught me how to balance different projects and responsibilities and how to prioritize properly. Employers definitely value this.
Groupwork & Teamwork
I personally despised group projects. I somehow always ended up being the person who was pulling majority of the weight. However, that’s my fault – I should have set expectations differently. This taught me how to work in a team better and make sure I’m not being taken advantage of.
Kidding! Living On My Own & Independence
I lived in the dorms for the first two years and in an off-campus apartment with two friends my last two. I didn’t go to a boarding school like many of my college friends, so this was the first time that I lived apart from my parents. I had to learn how to separate from them sooner or later. Dorm life was akin to a bike with training wheels, off-campus apartment was a bike without them, and my first apartment post-college was a speeding car on the highway.
Word of advice: don’t lease an apartment with two people you barely know during a pandemic lockdown. You might be stuck with roommates who like to turn on the blender at 5 A.M. (talk about lack of social skills!).
Prove Commitment Yet Know When to Quit
No, I don’t mean commitment in a relationship sense. I mean commitment as in sticking to something, like a college degree, and finishing it to completion. I can’t even recall the number of times I called my mom crying that I wanted to switch my Economics major. I was already halfway through the major, but I hit a particularly rough patch with a less-than-kind professor who loved to give out C+ average grades. As someone who never even got a B in high school this was new to me. I was no longer the top student.
However, I’m glad I went through with it because it got me to where I am now. That’s not to say that we should succumb to the sunk cost fallacy. Sometimes you need to change course and sometimes you need to stick it out. You just have to figure out which is which.
It’s like being put on a project with a mean boss. I can’t quit every time I don’t like something at work. It’s different from a truly toxic culture, and college helped me learn how to tell those apart.
My Brain Capacity Expanded
The seemingly obvious (yet often unmentioned) argument for why college makes sense for many - knowledge. I’m not taking in the “I now know all the chemical equations” sense. I’m talking in the “learning how to learn” sense. Knowing the right questions to ask, how to formulate arguments, how to search for information, how to analyze text, and how to communicate clearly and succinctly. My brain capacity definitely expanded.
My Network & Connections
Network is such an icky word. It sounds sleazy. But it doesn’t have to be. The people I met in college have become some of my greatest friends and have also been the people I go to for advice and career question.
Finance is a people business. And to get a job in finance I knew I needed to get in the right rooms and rub shoulders with the right people. A job is not guaranteed whether you attend college or not, but it sure helps.
You and me both kid!
If Employers Shun College Requirements, How Will They Assess Candidates?
I find it hard to believe that employers actually view college negatively. It’s more likely that they’re now just more open to alternative ways to assess job candidates. If a candidate does not have that institutional “stamp of approval” of a bachelor’s degree, an employer would likely still want to see resume proof points experiences that showcase similar skillsets like time management, teamwork, and independence.
I’ve personally also had to go through cognitive and logic tests as well as personality tests in the interview processes. Let me just say all those quizzes and exams helped me focus under a strict time limit!
Many employers are adopting these exams to find candidates from untraditional backgrounds. I’m fully in favor because the name of your college, GPA, or life experiences don’t necessarily mean you have strong analytical skills, pattern recognition, and the right personality for the job.
Degrees Ad Nauseam!
I’ve also noticed an interesting trend among my friends and peers. It’s what I like to call the delayed adulting. One of my friends once told me “I don’t like work, I think I’ll go back to grad school for something”. There’s definitely vocations where more education makes sense (doctors, engineers, lawyers etc.). Then there’s some where it doesn’t.
I quite frankly see very little value in an MBA for anyone who studied Economics or Finance in undergrad other than for those looking to switch to a career in business from something unrelated or went to a non-target school. Some employers require an MBA for senior or managerial positions. I candidly think is just another “filter” through which they evaluate candidates. Candidates who are now infinitely richer in spring break experiences and $200k poorer per their bank statements.
This is another criticism I have of U.S. society - students and recent grads are touted the idea that they need to collect degrees like Pokémon cards. No wonder we’re at record level debt rates!
Just like my graduation year, hindsight is always 20/20. I’ve only been working for 3.5 years so there’s no telling what’s ahead. Maybe I would have started a multi-million-dollar business had I chosen to not attend college. College was my ticket to financial stability, a career and not just a job, and peace of mind knowing that I can take care of my parents in their old age.
That’s all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed.
Yours Truly,
Katarina
I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and reactions:
Did you personally attend college? If so, do you think it was worth it? What’s the number one thing it taught you?
Do you have more than one degree? If so, did you decide it was the right decision for you?
What do you think is the main issue for the staggering student debt levels?
I personally felt attending college was worth the experience, but I agree that nothing I learned in college directly tied to what I do day to day in my current role now (excel, social media, to name a few).
For me it was the experience and joy of being in an educational environment alongside all of my classmates that I loved so much. Yes I got to live on my own and learned a lot, but it was also about the shared community of fellow learners. Going to a school with a campus is key for me, and choosing a school with reasonable class sizes. I considered going to one of the UC schools in California until I learned average class size was in the 100s.
It's interesting how here in Spain college is essentially free but I will say it's way more common to study in the city you grew up in, and therefore my friends don't seem to look back as fondly at college as I do for example.
An insightful read! Based on my day job specific training was required to have the requisite skills to perform the job, obtain a certification and licensure. And I have no regrets. The biggest issue today, as you outlined, is that attending secondary education can be cost prohibitive for many and for those that do take on high levels of debt, may face monthly student loans equivalent to a mortgage payment, making budgeting and financial independence even more challenging. But education can be pursued and achieved in a way that doesn't break the bank!